My mother is amazing. Here she is in the photo below at my cousin Janet's for Christmas with Kayla, Janet's daughter, my brother, Kahn, and my fab sister-in-law Kavi.
I took some pics of my mom's house right before I left town for a week and although Christmas has passed, I wanted to post them.
From as far back as I can remember, my mother has always had the best sense of fashion when it comes to home decor. This Christmas season was no exception. Her gold and bronze tree took center stage in the living room and just sparkled. She is great about changing up the theme and I loved the metallics this year. What will next year bring for this tree, only my mother knows!
This tree is a consistent fave. My mom has collected Hallmark vintage car ornaments for my brother ever since they started making them like 18 years ago. She wonders when they are going to end the series!
Here's a closeup of the cars on the pencil tree in her downstairs living room. My brother won't take the cars to his own house because coming home to them at my parent's is special to him (and to all of us).
We celebrated Christmas and my birthday at my parent's before my family left for a week in Alabama. This is the dining room table setting. So festive!
Mom's kitchen mantel full of snowmen (and women).
More metallics on the tree in the kitchen. I love the combination of green, gold and reddish balls and their move away from brighter, more traditional colors.
I got these vintage place card holders at the Rivermarket Antique Mall and my mom won them in Dirty Santa the year before last. I know when I buy something for Dirty Santa that my mom will end up with it because I just know what she likes.
Such a stately Santa at home on the hearth.
Mom's hutch in the dining room full of holiday dishes and goodies.
I adore her collection of carollers and they look right at home on this tray perched on a big, round leather ottoman.
And can you believe my birthday cake? You're lucky to get an ice cream cake from TCBY at my house (not that those aren't good, but they are NOT homemade!). The apple fell VERY far from the tree when you compare my mom's cooking and baking ablity with mine!
And here's the mantel in her living room. I love the Old World Santas with the Italian-inspired painting; so rich and beautiful.
Another cute display of Christmas goodness.
This is the baker's rack in mom's kitchen. I bought the cookie jar on the top shelf at Pryde's for Dirty Santa last year and yes, you guessed it, my mom ended up with it!!!
And a closeup of a shelf on the baker's rack. My mom's house just took my breath away this year and I'm already looking forward to what she'll come up with for next year's holiday season!
I used some of the new great plastic beads that Jason got me for my birthday. The white flower on the bottom right was part of that stash.
The frame says "HOTTIE".
I got the ruby prisms at the Mission Road Antique Mall this week. I see lots of clear, but never red, so I was really excited about using them.
The tiny bottle came from a friends yard sale awhile back.
And here's the back finished in red and black paper. This one is going to Stuff this week.
A woman at work is expecting a baby in February she is naming Isabella. I made this "I" for her in pink and lavender. The flowers on the top left are made of polymer clay.
I named this post adequately; I wanted to share some more pics of our Alabama trip. Jason's father's family owns some land and we visited the creek over the holidays. What a wonderful, peaceful setting. Here are the boys: Jason, Dash, Lee, and Brendan.
Believe it or not, this is an unaltered photo of an icicle that looked just like a bird. This was perfect timing because most of the time we were in Alabama, it was up over 70 degrees.
And another angle.
Not exactly a tiny little creek; the water was really rushing.
We were there for an entire week which gave us plenty of time to just hang out and relax. Here are Maw Maw and Dash making candy.
Look closely at the singing elf in the back. This was on the porch at Will and Pyllis' house (Jason's brother and sister-in-law) on Christmas day.
Dash acting goofy.
Will dressed up as Santa and Dash immediately confessed, "Santa, I'm sorry I've been soooo naughty!" No kidding -- that was without prompting!
