Family Affair!

My friend, Lana, gifted to her daughter, sister in law and nieces an evening at Queenie's to paint door hangers for Christmas! Only one niece chose to do a winter themed hanger...the rest were summer themed and I found that amusing! 

There were mason jars, my colorful daisy in striped vase,

and this precious camper...she knew exactly what she wanted to do here 

and executed her own design.

Look how adorable and well they all turned out! Lana painted something to hang in her craft room for inspiration.  See that picture below... Love this!   Now, the cup of hot chocolate in the middle was the winner that night...in keeping with the winter theme, it snowed that night and we all had a snow day the next morning!!

Lana sent me a picture of her sign in her craft room...and the gate on the wall?  It came from her childhood home and she wanted to save it forever.  AWESOME idea!  

Welcome to My Mardi Gras World...

 Just moments after I have wrapped the last Christmas present and stashed it under the tree and have finished the dessert for our Christmas Eve dinner, the orders start to ping their way into my Etsy account.  

Louisianans never get depressed about taking down their Christmas decorations, because they are eager to put on their Mardi Gras finery for carnival season...I am blessed to have this to look forward to every year and it brings joy to my heart to get these painted and shipped out!  

Here's what's cooking...

a stately single initial royal sign...

and a lovely monogrammed hanger...

I featured a version of this jester mask a few years ago in my Etsy Shop...have given it a makeover with Mardi Gras beads, crowns and doubloons...

I included large New Orleans Krewe names on the doubloons.

 and lots and lots of King Cake Babies...small...

 and huge!

 And, a few of these...

Love is painted into every one of them...can't ever have enough purple, green and gold!

And, yes...I decorate my house for Mardi Gras on the afternoon of January 6th after I have taken down all the Christmas decorations in the morning, kissed that baby Jesus and put Him back in his place in the attic...He remains in my heart each and every minute of the day.

I'm getting on my Soap Box...Don't Take Down Your Christmas Tree!

Every year a few days after Christmas, I want to slap some sense into people.  It makes me crazy that Americans insist on decorating for the Christmas season BEFORE Thanksgiving, or the day after it, and then take everything down the day after Christmas!!!  What the heck...do you decorate for Easter on MLK day or for Halloween on Labor Day?  

This is all thanks to good 'ol American consumerism and marketing and has really ignited over the last 25 years or so.  Before that, the first or second week of December was the norm.  In my parent's day, you brought home a tree Christmas week and decorated it as a family, many times on Christmas eve.  Of course, they decorated simply back then and reflected on the meaning of Christ's birth in their lives, not on how adorable they can make their homes look with glitter flakes, miles of ribbon and garland, and wayyyy too many wrapped gifts. 

Pay attention to your churches...they aren't celebrating Thanksgiving with red and green florals, and in fact, you won't see any adornments except for the Advent Wreath until Christmas week.  This is all for a reason...

Christmas Season begins with Christ's birth and ends on the Epiphany, Jan. 6th.  Most homes in America packed up their decorations and have stored them in the attic at least a week prior to this day.  I'm giving you a big spanking...STOP IT!  

I challenge you - next year, consider decorating your home slowly and beginning no sooner than Dec. 5, or the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas. Certainly do bring out your Advent wreath and calendar at the weekend after Thanksgiving, but slow down the process so that you can focus of the message of the season of Advent, which is to wait...to prepare and pray.  

Keep it simple to reflect on the season!

Christmas Decorations at My House

It's New Year's Eve, there's a huge pot of gumbo on the stove that my husband made this morning and we're watching LSU in their bowl game.  For the moment, all is right with the world.  I know many of my friends are taking down their decorations today or tomorrow, but I prefer to keep mine up until the Epiphany.  Here's what it looks like around here...and if you see splatters of paint in some of these pictures,  I'll eventually get around to cleaning it up!  Just enjoying being lazy after all of the craziness!

Our Advent wreath...

 In the kitchen...the English cupboard with way too many things on it, but I don't care!

My cherished miniature manger scenes...

and treasured Christmas cards

hung on all the doorways in the kitchen.

My Dad's sweet cherubs statue adorned with wreaths

and my waiter with mini vintage glass ornmanent...

How I love my parent's glass ornament collection piled high in a bowl in the dining room/studio

...it looks like candy!

and this groovy collection of 60's Christmas tchotchkes that I marvel at when working!  

Sweet vignettes in the foyer...

that celebrate the reason for the season...

 and our St. Nicholas collection.

Our tree is new this year!  After 11 years and a whole section of lights not working, I decided it was time.  How technology has changed for the better...self fluffing, in stand connectors with white or colored lights!  I love my husband's grandmother's handmade felt ornaments,  gold crowns, fleur de lis, silver crosses,

and a few Jesus, Mary and Joseph ornaments to keep the tree focused on the season!

I think that LSU football man falls in that category!!

My boy's elementary school principal, Sharon Blentlinger at Immaculate Conception School, gave the kids a religious ornament every year for Christmas and signed every one.  What a treasure!

Crosses and crowns...

and our manger scene is front and center on the mantle.

 I put this little vignette up right next to the tv so I know that it will be seen!

These Santa candles in the powder room are more that 25 years old...

can't believe they are still around!

This is how I feel when I have to take it all down...

 Happy New Year to you!!

Processing

What's the process on some of my designs?  Let me walk you through it!  My friend wanted to give a special gift to her friend that would celebrate her Farm/Lake house.  She said she liked the illustration I did on this year's Christmas card and wanted to use something like that on a sign that would have a picture on it with the family's name...

Here's my 2016 Christmas card that I painted with acrylics...

and here is the sketch she sent with how she would imagine it to look.  She also sent the picture of the meandering path to the lake in an autumn setting pictured below.

I sent back to her a cleaned up version of the sign and asked her to choose which she liked better...

 She chose the bottom sketch.  With watercolors, I colored in the sketch with how I would like to paint it, choosing a summer scene rather than autumn.  The picture looks inviting!!  This is a lake somewhere in Oklahoma.

Here's the final product and I am happy with it.  

I love the challenge of a custom order and hope her friend enjoys it! 

So Thankful...

I'm grateful to have customers who are excited about my work and want to share a few of Christmas 2016 "crop" of Little Houses!

 St. Louis, MO

 Ocean City, NJ

 Annapolis, MD

 Richmond, VA

 Reynolds Plantation, GA

 Chesapeake, VA

 Sherman, TX

(here's the pic!)

 Hartford, Arkansas

 St. Louis

 Fort Smith, AR

 Fort Smith, AR

 Fort Smith, AR

 Fort Smith, AR

 Tulsa, OK

 St. Louis, MO

 St. Louis, MO

 Annapolis, MD

 Roswell, GA

 Cranford, NJ

 Arnold, MD

Lombard, Illinois