These angels were a gift from my deceased mother-in-law. It warms my heart every year when I place them on my hutch.

So adorable!! I can see why you love them so!

I always love this thread! So many different styles and they all are beautiful and I’d be so happy to spend a Christmas in them. ❤️

Fmmroberts, I love your sleigh! I’d love to know what it’s made of? Is it black? It’s three different colors in your photos!
And the snow is gorgeous.

Flo, that gingerbread mansion is fabulous! It lights up? Definitely professional work!

Oh also, that is not me on the couch haha. It is my best friend though! I was on the other couch with my own wine haha
I told her she was part of my Xmas so can be in a picture.

My girls made these mini gingerbread houses a few weeks ago. Much easier than regular size!

suzanne, those angels are so cute-I've never seen anything like them!

@justcallmepool - Thank you, the sleigh is black (sorry the lighting changes the color) and it’s made of metal. Quite flimsey and awkward to store and move He made anchorage from pipes to make it stand against wind. So far it has. Merry Christmas

Wow! Talented hubby! Very nice.

I wanted to Thank all of you who took the time to post your wonderful decorations and many positive wishes to our Seajay!! Seajay! I hope you feel the love and joy and a bit of butt kickin to encourage your recovery!! Each post showed so much detail, wonderment, beauty and memorable moments it overwhelmed me! Great people here and I am ever so greatful for all the attention this “dilemma” created! Beautiful! Love you Seajay. Keep going thru it all!! Merry Christmas to all and hoping everyone has a healthy, prosperous and joyful 2023!!🙏🏻🎄🎶🎁🎊🥳🎉

Right back at ya Flo! Thank you for being such a thoughtful person, the thread was a beautiful thing...full of love! 💖

Flo, thank YOU for hosting this thread for Seajay this year. I'm confident she will be back next year to once again host. 😍

Yes, I am counting on it!! 👍🏻☃️

Really been a joy for me! Thanks kcooz07! See ya next year!

Merry Christmas, Seajay! Merry Christmas, Flo! Merry Christmas, everyone!

You too dsimber! Hope you are staying warm! We are way below normal here. A couple more days and bites and then more Texas like temps! So far so good. Have power! Big plus. These homes aren’t built for these temps though!! Our landlord has improvements planned but not done yet. Fingers crossed. Have a wonderful day tomorrow with family I hope?! Enjoy and stay warm! I think you need a kitty! Just to keep you on your toes! Merry Christmas!

*nites. Not bites! Cute kitty!!

Oh holy night…

Thanks Flo...for all you do! Merry Christmas, all!

Merry Christmas!!! Seajay, Flo and everyone here. May it be blessed, peaceful and happy for you and yours!

Merry Christmas y’all and have a lovely day!🎄🎄🎁🎁🥰

If this is about holiday creations about 30 years ago I strung together a few of those "squished penny" souvenirs we all get. Since then, every time I get one I add it to the chain and it's now over six feet long. Squished pennies, Euros and other coins from all over the world. And we use to decorate the tree.

This is our “Things With Wings” tree. My husband collects little airplane ornaments and I have collected angels for years. I have an Angel made of dried okra from New Orleans. I have added birds. This small tree is in our family room. A little bear pilots this float plane, soaring over the tree.

That is “uplifting “!!!

Merry Christmas, wonderful Houzz friends!

Thanks for sharing Susanne! That is so creative and beautiful too!! I mentioned it over on Daphne’s thread because her Dad and she have a lifelong love of flying! Truly one-of-a-kind!

That tree skirt is pretty special too as well as the lighted building! Very inspiring!!

Could you post a photo of the skirt please.

Reindeer flight school, the little reindeer circled above the hangar!

Verrrrrrry old tree skirt, purchased when my 32 year old daughter was a baby

That is awesome!! Oh the Reindeer training school. So precious! This is amazing! You have preserved the skirt beautifully! Stunning! Thanks!

Susanne, love it!! I passed your pictures onto my dad - he is going to love your tree too 🥰😎

Susanne, one more reason to keep your tree skirt. It has many family memories!

More and more, I treasure those old items. The tiny felt stocking that my grandma sewed when I was a baby. So precious!

Happy Near Year Houzzers! 🥳 Before and after 😉😂🥂

That's a lot of confetti!!

😂Happy New Year!

Happy 2023!!! So fun!!

DD always amazes!

Always late to the party but thank you Liasch! I have a question to toss out to all you talented artisans - my mother gifted me this beautiful Bolivian Nativity made of dough. I would like to replicate it as the dough deteriorated before she figured out to store it in the freezer. I have tried a few doughs but they are never as smooth as this one. Does anyone have a recipe that is soft and pliable and stands the test of time - these are baked, with a glossy coating.

What a nice Nativity scene!!!

Another, very different question: I am looking for good quality Christmas lights for indoor only or indoor/outdoor. I like the warmth of white incandescent lights but they never last. Do you know of a brand that the quality is excellent and the white is close to the white of the incandescent lights? I keep having replacing lights in my Christmas decoration every year and I would like to avoid that task. This year, altogether we had to replace many strings worth of 600 lights altogether.

DD, have you tried model magic? It’s found in the kids art department, but it molds easily, and dries hard. Your set is lovely!

I have a similar ornament that my sister bought me when she was living in Ecuador. It’s never deteriorated. I recommend using a clay that is not flour based. The clay that I use for making my masks and ornaments is an imported air dry clay called Das. It’s excellent because the shrinkage is minimal and different sections can be attached just simply using water. It comes in white and terra-cotta but I recommend the white unless you want the terra-cotta look for some reason. It should be readily available at Michael’s and possibly online. It can be easily painted. Unlike polyvinyl clays it does not have to be baked in the oven and it has great longevity. You should not need to do anything special to preserve it.

You probably need some miniature clay tools and possibly an extruder. Working small like in that level of detail is definitely a skill set. There are other kinds of clay that you could research that are used to make realistic dolls heads and things like that. I don’t use those as they’re fairly expensive but they are out there.

For something with this level of detail however like on this horse, realistically you’re probably looking at a polyvinyl clay. I would recommend a softer polyvinyl like Sculpy rather than your hard polyvinyl like Fimo. Polyvinyl does have to be baked in the oven at a low temperature and it is also another skill set…but you can get extremely fine detail with it. You would still want small clay modelling tools. I would read up a little bit on using polyvinyl clays and do some experimentation before you attempt the project. It’s not hard to do but there are some tricks getting polyvinyl to adhere to itself and that’s what I suggest you read about.

You can get mixed packages with fairly vibrant colours so they don’t have to be painted and I suspect that your crèche was made from clay that had been dyed.

It’s polymer clay probably not polyvinyl. 🤦‍♀️

Thanx Liasch!! 😘👏

And Liasch, your masks are beautiful! 🥰

Thank you Ladma! 🥰

Gosh DD those are so intricate! IDK how you'll duplicate them but I'm sure you will try and find a way haha. I would maybe look at epoxies to paint over them to fill the cracks and seal it all as-is. But you do you! :)

I would also be tempted to try to reseal them and then make sure storage is done with those little packages that absorb any humidity so that it’s quite dry

Thanks, DD. I think I’m just about at the end of doing masks. I’ve been doing them for a number of years now.