Focusing on life:Add Some Sparkle

Sally picked a very appropriate theme this week. I am in the process of decorating my Christmas tree. Christmas trees have lots of sparkle. Last year my son bought me a Swarovski ornament. I have wanted one for a long time and I finally got one. To the left  of it you can see part of a shell tree that he brought me back from the west coast when he went on his high school graduation trip. To the right part of a beaded ornament that I made a couple of years ago. My tree is really special to me. My boys from a very young age knew that I liked Christmas ornaments so since my birthday is in the fall I often receive ornaments for my birthday.  I made it a habit to get an ornament when we went on a trip or had a special dinner out. I even go so far as to record them in a book as to who they came from and when I got or made them. In the early 80's we started making ornaments each year. We turned wooden ornaments, etched glass, embroidered, knitted, glued shells together, beaded ornament, and one year we decorated eggs from our chickens.I have ornaments as old as the 1930's and from many countries of the world.  Each year as I put up my tree I get to relive memories.

I am proud of my stocking. I got the kit for it at a car show. The only part of the kit that I used was the fireplace bricks. The rest of it was just used for patterns. I made it from white velvet. The tree is from the dress I wore in my sister's wedding when I was 13. The black in the fireplace is from upholstering the seats in our 1966 Impala. The fire is birch twigs from our farm. The flames I painted on plastic. My bulldog Rose was a cat in the kit. My husband made the picture frame from scrap teak wood that we brought home from the yacht factory where we both worked for a short time. The train my son made. I curled yarn for the girl and dolls hair on toothpicks. It is laying on the coffee table in the pic because I haven't found the hanger yet.

The angel that tops my tree I also made. I used the upper torso, head and 1/2 of the arms from a doll. I cleaned and painted the porcelain, set the eyes and attached the wig. Her dress has a lace panel that I beaded many years before beading became my obsession. Her cape is from the white velvet that I used on the stocking. It is lined with gold lame'.  The wings are from a white dove. Did you know that the difference between fairies and angels is that fairies have bug wings and angels have bird wings? Her halo is brass wire. You can see part of one of the chicken eggs that I painted. I hope that others of you are enjoying decorating for Christmas as much as I am. To see what the other participants are showing for sparkle click on Sally's blog link thestudiosublime.com