Tag Archives: stephanie

Steph’s Tree ~ 7 Days before Christmas

Made with love…and hard work.

I am pretty proud of all my girls.  Not only do they go all out thinking of the most perfect gifts to give for Christmas, each of them is spending hours and hours creating handmade presents for the family.  And these gifts are not just popsicle-stick napkin holders, no.  We are talking heirloom quality stuff.  One daughter is giving her sister something she spent working 160 hours on.  Steph and Stormie have had weekly “Project Mondays” for weeks, both working on unique and thoughtful gifts.

I am just so impressed at what resourceful and loving women they have become, my “little women.”

Steph’s Tree.

Stephanie’s domestic creativity showed up on her Christmas tree this year.  I’ll let her explain it to you:

Here is my tree:

My colors are white, silver, teal, purple, and black.  My main inspiration was the ‘un-Christmas’ decor from Anthropologie*  

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 I didn’t use most of my old ornaments this year.  I found things around the house to use and re-use/re-purpose for the decorations.  

The big flowers are made out of white tissue paper from the dollar store and old unwanted sewing patterns.


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The garlands are made from $1.00 worth of string and yarn from the thrift store.  Stormie and I finger knitted each one – there is about 175 ft of it….I think:)
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The little white flowers are made from white plastic grocery sacks and white pipe cleaners.

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The ‘star’ on top is made from old black paper with writing ( I think it was a report of some kind) that I got for $1 from the flea market.  I didn’t want to do a traditional star – just something that would stand out.

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This last photo is of Guini and Gemma inside the Anthropologie* store in Cherry Creek – LOVE their tissue paper poms!

Thanks for the peek inside the Kelley-Christmas household, Stephanie.  And for being such a thoughtful gift-giver.

“Jo, how could you, your one beauty?!…”

That is a line from the Little Women movie when Jo had cut and sold her hair for money to help the family. 

And isn’t it true our hair can actually make or break the day we are having?  There must be some glory there, or lack thereof on a “bad hair day.”

“…if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?  For long hair is given to her as a covering.”  1 Corinthians 11.15 NIV

When Tara was three, she cut her sister Stephanie’s hair – just the bangs right in front.  Stephanie was exactly one year old, had beautiful hair and now it had a”butched” area right in front!  I was sad, but a little time and cute bows and barrettes in the meantime kept her looking like a baby girl.

When Tredessa was almost three, she, whose hair was thick and curly and was already longer than waist-length when it was wet, lopped off a whole side of her hair.  I had just had a baby.  I sat on the stairs of our home and wept in deep sorrow (can you say ‘hormonal’?).  It grew back.

Gavin was three when he got ahold of some scissors and cut his hair short-short-short right next to the scalp.  We had no choice but to shave that shiny, beautiful hair right off his whole head.

Saturday morning Guini came down to breakfast and gleefully announced to her mama, “Look at my haircut,” as she stood there, sans locks, but with freshly cut hair and glossy lips (she calls it “lip sauce”).

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Mommy brought her over for a pixie-haircut – which were very popular with my friends around 1967-68.  It is really short, but she actually did a pretty fair job of cutting it to the hairline without gouging out too may big swaths into her scalp.  So we were able to give her a nice short pixie (still-in-process) and her beautiful face is her glorious feature for now…

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These grand-kids keep life interesting…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Help the mommies strategize how to keep Gemma and Averi from the 3-year-old cut…

pictured: Guini with her very short bangs and baby sister, Gemma in the background