Cedar Hill Ranch: December 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

One Last Christmas Party

I have time for just one more post before Christmas, so I thought I would share my prayer group luncheon table. I told myself to take pictures of the party so you would know it was a real one, and not just tablescaping for the blog, but alas, I forgot. That's what happens when you are having too much fun. I did take photos before my guests came, and I'll share those with you.

(I found most of these things at World Market but have not been compensated for this post in any way.)

The bottlebrush trees are from World Market and these are the last three they had at my store. I love the look of the trees under the cloche.

I also found these adorable mittens at the same store. They are meant to be tree ornaments but when I saw them, I thought of napkin ring holders. Again, I think I bought the last 6.

I also found these adorable boxes that I filled with European chocolates and gave as party favors to my guests.

I used my tag paper punch, and some fun Christmas paper to make the name tags. My sleigh was crying for a Santa, so I put this chocolate Santa in there.

I used some flowers for my table, using vintage crystal and silver vases, to make the meal extra special for my guests

I had such a wonderful time with my prayer partners - Jill, Carol, Sharron, and Sonia. (Lore couldn't make it.)

And since this is my last post before Christmas I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. You have made my life fuller, richer, and better. I appreciate all of my bloggy friends. Some of you I know in person, some just from comments left here and here. And some of you just breeze in and out without saying much, but that's okay. However you came, I appreciate you and thank you for visiting.

And while I am being thankful, I thank God that he sent His son here for each of us. It is easy to forget the real Christmas message. He is our blessed hope. To celebrate Christmas, I have included one of my favorite Christmas songs here. It's an old one from Amy Grant, Emmanuel.

ENJOY and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Little People

One day I looked around my house and realized I was surrounded by the most wonderful people.

People who are peaceful and calm,

Angelic people who love to pray continually,

Children who know how to be seen, and not heard,

People who are content to just read the bible, and don't care who Harry Potter is,

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Just a reminder, have you entered my

Annie Sloan Paint Giveaway

going on now until New Year's Eve 2011?

Someone is going to win it, why not you?

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People who aren't worried about the latest fads,

People who can handle their own problems, who let me drink my tea in peace without demanding that I stop what I am doing and solve their problem du jour,

People that don't complain, roll their eyes at me, or point out stains on my clothing;

People who are never rude,

People that always have a pleasant expression on their faces,

People that know how to get along with others,

Studious people that enjoy a good read,

People who don't care about having the latest iphone.

Yup, these are "my peeps." They are pretty perfect... but not nearly as fun as my less-perfect (but pretty awesome) friends and family. Love ya'll!! And I love all of my blog friends too, so thanks for coming for a visit.

Shared here

Tuesday's Treasures

Amaze me August Every Tuesday
Take a Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee
A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project at a Time

Twice owned Tuesday House of Grace

Club GW

Friday, December 16, 2011

White Whimsey Blog of the Week

And this week's Blog of the Week is .... WHITE WHIMSY.

This blog has lots of wonderful whites, as you might imagine. Here's the White Whimsy house decorated for Christmas.

Photo Credit: White Whimsy

This is such a lovely home, and I know you will enjoy checking out the White Whimsy Blog.

Remember that if you want your blog featured on my sidebar for a week (and sometimes longer) please add your blog to my Blog Directory.

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Have you entered my

Annie Sloan Paint Giveaway

going on now until New Year's Eve 2011?

Someone is going to win it, why not you?

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Dreaming of a White and Green Christmas

I wanted to do a Christmas table that was different. Something fresh, crisp and clean. I decided on a green and white table with snowflakes of course.

I covered my table with a piece of canvas fabric left over from a sewing project. (I didn't even hem it.)

Then I changed out my dining chairs. I normally have yellow painted French chairs around my breakfast room table, but for this setting, I used my white MIL chairs. (Now you see why I keep 6 extra dining chairs upstairs.)

I used my Spode Christmas plates and some hand-painted green ribbon heart plates.

Green ribbon for a simple napkin ring added more of my green color to the table.

I decided to use my twisted flatware for this tablescape.

And now, here is where it got fun. I poked around my house on a treasure hunt, looking for green things to put on my table. I wasn't disappointed. I found a green footed piece from my Grandma,

a green cruet from my MIL,

an vintage green syrup jar,

a green Martha Stewart cake stand, Fiesta green salt and pepper shakers,

a green tray from my MIL that I painted with ASCP,

another green cake stand, a green glass basket from my MIL,

and my green Fiesta disc pitcher.

And now another look at the whole table.

The embarrassing thing? I didn't even know that I collected green things.

In my defense, half of these things were inherited.

And to top it off, my daughter and I cut out snowflakes to hang from the chandy. I wanted to buy a punch to make snowflakes, but they were all too small. I was thinking I would have to abandon this project idea since I wasn't able to find the punch I needed. Instead, I decided that I could just make the snowflakes the old-fashioned way with a scissor. In the end, I did buy a Martha Stewart punch at Hobby Lobby that I used for some of the snowflakes. It took four punches to make each one of these.

For most of our snowflakes, I made them by hand. When my fifteen-year -old came home from school and saw me making them, she jumped right in to help.

This one with the hearts is one she made.

I think everyone knows how to do this, but just in case you don't, here is what we did. First, we took 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper and cut them down so that they were square. (We made them different sizes, but the biggest was obviously 8 1/2 by 8 1/2.) After cutting the paper, we folded the sheet in half.