An Interesting Day and a Little Known Fact...

Being home alone today while the hubs was out running his trains down at his model RR club, I was crafting most of the day. Well, crafting, photograhing and pre-scheduling blog posts and surfing blogs while sitting here and receiving emails from bloggers. I noticed one blogger was having a birthday—yeah, right at the Christmas season; ain't that th' pits!—and I stopped to wish her a happy birthday. Then after a few emails I asked her if she'd like to see what I was doing today and I don't think she understood. It turned into a bit of a laugh for me because I started thinking about how pathetic we are when we sit at the computer most of the day communicating with people across the U.S. we've never met and probably never will. I had to chuckle when most of the women I know best are in my computer—either on the blogs or my eBay group. I do have a very good real friend but she moved an hour away about 4 years ago but we talk daily about our lives, children and our spirituality and how it's going and what we should do to be better women of faith. So to all of you who are finding that most of your better relationships are in the computer, let's hear it for the man who started the internet: J.C.R. Licklider, who came up with the idea in the early 60s and Lawrence Roberts, who was the first man to send a communication in 1965—over dial up. Yes, it's only that old, chicks.

Ooooh, yeah, almost forgot. I made this new tree topper today for our tree. You will never, ever see a blog post from me without some form of "eye candy"! :-)

I did actually switch it out myself with the other one. Hubs will be proud of me for not asking him to do it! ;-)


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A Quiet Day for Me

A friend in my eBay group made this for me. I tell you they spoil me rotten! Kates, my nickname for her, does silk ribbon embroidery and the most elegant things. I can't even begin to thank her for this little mitten she made. It is on my pink and white tree this year.
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These little wreaths are easy to make. Wrap a foam wreath with white ribbon. Then make the flowers out of any color wired ribbon you want. I've done wired ribbon flowers for years. Strip the wire from one side and shape into a round flower and attach to the wreath. Glue on and then add a sparkly button to the center. Lastly, add a length of ribbon for hanging and add something like this button for a little pizzazz and hang.

This one you could make by cutting 4" x 4" little squares of felt with pinking shears, taking a screwdriver and carefully sticking them in a straw wreath and adding whatever embellishments you'd like. Use any color you want.

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Pretty Rooms for Pink Saturday 12/19/09

Happy Pink Saturday. Join Beverly at howsweetthesound to view the other participants. I think you'll enjoy it.

Again, Beverly has asked us to share something and this time it is our holiday traditions. I'm not much into "traditions" for the holidays. I'm pretty much "easy does it" with that, plus I don't bake anymore because hubs and I certainly don't need the extra goodies but he is very specific about the food and it is rather easy also: turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, peas, waldorf salad, cranberry sauce, dressing and pie of course. If one thing varies, he misses it! He is such a traditionalist when it comes to his food. If we are invited out for that holiday and one of the things on our menu isn't on our hostess' menu then he doesn't consider it a "real Thanksgiving meal." He's so funny on this, but gotta love th' man for being so sentimental and he is nothing if not sentimental! ;-)
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There isn't much pink in this room but it was so attractive I couldn't let it go by without showing you what just a touch of "the most favorite color in the world" can do to a vintage room.

These walls are about the color of mine and that looks like a Laura Ashley fabric to me. Beautiful, romantic and feminine.

Pink and yellow is my favorite color combination. I've always loved it above all others. They simply complement each other beautifully and dramatically.

No pink here but isn't this room just glowing? It sets a mood as no other room can. Picture yourself on Christmas day in this room. Magnificent!

And now for a few modern day photos of red and/or Christmas rooms.

White, red and pink. Is this not lovely? While modern in a sense, it also speaks to a farmhouse style for its occupants. Darling!

I could definitely find solace in this eye-catching room.

A love red and white stunning vignette. Rich, luxurious and yet very homey.

You would sparkle in this dining setting. Glorious!

Would a guest not feel like a queen in this retreat? I would certainly love to be able to offer my guests this luxury.

Everyone should try a red bedroom at least once in their lives. I had a red wall in our family room in California. The room had a huge bay window and all the people walking by on the sidewalk would just stand and stare at it. Hubs and I would giggle at their reactions. It was quite flattering for them to stop, point and talk among themselves about it.
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Season of My Heart

Merry Christmas. For this post I decided to simply post things that are close to my heart this season.

Anything under a glass cloche. White pumpkins are the best outside of pink pumpkins. ;-)

Sterling silver with red accoutrements.

Our Home Teacher from our church gifted us with a huge canister of pistachios—my favorite nut.

Gift giving is not on our list anymore. I have every single thing I need and very few wants. But the beautiful wrapping on presents sends my heart aloft to heaven. *Sigh*...

Coconut cookies are my favorite ones outside of snickerdoodles. I loooooove coconut. Plus polka dots are one of my favorite patterns.

Little sugar cookies in pretty or unusual shapes set my heart aflutter. Plus having them pass my lips is a sense beyond description!

Family and snow scenes.

Hydrangeas are one of my top 3 favorite flowers.

Bright candy apple red pottery vases set me aglow also.

Silver glittered pine cones. Pink ones are beautiful, but the silver ones remind me mostly of the reason for this season—the Savior of mankind.

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The Pink, White and Roses Christmas Tree

In deciding to do the pink Christmas tree this year I thought I'd do a pictorial of actually putting it up from the very beginning. As you know, this is only an 1800 sq.ft. house with 5,000 sq.ft. of furniture! No, we really sold most of our furniture when we moved here and then promptly went to Thomasville and bought more. Duh! But here is the living room after we shifted the furniture around to accommodate the tree. Plus now you're seeing my secrets......shhhhh....don't tell anyone the curtains are hung too high. They are disguised when the couch is there. But I am NOT putting holes in my white woodwork so the curtains are hung above it and, thus, a tad short. See what you can do when you have to?

Cleaning out the space for the tree. This leaves us little room to walk around in there.

The tree is up!

Here it is, but the picture was very hard to get. It was so difficult to get a good photo of this tree in this light that I had a very sweet chick from church, Stacy, come over and photograph it with her professional camera. She took dozens of photos and I've got the flash drive from her tonight to put the photos on here but there are so many I think you'd be bored by the time I finished so I'll just include a few of hers and mine.

Lights on. The boxes under the tree are what I usually have under my coffee table. They are not presents. They hold storage items: tea light candles, pencils, special papers, etc. Except for one or two of the boxes, they are all hand made by me and covered with special wrapping papers purchased back in the early 1980s. I also am going to purchase more tulle to go around the base soon.

Now, I had no topper that I thought would be appropriate for this little beauty so I had to make one.

Closer view for you. To make this topper, watch for a tutorial on 12/26. Easy and you'll love it!

Okay, here's another topper I made after this was posted. I just couldn't pass up the chance to do another one even blingy-er. I fell in love with the candle wreath at Michaels since it looks like a diamond crown with the queen's pearls. ;-)

You just cannot imagine how spectacular this tree topper looks in reality.

I started with 24 yards of tulle netting and cut it in long strips to tuck into the tree weaving it from top to bottom and tucking delicately as I went. It wasn't enough but it's all I had and I made do. I could have used another 5 to 8 yards but I was on a roll and it was snowing and no way would I go out driving in the snow, chicks. So I filled the little holes with white organza ribbon in pink and white. Worked just fine. I stuck in bits of cards, things given to me by Katie, Stephanie, Bertie, Sharon, Lynn, Shirl, Ele, Karen, Jennifer, Judy, Vickie and Lorena. Most of the decorations I used were gifts to me from friends. I did use some things I bought at the stores but I wanted the tree to reflect my love for all the women in my group.

Pink painted, glittered and roses pine cones were all over the tree. Little tussie mussies I've made over the years. Feathers. Glittered snowflakes in silver and white with ribbon and ribbon roses on their centers. Roses are stuck into the tulle lace. Pink polka dot glass ornaments.

Painted cones and birds. Little cards and tags sent to me, even some from sellers I've bought from whose cards are so lovely I save them to put on the walls and tree. A fringed froufrou dress hanger Bertie made that is so exquisite that I had to hang it on here. I can't possibly just stick it in a closet with a dress on it!

White poinsettias with their white leaves inked with pink. Bottom right is a little ballerina dancing in a box that my friend, Rhea, made me. It has a place of honor in my home.

Of course, my hand painted wooden ornaments are on there also. The little yellow bag is a silk ribbon embroidery Shirl sent me last year. Gorgeous!!!!

Katie's silk ribbon embroidered mitten and Stephanie's cross stitch hangs on the tree too. Looking closely just to the left of the bright pink mitten is a spoon just under the pink organza ribbon.



Pink cones stuffed with curly pink paper and a little chick in each of them.

Several little strawberry sachets scented with plumeria hang there to fragrance up my home. It is always nicely fragranced, usually with gardenia oil.

Closer look at all the frills on there.

Even two fans given to me by Bertie are nested on there.

From here on down my friend, Stacy, took these one snowy morning. Much, much better than I could have done with my little $400.00 camera. Her's was a professional one with all the doo-dads. I'm the only chick I know that doesn't lust after dresses and jewelry; I lust after hi-tech gizmos and anything with roses! This is true.

Snowflakes I froufrou-ed up.

Little tussie mussie I made several years ago. Wood ornaments I hand painted and a little sachet from Bertie.

Birds, pink painted pine cones with roses and yards and yards of tulle and organza ribbon.

A little mitten embroidered by Katie, a vintage spoon hung with care and a lovingly cross stitch Santa from Stephanie.

More pine cones, painted cones with chicks in them, pink polka dot purchased ornaments and sequin sparklies.

An absolutely stunning dress hanger from Bertie adoringly made in the Victorian style with lace and fringe. Just gorgeous!

Yards and yards of white organza and glittery greenery. Roses in abundance, I can assure you.

A gorgeous ornament I found at the Dollar Store. Squeeeeeeeeeeal!!!!

A silk ribbon embroidery from Shirl. Her work is also exquisite.

Another ornament from the Dollar Store. I only found two I liked and that they had left.

Poinsettias I inked with pink on the edges. They are also in abundance on the tree.

Closeup of polka dot pink balls and glittery sequins adornment.

A hand made heart from Rhea who does lovely work. And snippets of left over tulle from projects I just stuck in among the branches.

More birds and roses.

Another adornment gifted to me from Bertie a couple of years ago.


End of Stacy's wonderful photos.

This is a special bracelet my friend, Katie, made for me.

And this little bauble came from Judy. Isn't it just darrrrrling?! A pink and rhinestone glittery watch.

And 8 little teapots that were gifted to me by my friend, Rhea. They are gorgeous!


You'll find many cards and tags among the branches of the tree. I save the pretty ones knowing I'll stick them somewhere in my home—in this case, the Christmas tree.

This ends the photos taken by Stacy. These I took after purchasing more tulle for the base of the tree so it isn't showing in all the previous photos. I'll be getting much more tulle for this tree next year—probably 20-25 more yards to do it even fuller next year.





The photos were taken at different times of the day and on different days even. And if you knew how long it took to put this post together you'd stand and applaud! I'm sick of it already. :-) And although I've read and reread and proofed it many times there may be misspellings and grammatical errors since it's taken a week to put this together. Forgive me. Hope you've enjoyed the pictorial.
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