The stockings were hung by the chimney with care . . .

I put out my decorations last weekend and finally got around to putting my fresh greens around the house. We have a huge holly tree that has more berries than usual this year. Notice all the stockings? All 4 kitties and Elvis (the turtle) have them. It was really crowded when we had 6 cats and pet rats in addition! I had to hang 2 stockings on some of the hooks!

I decorate in 3 phases. The Christmas stuff goes up the first weekend in December. A week and a half or so before Christmas, the tree goes up. The first week in January, the Santas and other Christmas stuff gets put away and the rest of the snowmen come out. You may have noticed that part of the snowman collection graces the mantel. They will stay there until March. I will put more snowmen out when I put the Santas away!

Here are a few more of the decorations:

This is the creche that my Dad made in the early 1950's. I've had to do a little restoration. It is surrounded by antique bottle brush trees. They are my new favorite thing and I've been collecting them for a couple of years now.

More Bottle Brush trees!

Wooden Victorian Carolers on top of the china cabinet!

Snowman hurricane lamps on top of the bookcase!

I went to Joann's for the super sale yesterday and I picked up a couple of patterns and some fabric. I specifically went for this Simplicity pants pattern which got really good reviews on Pattern Review. This pattern has all kinds of fitting tips and separate pattern pieces for slim, average and curvy fit.

It is pictured with two pieces of stretch fine wale corduroy. I typically don't care for corduroy, but this is a very fine wale and it is really stretchy! I will actually use it for some pants from the Burda World of Fashion magazine. It ended up being about $2 a yard!

I stumbled on this pattern:

It is a Project Runway Simplicity pattern. There are long sleeves that have rouching along the seem and I will make it with those. I decided that it needed a slinky knit so I found a leaf green rayon/lycra knit:


Then today I stopped by the other Joann's in my area only to find that they were going out of business! So I picked up some sale stuff.
First I have a stretchy satiny suiting in leaf green to use for a skirt from Burda WOF and a brown herringbone polyester suiting for some dress slacks--most likely that Simplicity pattern pictured above:


And there was one piece of a herringbone stretchy denim which I will probably use for capri's since there is probably not enough for full length slacks. I also picked up more wool suiting. I already had enough of this for a skirt, so I thought I'd get some for a jacket as well.


I hope to devote more time to sewing after Christmas. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it!

DH and I got our Christmas Tree today. We ended up getting the first Noble Fir that we saw! It's unusual to find the perfect tree so quickly. We've gotten Noble Firs the last couple of years and I really love them. They are similar to Fraser Firs but less blue in color and the branches open out more. They last a good long time! It's sitting outside for the time being. Tomorrow we'll cut some off the trunk and put it in water then in a few days it will come in the house where we will let it open up. Since we are going to Pittsburgh on Thursday, we figured that we'd bring it in on Wednesday. It will have a few days to open up and we'll be able to decorate it when we get back!

Bushism of the day:
"Amigo! Amigo!" --George W. Bush, calling out to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Spanish at the G-8 Summit, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

Kitty Cam: Harley naps in the one little sunny spot he can find!