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!

"Loony" Winner

Big drum roll.....and the winner is..

Please contact me with your snail mail address and whatever inscription you would like on the reverse side..my email address is in my profile! Congratulations Nezzy you will now be as loony as me! Thank you to everyone who commented with your traditions..I enjoyed them all!

Today I will share one of my miserable failures..it is a clay loon..I still have a whole bunch of this clay..it was sparkly and black..Fimo clay I think. I even numbered the loons on the bottom..I believe I gave one to my Mother..Mothers usually are thrilled with whatever their children make for them. My best friend Susan may have one also.. best friends always give you the benefit of the doubt. This clay was stiff and hard to work with..I think I actually built up my arm muscles trying to form this stiff clay into something that was recognizable as a Loon. I finally gave up..well ..not completely..this was years ago..I still have the peanut butter jar full of packages of black clay and a set of special clay sculpting tools. Now if I had thrown that jar away, I could say I really gave up. Why do you suppose I kept it, because I don't like giving up? Because I am a glutton for punishment and like to be reminded of my failures? It was probably a case of "just in case" ..I keep lots of "Stuff" for just in case.

I have two of these Loons on the tree..they hang a little off center..their heads are too large and misshapen, they look a little funny. Every year I look at them and shake my head and smile...the poor little things. BUT they are mine..I guess I must have two..one to hand down to each of our daughters..a reminder that their Mother was a little loony and sometimes she didn't do everything exactly perfect..but she tried:)