I didn’t quite have it in me last weekend to put the holiday decor away. A wet basement, from a minor flood this week, had me get it complete and put away yesterday.

It feels good. My decor was shifted here in my move and part of my separation. I didn’t touch it last year so this year in addition to seeing what was in all the boxes I decided to sort and donate things I am no longer interested in. I reduced the whole thing by 2 large bins.   We might ask ourselves why do we have all of this stuff in the first place?  Yet when putting the trees and decorations up this year I admit the process was delightful, celebratory and treasured.

I have a friend who says that Jan 15th  is the politically correct date to keep the tree up etc, after that your then a slovenly slob about it all.

Laughingly I have other friends who never take the tree down and other holiday decor gets mixed in, Valentines Day, Easter and 4th of July.  I think it’s a riot. I really don’t think it’s right to judge someone by whether or not there holiday decorations are put away by a certain time. Seriously who cares.

It’s been rather gloomy here, winter graydom ( a Karen word ) has set in. I am grateful for the weekend and the gloominess so I can putz around

This morning it was raining with small itsy snowflakes mixed in, very mini and nothing that would speak to snow reality. Just a reminder – oh yeah winter
 
Earlier in the month I shared a collage of santa’s that I had craftily put into a frame, this is the snowman version and I love it. I adore all the carrot noses, the pink glitter one on the bottom left and the humor of the snowman couple depicting the famous painting that at the moment the name of escapes me.

Some years I will keep the snowman themed stuff out until March. This year I decided to put it away. I am hoping the landlord will paint the bathroom and the clutter of all the snowman stuff would get in the way.
I was thinking tangerine for a paint color!

The crafty diddy below came with a gift from my friend sue years ago, one year she actually gave me some of these to use as gift tags as a gift. Those are all gone. I couldn’t wait to share them. She makes many of her own gift tags and gifts and I have to say that I admire that. I admire crafters from afar. I frequent quite a few craft blogs actually. I support them by purchasing their work – handmade gifts are so cool.

This little card is something I pull out each and every year and set it in with all the other snowman stuff. It just makes me smile 

I am creative in different ways.   Mostly I am afraid if I get involved in a craft I might get buried in the stuff that comes along with the project. I could swim in buttons, they make me smile ever so, and yet I seriously have to consider that I will never actually sit down and produce something like this.

I did think baby blue buttons on a navy card stock, it’s end dipped in silver glitter would look really cool – a nighttime snowman scene – I’m the idea person. Not the crafter.

^{K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
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