Living in Glass Houses

 It's hard to believe that the Holiday Season is upon us. My friend reminded me last night (Thank You, Sherry) that Christmas is only 20 days away--of course, that is her time table since she will celebrating with her family on the 23rd, but I have an extra day since we celebrate with both daughters' families Christmas Eve, youngest daughter Jennifer's birthday. When I worked, I didn't begin decorating until after I had graded my last essay and posted grades; only then could I concentrate on holiday decorating, so here I sit blogging, knowing that I have time and I need the Mr. to haul decorations out of the basement.

It's been a busy month with projects that kept me from roofing the Manchester, so that tedious chore will be on hold until after the first of the year. My Daughters of the American Revolution chapter makes greeting cards for the veterans at the Cheyenne, WY VA nursing home. 

The first batch goes out for Vetern's Day and then we make cards for them for Christmas. I host the card workshops and this year we generated another 112 cards to be included in our DAR chapter project, Project Patriot that ships care packages to military serving over seas. Our current soldiers will receive a card of appreciation for their service and a holiday card in their care packages that will be sent to Eastern Europe. 

In between card making, I returned my Barbies to their class house. I have quite a collection of Barbies that had to be stored while we put new carpet in the bedroom where they live. I finally got them put back in their their glass home. While I have not seen the Barbie movie, I thought I'd pay a bit of a tribute to her here. I was too old to receive the fist Barbie, so late in life I binged Barbie. 

As I placed each one back in the cabinet, I begin to wonder if I really still loved my dolls--the answer came quickly: YES. So I kept putting them back in the cabinet.  And then I got the bright idea to photograph them.

Here we have the Nutcracker Collection, along with Swan Lake Princess in the back.

I used my iPhone to take the photos. I love how this one turned out: Snow's jealous stepmother conjuring up her evil plant. 

 To use that feature on your iPhone, open the camera; select Portrait; select Stage Light to get this unique exposure. I use it flowers and butterflies in the garden, too. 

This lovely lady belongs to the Decades Collection, reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. The entire collection begins with 1890s Victorian and ends with who else but the 1960s Hippy Chick.

I loved fairytales as a child, so I have all of my princesses as interpreted by Barbie with that vintage Disney influence. I have the entire Oz cast, another childhood favorite, Alice, not a Barbie, and the Native American Barbies. 

The top shelf has Romeo and Juliet up front, but in their boxes and not visible are Morgan LeFey and Merlin and Arthur and Guinevere.

I played this morning with the miniatures, decorating the newest structure, the greenhouse.

I've been bingeing "The Santa Clause." I love Tim Allen and enjoyed the original movies, so here is my interpretation of how Santa might be preparing for the Big Delivery. He's relaxing in his polar (and most likely solar, too) greenhouse checking the list to make sure he has good things for all the good little girls and boys. 

The greenhouse will be partnered with the Manchester behind the garage--which is taped in place for the dry fitting, another project pending until after the first of the year.

Never mind the mess. The basement will soon look like Christmas exploded all over it--I've got a good start as I began dragging out decorations from underneath the stairs this morning.

I dug through my stash to find a short string of colorful lights that I attached on the outside of green house to give it a more festive look. The Pink Farm House will be ready for Christmas--since I didn't put any of its decorations away last year and I think this year I'll decorate the toy store. Stay tuned. 

The poinsettias are not hand made; I purchased them from Tuesday Morning years ago. Still they look festive and certainly would love the warmth of the green house and the tree is a live potted one serving as Christmas Tree and will be planted outside next year. 

I'm so glad you stopped by today. What are you mini holiday projects? Do you decorate your mini houses for the holidays? It would be fun to see them. 

Have a great week.