Holiday wrapup…some of Donna’s favorite things… January 3, 2011

Happy New Year everyone! There is so much to like about the holidays…and when you’ve had a whole week off without writing a single blog(so sorry)…there’s a lot of ground to cover, you know? So I will begin today by sharing some of my fav things from this week, in no particular order.

Flowers in burlap...love the look...

First, a beautiful red Amaryllis. This flower has already lost two stalks of blooms, and then came around again, with another gorgeous stalk. And I love, love, love the burlap bag, which I found at a nursery in Birmingham where they had them as an option for potted plant gifts, and bought several sizes for a buck each(including some really big ones). I asked where they got them….they said, “Alabama Bag and Burlap…we just call and tell them what we want and they sew ‘em up for us.” I think burlap makes just about anything look better, especially something as elegant as an Amaryllis.

Celebrate...always a good motto!

I put lots of tiny pine cones over the pot’s soil, and the little “celebrate”  is a favor from a wedding several years ago here in Baltimore at the Visionary Arts Museum, that they had made by a local artist. I love them….Next, little golden pears that I’ve had for years, and each holiday season I pull them out and use them differently(from Pier One? maybe…).

And a pear in a partridge tree......

This year one was spotlighted on top of a picture frame….

Pear green bowl, a gold pear and pear shaped salt and pepper...

Another one sits on my new open shelves in the kitchen, alongside some pear green Emile Henry bowls , and pear-shaped salt and pepper mills of the same shade. Love the way they look together.

one flower or 12..it looks great...

And this set of “test tube” vases sitting in an iron frame, my sister Audrey gave me several years ago(love u sis!) I’ve always adored this..I even dragged it to nyc for a party, and it looks absolutely perfect in the new kitchen. And you can do just one flower in one tube, and it looks equally good. Gotta love that….

Cobalt blue salt cellars...

These dear little cobalt blue salt cellars were given to me a few years ago by a longtime friend, when she and her husband moved into a retirement home in Sykesville. Her father had been a British army officer and they lived in India for some years, but her home was London. We stayed once in her late Mother’s flat near Sloane Square years ago, which was not only a very fancy address, it was like stepping back in time..I can still see the inside of it. So these well-traveled salt cellars were used Christmas for dinner, with sea salt in them. Who knows  where they’ll go next? (To be continued, tomorrow…)

Countdown to Christmas…I’m recycling just about everything… December 22, 2009

I'm drowning in recycling...help!

OK, seriously….if recycling doesn’t come tomorrow(and I know they will, but still), I will be in big trouble. Take a look at this pile of boxes and paper and flotsam and jetsam, lurking untidyly(not sure that’s a word) in the corner of the family room. It’s enough to strike terror into the heart of anyone riding the recycling truck. And it is without doubt, evidence that I did most of my shopping online this year. I love the idea of strolling around charming shops looking for gifts, but this year I just didn’t have the time, and my fingers did the shopping.

Recycled pine cones...

And speaking of recycling….recycled pine cone alert! Remember the huge pine cones from the party? The ones I ordered off of EBay…(yes, you can find anything on Ebay).  I had so many of them, I tied a dozen or so onto pine roping…can I tell you they looked so beautiful in the snow….very rustic, very Southern Living.  Oh, and some of them also did double duty,  showing up as Christmas tree ornaments.

The tree wasn’t bought until this past Saturday morning…in the snow…but it’s up and decorated…finally. All of the ornaments on our tree have a history of some sort, and while I love the idea of a “designer tree”…where all of the decorations have a theme or match in some way, I could never change our tree from what it is. Which is to say, a hodgepodge really, of lovingly collected snowmen, dolls, animals, angels and whatever that we have collected or been given over the years.

Wise elf watches all...

The ones in the pictures have memories for me….great memories….the little elf holding his knees, and the little china angel date back to my childhood….and Mom gave them to me. I love finding a place in the tree for the elf to sit…he just watches all the holiday fun from his piney perch…and the tiny basket by the angel, no bigger than your thumb..was  given to my daughter from a wonderful young woman who took care of her in preschool named Miss Daisy.

Little old angel...

She made sweet little ornaments for all the kids, and at least this one survives, almost 20 years later.

On Christmas day we will be home …home here, not home Alabama. My sweet daughter, my son and the lovely Jennifer will also be here…I feel so lucky to have them all at Christmas though I know that won’t always be true. One must learn to share, after all.

But all my shopping is finished..done. I think. I’m hoping I don’t get a last minute attack of the “I don’t have enough” whimwhams. One of my sisters has already come down with this much dreaded and potentially expensive malady, and I hope to avoid her fate….last minute shopping. The gifts are wrapped, for the most part, mostly with recycled boxes I got last year and the year before when I had gifts wrapped at the store before they were sent(thank you Neiman Marcus)….and get this.

Gift tags with a little history behind them...

I even recycled some really beautiful bird gift tags I bought last year! I mean, the presents are given to the same people year after year….why throw away something that is perfectly useful and still lovely? And my sister Audrey had a great idea which I haven’t tried…she makes tags from the fronts of Christmas cards she has received….pretty on the front, blank on the back…think about it.

Ok, for those of you not finished with your “rat-killing“, as my Mother would call it…get out there and get it done. And then lets all take a collective sigh of relief and just….relax. For a little while?