Happy New Year!

If you've read much of my blog you'll know how much I like to cook and entertain.  Here's my last "tablescape" of the year.  We had honey glazed ham, Beef Wellington, cranberry dream salad, corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and creme brulee for dessert. Don't forget the Asti Spumanti and Almond Champagne.  Yum!

You can see my gingerbread man plate in the very back of the photo if you look closely.

Happy New Year to you!  Hopefully I will be a bit better at blogging in 2012. . .

Merry Christmas!

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.  One for each of us and each of our beloved pups. . .

Merry Christmas to you!

Christmas Plates

 You can never have enough Christmas plates, you know?  I did two more and aren't they pretty?

The first one is a little tree shaped candy plate.  I like the peppermints on this one.

The second plate is actually a bowl.  I love the ornaments on this one. You  can see the pencil lines I drew to cut it into quadrants and make it even.  That will burn off when it is fired.  I always love how ceramics go from dull and flat colors to bright and shiny when fired.

Now, if I could just find time to finish the many, many, many Christmas pieces I have waiting to be painted. . . .

Thanksgiving Turkey Casserole

Ha, it's not a recipe for turkey casserole.  It's my turkey casserole dish I painted.

Look how cute the turkey is!   He's made out of veggies.  His neck is squash, his tail is lettuce, and so on.  I made him by antiquing the entire piece with  a dark purple (see the purple lettuce next to the green onions?) and then painting over the rest with color.

He's just so neat I can't wait to use him on my Thanksgiving table!

Halloween Candle Sleeve

Did I mention lately how much I love my embroidery machine?  I have the little Brother SE-400 and it does a darn good job for the price, but of course I want the PR-600 six head machine now.  So as soon as I win the lotto. . .  Then I could be at home all of the time and just be creative and can be!  Sounds like a good plan to me!

Anyway, here is a cute little project I did using a great pattern from one of my favorite embroidery pattern sites (http://www.emblibrary.com/).  Basically I took a piece of organza and embroidered the pumpkin pattern on it, sewed up the back of the sleeve, and voila! Candle sleeve.

I need to do a couple of these for Christmas. . .

Gingerbread Plate Glazed and Fired

Here's my gingerbread plate completed.  I don't think the picture really does it justice.  Each one of the houses, trees, candy canes, stars, and gingerbread men is raised. The plate is really impressive in person.  I'm so happy with it, and I really like that I painted  the lyrics to Home for the Holidays on it.  I have it on a stand in my dining room.  If only this s all I had to do to get ready for Christmas!

Busy Bees!

My friend Denyse owns a ceramics shop in La Verne and my daughter and I were invited to "Ladies Night" tonight.  Apparently this is an adults only event but my daughter is so well behaved and so artistic that she is not only allowed to attend but encouraged to come and share.  That makes a mamma proud!

I took on a rather ambitious project tonight.  It's a beautiful Christmas platter that I did by antiquing the background, then filling in all of the little details.  As the night wore on, there seemed to more and more details!  But the details are what make this plate so special.

The sample one had a verse from "The Night Before Christmas" written on it.  I decided on "Home for the Holidays" because the plate has so many little houses on it, and because "Home for the Holidays" was one of the first Christmas songs I could play on the piano.  My plate reads "Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays. . . for no matter how far away you roam. . .If you long for the sunshine of a friendly face. . . for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home."

I also added a little house in the center of the plate, which was really a birdhouse but I painted to look more Christmasy.  Can't wait to see this one glazed and fired!

My daughter was not in such a Christmas mood.  I know most people aren't in October but I do love Christmas!  She made a whimsical frog, a happy turtle, and a really neat painting palette with a little bee on it.  See, we were busy bees!