Saturday, December 29, 2007

An Amazing Christmas

I hope you had an extravagant Christmas on the lines of this house in our neighborhood and my favorite children's Christmas book The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza.

We were fortunate this year to have Katie with us and the house was packed with about 25 of our relatives. We missed seeing my sister-in-law and her family and 4 children. We also missed seeing my nephew David and his family but they had a good excuse; Jamie delivered a beautiful baby boy, Xavier, on Christmas Eve. He joins his two year old brother Peter. Photos to follow.


We had great food and a crazy time playing Trivial Pursuit, the original 1982 version! I remember driving to Canada to get the game. It was a huge hit and impossible to find except in Canada. So a bunch of us piled in the car and drove to Windsor!


The frenetic pace of the holidays is over and it's time to kick back, relax, and cram in as many movies as possible. So far, Sweeney Todd, P.S I Love You with Charlie Wilson's War and The Great Debaters still to see.


Katie is the proud owner of her very first, official car. She bought a red Saturn SL!!! She turns the Geo over to heer brother, who has been longing for "his" car back. Now we just have to get rid of the blue truck.







Sunday, December 16, 2007

Christmas Home Tour










Welcome to our home at Christmas. Enjoy!



(above and below)
Our beautiful 8', $25! , Blue Spruce.
For the full story see entry
entitled "Oh, Oh, Oh Christmas Tree"






Celadon nativity from Thailand.
I flew to Thailand last year on December 24, to visit my daughter who
was teaching at an international school, arriving in
Bagkok at 11:50 pm Christmas Day. This nativity was my beautiful
Christmas gift from my daughter.








New this year!
Pink and Black Victorian decorations in the foyer.
I used this color tree and color theme earlier in December on my
table display at an art show where I sold my jewelry.




Black and white silhouette ornaments are made from victorian images and embellished with a hint of pink; a rhinestone earring, necklace, or bracelet framed in a dollar store frame





Thursday, December 13, 2007

For Bev, Britt, and the children at The House of Blessing Orphanage






This Christmas, Britt, Katie's Thailand roommate's brother has "adopted" the children at the House of Blessing orphanage, where Brooke volunteers. He is hoping to find 123 sponsors to "adopt" each of the children. A gift of $10 will be used to buy a T-shirt, underwear, a toy and a craft.
What an incredible project. So far, 85 orphans have been adopted! We are so honored to be a part of it! You can too> Go to Bev's blog at www.beverly-brandon.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Merry Christmas

It seems hard to believe that a year ago I was leaving on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with Katie in Thailand. This photo is of the lobby at the Novotel where we stayed Christmas night. I traveled all day the 24th and arrived at 11:55 the 25th.

I'm feeling a good deal nostalgic about my three weeks in Thailand but I am so glad that Katie is home this year to celebrate with us. We are hosting the family Christmas at our house this year.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

You have made your way to this blog and I hope have enjoyed catching up on our lives this past year. Better than a newsletter, I hope.

Please visit Katie's blog to see how her life in med school has been going. Fun photos and videos too! You can get there from this blog...see the side bar on the left of my blog for the link that says "The Daughter" or type in.....

drkatiegoestomedschool.blogspot.com

If you feel so inspired, leave her a note too.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Christmas Tree





The hunt for the "perfect" Christmas tree always used to send me into a tailspin of dread and anxiety. But many years ago I found two brothers who sold trees from their home that were fresh cut from their farm up north. They went up over Thanksgiving and brought the trees back with them. They were gorgeous! It still required going to their place in the freezing cold of Michigan, holding up trees to see what they looked like and then writing a hefty check, and hauling it home. But about 7 years ago they decided to retire to that farm up north, sold their property to a developer and left town!

It was panic time for me and a few years of trudging through the tree lots inreally freezing cold and semi darkness. Then.......ta da!.... a sign appeared at the red barn on the corner of my subdivision announcing blue spruce trees for sale. Not much parking and only about a dozen trees leaning against the barn BUT...they were all perfect! Every one of those blue spruces were gorgeous, in fact I don't even pick the tree out. I leave that to Larry, the True Blue Trees guys and they are only $25! Yes, 8 feet of blue spruce for $25. The best part? Larry also delivers....free. So for the past4 years I have had the most fabulous trees. One year he wasn't quite up to it and this year there was no sign out! Help...what to do? Before I took that long trudge out to some other tree places I called Larry and left a message. When he got back to me on Saturday afternoon, he said he wasn't doing any trees this year but he could get one for me. He was going out to his property Sunday and would cut a tree and deliver it. Did you get that??? He went out, picked out the tree, CUT it and DELIVERED IT the following day! The picture above is this years' tree. A plate of Christmas cookies is on it's way to Larry's house this week.

Life in the fast lane




Women artisan's sale Set up (avove and right) at The Iron Pig








Yikes!!! It's been almost a month since I last posted on this blog. Where did the time go?? What on earth have I been doing? New pins made with Vintage postcards Pink and black tree at Women Artisans





I'll try to catch you up and post pictures above. I haven't quite figured out how to imbed pictures in my text so they all end up at the top of my blog entry. Maybe over break I'll have Katie help me.





It's Art and Craft season and I've been doing a lot of shows. The first weekend of November I invited 4 crafty friends to do a show at our house. It was wonderfully successful and a so much fun. The weekend after that I was in the 3 day Mason Christmas Craft Show and again did exceptionally well. For the past 3 years I have been floating from "house to house" on this sale (there are 20 houses featuring about 40+ artisans) and I found myself at the delightful Iron Pig Antiques. Helen and Leroy Townsend and their daughter Jeanine were such gracious and generous hosts that by the end of the weekend it seemed like we were family. In fact, over the three days I met many of their family members and learned a good deal more about the Townsend family. I had a blast. Thank you Townsends!!





Thanksgiving arrived along with my daughter Katie! It was so good to have her home for a few days. I am blessed that she is in school so close to home; Detroit is only and hour and a half drive from here. I see her often but there's nothing quite like having her home. I'm looking forward to her three week break for Christmas.





The following weekend I did an amazing show, a new one for me, at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center called Lansing Women Artisan's Holiday Sale. Very classy and beautiful handcrafted items. I decided to decorate my area in black and pink! So much fun and very different. My good friend Dan has also been sharing my jewelry with his clients, he's a hair stylist, and with the cast of Spamelot, he does hair for the traveling shows. I've been finishing up special orders and having fun restyling some jewelry for a client of mine.





It's probably time to do some Christmas shopping now.