Merry and Bright

Hoping your holiday was merry and bright. Here are some scenes from our Christmas Day - presents and place settings in greens and gold.

Smart Cookies

Year after year the week before Christmas brings a seemingly endless day of cookie baking. In years past more ambitious pursuits have yielded stacks of iced sugar cookies, a mountain of floury cookie cutters, a disastrously messy kitchen and two very tired girls. This year we attempted to avoid the inevitable oath of “I wish to never again see or eat another cookie.” Opting for the simpler method of using this vintage cookie press that has been in the kitchen drawer since I can remember, we made two batches in chocolate and vanilla. Small accents in simple white icing make these cookies complete.
Here is the timeworn recipe from the cookie press box – we used it to make the white dough.

BASIC RECIPE FOR COOKIES
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs, unbeaten
3 cups sifted flour
¼ teaspoon salt
Cream together the butter sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Then add flour and salt and mix until blended. Press through Cookie Maker onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a hot oven (400° F) 10 to 12 minutes.

Visions of Sugar Plums

Simple handmade boxes filled with sweets make delightfully succinct little presents or party favors. These were created using Blueprint magazine’s printable wrapping paper on white cardstock, a gift box pattern and crimson satin ribbon. To pull together the smart black and white patterns and rich red I created a matching label featuring my familiar black ink drawing and tiny accents in red. These little packages would be equally lovely at a New Year’s affair with champagne colored ribbon and a themed label.

Winter Green

“But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be On your own front door.” So the seasonal carol says. These wreaths (they are a matching pair, though only one is pictured), are spruced up with an abundance of backyard boughs and accented with golden ribbon, leafy garland and faux burgundy berries. Though these wreaths will hang from the front porch's twin columns, there is nothing like bringing “the holly and the ivy” indoors. It's so fresh yet old fashioned. For more inspiration, read about Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg with its candles, garlands and decorations handmade from natural greenery.

Where the Treetops Glisten

A girlish variation on typical red and green, this little assortment of bows and baubles is the perfect adornment for a miniature evergreen. I look forward to unwrapping these each year and trimming a petite tree entirely in the frills and sparkle of sage and rose.
{1} A radiant tree topper – actually an over-sized ornament just perfect for this use {2} A tiny looking glass, bedecked with jewels and sparkle {3} Trays of treats {4} Glittered snowflake in a glistening opaque white {5} Another variation – traditional glass spheres remade, rosy, golden and glittering {6} My own handiwork, custom made from my assortment of old glass beads in yellow green and mauve {7} Snowflake ornament frosted with iridescent glitter {8} A miniature sconce ornament added to the collection a few years ago {9} Ribbon and garlands in green, gold and white

Politics, Parties and Paris

Cinema is so often spurned on the grounds of poor plot or performance, but I’d contentedly endure any of these deficiencies if only to gaze upon a recreated history with all of its millinery, frills and idealistic embellishment. Jefferson in Paris is a delightful display of 18^th century French fashion, architecture and interiors, and despite its unpromising reviews I found it to be entertaining and visually elegant. Interspersed throughout the film are candid narrations on the developing Revolution, among them a montage of the French court frivolities of Marie Antoinette. The primary focus however, is on Jefferson – his role as an American diplomat and Southern gentleman, his trials and tribulations as a father and widower, and his romantic involvement with the Anglo-Italian Mrs. Cosway and his Virginian slave Ms. Sally Hemmings.

Images are film stills excerpted from Jefferson in Paris.

Flights of Fancy

A charming little assortment of butterflies is flightily flocking to the Natural Historie Paperie. In celebration of their arrival, I’ve a surprise just for you, dear reader. Decorate your desktop with the easily downloadable wallpaper shown below, available in three sizes. It features Fancy Flights Tags amidst sketches, flourishes and fonts, sure to make your workspace bright and cheery. How to wallpaper your desktop:
1. Determine your screen’s resolution (its dimensions).
2. Click on the link that corresponds to your screen size.
{1024 by 768} {1280 by 1024} {1280 by 800}
3. Right click on the image and select “Set as Desktop Background”

The daintiest of wings adorn the prettiest of things. Momentarily captured these be-winged beauties perch flightily within golden yellow frames. Perfect specimens of nature’s simple elegance, they’ll glide gracefully onto album pages, parcels and presents. For more on my line of tags at Natural Historie, read some notes from the studio and view an additional snapshot collage {here}.