It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. I think I’m finally finding my Christmas groove. As you know, I didn’t grow up with Christmas so all this decorating and candy-cane eating is a little foreign to me. For years I’ve been fascinated with it but never really felt like I got it. I understand people like to make things cozy and festive but where do you store all this crap when Christmas is over? That’s been my biggest hang up.

This year we are not spending Christmas at home. That means no tree. The tree is the best part for me. It’s big and pretty and it smells divine! I LOVE fresh tree smell! The best part for me though is that when Christmas is over, you can just throw it away! No storage dilemmas!

I don’t mean to be environmentally irresponsible or anything. I know there are all kinds of politics about recycling trees, planting them or using something fake over and over BUT I just love a real tree! Someday I will have a yard and I will plant my real trees. I’ll have groves of them when I’m old. But right now I’m all for making the landfill smell a little better. Please don’t kill me!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about decorating our house a little bit because it’s fun and we’re here right up until Christmas anyway. We aren’t actually leaving to spend the holidays up north until the night before or something. So why live in a boring old apartment when you can walk to the Christmas tree lot down the street and bring home some branches!

Yes! There is a Christmas tree lot within walking distance of my house! How fun is that? Baby Bug and I had a lot of fun there the other night poking around in the rain and bringing home a handful of FREE branches. I would have taken pictures but it was raining and I was having quite a time of it holding the umbrella, Baby Bug and my branches.

The branches are not quite a tree but they do smell lovely AND they’re disposable. No storage! I wanted to make a wreath with them but I don’t have the patience to bend a hanger into a circle. I’ve tried it other years and it was just foolishness. Hangers do not come in circles for a reason and I am not a welder. I am just not She-Ra enough. That’s all I have to say.

Then there is my Christmas Card Wall of fame. It’s terribly cluttered but I like it. At least I like it until January when I will rip it off the wall with that fresh-clean-sweep feeling. Christmas clean-up is so rewarding that way. Maybe I’m just a nut.

I didn’t mean this post to be about my on-going battle against entropy; it just sort of seeps in when I’m not looking. I think I’m back-lashing against the season of shopping. Christmas is about clutter and I HATE clutter.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not a sucker for buying things. Check out the giant hedgehog I bought Baby Bug. I love it! I think I love it more than she does. Isn’t it so cute? It’s fun to flop on too. You can throw yourself on it like a bean bag and it makes a satisfying “fwomp” sound. I think everyone should rush out and buy one. Just think of the fun you could have with this at the office! Launch pad anyone?

If I had to pick a mascot for the season, I’d pick a hedgehog. I know everyone loves penguins and owls but in my book hedgehogs are IT. I don’t even know what they are. I don’t think I’ve even seen one in real life. I just know they are cute. If I had more time I would develop a whole line of hedgehog greeting cards. Maybe I’ll do that next year.

I wanted to make a free downloadable Christmas card for you guys this year but I think it’s too late. What happened to December? Is this what it’s like to have a life? Remember when I was pregnant and I was bummed because I had no plans and I just sat around with my fat self feeling all lonely and bored? Those days are gone. I don’t need a social life, I have a kid!

Everything that ever matters is happening right in my own living room now.

Don’t look too close but I’m pretty happy with the way these turned out. They are kind of fun and different. The best part is: they don’t break! At least they don’t break like glass ornaments do. I’m sure if you’re a little kid and you twiddled one around your finger from it’s ribbon like a lasso, my stitching would eventually weaken and the ornament might torpedo across the room. And then the dog might eat it. But relatively these are less breakable than your average ornament. In fact, I’d even say they are toddler proof.

I’m not making excuses but I have not been blogging much. Maybe that’s okay since it is DECEMBER and NOT November. Man, when did December get to be such a busy month? And I’m not even talking about holiday plans. We haven’t even gotten to those yet.

I’ve been busy with the shop. Hooray for the shop! I had no idea that was going to keep me so busy. I’ve also been out at my Mom’s and if you know anything about hanging out at my Mom’s, you know there’s always something going on. Never a dull moment out at the sticks.

Unfortunately, it’s been rather cold out here so I’m not taking pictures outside. Also, my mom’s house is so dark and unphotogenic, it’s impossible to take pictures inside. So if you were judging my business by activity on my blog or flickr account, you would think it was nothing but dullsville.

Not so! NOT SO!

I’ve been busy busy busy. We started things off with five hundred loads of laundry and then there was the giant task of reorganizing the complete and extended collection of outgrown clothes that my mom houses in her garage. That would be seven or eleven or so giant Rubbermaid totes full of clothes from my nieces and Baby Bug. We never throw anything out. Baby Bug and any other kid I might ever have after her will have hand-me-downs until the end of time. I wish I had pictures…

After the Olympic clothes-sorting event, I decided to take on an ornament-painting project. This was a journey to failure and back. Long ago in November I decided it would be fun to be part of OMSH’s super-fun swaparooni project. For the month of December it’s an ornament swap instead of the usual color-coordinated loot. I figured it wasn’t that much of a commitment. Surely I could manage to get one ornament in the mail before a deadline. How hard could that be?

Obviously this was before I opened up the world’s most popular flash card shop and before I was struck down by the flu. The deadline came and went and I got squat in the mail. Boo-hiss for me and my internal over-achiever. It was really hard to take actually. I hate missing deadlines, even though I do it nearly every day.

I decided it would be very fun and exciting to paint an ornament. Paint! Let’s paint! My mom never needs to be talked into going to Michaels. You say, let’s go, and she says, “How high?” or something like that. My mom loves crafting as much as I do. So off we went Michaels. I don’t know why I am drawn to that crazy store. It’s jam-packed with so much tacky awful stuff. (Sorry, not talking about anything you bought there of course!) Maybe I go there because there is nowhere else to get supplies around here.

Of course I had to walk down every aisle and get sucked into every little pre-packaged idea of how to amuse myself with stuff that I probably already have. But hey! It’s right here in a box so maybe I should just buy it and not bother looking for it when I get home! I hate that trap. Thankfully, I wised up and put most everything back before I got to the check-out counter but I did manage to buy two baskets (to hold all my crafting crap of course!) that WERE NOT fifty percent off like they said they were.

I hate it when that happens. Since when do baskets cost 50 bucks each? I had to turn right around and take them back the minute the receipt finished printing. What a hassle.

Michaels is totally guilty of up-marking stuff so they can discount it later. I know. I priced them way back when I was buying up canvasses for my Dog Days of Summer project.

But anyway, I was talking about the ornament painting. It didn’t go so well. At least not to my standards. Now that I’m lurking around Etsy all the time these days, I’m starting to think I’m some kind of professional crafter or something. I was sorely disappointed with my painting strokes. The paint we bought (that is specifically for glass) was messy and goopy and showed every stroke like nail polish. I think it was nail polish, actually. If you put on more than one coat at a time, it would pick up the layer underneath.

It was just a mess and a headache and definitely not a project for someone with a toddler who gets into everything and/or wants to “help” all the time. I barely got two ornaments painted that I’m happy with and I still have a whole table full of paint and brushes and glass ornaments that need to be filled with paint on the inside (because I don’t like them when they are clear for some strange reason). I’m just over it.

So I moved onto something I’m a little more comfortable with:

Iron-on transfer paper! I’ll have to share pictures of the results tomorrow.