By Carol Duvall
There were a lot of dandy Christmas suggestions in the shoebox today, most of which I had been saving for many months. Folks usually write in their ideas just after the holiday, so it is almost a year before we get around to sharing them. It was a good thing that Norma Villchia of Prudenville, Mich., sent in photographs with her suggestion, or I might never have been able to believe that her outdoor Christmas decorations really DID look good . . . but they did. Norma wrote, "We save all plastic tops from milk, salad dressings, laundry products, spices, anything. My husband drills a hole through the center or the sides and we string them on 20- pound test fish line. We stack all the sizes drilled through the center for tree ornaments (figure A) and we stack all those drilled thru the sides for garlands. The very large outdoor pine tree that the ornaments hung on (figure B) looked just grand . . . very colorful and very festive. In fact, from the photograph it looked as if there was also a long garland on the tree as well. Most of the garland was used to outline her "candy cane lane," (figure C) however. The driveway was lined with tall candy canes with the garland strung between them. Better start saving this year for next year. All of that decorating obviously took a lot of plastic tops! Connie Still of Bayport, NY also sent in some holiday photos. Connie is the viewer who wrote some months ago about the recipe aprons she made by photo transferring copies of her hand written recipes to aprons for her daughter and daughter-in-law . This time Connie sent pictures of the personalized wreaths she made for a number of folks to whom she is a customer . . . her manicurist, her hair stylist, the woman who gives the shampoos and the lady who runs the laundromat. In all cases the wreaths were of artificial greenery. The wreath for the hair stylist was decorated with hair curlers of different types along with a hair net for the bow (figure D). The manicurist wreath had a "bow" made of fanned out emery boards and was adorned with mini bottles of nail polish and related products. The shampoo lady's wreath looked very wonderful with some pretty clear glass ornaments for bubbles along with mini packages of shampoo (figure E) and the wreath for the woman at the laundromat was covered with a miniature sized package of every imaginable laundry product available (figure F). It was totally wonderful. Connie also sent in a picture of the wreath that she has hanging in her sewing room. This wreath is of grape vines so it knows no season and has all manner of sewing equipment attached . . . tiny scissors, thread, buttons, an antique looking package of needles, etc. Loved it! Pamela Burkette of Winter Haven, Fla., wrote last February, "My friend Laurie and I are working on some Christmas star ornaments (figure G), place mats (figure H) and bookmark projects (figure I) using greeting cards and Contact paper." I don't know whether they were getting ready for this year's church bazaar or were into early gift making or what!
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