Christmas Decorations

I didn't include myself in Jen's Holiday Homes Tour this year because I wasn't sure I would have the time or motivation to take photos. It is so darn hard to take photos of small things in dark houses. But today the sun is shining, so I made an effort. Here are the results.

This collage includes several things made by Emma. She made the snowman and the cup of hot chocolate with a candy cane out of polymer clay. She made these in a fashion similar to those Japanese puzzle erasers --each was made in several parts and comes apart. (Well, the snowman was super-glued together by me this morning because it won't stay standing up well and I didn't want to lose any of the parts.) She also made the two ornaments in the lower photo. These are glass balls, and she used soft fabric inside them for the color, and then added the appropriate faces. 

This next collage is my attempt at photographing ornaments. The bird on the left is a handmade ornament that I won from a jewelry blogger. Erin of Treasures Found is a fabulous polymer clay artist. One of the items she's known for is her Simple Truths pendants, which you can find in her Etsy store. The straw star on the right is one of many on our tree handmade by my mom. You use straw that first has to be soaked and flattened. They take a long time to make and are very delicate. So far, we've managed to keep them safe from year to year.

  And although we wouldn't call ourselves Christians (we belong to a Unitarian Universalist congregation), Rob and I were brought up in that tradition, and we have this nativity scene that I love.

 Each figure includes wonderful scenes from the nativity story.

No photos of rooms --I find it so hard to clear spaces out so that the normal clutter of living can be excluded.