How I Made My Own Weeping Angel Tree Topper

It's taken me a while to finally sit down and write a new post. I knew what I wanted to write about, but it seemed like such a daunting task. I'm not certain why, perhaps it was the thought of uploading photos that has turned me off from this, but I decided that enough was enough and it was time to post again. So, I'm at my desk, the window above is displaying a grey morning, snow is lurking high above; a Spotify playlist is echoing throughout the room. I'm contemplating on making a latte, but I know that is just a ploy to distract myself from completing my writing. I refuse to be distracted. My reward for finishing this is cuddle time with the dogs, whilst watching the latest episode of "Younger." I know that I have a busy weekend ahead of me and I need to get a lot of things done before the weekend begins.
I DIGRESS!

Back in December, I was in full on festive mode. I spent a great deal of time decorating the house and making tree ornaments. The Mister and I decided early on that this year's Christmas tree was going to have a "Doctor Who" theme. We already had white lights, so we bought blue lights, blue and silver balls, blue ribbon, silver garland,etc. I also made Dalek inspired balls, as well as Cybermen balls. What really pulled it all together was the Weeping Angel Christmas tree topper that I made. Here is how I did this....

I started with a Barbie that I acquired at the local thrift store. I braided her hair and fashioned the tail end of the braid into a bun. I fastened it together with clear tape at the bottom and tucked it under. Then, I removed her legs (sorry, but it was for a worthy cause.)

Next, I took a large plastic drinking cup that I found in the clearance section at Wal*Mart and I cut an "X" into the bottom of the cup. I used a marker to mark the X for carving. I VERY, VERY carefully used and x-acto knife to accomplish this part. After the X was in place, I squeezed the bottom of the doll into the X. Using and X, instead of making a hole helps to keep the doll firmly in place. This was to create a skirt and to have an opening to use to place her on top of the tree. I positioned her at the point of her waist and then I hot glued her in place, for extra security. 

Once the doll was in place, and still had my hot glue gun plugged in, I glued her arm over her eyes, so that she appeared to be shielding her eyes. Then, I took scrap fabric from a previous project and glued it on to look like a loose dress.

I made angel wings by cutting out the shape from a plastic gallon milk jug. Then, I layered "feathers" cut from a paper grocery bag and glued them onto the plastic wings. I made certain to include tabs so that I had a way to glue the wings onto the back of the doll.

 Once the wings were glued in place, I began the painting process. I wanted the angel to look as though she were made of stone and had been exposed to the elements for years. I used acrylic craft paint to accomplish this. I layered grey that I made with black and white paint. I also added a little bit of mossy green paint. I covered the hair with the paint, as well as the wings and the dress. I applied many layers to get the right look. I also took the white paint, and watered it down and then dripped it over the doll to make her look very weathered. Once the paint dried, the dress was nice a stiff. It held the shape, perfectly.

Once she was placed on top of the tree, she really looked spectacular! Considering it only cost less than $2.00 to make and most of the materials used, I already had on hand. The tree was really pretty and a whole lot of nerdy! That is the beauty of being an adult and having the ability to declare that you will have a Doctor Who Christmas tree. Now, she is safely packed away in her own box, until next year.

There you have it, my post about my nerdy Christmas tree. I don't know why I was so worried about writing this. Yes, it is a month overdue; but at least it will be available for any Whovian who wants some insight on the subject for next year. Now that this is finally out of my system, maybe I'll feel a little less skiddish about my posts and things can get back to "normal."
I hope you enjoyed my nerdiness! Until next time~ Toodahloo!

Getting Back To Posting After Break

Winter is finally here and so is a new year!  During December of 2014, I posted every day leading up to Christmas. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I really enjoyed the project, but then Christmas arrived, and it was the worst Christmas I'd ever had in my life. This sometimes happens, things don't always work out as planned. I had worked hard to make things cheerful and festive and was working really hard to enjoy myself. It wasn't like an I didn't get all the gifts on my list kind of let down, rather, I had a loss in the family on Christmas morning.
When it came to deciding how I wanted to approach the month of December on the blog for 2015, I decided to take things easy. I did a few craft projects and documented them, but I didn't go nuts this year. Instead, I just wanted to live in the moment and enjoy myself. I didn't want to have to photograph every moment, as if staged, and then sit down to write about it. I only wanted to enjoy the moments as they happened and not appreciate them through my camera screen. Have you ever gone to a concert and watched as a sea of audience members are watching the performance on their camera screen, because they're spending the majority of the concert filming with their phone? They're distracted and missing out on the show. I didn't want to experience December that way, So, I took a blogging break.

This Christmas was a very green Christmas. When I looked outside, the yard looked more like it did in late October than in December. It was very warm for that time of year, too. Not that I was complaining. The winter before had been very harsh, with multiple blizzards. A few days after Christmas, it snowed quite a bit. Then, last Sunday it was warm again and we got two inches of rain. All of the snow was washed away. I could see grass again and all the ice on the driveway was gone. As quickly as it went, the snow came back when we had another snow storm Tuesday. This weather is wacky, but it has me dreaming of gardening in the Spring. I am already thinking of what flowers I want to plant and was vegetables I want to grow. It won't belong before we will be starting our seedlings.
In my next post, I"ll share some of the Christmas crafts that I made during my blogging break. Then, we will resume a new year of fun. Until next time~ Toodahloo!