Creating a Colonial Virginia Patriotic Nativity Set

 I've been collecting nativities for many years when I go to foreign countries, but then I realized I'd been living in Virginia for 11 years and didn't have a nativity to represent my own state. I even have an Amish nativity from Pennsylvania and one from Alaska, but not one from my adopted state of Virginia. I haven't seen one for sale, so a few years ago I decided to make one for myself. 

I've been collecting ideas, but never took the time to actually sit down and create it since I didn't have a deadline to force me to start. THIS WAS THE YEAR! I decided to make a colonial Virginia nativity set, using only red, white and blue for the colors to make it patriotic. It was a no-brainer to have the three wise men be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who are all from Virginia. 

It took hours and hours, since I'm not an artist, to come up with the designs I was happy with and with figures who were in the positions I wanted them to be in. It was a tedious process. After I completed the line drawings, I had to cut out tiny fabric pieces to get each figure made as I'd envisioned it in my head. Each figure was so small, I had to find accessories that were itty-bitty enough to be buttons, ribbons, lace, etc.

I wanted the wise men to be holding different gifts than usual. It was easy to figure out to have Thomas Jefferson holding the Declaration of Independence, and to have James Madison hold a copy of the Constitution. It was harder to decide what to be George Washington's gift. I decided to have him hold the purple heart medal, since it has his image on it and it's a battle award.

This represents the work I put into each figure. After I made each one, Kent cut out the shape with thin wood for me to mount the fabric on.

I did research to see what traditional clothing would be like for everyday people, which were represented by Joseph, Mary and the shepherd.  For the American flag below I used my Silhouette machine to cut out tiny little stars.

A close up of just Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. I purchased the house frame and inserted scrapbook paper in the back to look like planks. It would have been fairly simple to build the stable but it was nice to have the first one to use as a pattern.

A close up of each figure. the shepherds crook is made of cork so it's a bit 3D.

Thomas Jefferson. The buttons are tiny brads and I used my Silhouette to cut out the gold shoe buckles.

James Madison

                 

George Washington. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the very small profile on the purple heart.

I used white embroidery floss for the horses' mane, gold ribbon trim on the blanket, and used my handy dandy Silhouette to cut out the GW initials.

Last, but not least, is Martha Washington as the angel.

I hope I can find a way to reproduce this and be able to sell it sometime in the future.

**UPDATE:  In March of 2022 I received a copyright on this design, so the way is clear to try to mass produce it.

November in a Nutshell

In November I hosted a birthday dinner for one of my Bible Study friends. I went with a black and white check and gold theme.

I was very pleased with the way it all turned out.

Since it's an autumn birthday I also decorated with pumpkins and autumn leaves.

It was one of the rare occasions when everyone was able to attend!

I saw this cheeseball made to look like a pumpkin on Pinterest, which I thought was super cute. It was pretty easy to make and turned out well. The stem is from a yellow pepper.

It was a fun gathering of dear ladies.

I made mini pumpkin bread loaves to give as favors. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the autumn leaves and attached the pumpkin bread labels to them.
 

Later in the month I went to see the play Hamilton in Richmond. I wanted to see it because I'd heard so much about it.

I wasn't impressed. Some of the music was good, but overall I didn't like it. I guess now I know and I won't have to wonder what all the fuss was about.

One evening at the end of the month we went to Winterfest at Kings Dominion to see their Christmas lights display.

It wasn't nearly as spectacular as Christmas Town in Busch Gardens, but it had the advantage of only being 45 minutes away instead of two hours.

Not much to say about the photos, just showing off all the fun lights.

I was happy to see a life-sized nativity set in the midst of the mostly secular displays.

There was a Peanuts Christmas show that we went to. It wasn't Broadway quality, but it was cute.

Seeing a Christmas lights display is always a great way to kick off the Christmas season!!

The Rest of October

Here are pictures from the rest of the month of October!

 Photos from my annual Halloween Piano Party. I've been fortunate I've been able to hold it outside

for most of the years I've been having it.

We also hosted a luau under our back deck for some couples from the ward. The backdrop was painted by Jennifer Johnson when she was in the Relief Society presidency with me and we had a luau as an activity. 

I have quite a few luau decorations and wanted an excuse to use them again. 

I was going through some of my old memorabilia and discovered I had some postcards from when we went to Hawaii in the 1990's, and I used those as the invitations. (They're inside an orange vellum envelope) 

This matching authentic Hawaiian dress and Aloha shirt were my mom and dad's from a trip to Hawaii, which was another reason I wanted to have a luau! 

The buffet table before any food was put on it, I wish I'd thought to take a picture with the food! I made Hawiian baked beans with pineapple in them, gourmet glazed Spam, and a coconut cream pie. Everyone else brought Hawaiian themed food, too. The small picture on the table is a picture of my mom and dad in the Hawaiian clothes.

                              

Most of the women, at least, dressed appropriately!

Autumn is always a fabulously gorgeous season in Virginia.

We took a quick trip to Pennsylvania to visit one of our favorite places in the state, Longwood Gardens.

Since it was too late for most flowers and too early for Christmas decorations, we spent most of our time in the Green house.

This is a 1,000 bloom chrysanthemum from a single plant. Very impressive!!

Some of the fall colors at the garden, and a bamboo display inside the green house.

                                            

And of course, one of the main reasons we love Longwood Gardens, the fountain dancing waters light show! The music that will be used is listed on the internet, so I always try to choose a night to attend when the music will be familiar to us. 

It's impossible to capture the amazingness of the fountains in a snapshot. It's just a fantastic combination of fun music and dancing water, with even some flames involved on some songs. (As in the photo above.)

I just had to put in a picture of Tyler's family Halloween costumes. They borrowed our German clothes from the 80's and early 90's when we lived in Germany. They got the German hats from Amazon, and of course Tyler had to add a bushy mustache. They looked absolutely perfect, and I loved that they used the German clothes I'd saved!

Here are our family pictures wearing our German clothes in 1989and in 1992 right before we moved back to the states.