After a few commenters to my last post referred to the differently decorated tables at our church's recent Christmas luncheon, and since I had the foresight to take pictures, I thought I'd do a pictorial post showing all of the tables.
We had a smaller number of ladies attend this year (by about 20), so there are at least two fewer tables. Ours is not a large space, so I'm not sure if we could have fit in two more of these round tables, but nine tables ended up being perfect this year. Enjoy the lineup:
Josie delivered a party with her Disney-themed table.
Cindy pampered her guests with elegance.
Gena had one of the most festive Christmas tables.
Amy's pretty table was inspired by a recent trip to Greece.
Holly was in the party mood with
her ribbon-festooned plates.
Kay and Laura were celebrating snow
we'd had earlier in the week.
Michelle, who is a vintage reseller, had lots of
interesting things on her beautiful table.
While you can't see Rachel's dishes above, I swooned over the beautiful brown transferware picture on her (mother's) Johnson Brothers Friendly Village china.
As is to be expected, this YOP (Year of Projects) post, is going to be about creative, crafty things. And a Christmas luncheon. For me, nothing is much better than being able to combine some creativity with spending time with others.
With the Christmas season upon us, I was inspired this year to host a table at our church's Women's Christmas Luncheon (which was yesterday).
Attendance from our own church ladies was down this year for some reason, so I ended up being able to host a table full of friends (and one friend of a friend). That isn't how I imagined this being, but looking at the lovely (and loved) faces around my table, I thought it was surely extra fun the way it turned out. I knew these gals would appreciate anything I came up with - even if I completely flubbed on making a nice table setting. Not that I was very worried about that, but these things do cross one's mind...
My inspiration for creating a Christmas table was a set of dishes I brought home from my mother-in-law's when she passed in 2020 that were the same design of dishes I grew up with.
The dinner plate of this Currier & Ives set is a winter scene of "The Old Grist Mill". Perfect for a winter brunch to kick off the holidays. While it was probably not obvious to anyone else, my theme became "Vintage".
The gals organizing the event decided to make some changes from previous years - the first being to rent round tables (for which the church has evidently purchased a bunch of plain white table cloths). I had already given thought to decorating a long table, so wrapping my head around creating a centerpiece that needed to look nice from multiple angles around a round table, I'm sure made me expend a few brain cells I didn't anticipate.
Also, I wasn't interested in using a plain white cloth, and I didn't want to buy a round table cloth just for this purpose. So I came up with the very simple idea to just purchase cotton fabric and make a square "topper" out of it - thinking I could use the fabric for any number of things later. Learning how large the tables were, that simple idea morphed into buying enough fabric to stitch two widths together into a square that I could drape over the white table cloth. The selvages of the fabric were nicely frayed which made a great way to finish it off all the way around. In other words... it required no hemming.
I did decide to make (and hem) some fabric napkins, though.
And I'm so glad I did!
Using this tutorial:
I became proficient at another way of making mitered corners.
Mitered corners and I are becoming fast friends!
An interesting video playing in the background made this tedious task more tolerable...
One job done
At some point in this whole process, I also came up with what I hoped would be a fun gift that my guests could use, and ideally was something handmade (just because I liked the idea of that).
Hand-knit dishcloths came quickly to mind, and when I found these holiday soft soaps, I thought the combination would be a respectable little gift.
So each lady got a slightly different version of the same thing. A cute jelly roll of dishcloths and some soap - that well... most anyone can use!
I also made simple napkin rings using a wired ribbon, topped with these cute little holly thingamabobs (found at Hobby Lobby). All hot glued together.
And finally, using things I already had, I made a centerpiece. The hardest part of this, was estimating how big of a centerpiece to make. We were told the tables were 5 feet across, and using my 5-foot-long rectangular dining room table as a guide, I eventually came up with a vignette - that probably was a bit large for the round table - but I think it was okay.
But backing up for just a moment... When I first started pulling a centerpiece together, I made a sort of wreath out of fake garland I've decorated with for years. Then placed a vintage glass Tom's Toasted Peanut jar in the middle filled with red and gold glass balls. We have two of these vintage jars, and one of them has held cookie cutters for years. Oooh... Suddenly the idea of using old metal Christmas themed cookie cutters tied to the wreath occurred to me!
It worked, but something about the whole thing felt, I don't know.... unwieldy, maybe, to me. It was only after I packed it all up for taking to the church the next day that I came across a large woven tray that I had bought at a friend's garage sale a couple of years ago. It was the solution I didn't know I needed! The tray made all the difference. Before this, I didn't fully appreciate the power of a container of some sort to build a centerpiece on.
Instead of forming a wreath, the garland was placed in something of a free-flowing design around and overflowing one of the edges of the tray. Then, as if it had happened organically, I just "spilled" some more red and gold balls into the middle of the tray to fill it in. The extra napkin in the middle (below) came out the next day, but for some reason, the night before I thought it looked cute in there. The next morning I thought it just looked kind of confusing.
I don't know if the small cross stitch pillows were too much - in fact, it was my intention the next morning to pull them out too, but I forgot. They ended up being a conversation piece, so I think my table mates liked them.
All in all, I was pleased with how everything turned out. Our meal was catered by Johnny Carino's, and while it could have been warmer (at least mine, by the time I ate it) it was delicious. I'd love to recreate the Lemon Rosemary Chicken they served us.
The time passed quickly - singing carols, hearing the story behind all the elements of the Twelve Days of Christmas, then visiting over our meal. It was a lovely way to kick off the season. For me, having this behind me, I now feel like the rest of the season should provide plenty of time to focus more thoughtfully on the birth of Jesus, and the gift of salvation and grace He offers us.
I hope this Christmas season is meaningful for us all.
I hope you are having a lovely Christmas season, wherever you are. December is now nearly over and before taking down the tree and putting decorations away, I thought I'd create a little video "Christmas Card" for my readers - even if it's a little cheesy, and a lesser quality than seems to play on my phone. I trust you will appreciate the attempt, as amateur as it is. If it makes you dizzy, just close your eyes and enjoy the 2-minute tune.
From my home to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The song playing is called Long Years Ago (on the album cover). It's a beautiful tune and I've tried to locate the words to this song, but the only things that come up are an English folk song about a sailor and his bride, and a church choir singing something that sounds nothing like this rendition. If you're familiar with this song, I'd love more information.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and that life was the Light of mankind. - John 1:1-4
Joy to the world,
the Lord is come Let Earth receive her King Let every heart
Today was my official ringing in of the Christmas season with a Ladies' Christmas brunch at church. A group of women took on the roles of table hosts, and each woman (or pair of women) decorated their table in a unique way.
Only at this very moment, as I'm writing, do I wish it had occurred to me to take the time to photograph each table when I found out I had arrived 45 minutes early! Sigh. One of these days... One. Of. These. Days. I hope, eventually, it will start occurring to me that there are terrific things to photograph all the time. I simply need to recognize it.
Anyway... the table themes ranged from traditional to whimsical, to "glamour pink", even. Believe me, the different tables were a feast for the eyes. And then there were favors to take home - which I forgot. Nevermind that, mine is probably waiting for me there still. I was just so impressed how much those ladies put into this lovely brunch. Oh, and the food was good too. Catered by a local coffee house, we had sandwiches, quiches, fresh fruit, salad. It was a feast.
But getting there so early, I ended up chatting with some of the hostesses, who were so kind to tell me how good it was to see me, and asked how I'm doing. I was so glad to be able to say I feel good and mean it. As I chatted with a group of them, one commented on how much she liked how my hair looked. I thanked her, but as I did, I thought the way she said it sounded like she perhaps thought she was complimenting my real hair. I paused a second, gave her a look and said, "You know this is a wig, right?" At which she genuinely appeared surprised! I'm surprised this isn't the first time this has happened. While wigs have come a long way, I can't help but feel it's obvious to the whole world that I'm wearing one. When walking into Walmart, or Kroger (or anywhere) I feel like I should be wearing a placard announcing, "Yes, you are correct. I am wearing a wig. Now carry on, everyone."
While that is both ridiculous and true, I also have times when I forget about it.
That is, until I scratch an itch on my head and realize my hair is moving as one whole unit.
Or, until the wind blows it around and completely messes with my "positioning" of my hair. While modern wigs have movement, and can look like real hair (I guess), just believe me when I say wig hair does not behave like natural hair in the wind. It just doesn't. ETA: To be clear... when I say "positioning" my hair, I mean the actual hair, not the wig itself. The wig itself can be made fairly secure to the head.
And then there's static - which is happening now that it's cold outside. Static on synthetic hair can seem untamable, so I've taken to carrying a fabric dryer sheet in my purse, and I have one in my car.
And finally... While depending on how a wig is made, they aren't necessarily terribly hot to wear in the heat, but now that it's cold outside, I'm here to tell you they can be downright cold. Especially if the wind is strong. Who knew this and hasn't made a PSA about it?!? I guess I can wear a hat over my wig, but then I'll have to deal with repositioning my hat hair and static!
So many things I've never had to think about before...
While I'm glad my wig is evidently fairly decent looking, I'm very much looking forward to my hair growing out to a length I feel comfortable wearing, and surprising everyone all over again - hopefully sometime next spring.
That, friend, is how you turn a post about a Ladies' brunch into a discussion about wigs!
Wrapping Christmas presents on Sunday afternoon while being entertained by old episodes of Dog The Bounty Hunter on DEFY TV, pulled in with a cheap indoor antenna attached to a tiny TV in the bedroom. I don't know how much of that is more than you wanted to know.
Not having decorated for Christmas for several years, I was determined to do so in our new home (new to us as of November 2021). So I asked Hub and a young friend he had hired to help do some outdoor work to pull the plastic storage boxes down from their shelf in the outside garage. In the past we'd stored these boxes in our attic, but last fall when we moved into this house Hub wanted to store them in the detached garage - that sits about 30 feet from our house. Now... when moving in we could see evidence of mice in that garage and to say I was not happy about storing anything out there that would ever come into the house is a huge understatement. In the end, though, we were too tired once the boxes had been placed there, and I was dealing with an injured knee from the move so I gave in and let the boxes stay out there. For over a year. And I tried not to think about it...
Even though everything was in plastic containers, I was nervous about bringing the boxes into the house, so I had the guys put them in our sunroom and I decided I'd go through them out there. To my great relief, there was not even the tiniest evidence of mice having gotten into any of it, so evidently those plastic boxes were sealed up really well.
Earlier this past week, still feeling puny from having been sick recently, I decided to take it slow and just stop when I was tired of it. I got a small tree put up (a tree that belonged to Hub's mother), and got it decorated.
While I've grown to love our home, we have a very strange configuration for our living room (it's two spaces in one and it's all in a squarish "L" shape. With the way we have our furniture, there just didn't seem to be any good place to put the tree. After talking about it, we decided to just put it in what amounts to basically almost, not really, but sort of the middle of the whole space, but behind the sofa, and we were really surprised at how nicely it works there.
One of the reasons it works well is because our front door is half decorative glass, so placing the tree in this spot allows the pretty lights to sparkle through the window of the front door. Some of the panes in the door windows are frosted, and all of the panes have beveled edges so the lights on this small tree are magnified in all the angles and edges of the windows. Also, because the tree is fairly small and narrow, it tucks in behind the couch perfectly and isn't in the way at all. And... to top it off, the tree can be seen from several other rooms - the dining room, the den, even our bedroom. Yes, indeed - I think we've found the perfect spot for a tree here.
And that has ended up being pretty much all the decorating I'm doing for Christmas. We have a nice fireplace and mantel and I'd love to decorate it, but it needs some kind of statement piece - like a large mirror, or some architectural piece, or even a really large wreath. If I figure this out, I'll take a picture, but at this rate, I'm thinking that may just have to wait another year 'till I have time and ability and the motivation for it. I don't want to spend my energies right now looking for something I may not find. I'd rather wait for it to show up - with minimal effort on my part. That tends to be how I roll anymore...
For now, I'll share pictures of some of the special ornaments on our tree. Most of them old - some from when our boys were young, some from when we were young marrieds, and a few from our childhoods. Some are hand made while others are factory made. They are all special for different reasons.
I was tickled when middle son was visiting this week and the first ornament he looked for was this bird in a nest (above) and he reminisced a bit how that was always a special ornament to get to place in the tree, or look for if someone else hid it in the branches.
And, finally, I want to share a YouTuber I just can't get enough of lately. The YouTube channel is called Celebrating Appalachia, and the presenter is Tipper Pressley.
This video inspired me to share her with you today, but her videos are so varied and interesting. She's a natural story teller with a soothing southern drawl and a heart to share what is special about Appalachia - particularly her corner of it in North Carolina. I encourage you to check her out.
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