Big News!

We

are

FINALLY

MOVING!

Yes! After nearly ten years on the East Coast, the Air Force is finally sending us to a new duty station! Although we're not going home to Texas as we'd hoped, we'll be a lot closer, and we're excited about our new base and Mr. Wonderful's new job.

From January on through the spring, my blogging may be pretty hit or miss, and I might disappear entirely for a bit, but I hope y'all will bear with me and rest assured, I haven't abandoned my blog! Our prayers are that the move goes smoothly, that we have a safe trip, and that we don't have to wait long for quarters. 

Seeking the New Home ~ N.C. Wyeth

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

A Christmas Tea: Tea-Themed Christmas Tree

Welcome to the last day of my annual Christmas Open House! All week I've been sharing tea-themed Christmas ornaments, both stitched and crafted. And today I'm sharing--you knew it was coming!--a tea-themed Christmas tree to display them all! I hope you've got a big cup of tea ready, because I've got lots of pictures to share!
  
Of course, a Christmas tree needs something beautiful at the tippy top. I stitched up Brooke Nolan's Spirit of Holiday Baking Angel (with some modifications) for the top of my tree. 

I gave her brown eyes and changed her hair color from red to golden brown (DMC 433, 435, 436).

I charted up a simple teacup to match the teapot on her tray, and used the same color scheme.

I omitted all of the baking-related items, and the pocket on her apron, but used the pretty motif from the pocket to decorate the apron (red Petite Treasure Braid).

For her wings, I tried something new. Instead of using regular card stock to back the wings, I used heavy glitter paper, with the glitter facing the front of the design. To attach the paper to the wings, I used a thin line of glue around the edge of the wings (on the back of the stitched/beaded border) and in the center of her back to avoid any glue obscuring the glitter. It turned out really well. It's difficult to capture in a picture, but her wings have a lovely subtle sparkle. Perhaps you can see it a bit on the lower part of the wing.

And here's my tea-themed Christmas tree!

Sources for the ornaments I stitched and crafted are in this week's posts.

Links to additional sources:

chocolate Christmas tree

lemon slices

small polymer clay candy canes

glittery snowflake background fabric: Jo Ann Fabrics

*****
And that's another year's Christmas Open House done and dusted! I hope you've enjoyed the week here, and I thank you all so much for visiting and leaving such kind comments. Let's plan to meet up again this time next year because I've already chosen my theme for my 6th annual Christmas Open House! How's that for getting a jump on Christmas?

Merry Christmas, y'all!

A Christmas Tea: Teapot Ornaments

Another sleepy little Christmas visitor! This sweet mouse is from the Leisure Arts book 101 Christmas Minis Book 2. He's stitched on 32 ct. red/natural petit point linen with DMC.

How about some tiny teapot ornaments? These couldn't be simpler. All you need are some small Christmas ornaments, some pipe cleaners, some embellishments, and a hot glue gun. The teapot lid is a couple of tiny buttons with a crystal bead on top.

Time for more Tiny Baking! I found a 3-cup bundt pan at Wal-Mart a while back, and launched a search for recipes. This recipe for Vanilla Pound Cake from Nordic Ware makes this adorable baby bundt:

Isn't that just the cutest? It's the perfect size for you and a friend or two. The slices are teeny tiny and precious. I don't know what brand my baby bundt is, but there's a link to a Nordic Ware 3-cup bundt pan on the recipe page. Two notes: 1) If you go looking for recipes, be aware that most references to a "mini" bundt pan are talking about a 6-cup pan (regular is 10-12 cup), not a 3-cup pan, which are sometimes called "baby" bundts; and 2) I baked this one for the full 35 minutes, placing some foil around the outer edges at about 25 minutes to keep them from getting too brown. I used this recipe for the Vanilla Bean Glaze, scaled down to 1/4.

Since it's a lot easier to find recipes for 6-cup cakes than 3-cup cakes, the obvious solution is to get two 3-cup pans, bake two little cakes, keep one, and share the other!

Come on back tomorrow for the last day of my Christmas Open House.

A Christmas Tea: Tea Tag Ornaments

Day three of my annual Christmas Open House! If you're just joining us, scroll back to Monday to catch up... and stick around til Friday for the big finale! 

I had so much fun with last year's Flavors of Christmas I had to revisit the idea this year. These little word ornaments are quick and easy and are adaptable to absolutely any theme. Just choose an alphabet you like and let your imagination go. These tea ornaments are stitched on 28 ct. mystery linen using Caron Wildflowers in Copper, Snow White, Forsythia, and Caramel, and DMC Etoile Blanc (sugar). The charms are from this Etsy shop. The alphabet I used can be found here.

Here are some super simple tea tag ornaments that turn out much cuter than they have any right to, considering how little effort goes into them.

I found the wooden tags at Jo Ann Fabrics. Christmas stickers from Hobby Lobby; tiny letter stickers from Michael's.

What to do with left over tags and stickers? Super cute gift tags, of course!

More tomorrow!