I'm really looking forward to the Labor Day Holiday weekend. 3 days off work means lots of time to sew and work on some holiday-related projects. My main project this weekend will be starting some Halloween sewing. But that information is top secret until a later date...
Also, Michael got me set-up for maintaining the Halloween website all by myself. He set-up all my info with Joomla and I've been learning so much my brain is a little tired. I'm very, very slow at it, and I can only work on it a little bit at a time, but I'll get the site up and running soon. As soon as I get it presentable, I'll put a link up for all the party people to go check out the site. But in the process, I got Photoshop on my computer and my wonderful hubby found a really cool fashion design program for me called Virtual Fashion Pro. And I can't wait to play around with it.
Last Christmas, my mom gave me her old nativity set because she got a cool new fancy one. Her old nativity set was the one we had for most of my childhood. It's a ceamic set from Pic N Save, and I love it! I know it seems strange that someone like me who isn't the biggest fan of religion is into the nativity. But for me it's like a fairy tale. At christmas my mom read me the story of the baby jesus just like she read to me about Cinderella and The Princess and the Pea. For me it was just a story. And I had no problem with jesus and santa claus sharing a holiday just like Easter is all about bunnies and eggs. The two don't naturally go hand in hand except at those holidays. Anyway, I used to spend hours when I was a little girl playing with the nativity figures. I would rearrange them and set them up for jesus' birthday as if they were on a stage. Her nativity set didn't come with any kind of a stable so I made one over the summer.
While I was looking around online for stable ideas I learned a lot. I always thought that the manger was the building that they slept in. You know, like the song "Away in a Manger". But the manger is the wooden trough that cows and livestock eat out of. The manger is the little wooden bed that jesus slept in. The building is usually either a stable or barn. Sometimes you'll see the term creche. And I thought maybe creche was another way of saying stable or barn, but I found out that it refers to the whole scene. The figures all arranged in display is called a nativity creche.
Well for our nativity creche, the stable is made out of manila file folders cover in strip paper mache and then textured with paper mache pulp. I used hot glue to add some Sheet Moss (sphagnum moss) to the roof and Spanish Moss (which is not a moss at all) to the inside floor. It's not lit in the picture, but the inside of the stable has a battery-operated light in the ceiling. I did this by putting a battery-operated tea light in the space between the roof and the ceiling with it's little plastic "flame" hanging down through a hole in the celing.
I also found an amazing set of Mars Attacks! string lights on eBay that I can't wait to put on our Christmas tree! I got two sets of them, and I think our Christmas tree will look beautiful with little plastic light up Ack Acks and flying saucers.
