Christmas Card Party

My dear friend K had her annual christmas card making event recently.  The "theme" this year was the little black dress, so that's what i wore!

 Here are some of the goodies she laid out for us on the table.

 we all get into sharing supplies - so here is a little packet of goodies from Z.

 And some embellishments from M.

 Here is my card design for this year.  A teal flocked background paper on an ivory card. On top a swallow die cut stamped with music.  She has a gemstone eye and a pretty wine coloured ribbon bow.  Super simple - but somewhat luxurious. 

 Here is the formal table K set for our luncheon.

 First a savory vegetable soup with garnishes - sauteed mushrooms, herbed goat's cheese, and chives.  The little shoe is K's annual tradition.  I think i have three or 4 already!

 For the main course, roast ham with an orange cranberry glaze, roasted potatoes and asparagus.

 After lunch i started on these smaller cards.  They have a flocked paper background and a felt embellishment.  The trees and deer are embellished with a small gemstone.  hope the post office doesn't chew these up!

M's project was to stamp circles from recycled christmas cards, and fold and glue to make this festive garland.

 Trust me - it is WAY cuter in person!

 This is K's elegant silver and black tree - in keeping with the little black dress theme.

 Z, K and M

 Z, D and K  (S left before i took the pictures)

 Z hard at work embossing vellum.

 So cute.

 K's blue themed gift tags in progress.

 the little floral arrangement in a silvered vase was a gift from S.

We finished off our day of crafting with tea and cake.  yes - it was delicious

 and a great day spent with friends in the warm embrace of our hostess K.

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the holidays in crisp, cold but sunny Calgary with my sister's family. We had a great time and enjoyed fabulous food, especially Donna's home baking! This is a card my niece Erica made for me. She knows i love blue and birds. We had some fun doing some art projects. I'll have to get them to send me some pictures. We did cards and some paper quilt style collage.

I am late posting some pics of my Christmas decorations. I have over 20 rubbermaid totes filled with ornaments, all but one are in storage back in Novato. We moved down to Pasadena with just one box - my latest theme - birds and robin's egg blue.

We just bought a small tree, about 4 1/2 feet, at Fresh and Easy for $14.99. It sits on top of a small table covered with a plush pale blue tree skirt. I only used aqua blue tinsel, birds and glass icicles.
Here is my mantel - usually it just has my collection of white things, but i added some black and white or silvery christmas cards saved from past years. Then i added some mercury glass balls in robin's egg blue and some organza ribbon with blue and silver spots.
Here is the whole effect. Those are twinkly christmas lights on the log in the fire box.

Here is a fabulous winter banner from my dear friend and kindred spirit Aileen from Outside the Margins. She wrote about this banner on her blog - and so i was very excited to see that she sent it to me! Here is her tutorial.

Today is new year's eve. Later this evening, the flower covered floats for the Pasadena Rose Bowl parade will start lining up along Orange Grove blvd, right outside our door. I'll have some fun pics to post tomorrow. Hope you have a fun and festive day and ring in the new year with some tasty bubbly!

Tree topper

The star i made here actually made it to the top of our christmas tree! That was not my intention when i made it. But last year i went all robin's egg blue and bird crazy for our christmas tree. All the ornaments were put in a new robin's egg blue tote in the garage.

So the large gold leaf star i have been using for the past 20 christmases is packed in the GOLD ornament box. Buried under the Burgundy ornament tote. Underneath the Paris themed box. Beside the mercury glass tote marked FRAGILE. The ones that are way to heavy to put on a tree. So anyway this star was just sitting there on the sideboard - and it matches perfectly - so why not set it on top of the tree?
Seriously, i could have 10 trees and not run out of ornaments. I didn't even mention the Noah's ark ornaments - dozens of animals, two of each of course, or the pastel ornaments i had in our first house with the 80's style peach and aqua colour theme. I also had a beaded fruit phase. Oh and the traditional folkloric ornaments that i never plan to use, but buy after christmas when they are on sale and plan to tie onto gifts, but never do because i cannot bear to part with them.
Oh, and the music ornaments. Can't forget those. I have LOTS of those. Drums (hubby is a pro drummer), string instruments, brass and silver wind instruments, and even little keyboards. Usually i add them to the garland that is strung on the banister. I made the little wall hanging last year - it says Little Drummer Boy.
Anyway - the tree is up and looks great in the new blue living room - as i knew it would a year ago when i first started this blog, and started collecting the blue ornaments. And my bird obsession? That has not dissipated one bit.

Thanks again to Rachel Killpack for the star inspiration!