Working Well Under Pressure

Part A:  Every day I get updated posts from different bloggers with pictures of their holiday decor and they all seem to really have it "together" for the holidays.  I am writing this post on December 21st just before I leave for work.  Would you believe I just started shopping on the 20th?  I hope to have time today to run into Macy's and grab a few more things, and hopefully I can complete my shopping by the 22nd.  My youngest daughter still lives at home and is bewildered by the lack of gifts for her under the tree.  I keep assuring her Santa has not forgotten, that sometimes we work under a little extra pressure. 

Part B:  So since I didn't publish the post because I was not done writing it, here is an update.  The streets are pure madness, the malls are crazy, but I must say I only encountered one rude person and one horn honker in the traffic today.  For the most part everyone was beyond patient and just went with the flow.  Although I am beat from my day of running store to store after working for a few hours this morning, I am pretty pleased at how calm my fellow shoppers were and surprised at my own serenity.  Never have I been this late with Christmas.  Maybe it's been the blog or the trip for Thanksgiving to visit my daughter and the whole day job thing, but it was all worth it.  Life is good and I have so much to be thankful for.

Soooo, if anyone out there is as behind as I am, take heart.  You are not alone.  In the end it all gets done, and I am just thankful we will all be together once again.

Christmas Get Together

We were invited to a Christmas get together on Sunday at a neighbor's home and it was a lot of fun.  I have used cranberries in arrangements before but not with floating flowers.  This was a beautiful easy centerpiece.  This magnificent rose came from her garden.

 These cookies looked so perfect like they were out of the pages of a cookbook.  Nancy's daughter was home for the holidays from Switzerland and she brought a special cheese home to share with us.  The name of the cheese is Raclette.  You place it underneath a Racletterie which broils the very top layer of the cheese and melts it.  You then tilt it up and slide the cheese onto a plate of boiled small potatoes and pickles.  Sort of like a hot potato salad.

 The end result was totally yummy.  Needless to say, it made quite the conversation piece.

Glitterfest Starfish

This could or could not be Christmas.  One of our dealers at Aubergine Emporium made up a few starfish with jewels and they were selling like hotcakes.  I asked her if she would make some for my blog but she encouraged me to do the project instead since she is out of stock.  I glittered mine and kept the color scheme simple, clear and aqua rhinestones.  On one of the starfish I experimented with just globs of glue and then I glittered that.   The pictures don't do them justice.  They would be beautiful in a Christmas tree or on a silver tray just like I did here.  They have a very beachy feel (dah! they are starfish), but none the less they are quite stunning.

At first I put Modge Podge on the starfish and sprinkled it with the shiny white glitter.  For the first couple I did, I mixed the two-part epoxy and used tweezers to hold the rhinestones.  This was doable but not very easy.  I finally got smart and put a dollop of the Martha Stewart craft glue on the starfish and used the tweezers to place the gems.  This was a lot easier.  Tacky Glue would probably work too.  I embellished the centers with stray earings and broken pins.

I am linking to the following link party.

Cherished Christmas Gift

This past Sunday I ventured out to my favorite flea market where I meet an old friend nearly every month.  Now if you browse around my blog, it won't take you long to realize I like to paint signs on just about any flat surface that I find, especially old cabinet doors. 

It was pretty cold on Sunday, and I hadn't taken much cash, and I just wanted to go home as I had been there since 5:30 in the morning and this was about 8:00, but my friend convinced me to make one more trip around the vendors to see if anyone new showed up.  We came upon this old box full of stencils.  There is no date on it, and the city and state on the box have no zip code and the only reference I found on the internet was 1947.  This box is a complete set of old stencils with many different fonts and sizes.  What a great find!  Neither one of us had seen anything like this and it was a complete set with an intact box that is beautiful in its own right.  I was so excited and to my even bigger surprise my friend insisted this was my Christmas gift from her.  I cannot wait to get all the stencils out to see exactly what is in there.

 This box is beautiful.  It is called a Showcarder.

 Each category has at least two to three stencils in it, plus it has the original instructions and font sample pamphlet.  Is this a cool gift or what?  Beautiful, practical and oh so special.