~Merry Christmas My Friends~

Somehow not only for Christmas But all the long year through, The joy that you give to others Is the joy that comes back to you.

And the more you spend in blessing
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing
Returns to make you glad

– John Greenleaf Whittier

Wishing all of you a most wonderful, joyous & MERRY CHRISTMAS~

Much love, Doreen

~The story of Little "Blue" ~ "Evil Watercolor pencil..use at your own risk"

~"Baby it's cold outside"....I am listening to this song on Pandora right now and goodness is it ever true here ... a mere 14* with the wind chill..BRR! Am I ever glad I filled the bird feeders yesterday...the birds were very happy this morning, fluttering from one feeder to the next, enjoy a hearty breakfast of sunflower seeds & suet.

So...Anyway...on to things not going as planned..an evil blue watercolor pencil and a bear....

Let me just tell you....I had a completely different end result in mind when I set out to make this little bear. For one thing, "he" was going to be a "she" ...I had made a rough sketch and jotted down my ideas for a blue & white bear..I was thinking....frosty winter wonderland...all glittery and sparkling white.....with the white being the "snow" look I wanted and the blue being the "frosty/cold" look I was hoping to achieve...I was thinking.. .. Frosty glittering snowflake......AS you can see..that is not how "he" came out.

My original little gal was going along perfectly..she was completely done and just needed "finishing"...clipping..shading..aging and such..I saved this task for Saturday morning..I had a set schedule to keep as A Yuletide Merriment was on Sunday at 1pm AND..on Saturday evening we had Mark's company Christmas party..which was an hours drive away.......so..we had to leave the house around 5:00. SO..as I said..all was going perfectly... and I went to do the shading around her eyes! I have this gorgeous blue watercolor pencil..it's the perfect color ........so, I thought...I'll give it a try..what's the worst that could happen..if I do not like it'..I'll simply give her a good washing (something I'm no longer afraid to do with my bears) SO..... I wet my paint brush with just a bit of water and applied it around the edges of the blue patches on her eyes..it went great...it was beautiful!!!! I did both eyes and loved it...BUT..I just couldn't leave well enough alone.. I thought..."maybe just a bit more"...well..I must have had too much water on my paint brush or maybe it was because the fabric was already wet..but the tip of the paint brush touched the fabric...and what do you think it did??? IT RAN!!!! It started spreading out like a river that has left it's banks...oh my goodness..I was frantic..I was devastated.....I kept thinking.."Oh my God...the show is tomorrow and I've just ruined my one and only bear" Argh..let me tell you...I was very close to tears..."Well..I thought...I will just put her in the sink and scrub the daylights out of her...and pray for good result..SO...I put her in the bathroom sink with some lovely scented bubble bath and washed...and scrubbed...using a toothbrush around her eyes..AND do you think that damn blue would come off...NO IT WOULD NOT!!!...SO..I scrubbed a bit more....NOTHING..."Okay: I said to myself....."don't panic..just get the coffee and tea..give her a good soak and all will be fine"......SO...I mixed up a darker batch than I normally would think of mixing..especially when I wanted her to be white...I honestly don't know what I was thinking..I must have been panicking........I truly have no idea......anyway..I dipped the toothbrush in the mixture and applied it around the eyes and brushed it up a bit....It was working!!! "Thank you God"..okay.....so I put it around the other eye to even things up..took her out..squeezed her nice and good in a towel and set to blow drying her...and when her face was dry...THERE WAS THAT DAMN BLUE AGAIN!! Son of a nutcracker this stuff is lethal!!! ...Good God...things got a bit dicey after this and I'm not sure I had an sort of plan from here..BUT....I put her back in the sink...poured the coffee/tea dye over her head and scrubbed, scrubbed scrubbed.....the blue seemed to be gone but I had been fooled by this evil blue once before..SO.... I made another batch of just plain instant coffee and hot water and I scrubbed it right into her face......she was now a brown bear..with just a hint of blueness (thankfully..it seemed to be in the proper places).."Well"...I said to myself..."enough is enough"..I took her out..rolled her up in a towel and actually put her in a pillow case and put her in the dryer..I honestly think I had lost my mind at this point. Mark came in the house and asked "what do you have in the dryer ..it sounds like shoes" I said "That's the bear I just ruined!" Apparently he could tell by the look on my face....not to question it further....because he didn't!. So..after about a half hour, I took her out of the dryer...squeezed her a bit more with a dry towel to make sure she was dry and set her on the counter and told Mark..."I can't sell her..she's stiff and grubby and I just don't like her"... "she doesn't look anything like what I wanted her to look like...I'm done worrying about it!!!"
SO...I walked away...took my shower and readied myself for the Christmas party...BUT...right before we left for the Christmas party...I set the little blue glass bulb in her paws....I have no idea why...I had no intention of selling her on Sunday..... SO..off to the party we went..(it was fun) we came home late..went right to bed and the next morning I got up............ AND THERE HE SAT.......the sweetest little bear I've ever made... with the most precious look on his face!!!! I'm not sure what happened...elves most likely.........OR...perhaps he just needed to be left alone so he could dry and become who he wanted to be.....

I just couldn't believe it...I scooped him up in my hands..gave him a hug...a bit of blush ..added the little heart on his chest (he asked for it) and I was SO happy!! "WHEW"!!

I must admit though..the fact that he looked "sad" was puzzling me..I've never created anything that looked sad and I couldn't help but wonder why this little guy was sad.....But then it came to me....as happy as I am... over the last several months..I have been a bit "blue"....due to the fact that my sweet girl and her sweetheart Ben are moving to Florida January 1st..and as much as I realize (and know) we've raised our children to grow, flourish and live their lives to the fullest...My God am I sad that she is going..I'm so happy for all that she is.....a wonderful, vibrant, brave woman who's not afraid of anything...AND she is so very happy & excited about this move..and I'm happy for her...but still....as much as I try to block it out...it is still making me a bit "Blue". Oh..there will be lots of trips to Florida..and Jenna tells me...this isn't permanent..they want to travel for a while ..then settle down closer to home...(Thank God)...SO for now we will make the best of it and enjoy our visits to beautiful sunny Florida :)....SO this..I guess...is how I ended up creating a "Blue" bear in more way than one........:( ~ :)........... You know...It is definitely true...Our creations show what we are truly feeling..whether we mean them to or not.

Thanks for stopping by and for listening to me ramble on tonight............ :)D

~In light of recent unfortunate events~

Good afternoon. It is snowing ever so lightly here while I enjoy a cup of gingerbread coffee and write this blog post. MUCH different than the weather we experienced just two days ago...A VERY nasty rain & wind storm hit our area on Wednesday..knocking out power, phone & internet services to thousands of people in Vermont. It was NOT pleasant..we had a very large area of shingles ripped off the roof..tree limbs, branches and yard debris everywhere and of course......the generator decided it did not want to work during this particular storm..so we had a very, very flooded basement. On the bright side...right before we lost power I had made a big batch of homemade turkey soup..so I simply moved it over to the wood stove and kept it warm for our dinner. We certainly did not have it nearly as bad as some...many people had trees' fall on their homes, many are still without power and many do not have a wood stove to heat their homes when the power goes out..so we are thankful for the "positives" of this little event...however, times like these certainly make you appreciate the power...of POWER (electricity as it were)

In light of these recent unfortunate events...I find it necessary to reschedule A Yuletide Merriment..I absolute hate to do this..but ...it was so dark in here...(even with my lovely candles and what should have been day light outside) it was just too dark to do even the simplest of hand stitching..so...I was unable to work..therefore...I am now running around like a maniac...trying to finish up my offerings....AND So....

~A YULETIDE MERRIMENT will now take place on Sunday, December 5th at 1pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm off now to finish Father Christmas..who you see in the photo above and then I need to finish a sweet little bear. Wishing you a wonderful day, Doreen