New Items Added to Etsy Shop

I just added some holiday decorations to my shop on Etsy. These metal stars are fun to collage in.

I had fun bleaching these bottle brush trees!

These are tart tin magnets. Very sparkly!!

Christmas at the Goss Home

Well I must say I am a BAD blogger! Lately it has been hard to keep up with everything. Working part time at the store, trying to get Christmas decorations up, and buying gifts, there just is not enough time in the day. I have even skipped exercising the past two days. Missed most of last week too. Boy I need to get back on track!

I took on a new monthly job deal also. As if I didn't have enough to do right? The company that makes House Mouse rubber stamps ask me to make cards for their 2010 stamp of the month club for stores. Well that is 95 cards a month. At least I can color copy the mouse part after I color it. I just have to assemble 95 cards. That in itself is a job! Last month I cut 95 little mouse hands to hold a punched heart. This month was a little easier, just layering more. It is fun though to color the little guys and then come up with a card. I need to ask if I can post the finished cards here on the blog.

Another exciting thing happening around our house is my son is going to college early! Richland Junior College has a program where kids can attend their Collegiate High School their Junior and Senior years. This program gets them a High School Diploma and an Associates Degree in Science. So he will be attending there after the holidays.

I have to say it was a hard decision for him and for us as parents to let him decide. He will be leaving his friends and the same school district he has been in since kindergarten. He is sacrificing being on the Varsity Golf team and of course his classes will be harder than the AP ones he is taking now.

I am more sentimental than he is so it's been tough for me to want him to do it. As a Mom I want those Senior pictures and Prom ones too! They have that at Richland but still it will not be the same as being at his old school and with his friends. I just paid for his Senior ring and annual too. LOL But I have to think about the money it's going to save me (two years of junior college) because it is free for him to do this. Plus he will have a degree at the end of his Senior year and have a better chance at a good 4 year college. So I try to dwell on those two things.

He will have two or three friends there with him. They started in the Fall. He is very good at making friends anyway. He is very outgoing and can talk to anyone. So I feel he will be fine in that department. I just hope he is not growing up to fast and takes everything in and makes the best of the situation. That's all I can hope for and that he makes good grades! LOL

I thought I would post some of the Christmas decorations I have around the house. Below is the tree I have in my bedroom. It looks like a vintage tinsel tree but came from Hobby Lobby several years back. I soldered little word ornaments for it. I also made some chocolate brown metal circle ornaments and then bought a few silver snowflake ball ones from Smitten in McKinney. I bought them last year so I do not know if they have any this year but they are really pretty.
This is piece I got from another store in McKinney but they are closed now. It is a Bethany Lowe I believe.

The lights and ornaments on the main Christmas tree in the den.

This candy wreath my husband got as a gift this year from one of his customers. I think it's a cutie!

These red and green ornaments are on the tinsel tree on the kitchen table.

This is a new tree for us this year. It's a fir tree in an urn. I found these silver and gray ornaments at Target and thought they would be perfect. This tree works for any holiday. I have used it for Valentines and for Easter but not for Christmas before.

Grinch and his dog sitting under the Christmas tree.

This is another Bethany Lowe piece I acquired after Christmas last year. Glad to be able to put him out this year.

Lovely blue balls in a bowl in my bedroom. The bird and nest art piece was made by my friend April.

Thanks for stopping by and again so sorry it's taken me so long to post. Hope you enjoyed my Christmas decorations.

Tree in Bedroom

I got these beautiful glass balls from a store in McKinney last week. The store is called Cherase Vintage Home. They have some wonderful home decor items for Christmas right now in stock. Go check them out. Another store on the square that has great stuff for the home and any color German Glass Glitter you need is Smitten. I bought some pink and they have it in fine and coarse grades. There is a rainbow of colors to choose from. I bought the silver ball ornaments with snowflakes etched on them in the picture below from there too.
I made these small brown metal ornaments from grungeboard, metal tape and molds from Ten Seconds Studio. They were fun and easy to do.

I constructed the art for the ornaments below using Basic Grey snowflake cardstock, printed words on the computer and charcoal pencil. Then soldered them between glass. There are twenty of them and each word is one that reminds me of this holiday season.

Here is the completed tree. It sits at the end of my bed on a bench.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get it posted. Things have just been crazy around here.

I also wanted to share a beautiful piece I bought from another antiques store in McKinney called Homepieces. The owner of the store told me the item came from Illinois and you don't see many of these that are dark colored. This is black and usually you see white or natural wood colored ones. I fell in love with it and had to have it. I figured it made a good birthday present to my self. My birthday is Sunday the 28th.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Hope Santa is good to each of you tonight.

Christmas At My House

This is my Christmas Tree. It has gifts under it finally today, but it didn't when I took this photo. My raggedy old Grinch is sitting underneath.


I made this tree from a sweater last year. Not my idea. One of the girls in my stamping group came up with it. Her name is Traci Hutton http://www.art-t-dolls.com/bio.html She has a great website to sell her gourd dolls. Check them out. Anyway I sewed sequins and beads on the tree then printed onto muslin with my printer (peace). I like how it came out. it is mounted on a small piece of wood.
These are bottle brush trees and a few ceramic snowmen from Hallmark. The reindeer is from Prescott AZ. Monica brought it back from there for me last year.
This is my fireplace. The let is snow hanging deal is one I bought plain at Hobby Lobby then covered it in German glass glitter using Glossy Accents. It really sparkles!

Well that's it for today. Later on I will post a tree I have in my bedroom. I am not finished with the ornaments yet. They have to be soldered.