Off to the Post Office

Here are my creations for the ornament swap I'm participating in. I have to mail them out tomorrow. This has been a real self-esteem rollercoaster for me! I mean, how hard can it be to make a Christmas tree ornament? Oh, boy, was I not prepared for the answer!

First, I thought I'd stuff them--make them into three dimensional barn stars. The stitching looked awful, and I couldn't get the fabric to go smoothly through my sewing machine. Then, I wanted to embellish them with pretty silver beads. That was comical--beads all over the place. My fingers were too fat to manipulate the beads easily, half of the beads wouldn't fit over the needle, then my own stitching was not even. Then it was on to fabric glue, followed by sewing through the glued fabric. Not easy. I have stabbed my fingertips with a needle too many times to count!

Then, for the self-esteem part, many of the other ladies in my swap group are artists--not amateur pseudo-crafty moms like myself--but real artists! Wow, am I going to have a gorgeous tree! And don't I feel like my ornaments don't represent! I will say, they look cute in the picture--it's on close up that their flaws become apparent. It has been an humbling experience, but shouldn't we try to remember to be humble in this season of excess? That's the lesson I'm taking from this experience--that, and gratitude to these other ladies.