TAA DAA ! ! ! ! ! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Well, folks ~ this is it!!  This is what I created from the bag of goodies that Maria Barton sent to Ali Strebel, Kris Miller and me! Do you remember from the December 1st post ~ ribbon, pipe cleaners, wire, a star button (I just realized the star connection to Star Rug Company - duh!), a red wool ball and the dangly Christmas tree ornament?  And from that we had to come up with some fun thing?  Twenty days later, this is my fun thing!  And it's been hard ~ a real challenge for sure!

So, a week or so ago, I put this monks cloth on the frame and drew out a little tree.  As I kept looking at this little bag of treats ~ I kept seeing a tree.  But, I also decided that was just too obvious ~ we're probably all thinking trees ~ and I tried to come up with something else ~ but nothing 'else' was coming to mind!  Then I thought, if I get too creative, it will just get outlandish ~ so, here we are!

I gathered fabrics and settled on the red sparkly (which I don't know if you can really see the sparkles), a black confetti for the background and some of my green marbleized wool for the tree.  It all seemed to work pretty well together and I hooked the little mat in one evening or maybe two ~ I kind of forget ~ and then it set until tonite (Sunday evening is when I'm writing this).  I had it figured out but just had to wait till the last minute to see if it would work ~ I love a suspense story!

A couple of hours ago, I decided to try some white fuzzy wool for the snow on the tree ~ you can see the ball of yarn to the upper left.  It appeared to have the desired affect, so I continued on!  I sewed on the star button, the dangly tree ornament, then affixed the wire hanger to the top ~ there are two mini bells attached to the wire where it joins the hooked piece, but I'm not so sure you can see that very well!

Then I took pictures of the thing for probably an hour before I got what I thought were acceptable ones for the blog!  I hung it on a white wall, a pale blue wall, the blue and white checkered wallpaper in the kitchen and finally, the navy star paper in my office!!  Honestly ~ unbelievable ~ that it would take so long!  But the red sparkly border didn't show up until there was the nice contrast with the dark blue paper! 

Maria put these together so you, our readers, can see our projects all together ~ doesn't it look great!  It's definitely been interesting and each one of us had a totally different approach as the embellishments spoke to each of us in our own unique way!  Thanks to Maria for bringing this creative challenge to fruition ~ and now you have to wait another month to see the second installment of  "As the Hookers Turn" !!

Enjoy the hustle bustle of the next few days ~ I'm going to try!  We're having a gathering here tomorrow night for a friend's birthday ~ I baked a black forest cake tonite which I'll assemble in the early morning ~ then off to the grocery ~ then whip some appetizers together ~ lunch with two hooker friends ~ get these scuffed up nails done ~ and back home to put it altogether!! Thanks goodness for my cleaning lady ~ and for Sonny ~ he's a big help when it comes to entertaining!  Tonite, he made three batches of red and black raspberry jam ~ I call him Dora Domestic!!  Nighty night!!!
Alice