Grace Magazine

Coloring eggs is a tradition dating back thousands of years.

According to Paas, the Easter Egg decorating eggsperts, ancient Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used colored eggs to celebrate Spring.

In the thirteen century, Macedonians were the first Christians to use colored eggs at Easter time. The tradition soon spread throughout Europe.

Choose from Paas traditional kits or try one of the funkier ones like, beaded, glow-in-the-dark, tye-dyed, scribblers or egg heads.

As soon as Thanksgiving came to a close I started putting up Christmas decorations.

I decided to make a few crafty things but I also bought some interesting Christmas characters.

The glittery ladies you see above are from The Penny McAllister Collection 2005. I just love their faces. Here they are in detail.

I’ve dubbed them Holly and Ivy.

I also picked up this little drummer boy. He’s signed Lori C. Mitchell. I’ve named him Chuck. Isn’t he darling?

I love little birds, so I bought this candle holder with three little birdies. It’s not signed. All of these items were purchased at The Corner Cottage in Manhattan Beach, CA.

For the crafty part of my decor, I bought this wreath at Michael’s craft store for $2.99 and decorated it with balls and packages designed for a mini tree. Most of them had wires attached so I didn’t need to use a glue gun. I put this whole thing together in about 10 minutes.

Are you making any decorations for the holidays?

A couple of years ago I bought a sewing machine. I was going to learn to make my own things. You know, pillows and clothes and stuff.

It came with an instructional VHS tape. I set up my machine and followed the tape to learn how to sew. It seemed easy enough. Then, I put the sewing machine in a closet to collect dust for a couple of years.

Something possessed me recently to buy some patterns. Aye aye aye. I’ve never had anything I’ve purchased ship so fast in my life. I think I must have been shopping and couldn’t find anything in the stores that I liked so I decided to make my own clothes.

So here I am with three patterns that I have absolutely no idea what to do with. To be honest I can’t even find the sewing machine any more. I wonder if I lent it to someone. I can’t remember.

I have this habit of trying to do everything my self.

So now I have determined to say this 10 times a day, “I am not Martha Stewart, I am not Martha Stewart.” No offense to Martha. I’m sure she’s a very nice lady. I like her TV show and her magazine. But I just can’t do all these things myself. I’ve been crocheting for christssake.

I wrote too soon. Crocheting is very relaxing until you come to a big, frustrating knot in your yarn. Argh.

To prevent this, do a little preparation work:

One end of the wool will be coming from the center of the skein. Pull from this end and roll the yarn into a ball until you have unraveled and re-raveled the entire package. The opposite end of the wool will be wrapped around the outside. But it works easier if you pull from the center.

This exercise takes a little time, but will give you a chance to inspect the roll before you start crocheting.

Then you can start relieving stress as I promised in my previous post.

Enjoy.

Crocheting can be a great way to control stress.

It gives you something to do with your hands and it takes concentration.

I love to crochet while I watch TV, especially if it’s a program I’ve seen before. Then I don’t have to always be looking at the screen. I can watch the 6-hour Pride & Prejudice a million times and not get bored. So for me, a perfect way to relax is to put on Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and crochet.

I’m making a baby blanket for a friend.

Here is a close-up of my work: