The holidays have just gone to the cats I tell ya!

What the holidays looked like at our house..

Between jobs there was lots of hanging out with the kitties,

Watching movies (Nanny McPhee II)

Trying to get a bit or work done on the computer (with lots of feline help).

Of course the kitties had to have turkey too...  on the good china, it is Christmas after all...

"Yummmmm.....  gobble, gobble"

"Mine... all mine"                                               "hey he got more than I did!"

Turkey, gravy and stuffing (Looks a lot like kibble I know).

"Boy you would think this place could spring for a few more plates..."

"Is there any more?  I still have a few nooks and crannies that need filling..."

"Gotta wash up now"

"Get behind the ears"

"and between the toes..."

"Did someone say more turkey?!..."

Full tummy!

"That was so good...  so good..."

"Yummy, yummy...."

"so good, so good..."

" I mean that was GREAT!"

Nap time

Flat Top fell asleep while cleaning his belly!!

Our holidays were just purrfect, hope yours were too.

For more information on the wonderful crazy herd we look after visit our web site,

The Lucky Few

Precious Metals table setting

Hello my lovely blog friends!

I had intended to post a beautiful blog wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season...  However the holidays took over my life and this is the first posting I have been able to manage.  I hope all of you had a wonderful time.  Ours was busy but lovely!

I was playing around with some table decor ideas (initially it was to be for a New Years party...  a little late for that!) and here is the result.  It particularly suits the winter but I think it would be a pretty color story for anytime of the year.

I was thinking what a lovely idea it would be to near the end of January when everyone has more or less recovered from the holidays and is least likely to expect it,  to host a quiet winter dinner that sparkles and twinkles.

I love the muted colors of old sepia tin photos and had always though it would make a great color story for an event.  To create this look I pretty much mixed all the metal colors, gold, brass, silver and pewter with the sparkle of crystal.  I started with some old silver plated candlesticks that were loosing their silver color and helped them along a bit.  I soaked them in Tarnex and lightly sanded them until the brass underneath started to bleed through.  This created a lovely vintage look and a great color.  I then glued on bits of trim, fringe and tassels and then added old pearls and jewelry for sparkle.

I covered the table with lots of layers and textures (something I love to do!).  I started with a long bit of olive green courderoy I picked up at a garage sale.  Over that I draped a pannel of chocolate brown tafeta curtains.  Then in a narrow band across the center of the table I placed a vintage tea stained lace cloth.  To top it all off I finished with an inexpensive glittery shawl I found in a thrift store.

I layered the dishes also starting with some funky old brass trays (again from the thrift store) then a crystal plate (again from the thrift store) then a small crystal plate and the soup bowl.  I placed the party favors in the soup bowls.  The napkins are mismatched lace pieces that I tied up with bits of trim or pearl necklaces (fake and again from the thrift store).  I then attached orphaned single earrings (again very inexpensive from the thrift store) or a crystal tear drop.

For the candles I had some beautiful Moroccan tea glasses and some old liquer glasses.  The liquer glasses were so tiny that I carved down a tea candle to fit.  For the silver wear I used mismatched silver and old ivory handled pieces.

The flowers were a mix of cream Roses, Hydrangeas, white Stock, assorted Eucalyptus and Berzillia Berries.  I tried to match the vintage color story however my choices were a bit limited since I didn't pre-order anything.  A better choice for the Roses would have been a true beige as in a variety called "Sand".  An antique variety of Hydrangeas with touches of burgundy and olive would have also been better.

At each place setting I also set another vintage stemmed liquer glass with a single Rose and a piece of jewelry.

All over the table and tucked in the flowers were more strands of pearls just to add to the decadent feel.

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts.  Have a lovely beginning to Winter!

Christmas Peace

For everyone out there I wish peace, happiness, good health and love..Silent Night Sinad Oconner

Terri Windling, untidy desks and the underwater Christmas wedding

I just have to tell you, I am so tickled!  One of my favorite people out there in faery tale land is Terri Windling.  She wrote a book I dearly love called "The Wood Wife".



It is a wonderful story of a woman who journies to the Arizona desert in pursuit of a poet and his story and finds instead magic and a deep soul changing power.  I highly recommend it!  She also has a lovely blog that covers all sorts of manner of things not the least of which is her art (sort of a cross between Susan Seddon Boulet, Arthur Rackham and Brian Froud) and her life with her husband and silly black hound in Devon, England (does everyone wonderfully touched by the fae live there and can I too... please, please?).  She is blogging a wonderful series called "On Your Desk" and has asked for creative types to send in photos of their "desk", untidied, as-is, in the middle of the creative process, or however it appears to be.  She has already featured many of my heros like Alan Lee, Charles De Lint, Rima Stains and more.  So... on a whim...  I sent in my desk top (workspace) pictures, as it appears in the middle of the wedding I just did, and...  she put it up on her blog!  How cool is that I ask ya!  Here are a couple of the pictures I sent her but please go and visit her site (and look for the blog dated 12-20).

I think it will charm and delight you and you can see yours truly's completely wiped out work area.

The wedding I was working on that appears in the "desk top" photos was a really fun beachy Christmassy style with tons of red roses as well as other rich burgundy colored flowers mixed with driftwood.   Here are some of the completed centerpieces...

The tent was beautiful both glowing warm and inviting and yet wintery looking up above.  Here are a few shots of the tables and decor...

They also had some fun lounge ares...

The couple also had a thing for hearts so I made two 12' tall driftwood hearts, decorated them with flowers and a mini chandelier and hung them from the tent rafters.

The tent looked beautiful as the night moved in...

And check out this desert spread!   The worst part was that I had to look but not touch (or eat!)

Now for the "underwater" part.  We here in Santa Barbara are in the middle of a week long deluge with another week or so predicted.  Absolutely everything is soaked, saturated, drowned and in every other way... wet!.  Now this wedding was held in an outdoor venue at the San Ysidro Ranch...  yes I said outdoor.  They had decided right from the off they would have a tent just to keep everyone warm.  What we all didn't know is that the tent had to work in the driving rain as well.  I mean I think I saw Noah sailing the ark by at one point!  So not only did they tent the reception site and the ceremony site but they had to tent all the walkways and even the rented bathrooms.  They even had to build floors and sub floors for all these tents too!  What with washed out service roads and parking areas and huge tent and party rental trucks, delivery vans with trailers (us), and all manner of support vehicles jockeying around trying to keep to the only narrow road that was left...  lets just say that you could have shot the pilot for "Exstream Weddings" (pun intended) on this wedding!  Now I notice I said narrow service road...  what I should have said was narrow-fast-moving-river-with-rapids.  To unload you had to stand in the rapids with the water sending waves up to your thighs as you tried in vain to keep the items you were unloading dry.  After I set up the ceremony Chuppa I had to take paper towels and dry off the flowers and branches so it didn't drip on the bride.  Quite the day let me tell you!  The pictures however show a beautiful serene and cozy wedding, which I guess is as it should be.  After all the craziness and a lot of completely exhausted vendors the bride and groom had a lovely time and were completely unaware of all the stress (that is until they read this).  So another wonderful wedding completed and thankfully the next one isn't for a couple of months...  I need that time to dry out!