One Last Christmas Post

I have to make one last Christmas post about the decorations in my friend Janice's house. She has an artist's heart and mind. She took an old artificial tree - removed some of the branches - found the white spray paint and sprayed the tree - she then decorated in a grand Victorian style. One year she used all old costume jewelry on it and it was great! Now, it's a combination of beads, gold, white, and pink - flowers and ornaments - all in the Victorian style. Please click to see it larger! This is just one of her trees - all of them equally grand!

Sharron's Christmas Brunch

I have a very dear friend Sharron who delights her friends yearly with a Christmas Brunch. Sharron has many talents and among those are being a great cook and a very savvy decorator. Her theme this year was "A Candy Cane Christmas" (she has a different theme yearly). So, here are the napkins with candy cane rings.

Here is the serving table all done with candy cane trees.


The mantle close by all done with red and white candies.

Her giant candy cane collection!

Sharron has an eye for 'prims' as well so here is her tree in a prim candy cane decor. Don't you like her Santa? (I'm prejudice - I have one like it, both made by my husband quite a few years ago.)

I liked her little signs on the tree along with her candy canes.

Loved the grubby candy cane candles with her rocking horse and rusted jingle bells.

She had gifts for each of us (she always does)...jars of white chocolate peppermint scone mix all tied-up with a ribbon candy ornament.

This is Sharron lighting her peppermint candles.

Here are some of us partaking of her great brunch. We had lots of fun laughing, telling stories, and catching-up with one another.

This is the group of us .

Thanks, Sharron, for being the terrific person you are and for being one of my dearest friends!

Trash to Treasure Tuesday

My Christmas present from my DH is finished and in place. This started as an old door from my son's house (see the glass doorknob beside the screen on the left side of the laptop). The main purpose in its creation was to give me a place to have my laptop besides being on the bar area of the counter. DH put a little drawer in it and everything. The idea was taken from Joy at Joys of Home.
Joy has done numerous things with old doors in her home. Below you can see how a chair fits just perfectly with this little "desk-ling". I want to recover the seat of the chair one of these days to coordinate with my new piece of furniture. Thanks, Joy, for the idea. Most of all - "Thanks to my multi-talented husband for making it for me!" Be sure and check out Trash to Treasure Tuesday with others at A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words.

A Paula Deen Christmas

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Christmas Friends group had their 26th annual Christmas Progressive Dinner this weekend. We had "A Paula Deen Christmas" for our theme. All of our food came from Paula Deen recipes. The slide show will show you clips of our time together. We had great food; wonderful fellowship; beautiful decor full of Christmas cheer. Hope you enjoy it - we sure did!

Children and Music

My grandaughter Kaitlin had her first orchestra concert last night. She began violin in September. It's amazing to see how much children learn in a relatively short period of time. The fifth grade orchestra of the district did a great job last night. Kaitlin's mom is a music educator and started in music when she was a kindergartener with piano lessons. She started in band when she was in fifth grade too. She's learned to play numerous instruments. Music is a huge part of her life and always has been. I feel like music is a good discipline for kids. I believe statistics show that children involved in music are less likely to be involved in disciplinary procedures, and drugs; and are higher achievers academically due to their involvement in music. My involvement in music starting in elementary school did provide a life-long hobby and enjoyment throughout my life. So, I say "Yea for music in schools!"

Patriotic Trash to Treasure Christmas

I've shown my patriotic Christmas tree before. It is in my family room and I've had it for many years so I'm always picking up ornaments and other things for it during the year. My SIL was here for an early Christmas several years ago and when she went back home to Stockton, CA; she was telling a friend about my patriotic theme. Her friend had a patriotic Mr. and Mrs. Santa that she was going to get rid of at a garage sale and she gave them to my SIL for me. That's what I found among the Christmas packages from California. They sit on my mantle every year among the garland and flags. Be sure to stop by Diane's at A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words to see the other Trash to Treasure things people have to show you.

Christmas Decorating

I have two old eggnog sets (does that make a collection?). I love the red and green and the silhouettes on them. I find though that most people do not opt for eggnog when other choices are there - so I rarely use them for eggnog. I LOVE eggnog!

I changed garland this year on my living room fireplace. I read on someone's blog to make a garland thicker by twisting them in with an old garland (duh - what's so hard to think about that??) so I did that and I'm really happy with it. I went with gold anhd white on the mantle.

My Hoosier filled to the brim with Santas - if you look really close you'll see the sign on the left-hand side which says "simplify" (not so much!). I pick-up those little Santa mugs at garage sales all the time for a dime or quarter (not like I need anymore).

My hearth room mantle - I cross-stitched the red and red/green stockings before I had grandkids so they're all similar. Grandkids came along and I made them out of burlap - so that if there are more grandkids someday, I can always find burlap

Books

Last night we had Ladies With Books book club here at my house. My choice was My Antonia by Willa Cather. I think the majority of us liked the book. Cather is great with descriptions and character development. The one objection I did hear was that plot was somewhat lacking. It wasn't an exciting book but it was a book demonstrating the ability of one who knows how to how to use the English language. I liked the book. So, if you're one who enjoys history and the learning about the lives of those who settled these prairie states, choose this one to read. We always try to serve a refreshment that reflects our chosen book. The one desert mentioned in the book was chocolate cake so we had the chocolate sheet cake that's made with buttermilk and cinnamon with a great frosting! However, my favorite refreshment I served was "Czechs' (Chex) mix". The character of Antonia was Bohemian (possibly from Czechoslovakia). I did have to mention it before anyone "caught on". I thought it was rather clever myself!