Ten more posts to go before I draw a name from those who have left comments on my blog during the month of December. The winner will receive a prize. Don’t let the fact that I have yet to pick out that prize deter you from commenting. Free stuff is always cool. Even if it comes from someone’s closet, which my prize will not, but I’ve had that happen before, you know, re-gifting.
Have you ever re-gifted? I have. White elephant gifts are great for that, just becafeful not to give it back to the person who gave it to you first, or one of their close friends who might wear it in front of them!
I had been kidnapped earlier today by my mom and sis, to run errands and shop for the food for Christmas day. I picked up my cookies from mom and I still need to bake my share. We were gone from 9:30 until 4:00! My sis let me pick out my Christmas present;plates that match my butterfly meadow pattern from Lennox.
Who wants to come to my butterfly tea party?
Here’s a tea tip for you. We all know tea doesn’t last forever. If you find yourself with excess tea; loose or bagged, serve it at your next lunch or dinner, ala cart. We had home group last night and I heated up some water and laid out my various tea bags so my guests could choose. I didn’t serve anything old or expired, just enough to make room for new tea.
My dinner was a huge hit! Everyone was so complimentary. Not bad for an X single girl who used to eat ice cream and pizza for dinner! I made an Asiago cheese and pear pork tender loin, a ratatouille casserole, wild rice, and stuffed mushrooms. Then, my sister had just brought over her wonderful creme de menthe brownies which I shared with everyone. A huge hit!
Have you invited anyone over to share your table with you yet this year? If not, why not? Yes, it is not easy, but it can be so rewarding. Why not give it a try?
One thing that I learned working in department stores, was how to wrap a present and make it look GOOD! Now, it bugs me to go somewhere and see them do a poor job of wrapping a persons gift. It really is not hard to wrap a gift in the way I’m going to demonstrate. Come along, let’s get to wrapping!
Supplies:regu;ar clear wrapping tape, two sided tape, scissors, wrapping paper, present, and ribbon.
I don’t know if you can tell, but inside that circle, there are squares. The entire back side of the paper is marked with squares. You don’t have to use marked paper, it just makes things easier to line up. So, step one line up your box face down on your wrapping paper, draw up the paper over the edge of the box, then tape it down. Use regular tape for this step so that when you line up your overlapping side, it doesn’t stick before you want it to.
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Pinch the edge so that it is nice and ’sharp’.
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Bring the roll of paper, up and over the entire box, extending it about and inch past the box. See the circle?
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Take that inch of over lap, lay it on the edge of the box and pinch it so you have an edge to fold over, fold it over, and pinch it too, so that it is nice and sharp and lays flat when folded under. This means you will not have any ‘raw’ edges to your wrapping paper.
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See how nice the edges look lined up? At this point, you may use double stick tape unde the edge or regular tape on top of the edge as I had to since I didn’t have double stick to use.
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Another example of how the edges line up. This is where you would place your double sided tape.
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(Sides) Tuck in the ‘top’ of the paper which when turned over, will become the bottom of the package.
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Tuck in each side, remembering to pinch those edges, even up the sides so that they are sharp.
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Tuck in and fold down that raggedy edge (see the X) making that crease, what?! Sharp! lol This is also where you may apply double sided tape to secure this flap, or you may tape it on the outside too if you wish.
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See how pretty? You’ve secured all the flaps and have run your fingers along every single edge, pinching it and making it sharp. now you have a lovely package, ready for a bow, without a huge seam down the middle. Who is going to give it a try?
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I broke a tooth over a week ago. Thankfully, I already had an appointment today for an exam and cleaning, or I might not be able to have it fixed by my dentist. I’ve been trying to get in, but they’ve been booked. I’m very surprised that they don’t have a way to treat emergencies. The break has become bigger while I’ve been waiting. I’m praying I won’t need a root canal, just a patch, please.
When I return, some things I will be posting in the future; how to wrap a package seamlessly, a Victorian silhouette Christmas card with cute poem inside, and pictures of glass ornaments painted by yours truly. This will not be all posted in one day of course, but I thought I’d give a little preview of things to come.
December’s tea room menu is posted on the Cozy Tearoom page to the left. I am featuring a High tea (dinner) menu. We all know high tea is a dinner, right?
Oh, btw, I’m on page 207 of my book. Woohoo!
It is much more spectacular in real life, but our tree is up. Since sundown on Thanksgiving. It’s not decorated, but it’s up. It is a fiber optic tree, which means it has fiber optic ‘tubes’ coming out of the branches like light up pine needles, and, they oscillate. It’s a totally guy, totally geek tree and I love it!
