A Catskill Christmas

As if I didn't have enough to do, I'm ready to announce a new seasonal blog that I've created called A Catskill Christmas. This is a crafts concept that I've been working on since June 2007 and it is finally coming together. My genea-blogger friends like Jasia and Apple are probably wondering if I start my mornings huffing lysol under the kitchen sink. My other friends call my condo "Santa's Workshop on Acid."

What is A Catskill Christmas? The concept: a private, not-for-sale, line of Christmas decorations. I am not sure if I want to pursue this as a side enterprise or eventually make the items public and for sale. In the meantime, I am returning to an endeavor that I pursued almost 15 years ago when one year I made all my own decorations for Christmas. When I moved from California, I either sold, gave away or donated all the ornaments I had made since I knew they were too fragile to weather a cross-country move to Chicago. Since we will be putting up a 9 foot live tree this year, I knew I needed a lot of ornaments and that I better start early.

The blog: a way of documenting the creative process and reinforcing the following stylistic concepts:

• Items are individually hand-crafted.

• Emphasis on plant, mineral and animal based items (dried flowers, moss, twigs, gold, bronze, copper, nuts, feathers).

• Absolutely no use of plastic.

• No modern day or religious iconograhy (no Disney, no Nativity, etc.) but more secular icons (St. Nicholas or angels) is Permitted.

• Emphasis on sense of smell - use of cinnamon, nutmeg, beeswax.

• Colors used will be greens, golds, coppers, browns, oranges predominantly.

• Avoid use of purples, yellow, bright reds.

• Create hang tags with info on item, name of website, etc.

Please take a minute and give a look if you can. As of this weekend I've created the following ornaments and I'll be posting pictures and instructions on A Catskill Christmas from now until Christmas:

• Cabinet Photo Ornaments

• Cinnamon Stick Bundles

• Copper Pine Cones

• Fruit, Spice and Herb Swags

• Gilded Walnut Garlands

• Glitter Glass Pine Cones

• Mini-Rose Bud Balls

• Moss Balls with Cedar Roses

• Peacock Feather Fans

• Pheasant Feather Fans