Merry Christmas from My House to Yours!

Christmas Gifts for My Dear Old Grade School Chums

In the 1960's I attended All Saints Grade School in Portland, Oregon from where I managed to stay in contact with some of my dear old chums permanently. For a number of years a group of us  have gathered from all over the map during the Christmas Season, and we exchange gifts at these beautiful luncheons.

Today was a beautiful Christmas luncheon indeed at the home of dear, old friend, Beth Brewer Warner. The gifts that I gave were home made fancy tags of pretty ladies, all done in a mixed media method. For these delightful designs I gleaned much of my style from amazing Terri Heinz of Artful Affirmations. Terri resides in beautiful North Carolina. The actual pictures of the beautiful ladies came from an incredible source of beautiful images, Paper Whimsy. Gale Blair is the owner of this enchanting company, and she resides in beautiful Indiana.

In this picture below I used a punched out circle onto which I stamped an image in some VersaMark stamp ink, which is clear and very sticky, and then I went over the stamped image with Pan Pastel chalks, thereby showing what was stamped onto the paper. Magically it comes to life. 

The rectangular image was merely cut out after I had stamped and used the Pan Pastel red.

As you can see, I signed my tags on the circle.

Below is the design I created for Beth, and I used a Paper Whimsy word, benevolent to describe Beth, for she is very giving and helpful in this world of ours.

Using the same beautiful image as Beth's, for friend Betty Reynolds, I used the word Graceful to emphasize her incredible grace and elegance as she has magically done wonders in our world via her political endeavors and accomplishments, especially in the field of education.

Jan (Janet Vilhauer) Hoag is a talented performer who resides in good old Hollywood, California and makes her living in film. Google Jan to see her IMDB and then seek her out to enjoy the many roles she has brought to life. She sparkles with talent and charm, and that is why this word defines her beautifully.

Wonderful, and beautiful, Lonna Bjarko Liddell is a truly harmonious being who never fails to charm me with her loving and accepting persona, as she so very responsibly inspects every aspect of life with care.

Dear and delightful Mary Anne (Manske) McNeil, the perfect wife, as well as mother and grandmother to all of her loved ones, tends diligently to them as well as to her beautiful home and gardens. Mary Anne is a truly glorious spirit in her love of her God and her religion. She is a very blessed soul.

The very name Susy says it all for our truly incandescent friend, Susy Wagner. Elegant, loving and beautiful is gentle Susy who virtually glides through life in very apparent joy and kindness towards all.
Susy simply glows.

Yes, I am so fortunate to have such a group of amazing and loving friends and for that I am deeply thankful.

Practical Magic House on Whidby, Island, WA

I love a beautiful, haunting, Victorian house. I love earlier ones too of course. This one was built specifically for the film Practical Magic in a small town called Coupeville, on Whidby Island, Washington. I do love witch stories too, especially ones that are about good witches. The film was a fun one for me. All of the performers were wonderful and it was simply fun! Enjoy these pictures that I gleaned from somewhere online.

Christmas Open House for Pumpkin Hollow in Albany, Oregon

Lovely Linda Harris and her charming husband, Joe, are the proprietors of Pumpkin Hollow in Albany, Oregon. This is a wonderful shop depicting the primitive of early America. I highly recommend a visit to them if you want to be warmed by this homey and loving environment where you will find so many treasures to bring home for the holidays.

Open House is this very weekend.

Pumpkin Hollow

2710 NW Whispering Oaks Pl

Albany, Oregon 97321

541-936-0847

I have just begun to supply Linda and Joe with my small early American primitives. There are water colors, primitive portraits and gel-transfer-medium depictions of the earlier painters. It is such a joy.

Happy Halloween Season From My House To Yours!

Above Picture

This big old scrap book is my Halloween diary. I have been recording for many years pictures of Halloween celebrations, trick-or-treaters as well as a tally of how many trick or treaters we've had each year. Our greatest take was always in our old house in West Linn, Oregon's historic district, Willamette. We usually got a little over a hundred trick or treaters. In this big house where we now dwell, we seldom get any, and this year was as a bumper in that we got all of 16. But I still buy BIG Costco sized packs of the standard, American chocolate candies as in M&M's, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Kit Kat and so on. I gave it out in handfuls so that we wouldn't have a lot left over in which to temp us.

We always doodle in the book, pictures of cats, witches, pumpkins, skeletons and so on.