Christmas Decorating

Hi everyone! Once again I let my blog go for far too long. Everything is great here, but as everyone knows life seems to get in the way of blogging sometimes. One of my New Year's resolutions is to post regularly again, but for now here is a little tour of my home all decked out for Christmas!

This is our living room area in the great room. We got a HUGE real tree this year and plopped right in the middle of the room between the dining area and living room. I LOVE it! Of course we filled it with all handmade and vintage ornaments. Such a happy colorful tree!

 It wouldn't be Christmas without our beloved Christmas pyramids (we call them whirly gigs).

Here is a full room shot with a little bit of the dining room. We have lots of handmade items out this time of year, including afghans, patchwork blankets, pillows, and table toppers. I'm also loving our Dept 56 village on top of the tv armoire.

This is the first thing I see every morning when I come down the stairs. Such a lovely start to the day!

 Next we move on to the dining room area.

This little shelf is above the buffet I usually treat it as a mantel by adding garland and lights. Most of the ornaments here are from IKEA.

Here's the hutch. This year I decided to add red and white polka dot wrapping paper to the back. I love it so much, I am thinking about leaving it up all year round.

 Our second "whirly gig is a bit bigger than the one in the dining room. My talented mom over at Happy Little Cottage made the adorable red and white table topper :)

Of course I have to include a picture of little Sophie!

So that's a little slice of my house all decorated for Christmas! How is your decorating coming along this year?

December

 Can you believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away! Decorating is still happening here at Hopscotch Lane. Here is our buffet table for this year. The adorable little deer are ornaments found at World Market (they might be my favorite thing this year). The bottle brush tree is from World Market as well. The white cake stands were found at Hobby Lobby and the vintage crochet potholder is from an estate sale. I love the whole vintage vibe.

Last night I worked on our Ikea gingerbread house with disastrous crumbly results. First thing this morning I was determined to make the walls stay up so out came the glue gun! I placed it on a white Ikea doily style tray with some evergreens trimmed off the bottom of our tree and added a tea light for extra light. I love the smell of gingerbread!

A few more gifts need to be bought and wrapped and lots of cookies and sweets have to be baked! 

How are your Christmas festitvities and preparations going?

Vintage Ornaments Galore

Yesterday morning we went to our first Estate sale. I was on the hunt for vintage ornaments and I had heard that this sale had lots.I was not dissapointed, look at all the yummies I came home with. Lots of ornaments and a few tree toppers.

We made a direct dash for the ornaments and a good thing too as a lot of the folks waiting in line had come for the ornaments as well :)

One day I would love to have a whole tree of vintage ornaments. They are so colorful and shiny!

Oh Christmas Tree!

 We all had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at Hopscotch Lane! Lots of eating and relaxing. 

Now that all of the pie and leftover turkey is gone it is time to jump right into Christmas. 

So here it is out Dining Room Christmas Tree 2012!

 This is the biggest bushiest tree we have had to date. Last year was our first time in a long time having a live tree. We loved it so much we HAD to get another one and I think this one is just as perfect as last year. Like my bedroom tree, most of the ornaments are handmade. I love handmade ornaments, in 20 years I know I will be so excited to take out each ornament and feel all warm and fuzzy inside with the memories of making them.

 Here's the tree in all of it's night time glowy glory!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the owl pattern! I am so happy you all are enjoying it! Also if you blogged about your owl please keep the links coming :) I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see all of your little owls hanging on your trees! You can also add your project on Ravelry here if you have the time.

Happy Wednesday!

Crochet Owl Ornament Pattern

Thank you so much everyone for your sweet comments on my blanket! You guys are the best! It seemed everyone who commented puts up their tree either the weekend after Thanksgiving or the first week of December, so to get you ready for tree decorating here is the pattern for a little crochet owl ornament!

 Materials:

• scrap worsted weight cotton
• size US H crochet hook
• black brads or black buttons
• poly-fil stuffing
• stitch marker 

Notes: The body is worked in a spiral so you will not slip stitch at the end of each row. Instead place a marker so you know where the beginning of the next row is. I like to use a small piece of contrasting scrap yarn because it is easier to just pull out and place between the stitches.

Body:

I used the colors pink (A), green (B) red (C), blue (D).
With Color A make magic loop
Row 1: 12 sc in loop (12sc)
Row 2: *Sc 1, 2 sc in the next sc*, rep 6 times. (18sc)
Row 3: *sc 2, 2 sc in the next sc*, rep 6 times. (24sc)
Row 4: *sc 3, 2 sc in the next sc*, rep 6 times. (30sc)
Row 5:  Sc in each sc around. (30sc)
Row 6-7:  Change to color B and sc in each sc around.(30sc)
Row 8-9:  Change to Color C, sc in each sc around. (30sc)
Row 10-11 Change to color D, sc in each sc around. (30sc)
Row 12: Change to color A, sc in first 3sts, decrease (sc2tog), sc in each st. (29sc)
Row13-18: sc in each sc around. (29sc)
Row 19: Sc in next 4 sc,  fold the body on the top and crochet together 6 sts, slip stitch in the sc 1 row below, stuff the owl with poly fil, crochet together last sts, end with a sl.st.
Fasten off. Weave in ends

Eyes (make 2):
magic loop in white.
Row 1: ch3, 11 dc in loop. Join with a sl st to top of ch3.
Fasten off. Weave in ends.
Add a black brad or button to center of eye. You can alternatively embroidery a french knot in the center.

Beak:
1) Ch 3, turn.
2) Crochet 2 sc, turn.
3) Crochet 1 sc, turn.
4) Make a sl.st.
Fasten off. Weave in ends.


Assembly:
I am extremely lazy and just glue on the eyes and the beak on to the owl, but feel free to sew them on. If you would like to add a hanging loop, just make a chain of 14 and sew it on the center top of the owl. I decided that I liked the owl better with just a Christmas ornament hook looped through a stitch on the top :)

There you have it a super simple Christmas ornament!
I hope you all enjoy!

Christmas Cheer

Did you happen to notice what was in the corner of my room in my last post. Yes it was a Christmas tree! I know it's a bit early for some of you, but I promise there is not a lick of Christmas decorations downstairs yet :) It's a bit of tradition for me to put up the bedroom tree in the beginning of November. It really puts me in the Christmas spirit and makes me excited. There is nothing like laying in bed at night and staring at a Christmas tree.

I did this years theme a little differently. Normally I have colored lights with lots of glittery ornaments in the same colors as the lights. This year I brightened it up. A lot of the ornaments you see are handmade (I think those are the best kind). I included lots of white and did clear lights. It has to be my favorite tree ever.I love it so much I decided to do the big tree downstairs in the same style.Yay! 

Its always been tradition to put up the tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving. It is honestly my favorite day of the year, I look forward to it all year. I love it even more than Christmas Day :)

When do you put up your tree and decorations?

Granny Square Blanket Tah Dah!

I've been a bad little blogger lately. Around the Holidays I seem to be super busy with lots of fun things (as I'm sure all of you are) and don't have as much time for the computer. 

Despite my lack of blogging here is a tah dah moment I am super excited about! I finished it so quick that there was no time for in progress pictures :)

 

It's a super simple granny square blanket. Each square is 7 rounds and the 4th and 7th round are always white. It is 6 squares wide and 7 squares long. The border is just double crochet with each color alternating with white. The border really did seem to take longer than the making of all the squares. I probably won't be doing that big of a border anytime soon.

Sophie approves!

 

 Doesn't it look smashing with my new red gingham Ikea comforter!

 

There it is! Such a fun project and I'm in love with it :) 

Hope you are all having a great week!