Santa's Little Helper.......

No....I'm not talking about Homer Simpson's dog.

Tessie is really trying to get me in the mood for Christmas and actually, she is doing a pretty good job.

I started decorating the Christmas tree about 8:00 AM this morning. It is now 11:20AM and I am finished.

After arguing with, and being tangled in the strings of lights, it was smooth going. That is, until Tessie arrived......I was hanging some Victorian ornaments that I made years ago. I had them laying in front of the quilt shop. Of course she immediately took to them because they have lots of sparkly jewelery findings on the front.

While I am at it, maybe I should do a quick tutorial. They are very easy, but look very impressive on the tree. I made this batch from some scraps of fancy upholstery fabric that I bought at a yard sale. The ribbons came from a grab bag that the fabric department used to sell once in a while. As I remember there was at least a yard of each ribbon style and there were about 10 different pieces in a bag for $2.00. Those were the good old days......

Anyway, I took cardboard(The infamous cat food dividers again.) and cut out two of a shape for each ornament. The shape could be anything. Mine were hearts and circles.

Then I simply cut out a piece of quilt batting for each piece the same size as the cardboard. I fastened that to the card with a dab of glue. Then I cut a piece of the fabric about one half inch larger all around. I laid the fabric face down on the table then the batting and the cardboard was on top. I wrapped the fabric around the edges of the card and glued it to the back. I clipped V shapes out of the edge where needed to make it all lay flat. When that dried, I glued the two pieces together, remembering to put a loop of ribbon or string between them at the top for hanging.

I ran a piece of braid or ribbon around the edge of each one. Then I tied a bow at the top of each one and glued down the tails, twisting and turning them as I went.

The last thing was to put the jewelery findings and other fancy stuff in the center. I used E-6000 for that. There you have it.

I continued hanging decorations on the tree. Tessie kept helping..... "NO! There are too many red ones in that spot! Put on some green!" I kept moving to the other side of the tree to get away from her. Round and round we went. I was getting dizzy.

Then suddenly she disappeared. I heard a wee voice from above...."I would make a lovely Christmas tree topper. I could supervise the opening of all of my presents from up here."

"Tessie, you can't possibly stay up there for two weeks...."

"Two weeks?" she asked?

I explained "A tree topper is an inanimate object for a reason. It has to stand still all of the time that the tree is decorated."

That got her down quickly. She zapped herself away.

It was very quiet for a while. I put on the finishing touches.

I heard vague noises coming from the workroom.....I tried to ignore them.

I heard rustling branches and a couple of balls rolled across the floor. I picked them up and attempted to put them back where they belonged. When I reached in to hang one of the balls, I heard, "Hey!! Watch it!"
There was Tessie cozily sitting in a batting lined basket that she had pilfered from the workroom.

She announced, "Since I can't stand still for two whole weeks, I am claiming this hole as my official Christmas hideout."

I had to admit that it was a pretty good place for her to watch the proceedings without being noticed.

I think she enjoys playing "Where's Tessie?"

You may want to poke the photo and make it bigger so that she is easier to spot.

I have to admit that she has put me in a more Christmas state of mind.

"Casey! Get me some cookies and a cup of eggnog."

Although I do believe that I am hearing tiny, demanding, voices in my head now......

See you tomorrow.