White Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

* I added another note to this post late Tuesday evening.

Said with cotton balls in the mouth.....What am I the Godfather? No, I am just very busy, so here are some pics of my home, and a client's home I am working on this weekend, all mixed together. I have an early jump on WW and this will probably be my only post for this week. Come back after the weekend to see show pics and other Holiday Goodies. Having a blast, but weary is just around the corner. 20 days till kids! Think I'm counting the days? You bet!







































*Tuesday evening nearly midnight. Well, except for a new banner for my booth, I am finished with everything for the show. Thanks to my band of cheerleaders, always ready with their pom poms. I am going to try very hard (with reminders from the gal pals) to get lots of pics since I took NONE of the items that I made. I remembered everything else I needed down to the most minute details, but forgot to document the process, so please come back to see those pics soon. There are still dozens of things on my "to make" list that did not get made, but there is always another day, and maybe I'll make them before Christmas to keep for my home. I had set a pretty hefty goal for myself and early this am I passed the retail amount I had hoped to reach.

Tomorrow I am making an old grey mare pendant banner similar to the BOO one in the last Gathering. Then I want to start on some hostess gifts since the Holiday parties are beginning. Today at Target I was perusing all the special holiday foods and gift sets, and Oh, don't you just love this time of year? I wanted one of everything, the special spicy nuts, the chocolate dipped pretzels, the chip dip mixes, chipotle and red bell pepper.

I'm sure that Target has less inventory this year, but what they do have is quite nice, and I love the melamine dinnerware sets for kids in the MARTHA colors of blue and green with penguins. Don't get me started on the blue and green dog stockings and sweaters on sale! Hannah would never let me live it down if I dressed the dogs, but dang they were cute. I put one little Halloween cap on Howie a few years back, and I'm still hearing about it!

I am pretty well booked for the remainder of the year but there are still a few days available for client holiday decorating, organizing and party planning. Just a reminder, the discount rate ends December 31, 2009.

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

May this day be filled with blessings to all of you, and remember to count them, every one, lest we forget just how fortunate we are.

Suzan

THANK YOU SHOUT OUT

An enormous shout out of thanks to my girls, my wonderful elves who came and spent the day with me, keeping me grounded and sane during this hectic time. They stamped, glued, painted and glittered and made me LAUGH.

To Heather, Paula and Sarah, I am so grateful for your help and truly thankful for your friendship.

It really is the season of giving and you three gave great. Love you guys!

27 days till my home is abundant with joy- a Mama's joy.

White Wednesday Christmas

Another peek at the goings on around the abode this week. Lots of pics since I may not be able to do WW next week. I just walked around the house this evening and in less than 3 minutes snapped these so please excuse the casualness. I have yet to master the shots with all the lights lit and that is my favorite part. I have a good excuse, it is snowing in here!

Hoho Holidays

The crafting and design continue with a slight touch of madness thrown in for good measure. The downstairs is nearly complete and even though abundant, is less than I have produced in prior years. Still quite sparkly and festive but with less post-clean up kept clearly in mind. That means no garlands winding up the stairs and no full size trees on the second floor. No snowy scenes atop the fridge, and no jingle collared pooches. Each Wednesday will be White Christmas Wednesday till, well, Christmas!

Now I must decide if I should purge those "not chosen" items from garage storage or save them for future Holiday designs. If I was my own client, I would recommend the purge because I know that every subsequent year will follow the less is more philosophy. If I reduced by 20% each year I would still have plenty of decorations to use for the next 10 years. I frequently read on blogs how collectors end up opening shops just to manage the stuff in their homes, and it is easy to understand how that occurs. So, purge it is! If I am truly brave I will let all the Halloween go first since I barely use it at all, swimming up stream against the flow of increased interest of all things spooky.

Either way the weird timing of things this year has allowed me to complete all this before Thanksgiving and while you are all busy elves the next few weeks I will be out.......shopping...... for stuff! ha! and ho-ho! see you WW.

Three G"s Today

Great Friends, Good Food and Glitter.

Do I need any more words? It could be Fantastic Friends, Fabulous Food and Flying Glitter. Five F's.

No matter the letter/letters- an all around Thumbs up Thursday.

It's beginning to look a lot like White Wednesday

I guess you can see what I've been up to lately. In between decorating two client homes, I've been scrambling to make my home festive before the Holiday show. There will be no time after, so white Christmas is arriving a bit early this year. This is what I accomplished last evening.

Of course it made doing WW easy this week and for the next few weeks also. woohoo

Please enjoy all the other WW bloggers by clicking on the symbol over there <-----to the left


























The only spot in the house with red. The den/library

Holiday Baubles and Blessings

It is a new and different place I find myself in this Holiday season. On one hand, I have been so busy decorating clients homes that the idea of Holiday decorating at mine seems less than joyful. But in 44 days the kids return from opposite northern ends of the country and I want them to return to the kind of Christmas that they remember and have it as festive as it can possibly be. So out come the trees and the glitter is flying. It is a winter wonderland in the midst of the desert.

Lots of these will be made.


A couple of these


and one of these in every room


I am working on a Holiday booth this entire month, so I am trying to concentrate 3/4 of each day on the booth and 1/4 on home decor. Hopefully this will result in both tasks being completed by the 1st of December. Note* I never mastered juggling.

Hannah's friends will soon be piled on the sofas and the tv will be blasting. I cannot wait. Junk food must be stocked and loads of cookies baked. Taking inventory of my friends, almost all of them have grown children who live close by or still live at home for various reasons. They are unfamiliar with this melancholy that I court occasionally. I am thrilled for my kid's successes but do they have to occur so very far away? In short, I miss them terribly and if it were not for free long distance and iChat, I don't think I could survive this with any semblance of dignity. I am thrilled that our relationship is such that they are equally excited about returning home...murmurings of "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

I will count my blessings every moment that they are here and approach this decorating with elfish enthusiasm. Pics will be posted as it all develops. ha! a witticism.

Fall Garden Whites