Jessica Day Off....

When I was in JoAnn's Fabrics awhile back, buying fabric for my window treatments, I met two, lovely ladies, and we struck up a conversation. Yesterday, I got an invitation to join them for lunch, and since I know so few people in Texas, decided to take them up on it...What fun!
When I first was emailing Sue, my new found friend, she said she was behind in putting in her Christmas decorations, as she had 148 trees to put up...I thought, okay - typo. No, not typo; when I walked into her home, I couldn't believe my eyes. Sue has every single room, nook and cranny decorated for the holidays - even the ceiling in the foyer. She has been on the national news programs, and is trying to get into HGTV. Since I didn't have a clue, I didn't take my camera. I just got off the phone with her, and she's fine with me coming back and taking photos. Next week...can't wait. My friend, Kathy, owns the "Purple Puddle", in Chapel Hill, NC...http://wwwpurplepuddle.com, should get you there. It's a floral and gift shop, and is always enchanting. Years ago, she flew me from the frozen tundra of Wisconsin (we had lived in Chapel Hill previously, where I did her displays and windows..and some floral design), to do her Christmas windows. She had this enormous bunny, along with Bunnies By the Bay (remember them).

Since I took the day off yesterday, and then before that, shared a bit of my past and my design philosophy, I thought I'd share some of the photos of her windows.

This bunny is six-feet tall, and has served as the "anchor" in many of the windows I did for Kathy.Ya'll may recall that I've been cutting out and saving all kinds of things pretaining to design from the huge quantities of magazines I've had over the years. I keep them catagorized in large binders, and what the heck, if I can't share a few with you, what's the point? I don't want to just have these instructional or inspirational photos all the time, but they are good for days like this, when I am recharging my camera, and working on some projects of my own to share with you.

Yes, this is from Martha Stewart's magazine; in fact, I have an entire binder of her "good things"..thanks, Martha. There are instructions below this photo as to how to do these wonderful orange pomender pyramids. Just click on the photo to read the directions...also, throwing in an origami star. For some reason, when I edited this, I cannot get it to come up by double clicking...all the others do...wonder why? Anyone out there know? Again, Martha...I love this look, although it does feel a bit cold...perhaps a fire in the fireplace. I would be concerned about setting the "flocking" afire..still, beautiful.We no longer have a staircase, but if we did, I'd love to do this......

I've spent the entire morning dealing with the "heater guy", and we finally are off "emergency heat", thank goodness. Now, I am going to go string lights in my ficus in the dining room, make a blanket cover, and maybe a few velvet fruit. We shall see.