WIP of Santa and the antique toys!! (psst..you could WIN a gift)

I am still working on my Santa piece...such a handsome fella....the jolly olde elf himself!! I'm making his boots this morning and then hopefully his coat and hood this afternoon. Here are some WIP photos....

Beautiful silk puffed sleeved shirt with ruffled front. Of course, most of shirt will be hidden by his coat BUT I will know it's there. (and so will YOU)

Material for his coat and hood

Base...covered in antique white paint and German glass

Elf in a box Santa will be holding in his hand.

Antique pull toys 

Okey dokey..time to put my shoemaker hat on and get busy. Until next time.................Hugs,

Regi

PSSST....the eighth person to comment on this post will receive a gift. Just leave your snail mail for me and I hope you enjoy your gift. ^_^

Three little Mermaids!!

I don't believe it....I mean...I REALLY.....don't believe it!! Really....can YOU believe it? Can you? Huh Huh??Ohhhh, I guess I had better tell you what I can't believe. I'm sure you aren't going to believe it either though. I finished my niece's Christmas gifts today. I know....it's hard to believe, ri iight?? Those that know me....know that normally I am burning the WAY past midnight oil whenever I am working on gifts. What am I going to do with myself now? I already feel lost from not having to be busy at trying to get something done. WOW...is this what it actually feels like? To not be rushed? I LIKE IT!!!

Like....a word that we all want to hear when we make something for someone special to us. Well....LOVE would be better but with two of my nieces being teenagers...I will take...I like it!!! My youngest niece turned 7 this year and is such a little woman...really..she is. I sometimes forget when I'm talking to her that she is only a youngin but then she goes and does something completely silly and just like a normal 7 year old would do and I remember...LOL!! Since she is a young lady now...along with her sisters, I decided to make them each a jewelry box. Something to hold their precious treasures in. To guard their treasures there is none better than a true keeper of treasures...even if they are land ones and not from the sea. Each box is hand painted with one of my mermaids.

This one is for my oldest niece. She is a HUGE LSU fan and I do mean HUGE. One of those that probably bleeds purple and yellow. I wouldn't know because I run for the hills whenever I see blood. Ewww!! But I bet a dollar that she does. Since she is such a HUGE fan I painted her mermaid with a (yep, ya guessed) a purple and yellow scaled tail. She also has brown eyes and dark hair just like my niece. I also made the gift tag to go along with it.

This one is for my next to oldest niece. I know that I could have said middle niece but we don't say that. Have you ever heard about the middle child syndrome? She hasn't because we say next to oldest and that's the way we want to keep it..LOL!!  She is a HUGE, ummmmm......that other university from Alabama...you know the one. I don't know what happened to her mom...she is one of THOSE too. We were raised that ________ was a bad word so I just don't know what happened. OMGOSH...alright...I will say it......auburn.  There...are you happy now?? hehe.  Since she does love Auburn so much I painted her mermaid with a orange and blue scaled tail. Her eyes are blue and her hair is red with golden highlights....yep...just like my adorable next to oldest niece. Here is her gift tag too.

Finally...last but by no means least, is the mermaid for my Li'l lady of a niece. She just loves everyone and everything so her mermaid I painted a purple tail with light green scales. She has light brown eyes and golden brown locks...yes...just like my little sweetie pie. Li'l miss was actually a mermaid last year....ohh yes she was. In the ballet "Peter Pan". She was, of course, adorable and nothing like her very shy aunt. She loves a crowd.
Her keepsake box has a gift tag too.

Now.....I hope to hear "I LOVE IT" but I will be just as happy with "I LIKE IT".  We are looking forward to spending some time with them on Saturday night. The kiddos will get their gifts...then we will be eating some delicious red beans and rice (my BIL is a true Cajun and owww weeeeee one heck of a cook) then eat some yummy sweet goodies and probably watch a movie together or play a game. Family...is what makes this time of year special.

Now....what can I start working on now.....................................

Until next time......HUGS, Regi

Treasures Found!!!!

I'm so excited that we found some of our treasures that I just knew had gotten lost. We found them by chance too. Joseph went on a search for a pair of coveralls in the storage shed and while he was plowing looking through everything he found them for me. Ohhhhh HAPPY DAY!!!!

Now I know that you are saying "HEY Reggikins....we saw your beautiful Christmas tree already". THank you for the compliment..HA!! It's not the big tree that's new in the photo. It's the small tree sitting on the stand next to it.

Isn't it a beauty in itself? This is a vintage Christmas music box. It dates back to the early 1900's and it completely and totally belongs to the Chazman. Yes..yes..when he is grown and moves out (which he tells me he is never doing) I will let him take it with him. I will...honestly...I will. ^_^  It originally belonged to one of my BILs. When Chaz was a toddler he would sit and just look at it. Never touching it...just gazing at it. He would point to the tiny snow baby and say "Babieeeeee". My BIL lost it at that exact moment. I don't mean lost it as in crying....I mean....he actually lost it. He gave it to the Chazman. Chaz was so excited when we found it and could set it out this year.

Now this is the one that I was happy we found. It's the Santa bear I made for my Dad and Mom about six years ago. Nothing fancy but he holds some precious memories for us.

It truly was a weekend for finding treasures. I was going through my art journal and found my directions on making acorn top ornaments. This is going to be a project for the Chazman and I this week since he is out on break.

Until next time........Hugs, Regi

I made my own gift box..hehe

I hope that you read about how to make your own box in my last post. I also hope that they were easy to follow directions so that you could make some of your own. I enjoyed making the "How to" post so much for everyone that I made some more boxes...ten to be exact....LOL!!!  These were made for a purpose. Do you remember the flower garden I have been cultivating here of late? You know the one....don't you? The one that took up a weekend plus. Need a reminder? Just Click Here.   I made the boxes to hold these precious flowers plus I made three more flowers to add to the bunch.

I do hope that the little girls that receive them Christmas morning will love them just as much as I loved growing making them. I just love the fact that so many people are coming together to make Christmas a special time for the families that need the extra help. I'm very excited to be one that is able to use my whimsical talents to help out. Paying it forward is a motto that all of us should take to heart. I know that I certainly do. Let's take a walk and see the newest flowers clipped from the garden.

I love using fabric and ribbon. This little beauty of a rose was made from a wired satin ribbon and has cotton fabric leaves. Not only do I love using fabric and ribbon but I really love buttons. The prettier the better!!! On this one I was able to use two buttons. The white one looked like the center of a flower. How perfect...ri iight??  I just couldn't resist using this little butterfly button to go along with it. It's attached to a large clip barrette.

Here is another rose from the same bush. No thorns either...that makes it nice. We don't want any ouchies from our sweet little ladies.....now do we? I used one of my flower buttons for the center of this one and instead of a hair clip...I attached it to an elastic headband. Can't you just see a sweet baby girl wearing this?
Sit and imagine....now let's all say...........Awwwwww!!!

This little beauty is from the whimsical side of the garden. I had these fantastic, colorful fabric scraps that a friend gave to me in a big bag of.......scraps!! HAHA  They were just the perfect size to make these with. So important tip here.....never throw out those scraps you might think are to small to be keeping. I just adore all the colors in this one too. What do you think of when you see the colors? I think of ice cream..... Neapolitan ice cream and a scoop or two of sherbet thrown in with perhaps some peppermint. YUM!! I suddenly am in the mood for ice cream. ^_^   Hmmmmm...wonder why? Instead of raiding my button stash for these...I raided my vintage bead stash. Tiny, pretty pink pearls. The leaves surrounding the flowers are made from a ribbon. This one has a hair clip attached to it.

Now I have ten beautiful flowers in all to give away but I just couldn't hand them over to Ms Sue and say "Here ya go". I wanted them to be extra special so that's why I made the boxes. The box liked we talked about at the beginning of this post....the box that this post is suppose to be about. Sorry...I just had to wonder in the garden BUT at least I took you with me and you got to smell see the pretty flowers. For the boxes, I used white card stock......because I know that the box probably won't survive the opening process. I mean if they were big boxes...then they would be "priceless" but these are small boxes. I hope they do survive though because they are really cute and could actually be another gift in itself. For the top of the box, I found this cute vintage page from a children's book with rabbits....I love rabbits....don't you? Rabbits looking out the window at Santa and his reindeer flying over the snowy sky. I printed it off in black and white and then water colored it in to give it that vintage look for real. I applied a tiny bit of sparkle flakes to the rabbit tail....some red glitter by some of the holly leaves and even a teeny tiny piece of red glitter on the nose of the first reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. RUDOLPH!!! Well....either Rudolph or the reindeer had one heck of a party the night before....but....that's....another......whole post entirely!!

Until next time.............HUGS, Regi

Christmas Decorations for 2011

It's amazing how you use the same decorations year after year and enjoy them just as much as you did when they were new once you get them all put out and arranged. It's always such an exciting time when it comes to decorating at our home. I get to start the mess decorating while the Chazman is at school. Putting up the tree...stringing the lights. NO decorations go on it yet though. Our Christmas village is placed in the dining room. Such a romantic awesome way to eat at nights...with the twinkling and glow of the village lights. Placing all of our different Santa figures about. Most are ones that my parents had...so they hold memories. One is an original that I made for my DAD....that one holds a very special memory. Garland hung here and tucked there. All in it's new place for the year. Wait you say.....what about the tree? You didn't decorate the tree!!! Well sillies...of course I did...it's just the one thing that the Chazman and I do "TOGETHER". He and I have been decorating the tree since he was 2. I leave it for last and patiently wait for him to come home from school so that we can continue our tradition. I would like to share our Christmas home for 2011 with you. Do come in and WELCOME.....

He's holding mistletoe...Gimme a smooch!!

Santa made for Daddy...very special (hope you clicked on DAD above to read about why)

Joseph made this metal sleigh for me several years ago...so cute and HEAVY. Guess from all the gifts!!

Love my vintage mugs...the two smaller ones are over 70 years old.

Our Romantic dining room lighting!!

Chaz loves this...we made it about 5 years ago. He gets so excited to change the day each morning.

We have our kitchen decorated as well...with my collection of Christmas mugs...I do have a few...LOL!!! It's a rather dreary day today and that photo just doesn't want to be seen for some reason. I hope that you enjoyed your tour...we so loved having you. Come again...anytime!!

Until next time....HUGS, Regi and the Chazman