Twenty-First & Twenty-Second Finish For 2010

What's this you ask? When has she had time to finish not only one but TWO pieces? Don't worry, you're not going crazy because I've been asking myself the same question ;o) Not to worry though, they are not huge finishes by any means. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

This year I went out and bought myself a 3.5 foot artificial tree just for my stitched ornaments. It was a great deal and plus I wanted to treat myself :o) I don't like putting those ornaments on a real tree for fear they will get sap on them. I've spent too much time working and finishing them to have that happen!

One night I put the tree together and then a few days later I put the mini lights on. When I couldn't take it anymore, I dug out all my cross stitched ornaments and started putting them on the tree :o) Since it was still November, I couldn't bring it upstairs yet so when I was in the basement putting a wash in, I'd admire my creation.

FINALLY December arrived and I brought my little tree upstairs. It now resides upstairs on the second floor. We don't have a hallway per se but a landing with the two bedrooms, TV room and bathroom going off of it. I always pictured a tree there and this is what it looks like -

I'm not crazy about the tree skirt as I'm not a gold person but it was the only 24 inch one I could find! It works though. What I didn't take into account was how big some of my ornaments were but that's okay because I love my tree :o) We put mini lights up the side of the stairs again this year and with them and my tree lit up, it's so festive.

Now that brings me back to my two finishes! I was in the craft store one day and came across some rusted tin snowflakes and I knew immediately what I would do with them :o) With a little tweaking of stitches here and there, these are the results -

I just love them and they'll be going up on my new tree once the glue is dry :o) I used the snowmen faces from Oh Joy by Val's Stuff that was in this years' JCS Ornament Issue and stitched them on some raw linen scraps that I had laying around. I changed the colors and used DMC 712, WDW Onyx and WDW Carrot.

As you can see, their noses are much shorter but I needed to do that in order to get a rounder looking head for my circle. I used Sharon's Magnetic Needleminder Tutorial to cover my metal form. I glued it to the front of the tin snowflake and then cut a circle out of antique white felt to glue on the back and cover the mess ;o) Add a little ribbon and voila!

Btw, our delivery DID arrive today so now I'll be busy putting furniture together :o) I'll be back soon to update you on that.