Ornaments

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree how lovely are your branches!  Here is our Christmas tree this year decorated by the girls, myself and my son who had more fun taking the ornaments down and gifting them to his Grandmother.  It was funny really.  The girls would be busy decorating and my 13 month old son would sneak over and take them down and feel great joy giving them to his Grandma.  

I remember one year when the girls were smaller I let them decorate the tree all by themselves without any help from me and all of the ornaments were on one spot on the very bottom of the tree.  They were so proud of their decorating.  I just couldn't bring myself to change a thing about it.  It made me smile it made me think as they get older we'll see the ornaments get placed higher and higher upon the tree but for that Christmas it was just a nice reminder of how little they are.  How I wish I could bottle it all up.  Christmas memories are pure treasures.  This year the girls decorated about 3/4 of the tree and at times getting up on their very tippy toes.  I helped with the very top and we did our best to keep the boy from gifting them to others. :-) 

I adore ornaments.  I adore them because they all have a story.  Some are so old and hold such great memories and some have dates to remind us of a special time or of a special someone.  I have ornaments for the year of all my children's births, one that I got as a present the year my husband and I got married, ornaments with family pictures, and homemade ornaments which are my most absolute favorite.  I love how collections of ornaments are different in every single home making the tree even that much more special.

 

 

I went on a search online for ornaments that I would love to have or ones that just caught my eye because they felt special to me.  Here are some that I found on my little ornament search.

 

  Willow Tree Angels Embrace Ornament

 

 

 

Old World Christmas Man in the Moon Ornament

 

 

 

Old World Christmas Ornament Sewing Machine

 

 

 

Marquis by Waterford Traditional Snowman Ornament

 

 

 

Multi-Color Retro Christmas Bubble Lights

 

Oh my word!  Do you remember these?  These bubble lights were my most favorite on my parents' and my grandparents' Christmas trees.  Oh I have always loved these lights!

 

I also wanted to share that for the first time this year I have designed a few Christmas ornaments that are for sale at my shop at Zazzle.

 

Holidays Collage Ornament

 

 

 

Angel Ornament

 

 

Christmas Birdies Ornament

 

 

 

Christmas Birdie Ornament

 

 

 

Holly Jolly Birdie Ornament

 

When we decorate our tree we have all of the favorite Christmas music playing in the background.  Christmas just isn't Christmas without Nat King Cole, and my newest Christmas music must have is Michael Bublé.

 

Happy decorating everyone!  Have fun creating new memories as you hang your precious ornaments upon the tree!

Christmas Quilt

This is a Christmas quilt my Mother made for our family last year.  I love it so much that I thought I would share it with you all.  I'm proud to say that my Mother is a very talented quilter.  If you look closely the quilting design all over the quilt is poinsettias.  You can really see one pop right above Santa's head.  When I was gifted with this quilt I had just had my first son who was two months old at the time, so it was really special to receive a quilt featuring a sweet little boy with Santa Claus.  I love the vintage feel it has, and I am very fond of all of the colors in this quilt.

Then she made us two very large stockings to decorate our house for Christmas.  I love the old fashioned looking Santa Claus, and my son is just now starting to dig Thomas the Train.

 

These are very large stockings about 30 inches long and 14 inches wide.  Sure would love for Santa to fill these up this Christmas!  :-)  She purchased the kits to make these from Jo-Ann Fabrics last year.  They look so sweet hanging on the walls in our dining room.  We sure are lucky to have a quilter in the family.  Something we treasure very much!

 

I was looking around on Amazon for other stockings.  I have mentioned before in posts how much I love snowmen.  Here is a smaller stocking that I found online that I think is absolutely adorable.

 

   

Jo-Ann's Holiday Inspirations 3-D Snowman

 

Decorating for the holidays is so much fun!! 

Jingle All the Way

Jingle All the Way by Tom Shay-Zapien is such a sweet book for the holidays.  This adorable pup responds as you read the storybook.  A couple of years ago we got this as a Christmas present and it's a favorite for us to pull out for the holidays.  I absolutely love the illustrations which are little toy models that they created and then photographed.  I can't tell you how much I want to try this for one of my own children's books.  It brings it all to life in such a special way.  Jingle All the Way is about a little stray pup who is a good dog.  You'll fall in love with him too.  How can you not with this little cute husky pup staring back at you?  Check it out when you have a chance!  Reading the story Jingle All the Way with Jingle the pup is now part of of our family Christmas tradition.  Sometimes he sneaks his way into our reading time throughout the year too.  We just miss him too much to have to wait a whole entire year!  Jingle makes us very, very happy.

Jingle All the Way by Tom Shay-Zapien

Christmas Cookies

Every Christmas my Grandmother loved to make cookies called Sandies from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.  We always liked to call them Ladies' Fingers.  I still remember the year she taught me how to make them with her in her baby blue kitchen. My mother and I continue to carry on the tradition of making the Sandies every Christmas and every Christmas Santa Claus makes out big time. 

 

Sandies

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Chocolate Covered Graham Cracker Cookies 

Peanut Butter Blossoms

 

This cookie plate you see here is a mix of homemade cookies and store bought cookies, plus a few Hershey Kisses and chocolate Santas in the center.  You can click on the different cookies for either the recipe or the store where we found some of these sweet goodies.

Holidays Collage Mug

 

The holiday mug featured in the Christmas cookies picture is one of my many designs for sale at our Zazzle shop.  I'm thrilled with the great quality of mugs that Zazzle has to offer.  If you would like to check out the many different mugs for sale at our Zazzle shop please click here.  They are perfect for coffee, tea, hot chocolate or milk for the big guy dressed in red!

 

I love the holidays and all of the different cookies that they bring!  Do you have a traditional holiday cookie that you make for your family every year?  If so please share with us. We'd love to try a new recipe and to read your story of where your traditional Christmas cookie came from.

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!  

Christmas Birdies Gift Tags & Ornaments

Spoonflower is having a Gift Tag Contest this week.  For this contest I decided these quirky Christmas Birdies would make for fun gift tags and ornaments for the tree.  You can use any of the matching coordinates in the Christmas Birdies Collection for the backside of the ornament or find material that matches, stuff in some batting, sew up the sides and then sew a ribbon at the top to use to hang upon the tree.  They would make cute and very affordable secret Santa gifts! Hint...hint! 

Christmas Birdies

If you would like to see the entire Christmas Birdies Collection please click here.  Within the collection I have a few snowflakes fabrics to choose from, some fun designs with the entire cast of characters and a cheater quilt.  Here is one of the designs that is part of this collection.

Christmas Birdies & Snowflake Dots

Also check out my Zazzle shop where you will find tons of items for sale with the Christmas Birdies designs.  Here are just a few of the items at my shop!

Christmas Birdie fa la la la mug

Holly Jolly Christmas Birdie Coffee Mug

Christmas Birdie Infant Clothing

Holly Jolly Christmas Birdie Tshirt

 At my Society6 shop there are art prints and throw pillows with the Christmas Birdies designs on them too.  Here are just a few of the throw pillows for sale at Society6. 

Christmas Birdies Pillow

Holly Jolly Christmas Birdie Pillow

Christmas Birdie Pillow

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out these wacky characters.  Hope they brought you a little Christmas cheer!

It's A Full Moon Tonight

This week it was brought to my attention that a very talented designer at Spoonflower has created an adorable pillowcase with a fabric design that I created called Little Toy Airplanes.  The design was inspired by a book that John and I created together called It's A Full Moon Tonight.  Anniedeb is the designer who made the pillowcase and purchased the book to go together for a Christmas gift for her grandson.  On the front of the pillowcase Anniedeb used the Little Toy Airplanes material and on the other side used one of her grandson's baby blankets.  It is pure preciousness.  The picture you see here is a magical looking display that Anniedeb created to showcase the pillowcase and book together. 

 

 

Little Toy Airplanes fabric and It's A Full Moon Tonight

 

I am so thrilled to see the fabric and the book come together in this very special way.  It is so creative, sweet and fun.  Be sure to check out Anniedeb's shop at Spoonflower!  She is an incredible artist, designer and photographer.  Anniedeb is definitely one of my favorite designers at Spoonflower.  So many of her designs I love, and the newest one I love is titled Scrambled Chicken.  You've got to see it.  It's a hoot!  You can also check out Anniedeb's blog called Summersgaze with a post about creating the pillowcase by clicking here.

Captain Pajamas Defender of the Universe!

Have you ever seen the book Captain Pajamas Defender of the Universe?  Fun...fun...fun...fun...fun!  My mother found this book for my oldest daughter two years ago and gave it to her for Christmas.  The book is by Bruce Whatley and Rosie Smith.  It is really funny.  Every time I read this book to the kids I of course have to use my best superhero voice.  The girls especially love the dog Shadow and all of his shenanigans.  This book inspired my daughter so much so that I caught her doing this and of course had to run and go grab the camera.  Moments like these should most definitely be captured, I mean after all, our very own Captain Pajamas Defender of the Universe was in the house!

 

 

 

All inspired by this great book!

 

 

Captain Pajamas Defender of the Universe 

Christmas Quirky Birdies

Yay!  The holidays are here!  This holiday season I would like to introduce to you all a very quirky group of little birdies.  These festive Christmas birdies are here to bring a little extra holiday cheer and can be found on fabric at my Spoonflower shop and on many different items for sale at my shops at Zazzle and Society6.

Home for the Holidays Birdies Pillow

Super cute and perfect to bring holiday cheer to any living space!

Christmas Birdie Fa La La La La Mug

This is sure to make you feel cheerier in the morning

with your first cup of joe. :-)

Holly Jolly Christmas Birdie Mug

How often do you get to see a bird wearing antlers on their head. 

I mean really? :-) 

Happy Holidays Birdie

I see this style of hat everywhere.  In fact I also own a similar winter hat and pretty sure I look just as goofy! :-)

Christmas Birdies Cheater Quilt at Spoonflower

Quilts make such special gifts and this cheater quilt

would brighten any home for the holidays!  Christmas is almost here and cheater quilts are so easy and super fast to make

...so I've been told! :-)

Christmas Birdies

fabric design at Spoonflower.

Holly Jolly Christmas Birdie Tshirt

Be the life of the party!  Why not? :-)

Christmas Birdie Infant Clothing

So sweet for the little ones!

Home for the Holidays Greeting Card

Haven't gotten your Christmas cards yet this year?!  Look no further!  These quirky birdies would love to be mail delivered to your loved ones!

Christmas Birdies Throw Pillow

Also check out my Society6 shop!  I have this cute throw pillow with the Christmas Birdies design size 16" x 16" that includes pillow and insert for only $27.00!!  While you are there check out all the Christmas Birdie designs that I have currently for sale as art prints and throw pillows. 

To see more fabulous items featuring these festive quirky Christmas birdies please visit my shop at Zazzle and

to see more of the Christmas birdies fabric collection please visit my shop at Spoonflower.

I am so happy it's the holidays and so very happy to finally get these wacky cast of characters out of my head and into the world.    

Hope they brought a little smile to your face this holiday season!  I'm just sure there is a children's book here somewhere.  Stay tuned I might just be crazy enough to put something together before Christmas is here. 

Pretzel Kisses

Pretzel Kisses

 

Found this recipe on Pinterest and had to try it!  This tasty little treat did not disappoint!!  I also thought why wait until Christmas to make these, so as I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade I created this pretty little batch you see here.  They turned out so cute looking that I bagged some of them up and gave them to our friends when we showed up for Thanksgiving dinner.  They are festive, tasty and super easy to make.

 

My friend gave me the heads up that for 1 bag of pretzels get 2 bags of Hershey Kisses and 1 bag of Christmas colors green and red M&M's.  I sent my husband to the store to get the bags of goodies.  I was actually wanting the round pretzels with a hole in the center but our store only had the square shaped pretzels and those worked great too.

 

Here are the super easy directions:

Bag of pretzels (whatever your store has square or round)

2 bags of Hershey Kisses

1 bag of holiday red and green M&M's

Cookie sheet

 

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Spread the pretzels on the cookie sheet to lie flat.  Put an unwrapped Hershey Kiss on top of each pretzel.  Put in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes and do not walk away.  You just need to give it enough time to slightly melt at 4 minutes tops depending on your oven.  Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and place on a cooling rack and gently push an M&M down in the center of each Hershey Kiss so that the chocolate touches all the edges of the pretzels.  Let cool on the cookie sheet.  I put ours in the refrigerator to speed up the process after it cooled a bit on the cookie sheet.  Then I ate some, got them kid approved and then bagged them up for our friends to enjoy.

 

Easy, great and cute to add to your cookie tray this holiday season!  Thank you Pinterest for once again not failing me!! 

 

Check out this great blog where I found this sweet treat recipe!

http://houseonhilltop.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/our-favorite-christmas-treat/

 

Follow me at Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/arttreedesigns!

 

Love me some Pinterest!

 

 

Happy Holidays Collection

I know!  I know!  It's really early for this.  We just had Halloween and last thing we all want to see is Christmas before Thanksgiving.  But this week's contest at Spoonflower is the Holiday Cocktail Napkin Set Contest.  I'm really excited about this one.  For this contest we were to create a pattern for a set of holiday-themed cocktail napkins.  I really wanted to go for that old fashioned Christmas feel.  I dearly love snowmen, and I designed this happy guy to go smack dab in the middle.  I don't know what it is about them, probably their jolly good looks, but looking at snowmen just makes me feel instantly happy. 

Home for the Holidays

Also if you would like to see the entire collection please click on Happy Holidays.  In the collection I have created table runners and a tablecloth for holiday home decor.  Some of the designs could look really cute as couch pillows to decorate your living room space for the holidays.  Spoonflower is now using our designs to make gift wrap paper along with fabric, wallpaper and wall decals.  If you are interested in any of the designs please contact us and we will make them available for purchase as soon as possible.  Our contact email is arttreedesigns@hotmail.com

I also have tons of great Christmas items that I have designed for sale at my Zazzle shop.  So if you are running out of time to create something here is a great place to go for fabulous already made items that are unique, and you aren't going to see anywhere else.  I have designed buttons, necklaces, gift cards, kitchen towels, napkins, mousepads, pillows, mugs, shirts, bags and more!   Here are just a few of the fun and festive gifts for sale in my shop!

Christmas Tree Mug

  

Gold Angel Necklace

Holidays Collage Candy Jar

Here is the link to my zazzle shop featuring all of the products I have designed: http://www.zazzle.com/arttreedesigns

Christmas will be here before we know it.  Now is the perfect time to start thinking about home decor and gifts to create for your loved ones.  Thank you so much for checking out our blog!  A big thank you also to all of our loyal customers at our shops at Zazzle, Spoonflower, Bookemon and Society6.  We appreciate your business so very much! 

Tara and John McGowan-creators of Art Tree Designs

arttreedesigns@hotmail.com