Oh, and one more Christmasy thing...

Here's a little (6") tree I just finished, thanks to football. I stitched most of it while sitting with Mr. Gadget as he watched bowl games. See all those stitches? There was lots of football, and I've been told it isn't over yet. But at least he'll allot me some big TV time tonight to watch women's basketball. Well, at least he'll use that split screen thingie. Of all of his gadgets, I think he loves that one the most.

I mentioned a while back my idea for making embroidered figures for the mantle. The tree is the first of my mantle series . We'll see how far I get. Maybe I'll do a Santa next, in which case you won't have seen the last of Christmas.

Back to the paper mache for a moment. If you happen to end up with a pesky little bit of the stuff left over and you're in a quandary over what to do with it, I have a solution.

Make snowballs. See the sparkle?

So yesterday I made a quick stop here while out doing errands. I found this marked down from $2.99 to a buck.

I think it has penguin written all over it. I'm pretty sure it's paper underneath because it's not heavy enough for ceramic. I'll have to find a good hiding place for it until such time as I get my paper mache supplies out again, so no one will actually think I bought this for its home-decorating potential.

This past Sunday, Mr. G suggested we might take a ride so he could give his car a little exercise. He asked if I would like to go to Michael's, since for some unknown reason we got three sale flyers in our newspaper (along with one of those annoying front page stick-ons!) And since I've never been one to pass up free taxi service to a craft store, I put on some lipstick and away we went.

Mr. G, who is quite a wordmeister, refers to this shopping center as the Ashopolis, since it sits atop a hill like that place in Greece and attracts worshippers. There is a Michael's and a Home Depot in this complex....so we can worship separately yet together, so to speak. On Sunday's pilgrimage, Mr. G informed me that he didn't need anything at Home Depot, but would be happy to stand in line at Michael's with one of the three coupons, if there happened to be more than one item I needed. Well, that's a big duh. And when we got home, of course there was more football, so I graciously supplied beer and snacks so he wouldn't have to leave the comfort of his big chair or abandon his remote.
And look at this, will ya! We're suffering here in New England. Good thing Mr. Gadget and I will be escaping this horrible winter weather this weekend when we again head out west for some California sunshine. I hope we don't find ice on the sidewalk like we did last January.

I do know I'll find a Michael's though, and that's good news because I have one more coupon....