Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Snow Men, Scotland and Summer in December


Well, Christmas is over.

Apparently here in Burlington, NC, so is winter.

I went to bed last night, snuggled under my favorite down comforter, dressed in my best (Wal-Mart) quasi-faux-velvet-een-ish sleep pants, and a light, long-sleeved cotton shirt. 

Around 3am, I woke with my pillow soaked with sweat, the comforter on the floor, and my pants twisted around my knees, forcing my body to contort until my face was (still sweating) on my husband's back and my feet resting on the nightstand. 

My husband woke with a groan. "Good Lord...what are you doing?"

I tried to rearrange myself, with little luck. 

"Question." I said, quickly trying to figure out which leg connected to which hip, in order to untangle and right myself in a way which would spare the lamp and my iPad. "Did you try to take my pants off at any time during the night?"

My husband paled and he resembled a deer in headlights. "NO!" he said, horrified. "We're married! I would never do that to you!"

Needless to say, this didn't really help the situation.

So, three days after Christmas, I had my A/C on 70 while curled up under a cotton sheet with sleep shorts and a tank top-neither of which no living in this hemisphere had any interest in trying to remove from my sleeping body.

Once again, I digress.

When I lived in Florida, it was always around 80 at Christmas. The difference is that it's SUPPOSED to be that temperature. 

In NC, on the other hand, we should have a dusting of snow on the trees. At least a sixteenth of an inch so that schools-and the town-would shut down, leaving us to enjoy being 'snowed in'. 

But this was not to be. 

Instead, there I was, having the mother of all hot flashes, sans hormones.

But avec pants.

Sigh.



For Christmas, I decided to make these little snowman ornaments. I'd taken a wonderful online class with Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime called The Merry Men of Winter. Using sterling silver vintage salt and pepper shakers, I glued swarovski crystal chains and broken pieces from old jewelry, I made hanging ornaments, shelf ornaments and, my fave, glass ball ornaments. 


I made the heads from Sculpey and the base of the glass ornament is paperclay that I spread glue on and glittered, then pressed into the bottom. I arranged my elements, then removed them to let the paperclay dry. They were truly adorable. It ALMOST made up for my having to order the &%^$% things from CHINA. That's right...after searching high and low for DAYS, I ended up having to order from China. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Now, I know you are waiting with bated breath for my 'Scotland' tie-in and you KNOW I never disappoint! 


BAM!
Wait...ok...maybe I assumed that most every woman in the world has read Outlander. If you haven't, then get the book. Read 50 pages. The put it down if you don't like it. 

Good luck with that.

My Aunt Sharon actually told me the same thing when she told ME to read it. As you can see, I never put the book down. 

Sassenach is the Scottish word for "English" or "Outlander". So, I made sure my Aunt knew this was her ornament, and only hers.

Thanks for stopping by...I know I've been remiss in my posting, but living life in daylight savings time in a thousand degree heatwave is truly taking its toll on me. Not to mention taking the same toll on my sleeping pants, instead of my husband. 

More's the pity. 😁




3 comments:

  1. So glad to see you posting. You have been missed and I've wondered if all is well with you and your family. You are one of my favorite bloggers for two reasons...your story telling and your projects. As my grand daughter would say they are "off the chain." Which is a good thing.

    Your projects are just adorable and I am sure your Aunt will love hers. All the tiny details and who can't love a snowman. I know I can't. Snowmen and foxes. I love. Hope you had a wonderful Holiday and Blessed New Year. I hear you about the heat what is up with this. It was near 70 degrees then dropped to 12 degrees then yesterday it was 68. We haven't seen a snowflake for over year and the day it was cold enough to snow we got rain. Somebody has been messing with Mother Nature.

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  2. I have been searching for the glass ornaments for over a year. I am of course finding that I can order in quantities that will fill the tree at The White House but I am not quite that prolific at ornament making! Would you share your source for these? I took a class on these wonderful snowmen and the teacher had made hers several years ago and was unable to share a mfgr. with us. Yours by the way are wonderful! So neat and your presentation is adorable! Thanks so much for sharing your talents!!

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    1. You took Deryn's class too! She said the same thing and so, I went searching. If you'll email me at salome000@aol.com I'll give you the link. AND share some tips I found worked a little better for me, such as paperclay in the bottom and letting it dry, etc. :)

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