Day 6 ...

~ Greetings and a warm welcome to ~

Well since the last couple of days haven't had anything STUNNING in them, I've decided to share something with you today that I am so very proud of!
For those of you that are my loyal followers... you will remember that on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 I stated a few of my "New Year" goals. As I've aged, I have realized...resolutions are meant to be broken, but goals...now that's how my mind works. You can ALWAYS be working on a goal and still have set backs. Resolutions are like one slip and they are broken! So I'm into "goals"...
Anyway... back on topic, my loyal followers will remember that I mentioned that I have really, really desired having a Prairie Schooler Santa Tree. My friend Priscilla, I have been following for quite a few years now, has a stunner. You can see it on this blog post: Priscilla's Santa Tree . In fact, Priscilla has a stunning blog no matter what the season is...I suggest you put her in your reading list! And we must not forget our friend Marly and her Santa Trees. You may visit Marly at her blog: Samplers and Santas and add her into your blog roll too, if she's not already in there :)
So looking... year after year at these lady's very fine examples of Santa trees, I had a thumping in my heart and a desire in my spirit to make my own version of a Prairie Schooler Santa Tree. So I got to stitching January 1, 2014 toward my dream of a Santa Tree.
I stitched this jolly fellow just recently and finished him today:
Santa bearing pineapple by Prairie Schooler found in book 36 *NOTE*(this book is LONG out of print, but I collect PS and am lucky to have a deep collection. It has been on eBay recently for reasonable prices)

I stitched two other small Santas (also found in Book 36) and two large yearly Santas in this calendar year. 5 Santas...not bad progress...sure did help me get going toward my dream. And in case anyone is wondering, I stitch my Santas on the 18 count Khaki Davos fabric, over one, as called for in the patterns.

Thanks to my BFF and stitching buddy Marie of Creative Thread whom I have known for years...she knew my ultimate desires and stitched me three beauties for my dream tree and gifted them to me on my birthday!!!! Here they are:

Well That's 8 ornaments for my tree. . . and when I dug into my box of over 150 stitched ornaments, I found more that I have stitched through the years and also some friends that have stitched some for me over the years too!
I am so tickled to present, my very own, PRAIRIE SCHOOLER SANTA TREE!!!!!

It is in our Dining/Kitchen Room and here it is at nighttime:

And here it is during the day time:

I put my tall skinny tree into my 8 gallon Uhl crock, then used burlap ribbon for the "tree wrap" and old quilt runner for the tree skirt. I found these sweet peppermint candy ornaments at Hobby Lobby and scattered them throughout since I have in my mind a vision of only "red and white" on the tree. To be honest, the burlap ribbon was just something that I tried and when I put it on the tree I knew it was perfect. I am so in love with this tree! I just sit and stare at it :) SO HAPPY! and I will be enthusiastic to add more and more ornaments this year!
I'd like to give a nod to some special people in my life that stitched some ornaments on this tree and gifted them to me through the years... The Santa on the Reindeer is from Edgar The small Santa holding a tree is from Cathy B The Ho Ho Ho Santa is from Carol and the other little sunflower Santa in a tin is from Marie (again!) The rest were all stitched by me through the years. I think I had 5 others.
Awww....accomplishment!
Since I started finishing the smaller Santas as the covered pillow ticking tags; plus the Little House Needleworks Ornament and the Country Cottage Needleworks Ornament in the current 2014 Just Cross Stitch magazine, I also finished as tags; many inquiring minds wanted to know how I did it. So, I decided that my "gift" to all of you today would be a tutorial on finishing a project into: The Layered Tag Ornament...
I wish you many hours of fun finishing! As it is my tradition to try to finish all my projects into pretties for my tree so that year after year as we pull them out to lovingly hang on our tree we can remember that year and what I stitched for our tree. My kids enjoy pulling their own ornaments out, that I have stitched for them alone, to hang on the tree in their very own place of pride on our Family Room Tree. I have (with this year's additions) close to 200 stitched ornaments that hang on our big tree. And at the end of these 25 Days you will be able to see it! Until then...its a secret!
That does it for today folks!
Until tomorrow.... I'll be keeping my hands to work and heart to God, just like always! (this is a working at the hospital weekend for me though...so I'll be keeping them busy in a different way!)
Love in stitches, Vonna xxxx