An Old Fashioned Christmas and My Craft Area

Hello again!

Today brings us to my Front Porch.

Let me explain, before you see the photos, this is the area where most everything gets put when we don’t know where else to put it.

Well…and it holds all the items that I find that I want to do a project with…that’s where it really gets messy.

So today’s post is real…like really real.

Crazy messy, wildly overflowing, perfectly imperfect real.

Let’s start with the craft area because that’s the worst.

Kind of like a bad news first then enjoy the good news last.

As you can see…I don’t have much room now to do ANY crafts!  It’s all just kind of gotten shoved in here, but in my defense, I haven’t had any time to do crafts!

But look at the cute little Christmas items I placed in the windows!  See!  Just don’t look down and everything looks good! 🙂

Now for my wonderful, beautiful, relaxing, old-fashioned Christmas area.  The wicker settee, ottoman and chair make this a great place to relax in the summer (it’s a little cool in the winter!).

I’ve added a small Christmas tree with some old-fashioned ornaments to the area.

The stuffed bears are some I’ve picked up at sales or Goodwill, but I just love the looks of them.  I’m not sure where the Christmas moose came from, but he’s too darn cute to get rid of!

But look, just look, at the animals behind the settee.

A…they’re sitting on my stash of Christmas presents!  I do have a booby-trap if the kids decide to peek.  There’s an unmentionable right under the afghan and I figured there’s no way the kids will go past that.  LOL.  Evil, aren’t I?  And no, I haven’t wrapped one present yet.  But I have 2 days yet!

OK, back to the stuffed animals.  The bear, the lion, the mink and the mouse.  There’s also a smaller mouse that seems to have dropped back there somewhere.

My Grandma Jager made these animals out of old coats!  I’ve always loved that story, but it gets better.  One year our septic backed up in our basement (OK, this isn’t the better part)…and the bag of animals got damp inside, it didn’t actually get wet with sewage, but they still stunk.  I tried to wash them, but to no avail.  So I decided to take them apart, get all the stuffing out, and rewash the ‘hides’.

While I was removing the stuffing, I started to laugh…Grandma had used whatever scraps she had…and her old stockings that had runs in them!  Not socks.  Old, seam up the back stockings!  Needless to say, I washed them and kept the best ones.  I have no idea if I’ll actually do something with them, but I find it cool to have something of Grandma’s.  I do wonder when this style of stockings became racy?

That brings the tour of the Front Porch/Craft Area to an end.  As you can see it’s a small space…but I love it.  Mess and all.

I’ve saved my favorite room for last…

The Dining Room!

Patty O

ps….Yes those are plates of Christmas cookies in my craft area!  The front porch is cold, so it’s a great place to store them until I can deliver them!