Ornament Swaps and the Christmas trees come down.......

This weekend I am taking my Christmas trees down. You already know that I am sad to see them come down as I love the twinkling lights and just enjoy looking at all the ornaments and remembering where they came from and all the memories that are hung on the tree. I am not a clothes hound. I do love fabric. I really love my Christmas ornaments, though and always have room for more!! So when I saw a couple of swaps for ornaments, I had to jump in......there was one at Indigo Blue and you can see what I received from Janice and then what I made for her here. Then there was the Kate's Great Ornament Exchange and you just had to send one ornament. I laughed because my partner couldn't send just one and sent the two on the left. At Christmas, my son's girlfriend, Stacia, gave me a similar one. I loved the quilting theme of all of them!! I couldn't send of just one ornament for Kate's exchange so I made three bells and added some fun stuff. Anna in Kansas City mentioned angels and such so I tied some pretty ribbon on these cool bells I found (you'll see more below) that have a snowflake on the bottom of them. Then I glued some pretty angel buttons to the top, tucked in an angel she could paint for next year and a little book of Christmas prayers.

My partner in Emily's Ornament Swap was Rosie from Spain and I made her one of my wool stars and a heart ornament that was sort of three dimensional and cooler on the tree than it looks her on my tablecloth. Rosie really liked that one and could hear it jingle in the package when it arrived. This one also was to be just one ornament but I just had to tuck in some other things. I received the pretty felt ornaments from Lee in Australia that are here.

More jingle bell ornaments went off to Monique in The Netherlands for the Honeypot Ornament Swap. She had a white and silver theme so I made up a dozen of those pretty bells and tied on some of my prettiest silver and white ribbons. I found a pretty metal Noel ornament, a bag of snowflake buttons and an ornament she can paint, too. This was to be an ornament and a handmade card. I had this adhesive backed white and silver ribbon that I had been saving and it worked great for the card that I made and sent along. And here is the pretty patchwork tree that I received in the Honeypot exchange.

I will think of 2008 as the "year I began blogging and the year of the swaps". I never would have imagined that in the months since May when my dad passed away, that I would enjoy so many new friendships around the world. I owe thanks to "sew" many of you. If I could show him all the things I received in exchange he would think it was so cool. He'd probably say "wow, that should be in the newspaper". I'll take them all home the next time I visit my mom and I'll share them all with her. Every crafty, sewing, quilty, stitching talent I have was encouraged by her and all the women in my family. I was thinking earlier tonight as we were chatting on the phone, that I am truly blessed. I hope you are feeling blessed as this new year gets underway. My mom said "Can you believe that it is already the 15th of January?" And I agreed with her that the time has flown by and that's a good thing because it's so doggone cold outside that we need the time to fly by and get some warm spring weather in here!!! On that note, I think it's time to call it a day. The tree is down in the family room and it's all vacuumed and tidy. Tomorrow I'll tackle the tree in the living room and that will be a two day job because I take forever to pack it all up just right. I've taken some photos of ornaments on the tree that I will post on my "Keeping Christmas all year long" blog and will give you a preview either tomorrow or Sunday. Now it's time for lights out. Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite! :-)

Sandi