For years I have decorated each Christmas with a different theme. This year I chose the theme “White Christmas”.
I had purchased a 7-1/2-foot white artificial tree with white lights for Christmas 2019 to use at the Turner-Dodge House (Lansing MI) for their annual “Festive of Trees” fundraising event. I have participated in this event since its beginning in 2012.
With no Turner-Dodge House “Festive of Trees” event this year (2020) due to COVID, I used this white tree in our home for Christmas and decorated it all in white. Ornaments of white and clear glass balls, furry white poinsettia blossoms, white-feathered birds, sparkly owls, glittery icicles, and lots of snowflakes all combined to create a dazzling and festive tree. Here are some pictures of my White Christmas 2020.
A long standing tradition in our neighborhood has been the lighting of candles in white paper bags called luminarias on Christmas Eve. A few years ago this neighborhood tradition was changed to take place on December 21 for the Winter Solstice.
From grammerist.com – “luminary vs. luminaria”: A luminaria is a small paper lantern, often simply a brown lunch bag or a white bakery bag weighted by a quantity of sand. Inside, a votive or other small candle is placed to illuminate the lantern. Luminaria are often stunning when used to line walkways and streets. The luminaria originated in the Southwest region of the United States and is a Mexican tradition. Luminaria is a borrowed or loan word, taken from Spanish. A borrowed or loan word is one that has been taken from another language and used as an English word. The plural form of luminaria is luminarias.
We had a good turnout of participation from the neighbors on our street this year and it made for a festive winter evening. Here are some pictures from December 21, 2020 looking up and down our street including our holiday lighted front porch.
I keep white lights going in my backyard at night all year long. For the holiday season I added colored lights to make it more festive. Here are some daytime and evening pictures of my decorated backyard for Christmas 2020…starting with my fairy garden where I added hot pink bottlebrush trees.
The fairy garden at night!
Patio table white tree decorated with aqua blue snowflakes, icicles, feathered birds, white ball ornaments, and clear acrylic snowflakes.
The table top white tree at night with its white lights.
Looking out into the back yard…colored lights on the Crabapple Tree.
A beautiful display of colored lights forming a Christmas tree from the side of the Oak Tree.
For those following my blog you know that I started the formal study of Ikebana – the Art of Japanese Floral Design – during the summer 2020. This past fall I successfully completed the first 10 weeks of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana under the tutelage of Sogetsu Teacher and Artist, Ilse Beunen. All our class meetings and instruction are handled through Zoom. Ilse is in Belgium and my five classmates live across the USA and around the world.
After the completion of our fall session, Ilse offered to our class a mini-workshop in December to create a couple Ikebana designs complimentary to the holiday season.
The first arrangement was to incorporate evergreen branches. I used arborvitae branches positioned in a low metallic colored container. Floral materials included red carnations, red roses, white hydrangea, white lily blossoms, and white chrysanthemums.
This particular arrangement is called a “Left Upright Moribana” style. Moribana refers to the low container. The arborvitae branches represent the two main lines of Shin and Soe. The red carnation to the right is the third line called Hikae.
The second arrangement of our holiday workshop was focused on creating our own container. It was to be shaped like a tube or round roll. I used four Campbell’s Tomato Soup cans taped together and covered in white quilt batting to simulate snow. I wanted this design to compliment my “White Christmas” theme.
I cut an opening in one of the cans to arrange my floral materials which included three silver painted branches (Shin, Soe and Hikae), three white painted pine cones, green arborvitae, red carnations, white lily, and red dried floral sprigs. I laid silver branches along both sides of the round container for balance to keep it upright.
I wish these pictures were clearer but I think you will get the idea of my design and it complimenting my “White Christmas” theme. We appreciate Ilse offering this December workshop. It was fun and stimulating, and kept us thinking about and working with Ikebana during the holidays!
I had a “White Christmas” theme for Christmas 2020 and I carried it through all my holiday decorating…inside and outside. Here is my three-tiered tray and surrounding area complimenting the “White Christmas” theme featuring my snowmen and Santa. Both daylight and evening light pictures are included in this post.
Last fall a leak was detected coming from the upstairs plumbing system onto the kitchen ceiling. When the plumbers came in to investigate, it was determined the old original iron water lines were breaking apart. Our house was built in 1942. The kitchen ceiling had to be torn open to access the pipes and all new water lines installed (as well as through the whole house). A new kitchen ceiling along with more kitchen improvements will be happening soon. I didn’t want any re-construction to take place before the holidays.
Since the upper cabinets will be coming out to put in the new ceiling, I decided to take off the kitchen cabinet doors and fill the shelves with CHRISTMAS, especially with my Christmas teapots! All the regular dishes came out, washed and packed for storage.
Here is my Christmas kitchen…which I totally enjoyed in spite of the condition of the ceiling! Battery candles with a timer added a special ambiance during the evenings.
Catching up now with our visit to the Sweet Shalom Tea Room (Sylvania OH) in December. The theme was “Comfort and Joy”. Due to the uptick in the COVID virus and to protect their patrons, Sweet Shalom decided to only offer their take-out tea menu for the month of December….no dine-in seating. When David and I arrived, and parked in their back parking lot, we phoned the staff we were there, and within a couple minutes our packaged take-out tea food was delivered to us. Warm scones, hot soup, a covered tray filled with delicious savories and sweets, and a decadent dessert of Pecan Pie topped with whipped cream (which I did not get a picture of because we took it home to enjoy later)! Tall cups of hot tea also accompanied this take-out tea meal! While we miss the ambiance of sitting inside the Sweet Shalom Tea Room especially at Christmas time…taking our tea in the comfort of our own van had its own special leisurely fun. Soapy was with us too so it definitely was a family outing!
Menu for December “Comfort and Joy”
David and Soapy
Soapy eyeing the take-out tea packages!
Warm Cream Scone
Scones opened waiting to be spread with creamy butter
Hot Chicken and Vegetable Soup
The tray container of savories and sweets
Sweet Shalom owners – Chris Kruse and Sara Velasquez – provided a take-away gift to all their patrons of frosted cupcakes and decorations for us to add. Thank You Chris and Sara for creating this special December Take-Out Tea and for continuing to share your Themed Teas into 2021!
Happy New Year Wishes! I took the month of December off from my blog. We had a lovely Christmas season…I decorated inside and out so to be surrounded by the beauty of Christmas. I will post some pictures of that as we move through January. For now just a few pics of our New Year snowfall…which started out as freezing rain then turned into the white stuff. There was no wind to shake off the snow from the trees so everything became a magical winter wonderland. Here is what it looked like in my back yard…
Looking out to the back yard…everything covered in a thick blanket of snow!
My vintage plate garden art with an additional element of snow art!
The table top Christmas tree laden with snow!
My lady garden statue is wearing her new winter snow hat and scarf!
The Japanese Maple Tree
The Crab Apple Tree
The crap apple tree looks like a frosted cupcake with the colored lights shining through the snow!
In recent years I haven’t done a lot of decorating for Thanksgiving…I jump right into Christmas after Halloween. I had fun with my new three-tiered tray for fall (see post for Sunday, October 4, 2020 – “Autumn Three-Tiered Tray) so I decided to unpack some of my stored Thanksgiving decor and put together a Thanksgiving vignette with my tiered tray and surrounding antique red-oak furniture. Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving.
My Ikebana journey actually started in early February of this year (2020) when I traveled to Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids MI for a morning introductory class on Ikebana. After the class I asked the instructor for more information about continuing to learn Ikebana. She emailed me contact info for the Lansing Ikebana Chapter #134 (Michigan), and to an international Ikebana teacher and artist, Ilse Beunen, who lives and teaches in Belgium.
I contacted the Lansing Ikebana Chapter and was invited to attend their winter meeting later in February. I attended that meeting and joined the Chapter as well.
I contacted Ilse Beunen and found she has a regular e-newsletter which I signed up to receive.
Then COVID hit us all in mid-March…no more in-person Lansing Ikebana Chapter meetings and Ilse Beunen couldn’t teach in-person in her Belgium studio anymore. As a result ZOOM was added to our vocabulary and lives. My Chapter meetings through next year are Ikebana videos from the International Office and seen by the members in the comfort of our own homes. Ilse has learned to use Zoom to reach out to the world to teach Ikebana.
Through Ilse’s e-newsletter I learned she was offering a four-week session this past summer via Zoom on learning different Ikebana techniques and it would only be open to six participants. I signed up and got in! After the four weeks, the six participants were eager to continue so Ilse organized a 10-week Beginner’s Course of Sogetsu Ikebana for us…via Zoom…which began in late August. Sogetsu Ikebana is one of the four main Japanese Schools of Ikebana and there are a total of 110 lessons to complete the full course of study.
We have just completed our first 10-week course of lessons and we each have received our Certificate of Completion for Part One from Ilse! We all will admit, including Ilse, it has been both an interesting and challenging journey. Without Zoom none of us would be having this incredible opportunity to learn Ikebana from a renown and respected teacher such as Ilse. Yet learning to work with and communicate through the technology, in addition to learning the skills needed to do Ikebana correctly, has had its ups and downs. But we have made it through this first set of 10 lessons and are looking forward to starting up again in January for our next 10 lessons.
Here are pictures of my designs from the past couple months representing different basic techniques that all students of Sogetsu Ikebana must master. When I could I used floral materials from my own garden and I am including pictures of that as well.
Lesson #1 – Basic Upright Moribana (shallow vase) with left side orientation – Apple tree branches and store-bought roses
Lesson #2 – Basic Upright Moribana (shallow vase) with right-side orientation – Limelight Hydrangea and Rudbeckia from my late summer garden
Limelight Hydrangeas turning to a rosy pink as summer turns to fall
Rudbeckia growing tall along the side fence in the back yard
Lesson #3 – Basic Upright Nagerie (tall vase) with right-side orientation – Japanese Maple and Pink Mandevilla
Japanese Maple Tree highlighted by the setting autumn sun
Pink Mandevilla and Hibiscus growing in pots along the front porch
Lesson #4 – Basic Upright Nagerie (tall vase) Free-Style with left-side orientation – Limelight Hydrangeas and large Hosta leaves
Limelight Hydrangeas growing along the back fence in the back yard – large leaf Hostas growing behind and under the Limelight Hydrangeas
Ornamental Pumpkin Totem – used bottom ornamental pumpkin for my Fall Free-Style Nagerie
Lesson #5 – Fall Free-Style Upright Nagerie (tall vase incorporated in a large ornamental pumpkin) – Crab apple branches, brown chrysanthemums, ornamental grass tassels, and mini-pumpkins with vines – all from my garden
Fall Free-Style Nagerie adjusted after teacher’s comments to create a stronger “line” closer to the ornamental pumpkin vase
Four baby Boo Pumpkins plants planted next to the compost pile in a structure of tomato cages
Boo Pumpkin plants getting some growth on them
Four Boo Pumpkin vines now growing over my compost pile – I started these plants from seed in early Spring
Lesson #8 – Basic Slanted Nagerie (tall vase) with left-side orientation – Zebra Ornamental Grass and Knock-Out Roses from the garden
Knock-Out Roses still blooming in mid-November along the side of the house
Final Assignment… Thanksgiving tablescape with assignment to make a paper vase for flowers and use water tubes to hold seasonal flowers
12″ x12″ gold glittered ribbed cardstock folded in half and tied with cranberry satin ribbon bows – two water tubes inside the fold hold autumn-colored store-bought chrysanthemums
