Folded Paper Tree

The first ever folded paper project that I saw was too many years ago when one of my elementary school classes did a project using two Reader's Digest magazines that we folded, stuck back to back,  then spray painted black to make something really pathetic for our mothers. I hadn't thought of it for years until last year when Woman's Day magazine had paper trees like the photo on the left in one of their holiday issues. I followed their instructions to make this one out of two phone books. Their version looked good--mine--not so much, but it was a relaxing project that I could do with my hands while my mind visited other places.

Cut Glass Vignette

There's no real reason for this pic other than the fact that I just love cut-glass novelties. Not completely shown in the pic is a cut-glass hurricane lamp in the background and this cut-glass candy dish in the foreground.

Centerpiece 2012

We did nothing elaborate with the table this year, but I always love the white tablecloths. Just about anything you stick on a white tablecloth looks good to me, within reason, of course. The stick deer in the photo are part of a fairly large collection that my mother made from oak limbs. She loves to make them and they are a cute addition to our primitive Christmas decorations.

Fall 2012 Centerpiece

Christmas Table

Candy and Christmas just go together. I've always loved peppermint stripes at Christmas and found a way to incorporate them into our tablescape this year without purchasing a new tablecloth. We had this round glass table topper for a side table in storage which I drug  out and  cut a matching circle out of heavy-duty Christmas wrapping paper. We dropped the glass topper on top of the paper in the table's center and piled on the candies, candle, and picks.

Christmas Table 2011

We removed the extension from our oval table to have a round table this year. I arranged the stuff and my mother made the table cloths and chair drapes. On the white round topper, she applied hand made crocheted edging that took her quite a few hours to make.

For Santa

This photo of cookies and milk for Santa was inspired by a Christmas card I saw and I just had to do it. I'm thinking it's better to photograph this stuff than it is to eat it.


I made the spritz Christmas trees and the chocolate thingamajiggies while my mother made the lady fingers.  

The Nutcracker Suite

For years my mother has enjoyed collecting nutcrackers for holiday decorating; this shot features just a few that she displays each year.

During the holidays, I really enjoyed using the night mode feature of the Olympus SP 565 UZ. That was the setting I used for this scene as well as most of my Christmas light scenes.

Christmas Tablescape 11

Our 2011 tablescape  was a very impromptu arrangement. However, before I go on I must quickly interject that I don't think , heretofore, the word “impromptu” and I have ever shared the same galaxy, let alone the same sentence or paragraph.  Normally, I have to and love to plot and plan things, extensively.  But there simply was no cerebral prodding required here. When we completed all the other decorating, we had not agreed upon a centerpiece for the table, and we had not found a place for the mirror, reindeer, cookie jar, poinsettias,  and the winter wonderland twigs. Wallah! The unknown variable in our Christmas centerpiece equation was solved when we shoved all the left behinds to the center of the table. Entirely too easy.

Christmas Party Tablescape 10 / For Tuesday Lunch Bunch Party

We arranged this tablescape for the central table used for the Tuesday Lunch Bunch party we hosted in 2010. 


Our menu consisted of a potato bar served with  an assortment of toppings that included butter,  chili, green onions, sour cream,  cheese sauce, and smoked Boston butt barbecue. For appetizers, we prepared finger sandwiches; Santa Fe' wraps; roasted bacon-wrapped water chestnuts (moose balls); pigs-in-blankets; and party picks stacked with cheese, olives and pepperoni.  For the beverage, we prepared a lime sherbet punch.

Several guests brought additional holiday dishes to share.

After our meal, we played a simple  Christmas word game in which  the hostess (that would be me) wrote  scrambled holiday words on a dry erase board. For each scrambled word, all contestants were given the same clue to solve it. The first person to  successfully unscramble each set of letters and form the right Christmas word won. Each winner then went to the Christmas tree to pick out the prize of their choice from a large selection of wrapped gifts.  Gift prizes were wrapped, inexpensive dollar store items that included the beloved rubber chicken, won by Carroll this time. 

Christmas Tree Closeup