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.