Santa Mugs and a Vintage Santa Mug Doodle - Freebie

 Hello, dear friends. Come on in and pick up a mug of your favorite beverage and let's visit for a moment. 

Well November 1st has always been my Santa Mug Day- the official day I put up my big tree and bring out my totes of Santa Mugs. Not this year though.

My decorating got pushed back because I went to help my daughter decorate her tree. But that is perfectly fine. I  had a fun filled day decorating a tree even if it was not my own. My daughter's tree was decorated in the farmhouse theme. Most of her ornaments were purchased from Walmart,  and they were so cute.  As for me,  Thanksgiving decor was put up in the kitchen and foyer and the rest of the house began to be dressed in its Christmas decor. In the midst of all of this I have also been trying to stitch, quilt and do a little crafting. Wheew! So much to do and so little time, but it is my favorite time of the year.

So this year my "Santa Mug Day" has been stretched over many days . I love collecting vintage Santa Mugs. My collection began actually with one mug bought in the 1990's because it reminded me of my Granny's mug. Unfortunately, I do not know where Granny's mug went. Granny lived in a little  secluded log cabin on the mountain and having grown up during the Depression, she was a make do kind of gal, and she carefully saved what she had. I always loved Granny's decor. She would cut down a little cedar tree, and the tree was filled with old Star Brite ornaments, a crocheted gingerbread man, vintage Santas, colorful lights  and lots and lots of tinsels. As children, my sister and I  loved to blow the strands of tinsel on the tree. Granny also had one lone Santa Mug in her Christmas decor. This mug  started my deep obsession.

I now probably have around 50 Santa mugs, not all are vintage. They used to be easy to find in the thrift stores for less than a dollar, but they  are harder to find now .  I still love to search for them though. So what about you? Do you like to collect any particular type of mug for the Christmas season?

I do not use my Santa mugs to drink out of , but I do decorate with them or put little bottle  brush trees or sprigs of holly  in them.

These are a few photos from last year's display. 

In celebration of my Santa mug collection, I have began a small  embroidered quilt.

 I drew out a little Santa Mug to embroider on a piece of scrap fabric.  I used a stem stitch on my embroidery and color tinted the image with crayons and then set it  with an iron.  I then did a little piecing using scraps of red and green fabric to frame in this little Santa block. Now my little quilt is not finished, I still have some more work to do on it, but I still thought I would share this work in progress.

 I used DMC floss to do the embroidery work ; those colors are 3839, 899, 353, 318, and 304.

 I would like to restitch it into a little pillow and only do redwork. Hmmm , my mind is always buzzing with the next thing to do whether it is completed or not.  Are you that way? 

Last month I posted my little Cup of Christmas Cheer cross stitch. If you missed that, click here to go to that freebie.

 Illinoisstitcher on Instagram made the cutest little pillows ornaments for relatives for the season. She omitted the tree and just stitched the mug; so if you haven't seen her stitches; please check her out. She is very prolific and does such beautiful work. Of course I do want to copy cat her and make some ornaments too. Lol.  I have seen so many stitchers working on this Santa Mug stitch which warms my heart. 

 To go along with that stitch ,  I decided to post this little doodle for creative uses.  If you are interested, just click on here for the pdf.  It is a simple little doodle.

This can be used for embroidery, punch needle, paper crafts, wool applique or whatever you dream up.

I hope to get my little embroidery into the hoop soon and then displayed with my collection.  

                  

The other day, I was  searching for some yummy holiday recipes on the wide web, I found this recipe called Santa's Whiskers. Now I have not tried it, but it sounds very interesting and I plan too. I will have to let you know how they turn out. If you have ever had these I would love to know what you thought about them . 

Santa’s Whiskers 

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup of sugar

2 T milk

1 t vanilla or rum flavoring

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 c finely chopped red or green candied cherries

1/2 c finely chopped pecans

1 c flaked coconut

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter or margarine and sugar, blend in milk and vanilla or rum flavoring. Stir in flour, chopped candied cherries, and chopped pecans. Form dough into two 8 inch rolls. Roll in flaked coconuts to coat outside. Wrap in waxed paper or clear plastic wrap; chill thoroughly. Cut in to 1/4 inch slices. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for about 12 minutes or till edges are golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to rack to cool.

Thank you  so much for visiting me today. I think I am about to pull out some mugs and continue decorating, and then I am going to  relax with  a little quilting.  Hope you are getting into the Christmas season. As always ... 

Happy quilting, ya'll,

Melisa