a handmade christmas

I find a lot of joy in the creative process, especially when I can incorporate re purposing an object with a previous life. This past Christmas many of the gifts I gave were handmade or re purposed items, an old ball jar filled with antique Christmas bulbs, a paper garland cut from the pages of an old book, an Ira glass finger puppet, felted wool pincushions, a bracelet of vintage images of snowmen, a diorama inside a tin hand. During our childhood my mother made everything from dresses and dolls to bonnets and teddy bears, she even knitted slippers (how she managed to sew pajamas for seven children is unfathomable to me); one of the gifts I made for her this year was a rooster decopauged with a vintage sewing pattern.

Many old or used objects found new homes, for one brother a cribbage board, for another a pewter log cabin of lincoln logs (a monopoly game piece), a porcelain bell with a Norman Rockwell image, a vintage cake carrier, an NC Wyeth map out of a 1926 issue of National Geograpic, family photos placed in second hand frames, a candle poured into an old teacup, a blue pyrex bowl. When I re purpose an item there is often meaning behind it, my mother loves roosters, one of my sisters collects secondhand pyrex, my youngest sister is planning a career as a pastry chef and often bakes cakes for family celebrations and holidays which makes the cake carrier ideal; I have memories of sitting on the floor and playing lincoln logs with my brother; and the Norman Rockwell image is of a family joined in prayer; family prayer was a daily part of my childhood and adolescence and is very important to my dad. From Thanksgiving to New Year's Day we sang a Christmas carol before family prayer every evening, each night we took a turn choosing which song to sing, a tradition I loved.

There are still many projects unfinished as the holiday season is never long enough to get everything done. Perhaps I'll have them completed by next year! A couple of years ago my mother gave me a doll for Christmas wearing a deep navy dress of crushed velvet covered in tiny pink roses. A dress she'd cut out and pieced some thirty plus years ago, a dress intended for me to wear as a baby!