My Ornament Swap Tree

Here's my ornament swap tree. I've been swapping handmade Christmas ornaments since 2008. I'm always amazed at how creative people are. I also love that I get to exchange ornaments with people around the world. When you think about it, something I made is sitting in someone's home in Australia, UK, Germany, Iceland, Czech Republic, Spain, and the list goes on. Yes, I've been flaked on a couple of times but I've never let that dim my pure enjoyment of receiving these little packages in the mail every year. I look forward to it for years to come.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to need a bigger tree!

This year's mantel

Trees!

As I was going through all my Christmas decorations, I realized that I have a fondness for trees so I thought I would gather them all together and place them on the mantel this year. I love the way it looks! My dark secret...it's not all of them. I probably have twenty more that I just couldn't fit on the mantel. What does this mean?? I need a bigger mantel! (only joking)

So, here is this year's Christmas mantel. The stockings were all made by my husband's mother and I adore them.

Now, these pics show the mantel during the day. Scroll down to see what it looks like at night.

It's really beautiful and peaceful to look at when it's lit up.

Holiday stitching

I was stitching during the month of November so I would have some Christmas cross stitch. Except for the red Santa, all of them came from Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 2009, 2010 and 2011. Santa came from the British magazine, Cross Stitcher.

As always, here are the fronts...

and the backs...

Happy Holidays!

Everybody's a Winner!

That's right! I had five comments and I can definitely fold five origami wreaths (which seem to be the most popular - I love them too). So, Chris, JoAnn (I have your address), gill, Wagapapa, and Jennifer @ Woodley Cottage, just shoot be an email with your name and address to heidistitcheswhenshecan@gmail.com and I'll send it right out to you. Patterns will vary, but all wlll be beautiful.

Thanks for visiting my blog and for leaving a comment. I really appreciate it.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!