Audra Jennings

I FINALLY have my Christmas decorations all taken down and put out in the garage. As pretty as it all was, I'm just ready to be past it.  I say finally because it seemed like it was going to take me forever since I hadn't finished it off for this, that, or whatever reason. (Working late, too tired, procrastination...) However, it did come down faster than last year. It didn't come down without a casualty though. I'm not even entirely sure how or why, but I broke my tree stand while pulling the fifteen strings of lights that were well wrapped around the branches. This picture doesn't even show the real angle it was hanging over in. I had turned the pole which I had done before to get to the branches in the back. This time, however, it broke the stand.  The pieces are too small to glue back and stay in place, and I had been looking around for that didn't have to be put together limb by limb, so most likely, new tree for me next year. To get it...

This weekend was our first event (of 8 or 9 weekends in a row... still not sure about #9) for the fall, so I spent part of the week prepping new Christmas decorations. I cleared out my hoard of random Christmas blanks to make these. I'll post more soon!

As though I didn't know this before, in the past six weeks, I have especially realized there are not enough hours in the day. My to-do list and want to-do lists are both in direct conflict with reality. Some days with everything going on, it's been a struggle to get all my hours in at work where I have plenty to do too. In middle of all my craftiness with orders to fulfill before Christmas, I'm still trying to add to the decorations in the classroom at church. I never did post a picture of the section of ceiling Joseph's dream about his brothers. In the next there weeks, the lessons of the 10 plagues and the Red Sea are coming. The Red Sea that Rachel and I are building this time isn't going to be as grand as the one that Jenny and I built about 12 years ago. However, it needs to be put together by the first Sunday in January. While I'm sure not going to do something for all 10 plagues (I'm skipping the bloody decorations with possibly the exception ...

The picture I teased on Monday night was the ornaments I made for my co-workers. I shipped them off earlier today, and they are set to arrive this weekend. We'll see if they read my blog daily and if I just told them what they were getting. Birds are a part of our logo and branding. Saturday night after the market we were at all day, we made a run to Hobby Lobby to try to find the big Christmas balls for this order. They were out! Dad had to cut these, but I like them better because they are thicker wood.  Next up... painting these letters! Each is for a very different order, but it's the only word I could spell!

Yesterday, the IOOF Holiday Market was our last show of the year, but we still have product available! Share with your friends! Visit our Facebook page for holiday deals! I will also have crocheted items - and will make upon request if I have yard available in what you like (my living room overfloweth) if you would like something specific made (not like a king-size blanket, of course, at least by Christmas).

Originally, I had planned to keep the room that my friend Rachel and I had decorated for Vacation Bible School to stay decorated through summer and into the fall. The kids really liked it, and I had talked with all the teachers I'm going to be in a rotation with about keeping it up when started the new quarter. I'll keep the next part of the story short. Half of the room got un-decorated and I didn't take it well. I was bothered that the work I put in was largely disregarded and certainly unappreciated when there was no reason for what was on the walls to bother anyone. So, wound up from those decorations having fizzled, I decided with the new quarter being focused on starting an Old Testament study, I'd just redo it all. One section of the room can focus on creation and the Garden of Eden. I can put up a big ark. Eventually, we can have a Red Sea out in the hall that leads to my classroom and Rachel's across the hall. A tabernacle... walls of Jericho. My idea...