Christmas

Christmas has come and gone.  Sydney actually managed to complete the family stockings. Her mother asked if perhaps we could make stockings this year. They have had only store bought ones and she was hoping to have something more personal. 

This summer I came up with the idea that it would be great to present them for Thanksgiving so that everyone could put them up and enjoy them in time for the whole holiday season.

 The first one she made was for her mother, my friend Robin.It was a challenge getting all the materials together. Lots and lots of glitter and glue. As any seamstress and crafter will attest to, we all have many different types of glue.  There is so much out there. I did take out everything I have and in the end, was still not satisfied. I don't know, I prefer to stitch everything rather than glue. But glitter was a challenge as I am not used to it and had no mentor.

This was her father's stocking. He is an avid skier and even raced somewhere in New England. Sydney gave me a picture of his boots and we duplicated it pretty much. Quite a bit of minute cutting but my tiny miniature Clover scissors got the job done. You can see how Sydney managed to duplicate snow which was wonderful.

Kristin is Sydney's father's daughter. A lovely lovely woman who loves heels. She is a holistic chiropractor  who works all day in heels. I wear a pair of heels for two hours and I fall off of them and bruise my face. Sydney even put gold chain on this one.

Sydney's brother is also Tom's son  from his first marriage. He is currently living in Florida at a golf college and aspires to be a master golfer. She designed a golf club using silver leather from an old bag and pieces of brown leather that I had. And now she is creating grass as I don't imagine that anyone golfs in the snow.

I can't believe that I did not get a picture of Sydney's stocking. I think it was the most complicated. She has a guitar that she loves and so that is what we created. I even took gold thread and found a way to glue it to the neck of the instrument. It was spectacular. I am hoping to go over and take it out to see if it held up well. Sydney got a sewing machine for Christmas and I am sure we will be going to work with it at her house. She just loves all the creativity. Then I can see how the stockings look.

 Look at all the glitter. I found it all at TJMaxx, believe it or not. And the stockings were all tied together in that they all have the same cuff. We had to tie it all together somehow. And you can see the M&Ms. We always have a dish of these to inspire us.

Sydney is flour-sensitive and making her dinner is a challenge. I did find corn tortilla (or are they quesadilla shells). What we do is we put on pasta sauce and cheese and she makes these wonderful little pizzas. She is a very difficult eater. And it shows - her leg is smaller than the smallest part of my ankle. I love her dearly and M&Ms always work.

Then I bought large boxes for them all. Sydney made a big deal getting these into the house. Robin had forgotten about the Christmas stockings. And certainly Robin had no idea that her little girl was going to present them at Thanksgiving. It was a genius idea catching everyone off guard. So life was sweet for the Pratt family that day. And little Sydney saw first had the value of creating gifts rather than shopping  The true joy it brings to people the concept of creating from the heart.