Merry Christmas!

On this Christmas Eve eve I am wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, a happy, healthy, productive New Year and a wonderful holiday season!

One Last T-shirt

I had one blank T-shirt left and deliberated doing some more gingkoes, since I was so pleased with the last ones. But I had these cute little fish stamps and thought that would make a good theme. When I tried them out I decided that they were too small and proceeded to carve my own. I used a Speedy- Carve block, an Exacto knife and a Speedball carving tool.

No matter how much ink I put on the stamp I couldn't get a good dark print, the way I could on paper. I had to outline them all with a Pigma Brush pen and then I took a small stiff stencil brush to get some more ink from  the pad on them. I also used a Pigma Brush pen for the "water". Now I need another project. 

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Please go see what some talented artists are doing.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2017/12/off-wall-friday_21.html

Christmas party

For the past several years I have hosted a Christmas ladies' luncheon at my house. I love to decorate and this is a nice way to share it with my friends. I started out by having 10 in the dining room....very crowded and then last year new friends moved into the neighborhood and we were ridiculously crushed with 12 in the dining room (very small dining room). This year there were 14 I wanted to invite, that made 15 with me so I decided to break it up between my DR and kitchen. I put a leaf in the kitchen table and I sat 7 there and 8 in the DR.  I put a Christmas tree cutout under every other plate and those people had to switch into the other room for dessert. Everyone said that they liked this system and no one was crowded or smushed.

Dining room

Kitchen, adjoining the family room with my Santa tree.

Martini glasses being guarded by my Santa cookie jar. These were for the Santa Clause martinis. I made them last year and they were a big hit. First you dip the rims in light corn syrup, then flaked coconut. Martini mixture was vodka, red apple schnapps, and cranberry juice. Delicious. I was afraid that I would have coconut all over the floor, but the corn syrup acted like super glue. The glasses were difficult to wash if they were not soaked first.

Mickie, Donna and my sister, Ruthie, toasting with their martinis.

My good friend, Claire, and I are often taken for sisters.

Couldn't resist this Santa cake plate in Home Goods.

I have been calling this year the Eating Season. It has been one luncheon, dinner, cocktail party after another. I love it all but after the holidays I will have to go on my no-sugar diet. I have no resistance if it is in front of me or even in the house. So some purging will have to be done. But for now...bon appetit and Merry Christmas!

T-shirts

The Conservation Department of Woman's Club is going to sell decorated T-shirts at the February meeting to raise funds for a project that involves plantings at local nursing homes. Members were encourage to take one or two to decorate. We are to use symbols of nature and the word conservation has to be on the shirt. They bought the shirts in bulk for $1.15 and are selling them for $10. I initially took three shirts and was having so much fun that I at the next meeting I took 10. My sister is also doing some.

We started out by doing leaf prints and got a few done before a big killing frost that did in all the leaves. This first one uses geranium leaves. Acrylic paint was applied to the back and them firmly pressed to the fabric.

The lettering was done with a Pigma brush pen. I had a few from years ago and liked them so much that I ordered more online.

All the rest are done with Hot Potato stamps and Ranger Rick Archival ink pads. I outlined the stamps with the brush pens.

Of course I had to have gingkoes. I did this one and another below in different colors.

After seeing the picture of this one, I think I will add another  Allium to the opposite shoulder and one down near the hem.

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Please check it out and see what some talented people are doing.

Festival of Trees

I know that I have been remiss in my blogging and all three of you that follow my blog may wonder where I've been. I've been here, just keeping busy with this and that and not much to blog about. Since this in the beginning of the season I thought I would show you some of the more memorable trees at the Festival of Trees that I attended last week. This is an annual event put on by Ann's Place, which gives support, counseling and resources for people whose lives have been affected by cancer. Their services are offered free of charge so this big fund raiser is very important to them.

The decorated trees are donated by various people and also decorated by professional decorators on staff. There are over 200 trees and patrons buy tickets to put in the can next to the tree or trees they might want. The winners get to bring home a beautiful decorated tree.The trees are of all sizes, from nine feet tall to three feet. There are many themes and I am going to show you just a few that caught my fancy.

This next tree was made by the Woman's Club of Danbury/New Fairfield, of which I am a member. Last year our Spring luncheon's theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's and we all wore our "little black dresses" and pearls. Some of the members really glammed it up with cigarette holders, fascinators, long gloves, and even one mink stole. We had quite a few of those fabulous Tiffany blue boxes left over and strings of pearls and some of the women decided to do a tree. We won an Horrible Mention in its devision. Audrey would have been proud.

Be sure to click on each tree to see some of the amazing details.

I

I have started on my own decorating this weekend. The Santa tree and all the Santa decor in my family room is finished. Now on to the living room tree and the dining room. I'll get it all done this week, I hope. I'm getting all new kitchen appliances delivered tomorrow, so that will send me back a bit. My 20 year old electric range is slowly dying (I'm replacing it with gas), the equally aged dishwasher is so noisy that you can't stand to be in the same room with it and since everything has to match, I'm also getting a new microwave and refrigerator. The refrigerator is still working just fine so that will go into the garage to act as a second fridge, which will come in handy, like this week when I made three big batches of soup to freeze. Not enough room in my current side by side. I'm getting a French door fridge with the freezer on the bottom, all stainless steel which I have been avoiding, but there are so few choices now. It's either SS, or white or black. Black or white would not work in my kitchen, so SS it is.

I am working on some fun things in my studio, so please come back and I will show you what.

Hmmmmm?

I was rather taken aback when I went to Home Goods yesterday and saw this print for sale. Does it remind you of my work? I have done several quilts in this series and you can see more on the Geometrics page on my blog.

Detail of larger quilt

Salsa City, full size

Detail of Sunrise City

Detail of Twilight City

Sooooo, what do you think? I know that there is nothing new under the sun, but............


I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Alphabetica

I told you I had two openings last weekend in which I had work. Here is the first of them. FANE, one of the groups of which I am a member, puts on a show every year. The theme this year was the alphabet and members were assigned letters. Some of us (me included, did two).

All of the quilts are 16" x 20" and perfectly squared up. Anything looking otherwise is because of my photography. Sorry!

We also each made a coloring book page to go with our quilts but the books were not finished by the time of the show. Hopefully I can show you them later.

A is for Antelope by Christine Wilhelm

B is for Buttons by Norma Schlager

C is for Collage by Gloria Michaelis

Di is for Doodle Wilma Sanchez

E is for Everything by Nancy Mirman

F is for Feather by Barbara Drillick

G si for Garden by Cindy Green

H is for Hills by Linda Stern

I is for Iris by Claire Oehler

J is for Jack-in-the-Pulpit by Barbara Sferra

K is for Kaleidoscope by Maria V. Calderon-Weinstein

L is for Lily Pads by Cindy Green

M is for Music by Gail Ellsperman

N is for Nest by Jane Davila

O is for Octopus by Jane Davila

P is for Penguin by Renee Fleuranges-Valdes

Q is for Quilt by Gail Ellsperman

R is for Rose by Norma Schlager

S is for Scripture by Judy Gighese

T is for Tea time on the Train by Tamar Drucker

U is for Unicorn by Joyce Sullivan

V is for Vanity by Raina Lynn

W is for Witches by Nike Cutsumpas 

X is for X-ray by Carole Hoffman

Y is for Yoho Head, Maine by Nancy Mirman

Z is for Zipper by Maria V. Calderon-Weinstein

It is a fun show to see and will be up until November 28 at the Mahopac, NY Public Library.

In case you are wondering, my second cataract surgery was a success. I had blurry vision and a fair amount of pain the first day, but by the next day that was gone and now I have great vision in that eye. Much better that the eye that was done three years ago. Everything looks so clear and crisp.

I'm sorry to say that I did not take pictures at the second opening last weekend, at the FairHaven Furniture Store in New Haven, CT. It was just so crowded and I was so busy viewing and schmoozing. It was a Surface Design show put on by the local CT chapter. It is an amazing show with huge diversity. It is treat for the eyes and will be up until January. My happy news is that one of my pieces sold. Sure like to see those red dots!.