COFFEE POT PEOPLE LOVE CHRISTMAS

I typed that title, and thought, That's because you do, Silly. Ah. Guilty as charged! The only thing that could make Christmas better would be if it lasted longer. Personally, I'm for having it go all the way through January.

But I digress, even if no one knows that but me. The reason I'm posting is that there are four more Coffee Pot People starring on the new Christmas cards!

Here they are, with the first one a slight remake of the Christmas Organizer cover:





Let's see. What did I do today, or actually yesterday, but I've been up most of the night, so I didn't notice the change from Friday to Saturday too much.

1. Got most of the laundry done.
2. Went to Linde and picked up a carload of fabric samples.
3. Stopped over at SCRAP, where I dropped off two bags of the smaller samples, paid my booth fee for the December 19th show, and found some wonderful wide belts for $0.40 each to use as gift ties. (Pictures later.)
4. Sorted through all the fabric at home, getting rid of pieces too small to use, taking some nice pieces for myself.
5. Finished up a blog post for ThinkCrafts on production-style wire wrapping, and emailed it, along with all the photos to go with it.
6. Painted the edges of the recipe tins.
7. Glued a few beads for the new bracelets. (More pictures to follow.)
8. Forgot to eat lunch.
9. Did the Photoshopping for the four cards here. (The snowglobe with Harold Angel was a happy-making challenge.)
10. Selected the fabric for and cut twenty new fabric gift bags and matched the ribbon to them.
11. Talked with the organizers of two of the shows I'm in, or will be in.
12. Gave the dog a thorough brushing.
13. Did less housework than needs to be done.
14. Looked for my notes about next weekend's show. What in the world have I done with them?!
    
15. Remembered to eat dinner.
16. Forgot how to sleep.
    

THE ORGANIZER COVER

I've worked most of the day on this, the Christmas Organizer cover. Shouldn't have taken so long, and wouldn't have, if I'd given up on the desktop computer sooner. Working on that reminded me of a major reason I use the laptop: That beast is S-S-L-O-O-O-W-!

Here it is, and I must say, I'm quite pleased.



Aack. There's a little voice screeching in my very reluctant ear, But Melody wanted a back page, too, you know. Picture of you in your shop, stuff like that. If I think about that right now, my head will explode, and gray matter will get all over my sleeping husband.

"I'll think about it tomorrow!"

Here, Kitty! Hello, Kitty!

Remember these?


You may recall they were part of the awesome bag o' goodies I got at the Knittin' Kitten. I had to have them, and I'm quite sure I'm not the only growed-up woman who has a thing for Hello Kitty, either.

Still, it took me a while to figure out what to do with them, although I did have a kind of general idea. Here are some of them, made up in the past few days:






It is now 11:11. I've been seeing that number a lot lately. What does it mean?

Other than 'time to go to bed', I mean!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #32

This is not the fence I intended to shoot today, but somehow I couldn't find that one. Must have driven right past it, since it's on the street where I live. It can wait.

In the meantime, as I drove through the Beaumont neighborhood, winding my way south, I suddenly noticed this fence. Gotta admit, the fence itself is unremarkable. It was where it was that got my attention:


Other news: Holding my own on the bracelet-a-day thing, although I'm couple behind. But I don't feel bad, since I've also done, in the same two weeks, the recipe tins, eight of the "Coffee Pot People Celebrate Christmas" scenes, the project I haven't yet blogged, taken a day to go see my Mama and take care of my granddaughter, picked up fabric for the non-profit I'm a part of and worked there for a bit after that, made earrings to go with all the bracelets, blogged fairly regularly, and kept up (mostly) with all the household chores you'd expect, plus the beginnings of a room-by-room deep cleaning. Oh, and I made a shirt and hat for the dog. She looks so cute!

I am, however, beginning to have those, "I have no life" thoughts that signal maybe I should slow down just a little. Maybe next week.

MORE COFFEE POT PEOPLE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

I've finished more of the "Coffee Pot People Celebrate Christmas" series. They're fun and satisfying to do, but time consuming, with each one taking an average of an hour to an hour and a half, starting with the process of finding the scenes in which to insert them.

Here are the latest, with Miss Violet first, because I'm told by the woman she lives with that she went into a serious pout when she realized she hadn't been included in the first batch. Miss Violet in a pout can make life difficult for her home mates, so here she is, in Latvia (That girl does get around!):

Miss Violet in Latvia

Ready to Go!

Gift Box Bobby

My daughter hasn't told me how many of these she needs for the Organizer, but I'm thinking I'll put them on Etsy as Christmas cards...

Oh! To answer the several inquiries as to what, exactly, a Christmas Organizer is, it's a place to keep your Christmas Card List, Shopping and Wish Lists for your peeps, Recipes for holiday goodies, craft and decorating ideas you'd like to try, a calendar for activities like going to see all the lights, taking in a holiday show, putting on your cookie exchange, etc. Melody made me one several years ago, and I've used it a LOT. I'm looking forward to seeing the new one!

NEW PROJECT #2

Yesterday, I said I had three new projects to show off. Here's the second, and then I'm off to see if I can get two bracelets finished before I go to bed. Probably not possible, but I'm sure gonna give it a shot!

I finally came up with a way to use all those tins AOL used to send out. (So if you've got any you'd like to unload, free free to email me!)

That's my beautiful Mama in the picture!

Will I show you how? Absolutely! Watch for the tutorial on ThinkCrafts.com!

COFFEE POT PEOPLE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

Good grief, I've been busy! I have three, count 'em THREE, new projects to show off, but I've been working on them so nonstop, I haven't had time to post them. I'm going to do the last one first, of course, and show off the new Coffee Pot People Christmas scenes.

My daughter Melody started it. It's her fault that I haven't been doing a bracelet a day. Well, and those other two projects, too, but that's different.

Anyway, Melody's idea is to create a Christmas Organizer, which is a great idea. I've been using the first one she created for years, so I already know she's good at it.

This time, though, she wants the frontispiece for each section to feature a Coffee Pot Person or Tea Kettle Character, and she wants a little line-drawing mascot, too. For that, she wants me. To do the artwork, anyway. These are my first five efforts, and my thought is to turn them into Christmas cards, with more to come.

Lumin in the Snow

Santa, The Children, and Wren

Bubble Light Coco

Belva Goes to Church

WATER FAERIES: A STORY IN POEM

I was looking for old paper (not kidding) to print something on a bit ago, and found a poem I wrote several years back. I'd forgotten about it, and hadn't ever shared it with anyone, so (Lucky You!) I'm going to put it here.

Water Faeries

Legend has it that faeries dwell
In the water that glistens way down in the well.
What sort of faeries would they be,
Who choose to live so watery?

A lad with laughing, merry, eye
Came to the well 'neath summer skies,
Asked a maid for water, said, "Hot today!"
"But cool down there where the faeries play!"

She lifted the pail on the winch's rope
And a lark nearby sang sudden of hope.
"Will you draw, or I?" and they both looked over,
While she wished once again for the love of this rover.

How deep runs the water reflecting their faces!
Swirling along in deep channels it races.
A penny bright from her pocket she drew,
Tossed it, watched, as it downward flew.

He turned to her with a puzzled look,
As ripples recorded the path the coin took.
"Why did you throw your money away?"
"The faeries like pennies," was all she could say.

His hand, then, cradled and lifted her chin.
"Is it favors you ask when you toss a coin in?"
"It is," and she blushed as her secret she told.
"I wished you would love me, for my heart you hold."

"Faeries are hoaxes for children, I've heard,
And to ask them for love's like asking yon bird,
For my love has been given this many's the long year
To a lass whose least glances can fill me with cheer."

So, sadly she turned, but he caught up her hand,
Brushed from her forehead a wayward, red strand.
"The faeries have long had my coin and request.
'Tis you, lassie, truly, that I love the best."

And smiling they walked off together that day.
Was it the faeries? None knows as can say,
But each summer's day when, "Hope!" sings the lark,
They toss thankful pennies down into the dark.

Anitra Cameron

FRIDAY FENCE POST #33

Took a "shortcut" over near Foster Blvd today, and spotted this. Awesome.


Click on the photos to see them full-size. I especially love the close-up of the second shot.

A BRACELET A DAY?

It dawned on me the other day that I may be a tad overbooked as the bazaar season opens. My first inkling came when I took my store of little Tea Kettle Characters to the first bazaar I had on my schedule. Since I'd never done this particular show before, I took all of them, figuring the woman running the show, Cindy, could choose the ones she liked, and I'd leave just those.

I carried the two big tubs into her garage-cum-Christmas-shop, and began pulling my peeps out and setting them on the table. "Look at those!" someone said. "Ohmygosh, those are adorable!" came from someone else. You can just imagine my smiles as we talked, there was so much excitement about them.

In fact, there was so much excitement that Cindy decided she wanted ALL of them! This bazaar runs every weekend from this Thursday through the fifth of December, which means I have no Tea Kettle Characters left to put in the other four shows I'm doing in that same timespan. Holy cow, I thought. I've got to get busy!

Then I thought, Four shows. I've got four shows scheduled in a 3-week period. I don't have enough jewelry made either!

So I've been busily making more bracelets, and earrings to match. Here are the latest two:

LEFTOVER FRENCH FRIES

So, I admit I'm a little short on the uptake. However, I did, at long last, figure out what to do with leftover French fries. It took having a bunch of them that I didn't want to throw away, but I did it.


DH, Bruce, and I went out to lunch this past week. I had a Philly sub sandwich, except I asked for no bread, and lots of lettuce. Totally yummy salad, that was! It came with fries, which I was not going to eat, but I figured with two big men at the table, they wouldn't go to waste.

Ha! They both had their own fries, and I ended up taking home every single one of mine.

Have you ever microwaved French fries? Yech. They go a limp and gummy. Trying to pan fry them isn't a whole lot better. What was left?

The next morning, I reached into the 'fridge to get something, and the lightbulb in my head went on at the same time as the lightbulb inside the Big White Appliance. I took out the fries, spread them on the broiler pan, turned the broiler on low, and left them to heat while I fixed the eggs and toast. I mean, fried potatoes are fried potatoes, aren't they? Doesn't matter what shape they're cut in, as long as they're fried.

They came out of the oven all crispy and brown, and went onto the plate alongside the eggs. DH raved about them literally all day, and then the next, whenever he'd think about them.

What you see in the photo is a second, smaller, serving for his next breakfast. Gotta love it.