My Son's Artwork

My oldest son, Colin, is almost 27. He has a double BFA in Fine Art (Drawing & Painting and Illustration). He has been drawing since he was 3 years old. The turtle is airbrushed on a large piece of metal. The charcoal drawing of James Dean has a mate. "Rebel Without a Clue", which has Jay Leno's picture. Jay Leno has the original drawing. The motorcycle drawing is quite large.

A client took a photo of her husband's three motorcycles and Colin drew them. The detail is amazing.

Christmas in August!

A small sampling of cookies for the YUM Food and Fun for Kids Christmas Magazine 2010.

Mark Tanner took some AMAZING photographs (I took these snapshots before the shoot began). My friend's 3 granddaughters were the models. I finally met little Luc, Jacqueline's son. He is the sweetest little baby! Jinnee Parr and her daughter, Emily Fager, contributed some beautiful hand-painted cookies (see gingerbread house). My house looks like the inside of a bakery right now. We have lots of cookies, cakes, cupcakes, candies, etc. EVERYWHERE! My boys are loving it!!!

Preparing for photoshoot

I'm preparing for a photoshoot for YUM Food & Fun for KIDS! I'll be working with Jacqueline deMontravel next week. Jinnee Parr and her daughter, Emily, are baking the most beautiful Christmas cookies. They are hand painted. I'll be busy baking some other things this weekend.

The first step is finding all the Christmas serving pieces appropriate for this story. This is when I realize I have way too much stuff! More on the progress soon...

Cake Ring on eBay

I'm finally selling some things on eBay. This is the cast iron cake ring featured in the vintage birthday party called "Get What You Wish For" featured in the July 2009 issue of Romantic Homes Magazine. I just listed the cake ring last night under the user ID sentimentalcelebrations2008. These cake rings are so hard to find.

Rosette Napkin Directions

After rolling the napkin tuck the end piece into the fold and flip over. This is the bottom side of the napkin.

After rolling the napkin into one long piece, roll the napkin to the end of the fabric.

After folding the napking in half, start rolling the napkin to the top of the triangle to form one long roll.

Fold the napkin in half to form a triangle.

Start with a soft damask napkin fresh from the dryer.

Cosette Rosette Napkin

This napkin fold was named after my Fairy Goddaughter, Cosette. She was the adorable fairy girl photographed in the "Enchanted" fairy party (Romantic Homes Magazine, July 2008 issue). The damask needs to be soft and not ironed. Directions to follow....

Graduation Day 2010

Since my last post our family celebrated two birthdays (mine and Devin's 18th) and Devin's graduation from high school. It seems like just days ago that he modeled for two parties in Taking Tea With Alice. He was a few months shy of his 4th birthday at the time. Devin was born on our wedding anniversary. What are the odds of that? (Taking Tea With Alice photos by Kathryn Russell Photography)