Door Prize Winners! What I Love About My Holiday Home!

Dear readers, I hope you all have had as wonderful a time as I did visiting all the lovely holiday homes. Didn't Karla do a fantastic job? (Karla, keep an eye on that mail box!) This was the first time I have participated in something like this and I found it to be a blessed experience. It was a perfect way to spend a day when I was not feeling well, in my pj's blogging to my hearts content. There was the most glorious decor to explore, from simple to opulent and every thing in between. Thank all you wonderful participants for sharing the gift of hospitality.

I have to mention two blog posts in particular. Essentially by opening our homes, even in a virtual way, we were exercising the gift of hospitality. Two of the women stole my heart by the sheer honesty of their posts. One expressed her desire to decorate more but small children with exploring hands and mischievous pets prevented her at this season in her life. Another expressed her desire to decorate but found the task daunting and exhausting. She did have decorations stored in her junk closet but didn't feel like digging them out. In spite of the obstacles, both these women opened their homes, (one even opened her junk closet!), and shared what they deemed their meager fare. I thought to myself now these are women I would like to get to know, confident and comfortable where they are in life. I could see myself moving the cat from the sofa, sitting down and sipping whatever was on hand, even kool-aid, in the midst of happy children and pets galore, and thinking I could learn a thing or two about hospitality from both. What they offered was a lesson of the heart and I thank them from the bottom of mine!

Now on to the door prizes. I decided I wanted to give out three prizes. I chose three because that is how many gifts were given to the Christ child, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I spent this morning creating all three and gave it careful thought to what they would be.

The first prize is a Tree of Faith. This little tree is decorated in what seems to be this seasons hottest colors, pink, aqua, and silver. This tree is crafted from cotton batting with pink stitching and embellished with pink trim, silver beads, pink sequin flowers with iridescent bead centers. A silver tinsel star graces the top and the base is an old wooden thread spool which has been glittered with silver. The top and bottom of the spool are covered in pieces of pages from an old hymn book. The final touch is a velvet aqua bow at the base. Highlighted under each aqua stone is a word from various hymns. The words are, love, grace, peace, and shine. The tinsel star on the top also highlights a word, blessings. This little tree is a reminder that "love" came down over two thousand years ago in the form of the Christ child. It is by His "grace" that we are able to enter into heaven. He is our ultimate source of "peace" and gifted it to us. "Shine" is a reminder of His radiant power. And last but not least centered in the tinsel star is "blessings", which is a simple reminder to count all the blessings we have.

The second prize is a Whiter Than Snow sign. It too is in the colors of pink, aqua, and silver. The snowman is crafted from cotton batting with an aqua crochet hat and scarf. He has pink felt mittens and is embellished with iridescent snowflakes. His little sign proclaims "SNOW" and is backed by a chorus from an old hymn book based on Psalm 51:10. This little sign is a reminder to keep our hearts pure and clean, white as snow. I often pray this little song for myself, to create within me a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within me and I finish it off by asking the Lord to keep me sweet. (Quite a chore He has with that!)

The third prize is the Gift of Giving Angel. She is crafted from an old sweater, some tea stained fabric and vintage doilies, lace, and buttons. In her hand she hold a scroll that is made from a rolled up piece of an old hymn book page. If you look closely you will see the word gift on the front of the scroll. This angel is a reminder of all the gifts we have been given and to use those to bless others. If you turn her over you will see a little quote which reads, "What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God." Eleanor Powell

At my final check I had 40 participants in my door prize give away. I numbered them all in the order of the comments. I used a custom random number generator to draw the winners and here they are:

The Tree of Faith goes to: Lori of Faeire Window! Congratulations Lori, I hope you enjoy it!

The Whiter Than Snow sign goes to:

Debbie at Random Thoughts From A to Z! Congratulations Debbie, will he fit in with those funny yet scary snowmen you have?:)

The Gift of Giving angel goes to:

Kari & Kijsa of Ask Kari & Kijsa! Congratulations Kari & Kijsa, uh oh, these are sisters and there is only one prize! Share nicely girls! (Or maybe I'd better whip up another one!)

NOTE: I could not just send one prize to two sisters so I whipped up another angel this morning. She is the Angel of Praise. She, like her sister pictured above, is also made from an old sweater, bits of vintage lace and crochet, and embellished with old buttons and beads. She holds in her hand a scroll made from a scrap of a page from an old hymn book and the word "praise" is visible on the front. Prasie is another form of gratitiude. This little angel is a reminder to be grateful for all things in all circumstances. It is said that God inhabits the praises of His people, so praise and gratitude draw us closer to Him. On the back she has a little reminder Scripture that says, "In everything give thanks." 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Here she is: Email me your address' so I can pop these goodies in the mail!

Thank you all for the sweet comments and YOU ARE ALL ENTERED IN MY NEXT GIVE AWAY! In a few more posts I will hit my 50th post so I simply must celebrate. You as well as those who comment on the 50th post will be entered so check back in next week to check out the goodies!

In the meantime if you need a Christmas chuckle at my expense you may read here and here and two more such stories will be posted next week. I'll be back this weekend to share some Christmas crafting and some fab swap goodies. Many of you mentioned my banner, it was a gift from Kris of Blissful Elements, (she sells them two for $25.00) you can read about Kris and see her awesome work here.

I pray your hearts are full of Christmas cheer and that joy and blessings spill your way in the coming days as we celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

Christmas Blessings,

Miss Sandy