Busy busy, worky worky.

Wow, how time is flying by. I had the best weekend. My husband and I spent 3 days in my home away from home, Mountain View, AR. We were taking classes at the Ozark Folk Center. I took cornhusk doll making and he took wood turning. Our instructors were great.

Ms. Erlene Carter, the Jedi Master of corn shuckery taught my class. She is great. We had so much fun and she is such a wonderful teacher, we quickly finished our assigned nativities and still had time to make 2 more full size dolls as well as a handful bookmarks, ornaments, and even a ninja.

Phil took wood turning from Shawn Hoefer. He really enjoyed the class. He and Shawn were a perfect match with a lot in common. We both had such a great time, we are planning to go back to take the spring class as well.

This is Thanksgiving week and things are flying by. It's hard sometimes to take a break from all our jobs and think of being thankful. It's emphasized that this time of year is a time for reflection. I try to reflect all year long. I have learned to take pleasure in simple things. I love to watch the Canada geese land in the field by our house. I stop to notice the colors of individual leaves.

I once had someone tell me that I find the beauty in everything...this after they noticed the picture on my desk of pigs sleeping all hugged up. I take that as a great complement. I think in a world when we can be so ugly to each other sometimes, we need to find beauty where we can. I am a true believer that we should do something that makes us happy everyday.

So what I am thankful for this year is my best friend and wonderful husband, my family, my ability to work my craft, my health, and the willingness to seek out beauty in everything. To me, life is a miraculous thing and we need to take in as much as we can. Get off your iphone and go outside. Watch some wildlife, ponder the mysteries of the natural world. Appreciate how everything in nature flows. This is important in a world when our lives rarely work that well.

Out of my mind

Hi all.   It's been a while since my last post.  This is the busy time of year.  I am in the middle of building stock for my craft shows next year, trade-marking a new business name, getting all the permits and legal crud for the shows and making my Christmas gifts.  So what on earth possessed me to make my own Christmas tree?

My husband mentioned that he liked our small tree from last year.   This shocked me since he didn't come from the same Christmas background I did.  My family is a small family with small traditions and small trees.  Our trees are decorated with handmade and vintage ornaments...that weren't vintage when we got them.  My grandfather would go out and cut down a cedar tree and bring it into his house for the holidays...even though he was extremely allergic to cedar.

My husbands family, on the other hand, loves their artificial trees.  They are a huge family, and relish in the gifts and the hoopla surrounding the holidays.   They went to Dillards once and found a decorated tree they liked and bought it...all of it.. as is.  That was a whole new kind of tree hunt for someone who trudged through the woods to find the loneliest saddest Charlie Brown tree I could...so we could give it a home.

I'm not saying one tradition is better than the other, but when two people from different traditions get married, I think it's natural to want to try to combine them.  After all, each of us liked our own traditions.   I love live trees.. the hunt, the challenge, the smell.  Phil likes the artificial trees...no needles or hassle, and no spiders or critters.   Yes spiders. 


It was our first Christmas as a couple and since it Christmas at my house, I told him we had to go to the tree farm.  We loaded up in the Celica and drove to the tree farm.   There I picked out the most crooked tree I could find.  We had to sit in the car while the "elves" tied the tree to the top of the Celica.  We had to drive home with the windows down and when we got there, we had to climb out Dukes of Hazard style.   But the best was yet to come.   I guess a spider had laid eggs all in my beautiful crooked tree.  Because once we got it in the nice warm house, they must have hatched.   The tree dropped sap all over my skirt and presents, then all the baby spiders...hundreds of them, fell onto the wrapping paper and stuck in the sap.   We refer to that as the great spider Christmas massacre.  Believe it or not, this was not my last real tree.


On to last Christmas.   I had broken my shoulder Halloween and couldn't very well take my broken arm tree hunting and I didn't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a fake tree, so I bought a faux feather tree at Hobby Lobby.  It was only about 2 feet tall and i decorated it with whatever ornaments i could make with 1 arm.   People made fun of my little tree, but I thought it was one of the best trees i have had.  Phil even got a small strand of lights to put on it.   I felt like we had finally found our tree...but I didn't think Phil would go for it.

So, This is how I resolved the tradition of hunting a tree...making it more personal than just going to Sears and getting a plastic one, but not having the spider outbreak any more.

I bought a feather tree kit.   I know, during the busiest part of the year, I have don't know if I will have it done for this Christmas, but it will get done.   And best of all, I have found a way to combine having a tree that has a history and means something to me...because i made it...and not having a spider or having to water a real tree.  hopefully, someday, I will be able to post photos of my tree.

If you would like to learn more about feather trees, visit my frost blog.