Meanwhile back in Lego land....

MOC

...it stands for Make your Own Creation. 

I'm not good at this. But I keep looking at the bricks and pieces and after making the last build of the Elf Clubhouse...

I thought, wouldn't it be fun to make my own thing?

I'm not brave enough quite yet to start a big tear down and rebuild. However...

I am not adverse to changing things up with my Lego minifigs [minifigures lingo!]

I mix sets and minifigs without sticking to the sets. I trade heads to get expression that I want.

Back in the Christmas Village some things started to happen....

First was a Baby Blue Velociraptor showing up for breakfast at the Elves house! What do you do? Offer it tea of course!

This woman showed up at the Elf place with a box of...OH No! It looks like she brought a case of...wine??? And a Christmas Office Party ensued at the workshop.

She may be a bad influence on Santa and the Elves? 
or....
is she taking over at the North Pole?

Maybe Santa needed a new CEO. She certainly looks like she is taking charge.

Perhaps she is saving Christmas? 
Looks like she sure is organizing things.

It even looks like she will be refitting the sleigh with afterburners....

I built this workshop from other bricks I had on hand just for using in photography. I had fun figuring out how to 'shoot' through doorways and windows. 
What did I want to appear behind the characters? 

Some of the items are from other sets, I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to Legos. I'll mix and match to make a story fit to where my 

imagination

takes me....

Oh wait. Hubby says the guys in the white coats are coming....

yeah....

Decorate...tions....

 So it was hard but I finally got in the mood to do some decorating.

So this is standing at my spot at our eating table looking through the house and open staircase. The two little bedrooms upstairs are now guest/storage rooms. We have a tiny bedroom downstairs now which really makes things quite nice.

I had to add my tiny bear family to the box. That box is actually an old drawer from a pedal sewing machine. After all, my bears enjoy being out and about!

And here are my stuffed toys. The large ones! The jointed horse and the red and green bear are toys I made nearly 30 years ago. The brown rabbit and yellow bear came from Farmer Danika's shop and the white bear came from a Thrift Store. That bear survived this summer's floods and deserves a spot inside! I thought they would look neat sitting on the stairs.

There is something about hand made things. I love them! Below is a carving from Far Side of Fifty! It gets a prominent position on the Christmas Chair.

One of my MIL's necklaces... it just looks right on the tree/chair.

A glass blown horse ornament. Gosh I can't even recall who gave me this. I just know it was a gift and I've managed to keep it safe for many years.

The Stag. I got this cheap ornament a few years ago. I just thought it would fit nicely with my horse ornaments. Besides, it is pretty to photograph.

Uh oh...looks like this one escaped!

Ahhhh, one of my first horse ornaments. Plastic and cheap but still very near and dear to my heart. To think it has survived so many years with me. A bit beat up but still a Carousel Horse!

I'll do some fun photos of my nesting box soon enough. More toys of course. I really love my toys. 

Um. 

Should someone my age really be saying that?

I wonder how I could fit in the dragons and dinosaurs to a Christmas theme too....

More UnTree

What on earth are YOU talking about? NO one does Christmas without a Christmas tree right?

Well I'm sure there are folks who do!

I'm just looking for something different and fun.

I don't know exactly where to start, so I'll just start with what caught my eye as I was twiddling my thumbs.

Last year I took some time to wander around the Walmart clearance section. I saw a lot of Teddy Bears lined up on shelves. One had only one eye.

It wasn't something I was looking for. But I drove home with my list filled up and the thought of that Pink One Eyed Teddy Bear kept coming back to me.

I have no idea why.
I needed to pick something up the next day. Most of the Bears were gone. The one eyed bear was pushed to the side. I was so relieved for some reason and stuck it in my basket. At the check out one of the lady's pointed out that this Teddy was defective, did I really want it?
I smiled and said that I was positive I wanted just as it was.

Welcome Pink Teddy with one eye in one of my crates. She has gold ribbons, beads, and a very festive and vintage handkerchief around her neck. She looks happy. The kerchief is actually one of my Grandmother Pearl's fancy handkerchiefs.  I put this together and sat back. Grandma's 'kerchief' and the Teddy Bear no one wanted. Beautiful. I knew this Bear had some sort of purpose!

The next box has some of my 'toys' that I like to take on hikes. I know, but it is fun to find odd places to put Teddy Bears and other toys.

These were Thrift Shop toys. Toys from the back room that had fallen between other toy piles.
I had picked them up and held on to them for a long time. They appealed to me in a way so I brought them home.

Oh look. 3 little bears! And then there is Rabbit and Bear! I bet you are wondering how I got those two beany bears to stand. Hah. Not telling my secrets.

Another item under construction. These are... twig trees with little red light up ornaments. They are not super bright. I used floral foam blocks inside the old sewing drawer to stick them in and then a bag of glass marble like fillers to hold it all in place. The checker board is topping a crate. It was an old handpainted checkerboard piece that hung in my MIL's apartment.

Hopefully this isn't boring anyone.

Here is a look at the whole 'display'...which has already been changed up a bit since I took the photo yesterday.

Note the Gnome with the Skunk Hat! A wonderful young lady who is the DIL of my MIL's sister...okay yeah...that was an odd way of describing her....

...she makes these! She calls them Nisse.
Pretty neat right?

Stay tuned. More to come from the boxes and then I move on to some other fun items.
A story behind most every one with a beautiful memory.

DIY fall wall hanging

I saw something on YouTube that was suggested by another person and I browsed some DIY decoration ideas.

I found one that was perfect for a rainy day and since I had all of the materials, I thought I'd try it myself.

Note...I am NOT a painter. I am not really an expert at all, so here was my 'go' at the project.
It would have looked better if I'd had a stick or stencil to make the 'pot' for the flowers.

So

I made a brown backround. And blue looking sky.

 Then my not so great attempt at making a pot for my fall flowers.

So I added some color just because...

So now that I am feeling like an awkward kid again, I decided to go to the next step. Really, I was going to toss this out but decided to follow it through.

Cut an opening in the canvas. This is a framed canvas so it worked for this project.

Stick flowers into the cut and arrange.

Hang on the wall and move the flowers around.

I forgot to show the step where you hot glue the stems on the back of the canvas...

When it is surrounded by other photos and a wreath, it actually looks pretty decent on the wall and really adds some 'fall' color.

I was going to toss it, but it grew a bit on me. And I'm thinking of how to decoupage some fall leaves on a canvas and do the same sort of thing with a Christmas and Thanksgiving theme. Sort of adds dimension to a wall hanging.

Um...what I saw and what I wanted to do are far different...here is a shot of one done expertly.

And...I can't find the link to the DIY video I watched but you can figure this out yourself.

I like mine mainly because I did it. Now to have some fun with some more ideas when November comes around and it is just plain icky and dull outside.

I may even try something different tomorrow as it is supposed to rain buckets and we have up to 3" of rain forecast.
Sigh.
We do not need it.
If it spits outside, it will flash flood.

The little house

This little house.

All dressed up.

With holiday cheer.

All sorts of funky things going on...
around here...

And Mr. Morris is quietly awaiting the arrival of St. Nick...