Christmas 2011 and Snow in the New Year

Here are some photos of the Christmas decorations that were enjoyed during the holidays. I am totally enamored with vintage pieces with snowy trees and snowflakes playing a big part in the decorations. The glass gazebo is up year-round so it gets filled with bristle trees during Christmas. My beloved silver tinsel tree has small rice lights on it which are set to gently twinkle. Mercury balls, vintage snowflakes, and a bird collections are highlighted. The WISH ornament is from a friend who is a soldering master. My daughter started presenting a pair of matching birds to my late husband and I three years ago and now in his absence, she is continuing the tradition. Those special birds are proudly displayed on the tree as well.

The Puget Sound region was beautifully blanketed with snow the week of Jan 16. Some areas received over a foot of snow. On Bainbridge Island there was about 4-5" which made our property look simply wonderful. We named the acreage Fernwood due to the hundreds of native sword ferns which abound. The sign was designed by my architect/artist son, Brandon, and is placed at the entrance to the property. Moving the extremely heavy rock down the 600' driveway was a challenge, not to mention setting it in place. Fernwood Studio is the name given to my place where I teach craft classes. Please see my website, www.tigerlilysattic.com for more information.

Part of the landscape includes a copper gazebo with a granite bench. The gazebo was made by my husband for our wedding ceremony. Muslin curtins are hung on it during the summer and as you can see, they were never taken down, along with the candles and chandelier which is off-camera. The scene reminded me of the winter palace in the movie, Dr. Zhivago. I loved that movie. When I saw it in high school and loved the daffodil scene I knew someday if I ever had a girl, she would be named Lara. Life has been good and Lara is wonderfully in my life.

The lady statue always looks great with her snowy white hat and fur wrap. She has a collection of sea shells at her feet that I collected from a beach in Florida. Her basket of snow flowers completes her look!

Holiday Arts and Crafts Show

These are some images from a recent holiday arts and crafts show I participated in. It has been going for over 25 years on Bainbridge Island, WA and is called Christmas in the Country. Over 9 venues open up with an average of 13 artisans in each site. I feature vintage inspired ornaments and this year I introduced my line of reconstructed and up-cycled tops and the "collage-style" necklaces. A future post will show examples of each of those lines.

One of the amazing things that happened was to be able to use a large sized oil painting I had serendipitously found about 2 years ago. It has been sitting in the garage and made its debut for the show. It wonderfully camouflaged a bulletin board that could not be removed. So it leaned against the wall on top of the table and blended perfectly into the display.

The color scheme was dusty pink, black, and ivory. I find fabrics and curtin panels at flea markets and lavishly layer them on table tops. Cupcake towers and faux trees (including my cherished tinsel tree) were appropriate props and display pieces. I also used large vintage frames with chicken wire glued inside to hang ornaments on along with white-washed pedestals created with trimmed metal flashing and stair rail posts.

Vintage inspired snowpeople, vintage glass glittered trees, sparkly snowflakes, dazzling acorns, jazzy- edged butterflies on clips, delicate and intricate paper shows fit for Cinderella, nested birds amongst matte glass ornaments, and wreaths made with flowers cut from French dictionary pages were just a few of the ornaments and holiday decorations that were featured.

Hand-Crafted Holiday Ornaments

I am in high production gear in my studio getting ready for a local art show (Christmas in the Country) on Bainbridge Island, WA the first weekend of December. Along with necklaces, fabric flowers, up-cycled clothing, I will be featuring tree ornaments. Here is a small sampling of some of the ornaments.

The hearts and fairy ornaments were altered because they seemed to need some embellishment.

The darling red glass heart ornaments were charming just as they are, but not much escapes being glittered this time of the year. Using a squeeze bottle of liquid red glitter, I added a few drops on each heart. The secret to success when using this product is to not touch it and to let thoroughly dry.

The fairy ornaments were found unadorned from a chain store in the Christmas section. And while cute as is, they cried out for being gussied-up. I added a paper crown with drops of glitter, a small foam ball (like the kind in bean-bag chairs), a gathered doily skirt, and a belt of vintage tinsel.

The green wreaths were made from some unidentified green garland found at a wholesale floral supplier. It looked like small plastic garland was sprayed with tiny green foam balls. When I saw it I knew it would make a great wreath. I circled two lengths together and then wound another length around the two holding everything together. The wreaths measure about 5" in diameter and several would look delightful hanging in a kitchen window or clustered in a corner hanging with red ribbon in different lengths. I added a small stem of faux red berries and a red satin bow.
Smaller versions could be used as package toppers then hung on the tree as ornaments. ornament.

I have a tendency to look at things and wonder "what else can be done with this?" In a previous post, I mentioned using the hook caps from broken glass ornaments as a crown. It's just a matter of looking at things from another viewpoint. The ornaments shown in this post are examples of what one can do with simply working with what is already there by adding simple embellishments, like a doily for a skirt. And the beauty is, it doesn't require much product or time.

Just look and ask yourself the question, "What else?"