I'm Dreaming of a COLD Christmas!!!!

**MORE trouble with blogger!! :-P  This post was supposed to post on Sunday afternoon!!  Now I have to wait to do my NEXT post that I wanted to do today!  GGRRR!!  Sorry!**


WE GOT OUR TREE!!!! :-D 

I am so excited because we got a different kind than I've ever had before.....we got a Douglas Fir!!!  The needles are longer than the trees we have always had, Frasier Firs, and it smells more piney in the house! :-D
The best part is that they were $10 cheaper than the same size Frasier Firs -- YAY!!

BUT.....tell me, is there anything wrong with this picture......???

See what he is wearing????  I had jeans on, but short-sleeves and flip-flops too!  And I could have taken a picture of the family in the next row tying on their Christmas tree, but I didn't want to be creepy -- THEY all had short-sleeves and shorts on, too!!  To this New England girl, it was like being in the Bizarro World Christmas!!! :-P

Here it is at home, in it's spot.....

(notice the very nice walls behind it.....)(LOL -- I couldn't resist!)
The branches still need to fall, so we'll decorate it later.  It smells SO GOOD!!! :-D
See how soft it looks?  Look at the needles.....

That's twice as long as other fir trees!!  I've never seen a Douglas Fir before today, and I think it's my new favorite, must-have Christmas tree!  I can't wait until we decorate it....!! :-D

This has been such a FUN weekend for me -- I didn't get any of my list-projects done, but my doctor's appointment went well on Friday (my shoulder still hurts, but the numbness is gone, and I got a prescription for a different muscle relaxer that works great without making me drowsy or loopy!), and yesterday (Saturday) we went to the thrift store and I found some great wool sweaters - great colors!!......

Those are ALL wool, and cost between $1.25 and $3.....WOW!!  I can't beat that! :-D  I only felted them, I didn't pick the seems all apart.....it didn't seem necessary with soft sweaters.  All I need to do is cut out the pieces that I want.  Here they are after I felted them in the wash......

See how small they are now?! LOL  And they are SO SOFT.....I almost want to make a blanket out of them!
I found another treasure at the thrift store.....

.....a little wooden sled!!!!  It's so cute, and perfect -- I'm going to paint and distress it!!  Just wait until you see it when I'm done! :-D

The final fun thing this weekend was that I moved on to the last phase of my penny rug -- the edge row. 
I stitched on all the light green row pennies, and then I pinned all the brown circles down, and tried to think of how to best cut the black around them.....YIKES!!
I sat and looked at it for a day, and then just did it.......

First I cut it close, and then I went back and shaped it around each penny....

It was nerve-wracking!!! LOL  I made a few mistakes, but I fixed them the best I could, and I don't think they will show at all when I do the stitching.  Hey, this is part of the charm of hand-made antiques -- nothing looks as perfect as when a machine does it, right?!  I just have to keep that in mind, because as an ultra-perfectionist with myself, I'm not satisfied unless my work DOES look like a machine made it! :-P
So I guess this is all good for me, having to accept and even embrace my mistakes......Oh PHOOEY!!!  Where are my scissors???!!  Haha! ;-)

I love the look from the back......

All the little stitches almost look like their own embroidery design!  I'm not sure what to do with the back of this one.....should I put a backing on it, like my mom's?  Or just leave it like this?  I'm not sure.  There's no way I could iron a proper edging around all those half-circles!  Hmmm.....something to think about.....

And oh, I've already picked out my next penny rug I want to make!  I'm already gathering and comparing wool colors for it!! :-D  Oh yeah, I'm obsessed!! (for now!)

I am so excited about decorating the tree later!!  I am also really hoping the air will cool down about 20 degrees, so it at least feels like Christmas (kind of!) -- I mean, this weather probably feels like the real day that Christ was born, but it's still a damper on getting into the Christmas spirit!  I'll feel better when the tree is all done and I have my carols playing, and the rest of my decorations out.

Oh I can't WAIT to show everyone!! ^-^