This year’s decorations start: dehydrated orange slices

November 21, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

For many years, I would craft new decorations for our Christmas tree. It was a good opportunity to use small projects to try out new techniques and ideas. Our tree is basically a mad chaos of different styles and materials, and I love it!

Life got in the way, and I stopped doing this for many years. I was able to do a few last year, and I’m hoping to be able to continue this yearly tradition.

With so many cats in the house, though, we’re going to have a much smaller tree, set high off the ground! We’re still trying to figure out how to manage that, but the cats have inspired ideas for this year’s decorations.

Cats are supposed to not like citrus, so I will be using dried orange slices as the foundation of the decorations.

Last night, I sliced two naval oranges and laid them out on a rack in a baking pan. I set our oven to “warm” (170F) and left them overnight. I did have the opportunity to turn them a couple of times, since I was up anyway, investigating the crashing and banging that woke me up (I found Layendecker on the fridge, and a decorative jar with seashells on it was on the floor in the dining room; I’ll have to figure out how to remove the broken seashells to replace them. :-( ).

This morning, one of my daughters took a dried slice and showed it to some cats.

I don’t think they’re going to work as cat repellent! :-D

I plan to include cinnamon sticks in the decorations, too – something else that cats are supposed to not like. I don’t think it’ll help, since in the past, we’ve had cats try and steal our cinnamon apple dough decorations, right off the tree!

Well, even if it doesn’t work, we’ll have new decorations for the tree this year! :-D

The Re-Farmer

All bent out of shape

November 30, 2019 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We are a bit behind on our Christmas decorating this year.

Usually, we start at least by Nov. 27 (the Feast of St. Catherine). However, this Christmas is a first for 3 felines.

So we set up the tree, but left it alone. We didn’t even fluff out the branches. The idea being, the cats can get used to the tree being there, and we can start training them to stay out of it, using a spray bottle.

The problem with that, however, is someone has to be in the room to catch them in the act, and we don’t exactly hang out in the dining room.

It’s going to take pliers to straighten some of these branches out. :-D

We can, however, start decorating the rest of the house. Tomorrow is the first day of Advent, so I at least want to get our Advent wreath and its candles set up.

I just have to figure out which of the bins it got put into. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Winding Down

December 25, 2018December 25, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

As I write this, we are starting to wind down from several busy days. Christmas Day itself, we try to keep more of a quiet affair. The fifth candle of our advent wreath has been lit, we have had our dinner, and it is time to get some rest before we continue with our holiday activities.

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Merry Christmas

December 25, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

I hope your day was filled with peace, joy and good company!

Nativaty Image Source:
https://pixabay.com/en/christmas-clinic-birth-2874137/

The Re-Farmer and family.

Awesome friends!

December 20, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I just have to share something I got in the mail today, from a dear friend. She is so hilarious!!!! Check these out!

First, there’s the festive packing tape covering the box itself. Then there was the “snowfall” when it was opened, then there was the array of tiny little gifts for everyone – including treats and a skunk toy for the cats!

What a hoot!

I’ve got the best friends. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Ready

December 19, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

The tree and decorations are up. The gifts are wrapped. Aside from those few last things that have to wait for the last minute, we are ready for Christmas.

I am glad we were able to put our tree up this year. We missed out on a lot of that last year, with everything still being in chaos from the movers bringing our stuff over. Most of our ornaments are hand made. One of the things I still need to get back into is the making of new decorations every year. Now that we’re near family again, I want to get back into gifting them again.

Our tree has ornaments we made ourselves over the years, and others that were gifted to us. When the girls were young, as part of home schooling, we took part in something called Flat Travelers, which involved sending a paper doll to visit other families around the world, while hosting some ourselves. They would be returned with mementos of the place they were at, and sometimes that included Christmas ornaments. Almost every ornament on our tree has some sort of connection or story with it, and I love every one!

The Re-Farmer

Tiny Things

December 17, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

While putting up a few more Christmas decorations, I took the time to change out the batteries for some lights in our nativity scene.

It is the teeniest of nativity scenes. The tallest figures are maybe three inches high.

I used to put the trees on the dash of our old van for Christmas. I spent a lot of time in that van, so I decorated the dash with all sorts of bling and tiny creatures. Sometimes, while stopped at a red light, I would look over and see people in the vehicle next to us, taking pictures of it. :-D I figured, if I was going to be in the van so much, I may as well make it my happy place! :-D One year, I got a mini Christmas tree with a tiny string of lights for the dash. I couldn’t find it the next year, so I got a different tree, this one with its own decorations, and another set of tiny lights. The year after that, I found both sets, and had two trees on my dash! While parked, waiting for whomever I was picking up at the time, I would turn the lights on for a little ambiance. :-D

I started decorating the dash of the van we have now, but the surface is different, and the temporary adhesives don’t stick as well. I only managed a bit of bling, my Happy Face (a rockfish), a toad, some turtles, tortoises, frogs and lady bugs.

Also, the toad is holding a tiny Groot.

I don’t spend anywhere near as much time in the van anymore, so I don’t plan to add too much more. And no Christmas trees this year, so they get to join the nativity scene. :-)

The Re-Farmer