Christmas Ornaments

Christmas tree ornaments are one of my most favorite things. I have a huge collection and a big nine foot Christmas tree to display them on! (You should have seen us trying to get that 9 foot tree home from Hobby Lobby in the back of my car several years ago!)

Anyway, due to my affinity for ornaments, I was thrilled to sign up for the ornament exchange hosted by Beki of PamperingBeki. I send out an ornament; I get an ornament. Lovely! I received my exchange ornament in the mail yesterday. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the fact that it is two-sided. Right now, I have it hanging on my cabinet door. I'm hoping we will get the tree put up later on this week. I have quite the collection of ornaments piling up on my kitchen counter!

I had big plans to make a lovely needle felted ornament modeled after those gorgeous blown glass ornaments you sometimes see. I started on that ornament about a month ago. Maybe longer.

Well, I was supposed to have mailed out my ornament no later than yesterday. That didn't happen. The time totally snuck up on me. So, I was absolutely determined that I would finish my ornament this weekend, so I can mail it on Monday. I even finished the needle felted ornament, but decided that while it was good enough for my tree, I wasn't happy enough with it to mail it off to someone I'd never met. Instead, I started going through my stacks of craft books and magazines. In the Winter 2008 edition of Better Homes & Gardens' Quilts and More, I found a pattern for a cute little stocking ornament. I whipped that baby up and am so excited about how it turned out. I might even make more. I was especially proud of myself for actually completing a project from one of the dozens of craft magazines I purchase every year. And yes, it is already packed up and ready to ship to its intended recipient tomorrow! I'm only a couple days late on this! (I'm usually much better than this when it comes to swap deadlines!)