Featherweight Project - Cashmere Covered Pillows

Ever go through your closet and start to weed out the things that don't fit anymore, or are not things you wear much, or just need to get tossed? Sometimes those things are too good to toss and need a new purpose. I looked at some sorry looking pillows and stuffed them into the worn sweaters. Voila, the cashmere covered pillows started to come to life.

This is not a ground breaking discovery. There are many websites that show their way of making them. Here's the way I did mine.

I bought a couple 16" pillow forms. They fit nicely into the size sweaters I had to work with.

The first thing to do is turn the pillow inside out and line up the ruler along the side so you can cut off the sleeves. I was surprised at how easily the blade cut through the knitted fabric.

Featherweight Project - Evergreen Tree Card

Now that we have some skills with attachments under our belt, let's put them to use!

It's the perfect time to combine our sewing with card making! If you need any instruction for machine basics and posts on how to use the accessories, go to the Featherweight Skill Series tab on my blog, pamelynspostings.blogspot.com or at my website ThistleFireQuilts.com

I had these nice strips of green and gold cotton. Very evergreen-y. They were 2-1/2" x 32" but you can use ones that are longer and trim them to the length you want later.

Sights of Chistmas

Shots from my holiday (in between the visits and present opening!)

A gorgeous sunrise

A nice dusting of snow

Delicious Berry Bread

Fun things to eat

The desire for peace on earth, from the Prince of Peace.

I dub you, ThistleFire

A new month! December can be a magical time or frantic time or a sad time. The holiday season is HERE and my sewing room is going to make the best of it!

 

How fitting it was to open the door this morning and see this scene. Pretty and clean. Makes you want to buy presents and decorate things with shiny colors, doesn't it?

 

 

 

Fourth and Final Village

I promised four villages for you to see, and I am delivering. My love for a pretty scene sticks with me over the years. I will still take a moment to admire a firey sunset, or to watch waves splash against the rocks. A few years ago, I was looking for a nice card to get for my honey and this one stopped me dead in my tracks...it was definately overpriced, but it was perfect -


We put it out somewhere in our house every year. I was smart and put the date on the back of it. How many decorations do we have that haven't been date commemorated? (Did I spell that right?) A few too many in my house!

Well, that was a fun rabbit trail to wander down, wasn't it? I have refocused onto the purpose of this post! Back to the fourth and final village. I suppose if you are looking at the proper definition of the word, "village" isn't exactly what this final collection would be called. I have heard it called a scene, though. It comes in all shapes and sizes. You probably even have one in your home. Have you guessed what I am talking about?

In my opinion, my final "village" is the most important of them all. It is the visual expression of what we have read about in the Gospels. It is a reminder of Hope for people in the world to be able to finally find peace and goodwill. It honors a moment captured and called a season. It is the picture of Christmas - the Manger Scene. Immanuel - God taking the form of a man and being with us - the birth of the One who's life changed the way we record time.


Silent Night. Holy Night.
Son of God. Love's pure Light.
Radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus, Lord at thy birth. Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

From our house to yours - Merry Christmas and God's highest good to you.

Pretty Paper

There is a song that Ray Orbison did on one of his Christmas albums way back in the day that was called Pretty Paper. It dares to make us think about the person who is without during the season. Not a big hit. Not covered by many artists. And certainly not given much air play. Here are the words:


Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue
Wrap your presents to your darling from you
Pretty pencils to write “I love you”
Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue

Crowded street, busy feet hustle by him
Downtown shoppers, Christmas is nigh
There he sits all alone on the sidewalk
Hoping that you won’t pass him by

Should you stop?, better not, much too busy
You’re in a hurry, my how time does fly
In the distance the ringing of laughter
And in the midst of the laughter he cries

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue
Wrap your presents to your darling from you
Pretty pencils to write “I love you”
Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue


Who is in need? What can I do about it? Ask God to open my eyes and see what He sees. Pray. Then, act. The pretty paper that wraps our gifts isn't all there is to any season.

Oh Christmas Tree?

I proudly stated to some people that we were going to put up three Christmas trees this year. Then we got our music schedule and everything was put on hold. The beautiful 1958 shiney aluminum Christmas tree and color wheel that we have is sitting neatly in its box, right now as I am typing, in the back room. The other two green trees are safe and sound in their places of storage. All the ornaments and lights are still in the basement. There is no garland, no tinsel and no star up in our house as of today.

The only tree I managed to put up is hanging in the window of my french door in the kitchen. At least it does have lights on it, so it doubles as a festive night light. We have put our presents under it and everything. I will leave it up to you as far as whether or not it can be called a Christmas tree.


So what do you think?

Putz Paper Village

I said I have 4 Christmas villages set up in my house this year. In my efforts to spread Christmas joy, I am sharing village number three today!

Back in the 30's and 40's, sturdy paper houses made by Putz were sold as Christmas village decorations. My honey and I were at a flea market a few years ago and found a bag with six of these "pre-war" houses. Someone gave me the Noel Church as a gift, and I found some new replica type houses in a store a few years ago. The old together with the new, my Putz village was complete! Take a look-


Shiney Brite makes lots of Christmas ornaments. They started selling the replicas of the Putz houses as tree ornaments. Here is the church and house in their version, which is pretty close to the original look. The angel is a candle and the caroler is one of a pair that my mom always put out on the bathroom sink counter at Christmas time.


The white house and the pink house are original Putz houses. There is a hole in the back wall to place a light inside if you want to. The Noel Church is a newer decoration. I don't know what company made it but it fits into the Putz village quite nicely.


The green house is another Shiney Brite decoration. The bottle brush tree is a nice touch! The brick house is obviously pre-war. It's tree is in pretty rough shape. Notice the silver paint on the roof line to give a sparkly snow effect.



This pink house and church are also original Putz houses. I love the way they used glitter dust in the paint of the church in order to give it something special. This was the perfect place to set the angel and other caroler, don't you think so?


The Putz paper village invokes such a different feeling than the others. Just the fact that most of these houses are 70 years old makes it special. The warped bases, the torn roof lines, the broken cellophane windows...these decorations have been through alot. They are a piece of the great depression. Pretty paper houses to bring a smile on the faces of those who gazed on them during hard, lean times. Whether this year has been fat or lean for you, I wish that you have a very joyous Christmas season.

Christmas services

So, my honey and I are playing music in the bands of Northway Church (as you probably already know...) and this is a rundown of the scheduled service times for Christmas week:

Pamelyn will be in the Colonie team on
Sunday the 21st at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Tuesday the 23rd at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Wednesday the 24th at 7 p.m.

Vince will be in the Clifton Park team on
Saturday the 20th at 6 p.m.
Sunday the 21st at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday the 24th at 4 p.m. 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Come on out, hear some amazing music, and celebrate the season with us!

I'm Mr White Christmas

The other day, A Year Without A Santa Claus was on TV. Who hasn't seen Tanta Kringle sing about being the king's #1 toy maker or felt kinda bad for the kids in Sombertown because it was illegal to play with toys? The kid in me rose up and I kept the show on. There are two big battles in the show. The battle between the evil Burgermeister against the good-hearted Kringles, and the battle between the sons of Mother Nature, Heat Meiser and Cold Meiser. These two duke it out over who gets a white Christmas and who gets rain. These guys are funny and imaginative characters with catchy little life-jingles.

If Snowy was really out there, we got a blast of his cold breath last Thursday and Friday.

The weather forecasters were saying a big, bad ice/snow storm was on it's way. After lots of less than accurate predictions from them, I pretty much take what they say with a grain of salt. Did I grocery shop? Nope. Did I expect the power to go out? Maybe, but not for very long. Did I cover my car with a shower curtain so I wouldn't have to scrape ice off the windshield? Yes, I did do that. Were the weathermen right this time? For the most part, they were. We lost power for a whopping 25 hours, and that was pretty good, compared to so many other people. That is the advantage to living so close to Route 9 where all the businesses are. They have a higher importance-level priority and get their power back on right away and as a result, so do we. Here's some shots of our National Grid-free day.

My cats have the ability to find the warmest places to hang out. Mouse has so much hair, she can sprawl, but Tiki wanted more help from the hanging coats.....



There is a huge Maple tree in front of our house. The ice caused lots of trees to snap branches, including that one. The limbs that broke fell right onto my driveway and missed my car by mere inches. The picture shows only half of what fell and they were alot bigger (and heavier) than how they look in the pic. If either of us had parked in front of the garage, it would have been time to call the insurance company......




When we bought our house, I was thrilled that we had a gas stove/oven so I could still cook when the power was out. Come to find out, our model has a safety feature in it to shut off the gas supply to the burners when a power failure occurs. That made us have to pull out the good ol' Coleman camping stove in order to make a hot meal....




A few days after buying our house, we had an ice storm that knocked the power out. This was a bitter sweet event for us. The bad thing was it made the sump pump stop so our basement begin to back up with water, and it got cold quick without the furnace doing it's job. Welcome to homeownership! My father brought over a small generator so we could keep those things running. The good thing about it was it made us realize right away that we needed a generator of our own, so we did buy one way back then. It was there for us when we needed it this time! We were able to keep the furnace on, the sump pump kept going, our fridge got plugged in, and one light.

So, we survived what has been dubbed on the radio as the "Ice Storm of 2008". When a quarter of a million people loose power, I guess it is an event worthy of a title. When I look out my window, there is no dreaming of a white Christmas.....



...unless Mr White Christmas retreats again for a while...which would be ok with me.

Music of the season

I heard about the radio stations that began to play 24-hour Christmas music before Thanksgiving hit the calendar. As much as I love the sounds of the season, I could not bear the thought of filling the air with jingling bells or ho-ho-ho's . . . until this week.

One of the local Christian radio stations has finally jumped on the Christmas music bandwagon. 94.9 FM - the Sound of Life. I have been listening to this station as of yesterday and have to say that they are playing stuff that you will not hear on any of the "secular" stations. This is rather refreshing, if you ask me.

The first thing that hit me was alot of their songs are actual Christmas carols. You know, the songs that celebrate His birth, the ones that you heard all your life in church, or what you would sing with the group of people who went door to door, caroling in wonderful four part harmonies. Respectful Christmas songs by artists from all genre of music. Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole to Third Day and Tonic SoL FA. Amy Grant and Celine Dion to Andy Williams and Bing Crosby.

Another thing that is fabulous is I have yet to hear a song about anyone getting run over by reindeer, or about killer fruitcake, or about kids wanting hippopotamuses as gifts. Good gracious, what on earth does any of that stuff have to do with anything? Once in a while you will hear a tune about the guy with the belly like a bowl full of jelly, but I guess you can't fully get away from him in December.

The nicest thing about the station is you do not have to be constantly interrupted and bombarded by annoying commercials. This is a listener-funded station. And you will even hear some teaching programs or be read a verse or two from the Word of God from time to time. That alone is reason enough to stick with this station.

So if 94.9 FM - The Sound of Life winds up being a station that you dial into more days than not, maybe they can be considered a worthy recipient of a Christmas donation. That is up to you. But at least there is one place to tune in and hear the music of the season from a station who honors and loves the One who Christmas is all about.

Retroville

The next Christmas village I have to show you is based on 1950's America. As I have shared with you before, I really like some of the looks from the 50's. Think of all the colors that were paired up with chrome. Everything had boomerangs, diamonds, or stars printed on it. The music oozed with the flair for life. They just don't make things like they did in the 50's. Cheesy or not, I like it!

So here is my favorite Christmas Village memorializing the Doo Wop days: Retroville - An All American Town

The bowling alley and coffee shop was the place for the adults to go. Leagues and competition galore! Who didn't own a vinyl zippered bag to protect their custom drilled bowling ball and multi-colored leather shoes?



If you were under the age of 21, you would be found at the Doo Wop Diner. Go inside for juke box dances. Remaining in your car was ok too since the skating waitresses gave car side service. Get out your dimes so you can call all of your friends to join you from the telephone booth.



Gotta travel? Then travel in style with your tow behind camper. This is actually a salt and pepper shaker set but they are a perfect addition to Retroville! In the background, you see a concession stand offering tasty refreshments which brings us to the final place to see...



Although the idea of drive in movies was conceived many years earlier, they really boomed during the mid-century. In Retroville, the Moonlight Drive-In Theater is a popular place. From love struck teens to entire families going out for dinner and a movie. Many drive-ins offered playgrounds for the little ones to burn off their endless energy. There isn't a better place to get a whole night's entertainment than that!

Merry Christmas from Retroville.

Christmas Village -pt 3

The center of town is such an interesting place. The street is busy with horse and sleigh, and the hotel has visitors checking in. The bell hop's cart is full of their luggage! Next door the fruit stand has plenty of choices and the gazebo is the perfect place to go for a stroll.






What old fashioned town doesn't have a church? This one does! It is tall and sturdy with a clock tower and a bell to ring out the hour. The carolers sing along with the fiddler while people pass by, "Come and worship...come and worship...worship Christ the newborn King".





There is one more building that I got with this set but I didn't have room for it. The school house got the cut. The kids are on vacation, right? Maybe I have a crazy imagination, but my paper Christmas village always comes to life when I set it up on my kitchen shelf. This is only one of the sets I have displayed. There is more to see...so come back again!

Christmas Village - pt 2

It wouldn't be a village if there wasn't a store in town. The fence is sturdy and straight, made of rock, and the little girl needs a boost by her mom to be able to see the wonderful things through the window. Too bad the store is closed, so there will be no toys going home with her tonight. A happy lady has a basket full of goodies for her family.


Every town has a house where the super wealthy family lives. Here is the rich lady with her little one bundled up in a carraige, ready for a stroll to town. The shop keeper walks by with her scarf wrapped tight to keep the chilly breezes away.


I think these villages are really fun. It is not over yet! There is more to see....

Christmas village -pt 1

I have to admit, I am one of those people who like to set up the miniature villages at this time of year. I remember going to visit a family who were friends of my parents, and they had a table dedicated to one of the most wonderful Christmas villages I have ever seen. I would stand there and look at it for what seemed to be the entire time we were there. When you are 10 years old, everything at Christmastime is most wonderful, but that really made an impression on my young mind. Over the last several years, I have put together some wonderful scenes of my own.

I can't resist checking out the village stuff in the stores. The prices usually surprised me and I would walk away from it all empty handed. It is hard to start up with just one house, you know what I mean? I also want different village things... not the usual scenery. So, when I found a box of paper houses, I could not resist them. They were made and sold in Canada and I think I found them on eBay. It came on flat sheets and you punch them out of the perforation, fold the pieces into 3D forms, and then fit them all together. Viola - a village house is born! This is what kicked off my miniature Victorian world. Finding the people and accessories was a piece by piece hunt. What fun!

There were six buildings in the box and this is the farm house. Click on the pic for a bigger view. There are deer behind the house, and horses. Simple fences, a boy bringing in the tree, and another bringing in firewood. Kids building a snowman, and you can't see her, but a girl feeding a duck...she is behind the horse and sleigh.

Many more scenes of my village to come......