Under construction ...

This year the decorations will be about toys. I have to admit, I like toys.
My toys will have a chance to come out and play.

A lot of my toys and some of the decorations are items that have fond memories associated with them. I'm sure this is true for most of us who have had children and who've seen them grow up.

The red jointed teddy bear is one I made many years ago while making many teddy bears and other toys. I couldn't afford the price of a Care Bear when the boys wanted one for Christmas so I tried my hand at making toys. I found out that I couldn't sew a dress or pants, but could certainly whip together a difficult toy! 

The Christmas Teddy bear is sitting on a Turtle stool.

The stool was made by a man named Orlando Potts who was an uncle or grand uncle to Rich's daughter. He handmade that turtle stool. It is dated.... and signed. I found it in the garage years ago. It was under a pile of junk and it was very dirty. Rich commented that his daughter no longer had a use for it and he didn't know why he saved it, he just did.

I cleaned the Turtle up and put it in our house. The Turtle has a story and a history. Besides, when little people play at my house, they always drag out the Turtle to sit on!

The nesting box for chickens was an item used as a coffee table in my mother in laws house as long as I could recall.

My father in law knew I loved it and promised to build me a replica. He cut up all the boards and was set to do the woodworking when he died.

I coveted this odd piece of furniture for years. When it came up for auction at my mother in law's estate sale I went for it. I probably paid too much money for it. But I wanted it. It suits my house in all seasons.

The boxes on top of the stack are actually drawers from old fancy pedal sewing machines. I found most of them in the shed or garage filled with rusty nails and bolts. I spent a lot of time cleaning them up. I found ones like them for sale at an antique store for a ridiculous amount of money.

Below the drawers is a bolt shipping crate.

On the bottom is a Dynamite box. I'd love to know more about who got a box of dynamite and how it was shipped! The tiny button bears I made live there right now with a cowboy snowman and a felt needled snowman I'd used to decorate my MIL's nursing home room.

I suspect that those toys will move around. The tiny teddy bears will no doubt get into things when I am not looking.

Those gnomes sound like they are plotting against their nemesis: The Elf on the Shelf.

The Lego people are just waiting until I turn my back.

I saw this just before I went to bed!

Santa! It isn't time yet.

He yelled out that he was just taking the reindeer out for a spin to get them warmed up for the big night...

What surprises will the toys have for me? 

The Christmas Tree ... starts....

Sometimes you need a supervisor. In my case, the supervisor holds court from the middle of his couch with a chew bone.

I often ask his opinion on things and he just gives me a look and a slight wag of the tale. I take it to mean that he approves of the new 'Christmas Chair' that I purchased this past spring.

It always starts with a deep cleaning. The space I have to work with isn't large at all. I am not one to do things exactly the same way as I've done before so each year, I try a new approach.

This is living room to the south in the photo above....☝👆

and

...the living room to the north...in the photo below....👇

this is it...

now you see almost all of our house. 

The Hutch houses things like camera lenses and Lego builds along with minifigures. The old table is where I do much of my indoor photography.

The room in behind is our tiny bedroom. 

Of course this is what things look like when I have scattered stuff willy nilly...

and then I make a huge mess...

It is no secret that I like boxes. I have old shipping boxes, dynamite boxes and fruit crate boxes as my movable units for books and things I want to display. They all get emptied and rearranged for the month of December. [I actually constantly move them around and restack them the rest of the year.]

In the winter months sunlight comes in directly through the south facing windows so I use a printed shower curtain to diffuse the light. Odd, but it really works and when the curtains are drawn, there is a nice lit up scene to view.

This chair is ugly but it exactly why I love it. The challenge is to make it beautiful. I started this year with a pine cone garland that is bendy-twisty. I'll adorn the chair with it.

In years past, I've always used an old white lacey table cloth as a 'tree skirt'. This year I won't. I want to keep the warm feeling of the wood floor. The lights reflect a nice warm light when bounced off the floor.

I moved my little birch tree into the dining area of the kitchen and added some red battery operated lights. In the dark mornings, it creates a nice glow of color in our eating area.

As soon as deer hunting ends, I'll be out looking for golden rod stalks that have bumps in them along with milkweed pods and grasses to fill my vases with dried floral arrangements. This is something my Grandmother Pearl did in her tiny cottage so many years ago. I always loved her little arrangements.

In the summer I bring in flowers from the garden, in the winter I bring in sticks, grasses, and elements from the outdoors for bouquets. It works for me and gives me pleasure.

Hubby is used to this now after all of our years together. He refers to my bouquets as 'weeds'. 

I won't bore you with any more of my ramblings.

How do you decorate? Do things you use have fond memories? Do you have heirlooms? Real trees? Fake trees? No trees? 
Do you like white lights? Or are you multi colored?
Traditional? Not Traditional?

I decorate with a goal of visual creation in mind. It is more for myself than anyone else as we rarely have visitors here.

My supervisor is the one who takes more interest in what I do....

well....