I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

October Rudolph Day...New Buys, Crafts and a Sneak Peek, 2022

 

 

 

 

 


 

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!

 I am so happy you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog!!

   Every room in our townhouse has a different Christmas Theme and Color Scheme!!

  I prove that you do not have to live in a large home to have several Trees, over 20, in all shapes and sizes!!

The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends........... 

I do try to add a few new things and change up things a bit but for the most part, these decorations are part of my Christmas Traditions and bring back a lot of treasured memories.....



I am now posting 3 times a week !!!
 
 I will be posting on TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SATURDAY 
over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
 
I will start posting on this Blog regularly the first week in November for the Holiday Season!

 As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....

 

HAPPY RUDOLPH DAY!!!!!

 Rudolph Day is celebrated the 25th of each month......
 
 
 
When I find the time to post on Rudolph Day, it will be about something having to do with Christmas no matter what time of the year it is...
 

 For October's Rudolph Day post, I will be sharing some new Christmas Buys and some Crafting that I have been doing along with a sneak peek of things to come!! 

Wink! Wink!


 In my last post over on Debbie-Dabble Blog, I shared my annual Fall/Halloween Home Tour including my Fall and Halloween Trees!!!!

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

Click HERE if you missed that post..... 


And now for a few Personal Notes...
 

I have been posting pictures on FB of how I am able to finally fit into a lot of the clothes that I have not worn in MANY years.....

Another pair of jeans I can now fit in....

This is what I wore when Joe and I went out shopping on Saturday morning....

 
 Fall shirt that I figured I better wear before the Season ends....

 
And for those who always tell me to smile!!

 
One more outfit.....
 
This is what I wore to Mass on Sunday morning...
 
 
I think you can see how much weight I have lost in my face....

 
Now the trick is to not get "Turkey neck" because of that weight loss....


LOL!

The more clothes I can fit into, the more inspired I am to keep at it, continuing my Journey toward a Healthier Life!!
 
Down 28 pounds since June 1st....
 
Hoping to hit 30 pounds lost by November 1st....
 
We will see....

Food of the Week

On Sunday, I made a batch of Barna Balls!!!

This is my own concoction where I combined a recipe for Oven Porcupines ( Piggies or Pigs in the Blanket without the cabbage) and Stuffed Peppers....

We do not eat the cabbage or the peppers so we waste them.....

Joe and Joey love them....
 
I served them with Knorr Garlic Roasted Potatoes with bacon.... 


Okay, so let's get on to some New Buys for this coming Christmas Season and beyond.....

I say beyond because I bought these red cardinal place mats and potholder and oven mitt set at Ollies.....

 
I will be using them in my Kitchen though as part of my Winter decorations when I take Christmas down in January as I decorate in there with red cardinals!!!!
 
 And sticking with that theme, I also found this rug in Ocean State Job Lot and since we had Crazy Deal Gift Cards from previous purchases, everything that I bought in that store was FREE!!!!!.....
 
 
 
 And I snatched up this red cardinal lantern in Dollar General, using a $5 off $25 coupon so at $5, it was FREE!!

 
In Ocean State Job Lot, I bought these mini sets of fairy lights which are great for light small spaces or putting into things......
 
 
 
 For example, this crackle glass hurricane jar.....

 
Also at Ocean State Job Lot, I grabbed 2 rolls of this plaid ribbon as I used plaid ribbon to make the bows for all my new wreaths for the front of the house that I made after last year's Christmas Season was over....


This is the new wreath that I made in the beginning of the year for my Front Door......


And these were the wreaths that I made to hang on the windows....



They are smaller than the huge wreaths I had used for many years that I donated to Salvation Army....

And these are bows that I made to use on the other decorations like garland, sleds, the lantern and front porch light, etc.
 

So the new plaid ribbon will be a back up if I need more.....
 
 
 
 Look at these little flocked trees for only $1.99 at Ollies!!
 
 
 
 You can do so much with them....
 

  This is what I bought at Dollar General, who had just started to put out their Christmas merchandise.....
 

 Love this red ribbon as it can be used for other times of the year and I have a red kitchen!!

 

 These light sets of 20 lights are also great to use in lanterns, etc.....

 They were also only $2 and I even bought one with a white wire....

 These cute gingerbread Trees will be great in the Kitchen and were only $1.00!!

 

 

 These were from Big Lot's......

 

 Now how could I resist blue monogrammed towels with a B for my Powder Room!!!!

 

I will get to those light sets later.....

Last year, I wanted these sweet Reindeer mugs but they were out of them so when I saw that they had them online again and it showed that several were available in the Big Lot's right by us, I immediately sent Joe down to get them.....



LOVE the vintage look to them!!!


Our Dollar Tree stores are loaded with Halloween merchandise right now as it seemed to come in late so they are just starting to put out Christmas merchandise as room is freed up for it.....

I bought these " Snow Greenery" to add to existing arrangements.....


 
We have 2 Dollar Trees right by us and I bought these at the other one.....

 
And of course, one can never have enough bottle brush trees......
 
Look at these sweet pink ones!!!

 
And purple and bright pink ones!!!

 
Purple for my upstairs bathroom......

 
And bright pink for the Sitting Room......


And even though I am not into the red and black checked Farmhouse look, I loved the hot Cocoa theme of this sign!!


   Now we will start the Crafting part of this post.....

I wanted to change the sign I just showed you to fit better in my Kitchen.....

So I decided to use this sheet of candy cane foam that I bought when our local A C Moore went out of business.....

 I used another sheet before when I transformed this sign....

Into this.....

 Again replacing the red and black checks....

 And this is how the new sign looks after I did so.....

 

I added some cinnamon sticks to the corners.....

 
Along with some pom poms, mini stocking ornaments in red and white and stickers.....


Much better, I think and more to my liking!!!

 

I forgot to take a before picture but Trish, who bought the house next to us, gutted it and has now rented it out, gave me a hand made sled that a former patient had given to her when she was an ICU nurse....

She is not a Christmas decorator so she asked if I wanted it and of course, I would never turn down a hand made sled with reindeer!!!!


It was finished in the same stained, burned wood as the reindeer.......

I painted the sled white and dry brushed some white paint on the reindeer tails and antlers ....


I added a red and green ribbon to the existing ribbon tied on a bow around the reindeer necks.....


I glued sequinned appliques that I had in my stash to the sides and back of the sled.....




I filled the top with greenery and florals that I had....


Originally, I just put a large gold ornament  in the center.....

But there is an area cut out for a tapered candle.....



Then it dawned on me that a Home Interiors votive with a candle should fit in there perfectly....

 
Yep!!   Perfect....




I am glad that I did not turn down the offer to take this hand crafted Christmas sled....

Now to find somewhere to put it.....


Last year, I made these angel ornaments using angel picks that I had in my stash......


 
 
 
 
I still had about 20 more of these vintage looking angel picks left that i bought at an estate auction.....

So I decided to make smaller angel ornaments and use them on the white branch "Tree" in the upstairs hallway....


 

 I also made several Angels out of them using up my paper mache cone supply!!

 
 
I used music sheet paper for 2 of them.....

 
Instead of music sheet paper, I used gold scrap book paper from my stash.....



Last year, at the end of the Season, Joe bought a 6 foot flocked Tree at Big Lot's that had been on display....

He did check with me first and I always wanted a flocked Tree somewhere in the house....

It was originally $115

Marked down 90% and with an additional 20 % off coupon, it came down to $8.97!!!!

 
 
 Now it was a floor model and when I plugged it in, half the light did not work....



 Which was just fine with me as I prefer LED warm white lights on my Trees so I ripped off all the lights...

 
 Now without lights.....

 
 I added 2 sets of lights that I had last year.....

 
 And packed it up in a Body Bag that I use to wrap my larger Trees in....

 
 And had Joe take it down to our Storage Shed that we rent....

I had Joe bring it back up to the house last week.....

 
We always joke that when it is time to take Trees back down to our storage shed that the neighbors may think he is disposing of my body...

 
 I bought several of these sets of lights a Dollar Tree.....
 

 
And added them to the Tree.....
 


 Much better.......
 
 Now because I now was going to be using a flocked Tree in the upstairs Sitting Room, I decided to add
 a flocked garland that I bought in Walmart to the white garland that I have been using for the past few years on my faux fire place mantel......

 
 I am not a Walmart shopper because I do not care for the one that is close to us and the clientele that shop there but we took a drive to one about 15-20 minutes away and I had a nice experience in that Walmart....

I used to shop in the one in that area before they closed it down and built a new one so I think we will be going to that one on occasion....

This garland, which I initaily found online, was $15.88

 
 
I wove it through the white garland......

 

 Okay, I guess by now that you guessed I have started decorating for Christmas upstairs...

Actually, I have finished decorating the entire upstairs...

For the past few years, I have tried to get it done before Halloween and mission accomplished this year...

I usually like to get the Den also decorated for Christmas before Halloween but that is most likely not going to happen this year as our Grand Pups are coming on Wednesday night to stay with us until Sunday evening.....

But I hope to get some of it done .....

Since I put the new flocked Tree in the Sitting Room, that meant I had to find somewhere to use the 4 1/2 foot white Tree from the Sitting Room.....

 It is now my Victorian Lady Tree in my Bedroom....



 
Joe's Pittsburgh corner.....


 
The upstairs Bathroom.....

 

 

 The Hall Way

 

 

 

 

 

 
The new Tree in the Sitting Room....


 

I had enough of the new garland left over to make a swag to use on top of the mirror....
 
 
 
See the bright pink bottle brush trees......




 
 
 
 
And the Craft Room....
 




 And there is your Sneak Peek.....

10 decorated Trees up....

How long did it take this year....

Upstairs Hall - 1 Day..
 
Upstairs Bathroom - 1 Day...
 
Master Bedroom - 2 Days
 
Craft Room - 1 Day
 
Sitting Room - 4 Days
 
9 days and probably 2 days of crafting and tweaking in between....
 
But we will go with the 9 days....
 
Last year, it took me 30 days, down from the 33 days the previous year, to decorate the entire house, both inside and out.... 

Thanksgiving is early this year, on the 24th, so that gives me only a little over 3 weeks to have the entire house decorated by Thanksgiving which is my goal every year....

I am going to have to work my butt off to get that done....

Time will tell....
 

For the next week or so, I will still be posting over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog!

In my next post on THURSDAY, I will be sharing my dear friend Anne Marie's amazing home decorated for Halloween!!







 Most of her decorations this year are vintage......
 
 
So I hope you will stop by to visit again on THURSDAY!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......


I am linking up to these parties:
 
 
 

 

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
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