What a difference a week makes!

I have been a busy beaver this past week. After returning home from a weeks vacation I jumped in and got busy getting busy!

Bright and early Monday morning I was ready to teach a craft class on the 12 Days of Christmas. This is one time consuming project but everyone always loves making the 12 Tags of Christmas!

This is a very messy, supply intensive project! Those hands belong to Rita! She is about half way through the class and by then it was time for lunch!

I served vegetable soup, salad and olive bread with cranberry sparkling cider.

Each of the ladies received a Autumn friendship sign that I used to corral their napkins.

 By 3:00 pm the projects were complete, the dishes were done and this is what they created ...

This picture doesn't do it justice, it's several layer of inking, sponging and coloring to get a worn and loved look!

 A few days later my friend Penny and I headed to Hobby Lobby to shop for the "innards" for a door box the two of us gave Rita for her birthday. We celebrated a few weeks early as she will be traveling on her actual birthday. Here is the finished door box.

This beautiful door box was made by the same gal that did mine, she is Stacie the co-owner of Stacie's Primitives. She and her hubby create some really lovely prims.

This is a closer look of the little nest I tucked inside. We gave the box to Rita this past Monday, she loved it!

 My next project for this week is the transformation of my home from the fall decor to Christmas! Yes, it's a bit early but Thanksgiving is coming a week late and my grandkids will be in town this weekend and I want our home to be festive for their visit! It takes me longer and longer as the years roll by to get my home "just right." I started yesterday, worked about five hours on it today and have a few more hours to do before it's complete. I don't plan on putting up our tree until we have our new window coverings installed in early December. I have taken a few snaps of today's vignette's to share.

Family room mantle ...

My Arnett Santa sitting next to my antique sled on the hearth ... the skates belonged to my paternal grandfather many, many moons ago!!

Another Arnett Santa perched on top of my mantle. These gentle souls have such expressive faces.

And me, yep that little girl with the Pippy Longstocking braids is yours truly. The Santa mug was a gift to me as a baby and the two little plastic reindeer belonged to my parents and was used to decorate my childhood home. When my mom was tossing them out I snatched them up. Looking at that picture I am reminded that age has really taken it's toll on that happy little face!