Heaven and Nature Sing!

Welcome. Welcome, my dears, to my 9th annual Christmas Open House. What a year. You've been here. You know. But we're not skipping Christmas, and we're definitely not skipping Christmas Open House. I'm so glad you're here with me for another celebration. This year's Open House is different from any of the others as it's the first with no stitching or stitching-related things to show (there will be freebies though).

I did my best to get a stitched theme pulled together, and while I got quite a bit done, considering the circumstances, I kept having to scale back and scale back until I just wasn't satisfied with how it was going to turn out. So I put it aside for another year (don't worry, you'll see it!).

Story time! Here's what happened. We will be traveling at Christmas, which is not something we usually do, so that together with the fact that we have kittens in the house made going 100% on the decorations impractical. I came up with a plan to only decorate the bedroom, since it's a baby-proofed room where we spend a lot of time right now. Of course I needed a new table top tree (my 7th?!) to go on top of the chest of drawers where the babies can't reach it. Wanted a fat little 3' tree. Already had the wee shatterproof ornaments for it. Absolutely not to be found. Ended up with a 4' woodland-ish tree with lots of space between the branches. None of the decorations I had bought were going to work. Now what? 

Dear readers, I was mugged by an idea.

Birds.

I wanted to do a bird tree. And I had the perfect way to do it, a way that had been stored on my computer for years and years.

There is a beautiful blog called Downeast Thunder Farm and years ago she began posting (and I began saving) free patterns to make felt birds and other critters. I've always wanted to make them in felt, but I'm always so busy with stitching I never got it done. Then when the bird tree idea hit me, almost simultaneously, I thought, "I can make all those birds in paper!"

And then, for the first time this year, I started to get really excited about Christmas Open House. I couldn't manage a lot of finished stitching, but I could make loads and loads of beautiful birds for my tree. 

A tree covered in paper birds. Simple. Old fashioned. Meaningful. 

Birds have had a special significance for me this year that's too personal to share, but I will say that sitting on the floor, surrounded by scads of colored paper, quietly cutting and gluing and decorating, has been so soothing. Maybe it takes me back to childhood. 

So the theme this year is "Heaven and Nature Sing!" And this, too, seems right for the year we've had. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

let every heart prepare him room

and heav'n and nature sing,

and heav'n and nature sing,

and heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing.

Isaac Watts, 1719

The sewing room and the kitchen are open. Make yourself at home. As ever, we'll have recipes and freebies and birds, birds, and more birds (and a few critter friends)! Thank you for coming.

 Let Heaven and Nature Sing!