Our Little Tree

Over the years we have had a wide variety of Christmas tree types in our home. For years we used only real trees. In the last ten years or so we have switched to artificial. In "old age" these are so much easier to deal with! Also I like them small so they don't take up so much space, which is at a premium in our living room.

This tree is only a couple of years old. Even artificial ones start to look bedraggled and need to be replaced. The white lights are already attached, then I added the colored lights. I prefer a tree with multitudes of colors. Which sort of person are you: white lights only, one-color only, multiple-colored lights only, or as one news anchor recently announced: colored lights are for outside and white-only lights are for inside?

The decorations we hang on the tree are the most fun part, because there are so many memories associated with them. Way back when we were first married, we had a potted tree (I can't think of its type). It was tiny and weak so could only hold very light-weight ornaments. Some of those we still use are from that shopping trip where I bought the lightest weight ornaments I could find. A few ornaments are from different trips I took to Indian reservations and once to an Alaskan Federation of Natives conference. So I have some "Eskimo boots made by a Tlingit woman" as they were described to me. Tlingit is the tribe from which my husband is descended. The woman who made these married an Eskimo man, so she is familiar with the boots/moccasins of both traditions. I also have a baby wrapped up in a cradle (bought from a Minnesota Ojibwe woman) that could hang in a tree branch.. again, I can't remember the real name for this thing. I must be getting old.

Some are made in Russia. Some are made in Laos. I have some from Czech Republic, but they aren't on my tree this year. I love having ornaments from around the world. Last March when daughter and I visited the UK, I bought an ornament that says "Mind the Gap" but now I can't find it! Frustrating. But I do have a little plaid reindeer that I bought in Scotland.

I have a few ornaments that are sewing and quilting related - some were gifts from my daughter. One is a knitted hat and mittens that our neighbor from way back (about 35 years ago) made. Daughter and I went to visit, and she let us pick any ornament we wanted off her tree. Wasn't that nice of her? We picked the hat and mittens.

Anyway, the memories are fun, and I'm getting old enough now that I feel nostalgic about these old things. I now have a few decorations that I inherited from my mother, so those have even older memories associated with them. At Christmas time I miss my mom.

I hope, if you celebrate Christmas, you will have fun remembering old times and cherishing the new memories you will make this week.

Little Hummel pieces that I inherited from my mom. These are probably older than I am.

40 Years -- How Did This Happen?

Yesterday (Aug 24) was our 40th anniversary. I can't imagine where all the time went. It sneaks up on a person in such a hurry.

at the eastern-most point in Australia, at Byron Bay

As you know, we went to Australia in May, which was our early anniversary celebration. This weekend, when it really was our anniversary, we were going to go out of town to celebrate, but at the last minute we decided we'd rather stay home. We had a secret Stay-cation, not telling many people that we had stayed in town. Every day we decided to do a little thing to commemorate the anniversary.

Friday night we went out for dinner with my cousin and her husband. They bought us cupcakes afterwards for our anniversary (no photo). Saturday we went to Stone Cold Creamery after dinner for an ice cream treat (no photo). Sunday we went to a bookstore which recently moved into downtown Saint Paul, and then took a short walk around downtown.

We saw this newly-married couple. I hope they are lucky enough to have a happy marriage and some day celebrate their 40th anniversary, too. Strange thought to think that we probably won't be around to help them celebrate.

On Monday we delivered some food to the local food shelf. I wore a home-made veil. Haha! Fun and crazy idea.. I didn't even wear a veil on the original wedding day! We had a modified-hippie wedding in 1975. I wore flowers in my hair, but no veil.

I am a lucky woman to have such a nice husband and good marriage! Here's to 40 more (or as many as we can eke out).

A Celebration: Note-Cards!

What am I celebrating? Can you guess? It is this post -- number 1700! I love reaching these big number milestones. It is amazing that I have continued to post here and have reached such a high number! And the best part is that I still have readers! I love you guys.

This time I am celebrating simply by showing you some note cards I have started making. I'm having fun with them and hope to make some that are even cooler.

I sew them on.. here's the front and then the inside.

I love to save selvages and use them in surprising ways, so I realized I could use those on my notecards, too.

Then I remembered that a woman in my local guild keeps asking me to make her a bookshelf quilt like the one I made last year. This one:

I always tell her to start saving selvages and make her own.

Well, I realized I could finally make her happy and give her a bookshelf quilt. So I made this:

(The scissors blade is holding the card shut for picture-taking purposes.)
I think she'll like it.

Happy Post #1700 to me, and Happy Reading to my wonderful readers! Thanks for being so faithful. I'm off to make more home-sewn notecards.