The 2013 Ornament Revealed

Big drumroll.  Here it is finally.

They began like this.

This is a Milkweed Pod…those fluffy things are seeds and in the Fall of the year the pods split open and disperse their seeds.

We collected the pods and dried them in the workshop.  Yes I helped some of them to fling their seeds in the air…and in my hair.

I had to bring some of them into the house to dry.  Some got moldy instead of drying.  Some curled up as they dried and were unusable.  Since we had never used pods before we had no idea what would work and what would fail.

Some were dark looking, would the darkness bleed through?

Here they are painted and looking like they will be okay.

Now for the “snow” for the cap and the beard.  Uffda.  I wanted them shiny.  I used a latex tub sealer..it took days to dry…several bit the dust when a pan was tipped over.  I tried a commercial snow product.  That worked better.  I had lots of time, so some of each were made.

I was seeing santas in my sleep.  Instead of counting sheep I was counting santas.

The dining room table was my workshop.  Every time we wanted to eat I had to shove everything off to the side.  I had santas drying and curing all over.  I put a sealer(Modge Podge) on the front and on the back where I added names and the year.  I used a Dremel tool to drill a hole for the string…and managed to totally destroy only one when the tool went wild and grabbed the whole pod and flung it violently around and stripped off the backing and everything.

Finally they had eyes and a nose and a mouth and a string. Each one is a bit different.  Some are big and some are small.

Most have been mailed out and I will mail four more on Monday.

Big drumroll…and ..and are you ready!

The winners are:

Karen of Wyndson Farm

Marlu of Marylourambles

Cynthia of I’m retired..Wisdom for a simpler life

Kari Lucin  of Oh Look, A Shiny Thing! (the Area Voices winner)

Please contact me if I have not contacted you for your snail mail address.  I hope you will enjoy them on your tree!