2013 Christmas Tree Inspiration and What It Did

After our trips to the hardware store to see their Christmas trees, I was eager to try out some things on my own. 

My mother said I could decorate her tree, so some of our Interns and I gave it a try. 

She had all the ornaments sorted by color, in boxes, and gave us permission to do it up how we liked it, and then left to run some errands. 

That may or may not have been a wise idea. 

As I looked over the choices of ornaments. I realized that, silly as it sounds, I needed more ideas! 

So, after all these posts I had done on Christmas trees on my own blog, I ended up on the Internet looking for yet another tree to inspire me. 

And this is what I found. I liked the way this lady had colors in her house decor that were the same as the tree--either the tree pulled the house colors together, or vice-versa. Well, there was something candy-jar exciting about the whole thing.

My Interns were a bit skeptical.

I looked around at the light pink walls, the white trim and furniture, the sea-foam green cushions on the couch, the coral pink throw, the bird cage collection and the silver accessories, and decided I would do ALL the colors. 

Fortunately, I remembered once in a while to take pictures of the decorating process:

First I added globe-lights to the already pre-lit tree. They gave an extra dimension to the lights. Then I put on iridescent white garlands. Then the interns started loading the tree with Christmas balls. Here, we have dark pink, sparkly white and really light sea-foam green balls. If we left the tree at this point, it would have been fine. 

I wanted to really cram it full of ornaments, though. 

After more balls, we put in little white sleds, sparkly white poinsettias, and birds. Some single ornaments went on too, including a glittery pine cone. 

If we had left it alone here it would have been fine.

Then I really went to town and started adding giant candy. One of my helpers started to get nervous and to object strongly-- it was too over-the-top! It was getting  a bit cluttered, so I edited it. We retained the blue birds, the pink birds, the words, and the pink and white icicles, though.

And here is the final result. My mother really was surprised, but it turns out, she likes it!

I noticed that we ended up with a bird theme going on, which wasn't planned, but it was too hard to resist all those sparkly cute birds. (Interestingly, the lady whose tree I used for inspiration recently posted another tree, which also has a bird theme!) 

I really wanted to try putting something large and unexpected in the tree, though. Just to see what it was like.  I looked around wondering what to do.  I was still nervous about putting heavy things in the tree, wired or not. 

 I remembered the little birdhouses in one of the hardware store trees. Maybe we needed some houses for all those little birds to live in.

So far, the only new items purchased for this tree were the poinsettias for the top. I thought instead of buying more items, I would make my own light-weight birdhouses out of card stock. 

And here they are. Quite unexpected.

I'm not sure I like it. 

But it was fun to make all those birdhouses!

Here are some close-ups of the other ornaments:

Chandelier

One of the birds

One of the poinsettias

One of the birdhouses. I did several different shapes, just freehand. This was the easiest one to do. 

How to make your own Family Newspaper

There is now a page on The Pleasant Times with ideas on making your own home family newspaper. I hope my readers will try making their own at least once, it is lots of fun!

Happy End Of The World Day

Happy End of the World Day!

I would like to interest everyone in the idea of a new holiday, much like Christmas in that it is internationally recognized so everyone benefits from it, but formal observations are optional according to your personal beliefs.

Since the End of the World is happening so often (remember last year?), we may as well make it a holiday and let everyone off of work. That way, instead of quitting their jobs for the end of the world, folks could just have the day off. When the End of the World fails to come to pass, those who believed it can just go back to work the next day (or the next Tuesday, as we all like those 3-day-"weekends") and not lose their jobs over it. Post office workers will enjoy an extra break, and countries will benefit from the tourist dollars (as the End of the World usually requires some travel).  Card companies, florists, etc. will benefit from the holiday, which will boost the economy. Joann's will have a new reason for a fantastic fabric sale and coupons.

I do ask that it not be set so close to Christmas-- those Mayans sure did choose an  inconvenient time of year to end things!
See you Saturday.

Introducing The iWonderful

It seems that all the world wants an "iPad" for Christmas-- version 1,2,3, and now 3-1/2.  An inventor on our staff has come up with his own tablet that can do SO MUCH MORE-- let me introduce you to the iWonderful!

With its crystal-clear screen, the iWonderful is so easy to use!

 It can make phone calls on using your local phone service-- no cellular phone bill! If, however, you want to connect using your existing cell phone service, and use your existing cell phone number, the iWonderful can do that, too!

It has all the features of other tablets, including a calculator.

The piano feature is oh so real sounding! Much more real sounding than any other tablet on the market!

It can act as a digital scale-- the iWonderful itself only weighs 1.4 ounces!

Games? How about 3-D interactive chess?

You can actually pick up the pieces to move them, instead of swiping the screen with your finger (which is sooo archaic).

Any game you can think of is on the iWonderful!

Dealing with cookies is easy. You can reach right in and grab them. They taste real. I'll bet other tablets won't let you do that.

Nice big screen lets the clock really show up well.

You can write on the tablet with any pencil or pen, no special expensive equipment needed!

The iWonderful takes GREAT photos and videos that are SO REAL!!!! You would think that you were looking through the screen at the actual person!!!!!

However, the playback feature is not always dependable. But there's an app for that! A small camera feature will take photos just like a regular camera does.

The calendar feature is nice and big, easy on the eyes, and movable.

The iWonderful even prints, at the press of a button.

The library for the iWonderful has so many options!

Have fun with the iWonderful flight simulator! 

The iWonderfulEarth app feels like turning a real globe!

The iWonderful even tells the temperature. Want to know what the weather is right where you are? You can take the iWonderful outside and it will tell you!
(Oh-- and it's waterproof!)

There are SO MANY MORE features to the iWonderful!
Interactive projects using the hands?-- origami, finger painting, you name it, the iWonderful has it.
Educational uses? Limitless!
Social media? Your mother can talk to you through the iWonderful and you'd think she was in the same room!
I have not included photos of the microwave feature, the washer/dryer feature, and the ice-maker feature. Anything that you can think of that uses the push of a button, the iWonderful can do it!!!

The iWonderful is not yet available in stores. 
iPad and its special terms are registered names, as you know. 
The iWonderful is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. Consult your doctor if symptoms last more than 2 weeks. 

Pick a Parallel

On hot summer days, we try to stay indoors in the long afternoons. Toys, books, and the "usual" activities can become boring for children on these days. And summer or winter, the days can become quite repetitive for me with laundry and dishes, laundry and dishes, more laundry, ever more laundry, and never-ending laundry.

Sometimes it is fun to spontaneously take off on a trip. In the summertime, it is tempting to run off to the mountains or the beach, or to try somewhere we have never been before. To point the car in a direction and go a thousand miles to places that we'll just "end up" would be quite an adventure. An expensive one!

What we really need is something to spice up the everyday routines. To have something "going on" that makes the ordinary days not so ordinary.

So, yesterday we decided to take a trip, and follow the 44th parallel. We are going in a large, custom R.V. that has plenty of room, a full kitchen, and even a washer and dryer so I will not fall behind on the laundry. The children can take everything they own with them. The ride is so smooth we hardly notice that we are going.

While I am doing laundry, and the children are busy with their usual activities, we are actually covering many miles.  The younger children can pretend "trip" until they are tired of driving the couch, and the older ones can every so often count mileage and time, and pick out places on the map that are interesting. We decided that we will not drive all night, but stop wherever we ended up. We are following the 44th parallel as closely as we can, but taking major roads, which sometimes deviate from it a ways.

The Internet provides some realism to the journey, as we can check the weather wherever we are at the moment (when we stopped in Twin Falls last night, it was 71 degrees with a chance of thunderstorms). Photos of the area are readily available too, if anyone is curious as to the scenery. If anyone has a question about the place, we can look it up.

We departed from the Pacific Coast yesterday, and ended up in Twin Falls, Idaho. We figure that we will cover 500 miles a day, and end up in Maine. From there, we can decide where we want to go next. We can pick another parallel and go back across the U.S. another way, or continue on the 44th parallel across the Atlantic (we can put our R.V. on a ship) and then drive through the south of France. Maybe the trip will become even more educational then, but we are keeping it non-schoolwork now so as not to scare anyone off ;)

Mealtimes have a little extra excitement that they did not have last week. When we stop for meals, the children ask, "Where are we now?"

Here is a favorite "Special day" deli sandwich recipe, which can be adapted for a travel lunch:

• Hoagie Rolls or Kaiser Rolls from the Bakery
• Hot chicken strips from the deli, sliced into 1/4 slices (It is cheaper to buy a bag of frozen chicken strips at Wal-mart, and they taste just as good, but when you are on a trip, you may not be able to bake them, unless you have an R.V.)
• Sliced veggies (you can slice these ahead of time and keep them in a cooler), such as cucumber, lettuce, sprouts, tomato, avocado, bell peppers, and if you are a broccoli fan try thin sliced broccoli or cauliflower for a nice crunch
• Mayonnaise 

If you are traveling by car (one of those spontaneous trips, perhaps), and did not bring a cooler, and have no way of slicing veggies or storing mayonnaise, try this: buy an everything-included bag of salad in the produce section, that includes a packet of salad dressing in it. You have some veggies already chopped up (mostly lettuce, though some throw in a few carrot shreds. One I found had sun-dried tomatoes), and the dressing can be a deliciously different substitute for mayonnaise.

Cottage Dresses

That sounds so much nicer than "house dresses," don't you think?
(I have not seen any "Cottage Dresses" for sale around here for homemakers, so if you ever see that phrase written on a label, remember you saw it here first! )
What is a "Cottage Dress?" It is a very comfortable dress, allowing freedom of movement, with the ability to adjust it to be looser if needed. It is made of soft cottons that only get softer with use. It is a pretty, feminine dress, done in colors and prints that make you happy. It is a dress that looks good enough to wear to the post office, but isn't too fancy, so that when the baby spits up on you, the toddler smears jelly on you, the older child plops a mud pie in your lap, etc. that you would have ruined something expensive.

"Cottage Dresses"

I decided to use what was in my stash, and match up what I could to make a complete dress. I chose a pattern that pulled over the head, with no zippers or buttons to fool with, and no gathers. I cut 6 dresses from the same pattern, hoping that I could "assembly line" sew them to some degree, my goal being to be done in a week.

Well, of course it took three weeks longer than I had anticipated.

The patterns I chose were very easy, but the adjustments made to each dress and the details added took extra time. And life must go on whether I am sewing or not... laundry and dishes have to be done and sewing has to wait for spare time.

Professional seamstresses beware: the rest of these posts may curl your hair. I am all for shortcuts in sewing and am not very precise!

Note: I combined two patterns from Butterick, the top from this one and the skirt from another Butterick, that had box pleats instead of gathers to take up fulness in the skirt.

Household Tips

By Bessie Baker Cook

Shelling Peas Giclee Print
Smith, Carlton...
Buy at AllPosters.com

It does us good to be reminded once in a while of the virtues of baking soda in housekeeping. The other day I cleaned off some very stubborn tea-stains on a fine china tea pot by making a baking soda paste and rubbing it in with a damp cloth. 

I recently found a little tiny card with a colorful bird printed on it in some old papers. With the aid of my magnifying glass, I read the copyright was 1918 and it was included in a box of Arm & Hammer baking soda. It was part of a  series of Birds of America.  As a matter of fact, for two 2-cent stamps, you could send away for all thirty of the cards. I think that the Arm & Hammer company should revive this little token in their boxes of baking soda. It brings a little fun to homekeeping. 

I have made a note to tell you all about the "clever plastic do-dad," but unfortunately I cannot remember what the clever plastic do-dad was that I was so enthusiastic about. If you think of it, let me know. 

I have seen the need for something to better line my muffin tin, than the little cupcake liners. I always end up dribbling some batter on the top of the tin, even wiping it up before baking does not help the mess. And, my tin ends up having to have a good scrubbing from all the batter drips on top. What I would like to see is a baking pan  company sell a muffin tin, and sell these handy liners that fit  in their tins:

The liners would be made of parchment paper, and somehow the cupcake part would be molded in with the paper, and detachable by perforation. You plop the whole paper liner in the pan, and if your muffin batter drips, who cares. Then you can lift the paper up, take the cupcake liner part out, and throw the rest away, and you are left with a clean muffin tin! If anyone has seen these already invented, please let me know. 

While we are on the subject of "Mothers" this month, we cannot help but think of the pitter-patter of little feet through the house that makes a mother in the first place. Sometimes when toddlers are about, we feel that they are "under foot," but there are a lot of things that little ones can do to help around the house. Two-year-olds (or thereabouts) can help you put laundry in the dryer (they like it if you tell them who each sock belongs to), take plastic cups out of the dishwasher, put away a folded piece of clothing in a drawer (watch those fingers!), maybe even fold washcloths. They can dust and polish, and pick up things off the floor for you. They like to help knead bread and stir biscuits. They can be included in so many things, and what good training it is to teach them how to be a helper!

Hanging the Washing Giclee Print Allingham, Helen Buy at AllPosters.com

A Good Night's Sleep: The Making of a Mattress

This is the story of a man's quest for a good night's sleep.

For ten long years, Mr. H. has tried to find a way to get a good night's rest.

He wanted a natural wool mattress, a sleep number mattress, an innerspring mattress and a king sized mattress all in one. And without the several thousand dollar price tag.

Why not make his own?

He went to a local mattress factory and bought two extra long twin sized beds... only the spring part.

Then he went to a local futon factory and found a roll of wool, already washed and carded, and ready to use. He was planning on going straight to the source- local sheep- but thought he saved a lot of time and trouble this way.

Then it was off to the fabric store for batting and muslin, and to Wal-mart for mattress covers.

This is what he brought home:




It was fortunate that we (yes, of course this project turned into a "we" project) had a large building available to us to assemble the mattresses.

Several layers of batting were laid down on wide muslin.


Next came the wool. Wool is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Though this would have been an excellent mattress made entirely of wool, it was alas too expensive to do (unless, of course, we had wool straight from the sheep, to wash and dry and clean and card ourselves).



The batting was "sandwiched" between muslin, and the sides sewn up.

Here is the tufting:Here we laid these "toppers" straight on the springs. Why go to the bother of encasing them? Then we were free to adjust each mattress for desired softness. And, when we have the time or money, we may want better wool mattress toppers and can replace these very easily.


With the twin mattress pads over each spring and topper, one could not tell that they were not "real" mattresses.
And for the unifying element: the king sized cover.

Summer on Daylight Savings Time

Goodnight

Art Print

Elsley, Arthur...


Buy at AllPosters.com



Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.


I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.


And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

-Robert Louis Stevenson


I have long disliked Daylight Savings Time. I could never make sense of it. I don't know what Benjamin Franklin was thinking... you can't make a day any longer than it was going to be anyway (hasn't been done since Joshua's day). And if it does save daylight for whatever reason, why in the world don't we do it in the Wintertime instead? The days are long enough in the Summer-- I don't think we need any help there.

If people want to get off of work, have dinner, and enjoy the rest of the day (one of the reasons to have DST, we are told), why not shift the hours of work to end at 4 or 4:30? Even then, a lot of businesses don't follow a set model anymore-- hours of operation have been extended in stores and other businesses so that the shifts are not always 9-5.

There are those two dreadful times of the year: getting on to DST and getting off of DST. It takes a long time to shift routines and schedules. And, which I find very interesting, the time shift happens on a Saturday night, which always makes it difficult for people that go to church on Sunday Morning. In the Autumn (when the hour "falls back") you are safe, but that Sunday in Spring (when the hour "springs forward") church attendance is lower.

My children have discovered another reason not to like Daylight Savings Time: bedtime. It isn't that we put them in bed extra early in the Summer, it's just that by the time the hour is late, they realize that it could be an hour earlier. If the sun sets at 9 PM, they see the benefit in the clock being put back to normal time of 8 PM. Then, they conclude, they can stay out into the dark playing until the "real" 9 o'clock. They have taken to reminding me what the hour is in "real time."

Some people don't care what time it is, "just make it one way or another." They would be happy if we just shifted to DST through the whole year, or stayed on regular time the whole year. I advocate just letting it be... stay on the "old" time all year. I would enjoy experiencing it for once in my life.