Debi, Sue & Friends Make Christmas Trees!!

Chenille Christmas Trees!!!

Our friends made beautiful trees!!

We started with Sue's hand cut logs and branches!

Then added Sue's hand dyed Chenille fabric which she had cut and sewn into tree shaped triangles.

The friends stuffed the tree shapes with poly fill and Sue and I sewed them shut leaving a small opening to push in one end of the tree trunk branch.  

Once the branch was place in the tree, we cut the other end of the branch to the height that our friends desired and put that end into the trunk base.

Then they chose embellishments for their trees!  Sue brought a nice tin of buttons, buckles and bells for the friends to choose from.  

I contributed some garland materials and helped our friends use hot glue to glue on their embellishments.  

Sue, Marie and Susan A. also helped glue on embellishments.

Look at these gorgeous trees made by our friends!  Great job all!!!

More fun trees!!!

Then we made Peppermint Bark!!

First, I put about 4 candy canes in a plastic bag and used a hammer to crush them into small pieces and set that a side.  Then, I melted dark chocolate. (Merckens, is the name of the brand of chocolate that I used and I picked that up in PA.  But you can buy the Wilton Chocolate at Joanne Fabric and Crafts.  The White Chocolate was from Joannes, also. It is made by Wilton and was called Candy Cane Colorburst.)  I melted the chocolate at 30 second intervals in the microwave stirring between each interval.  When the chocolate seemed like it was getting soft I cooked it for additional 30 second intervals at 50% power until it stirred smoothly.  

We spread the dark chocolate on a unbleached parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  We let it cool in the refrigerator while we melted the white or peppermint chocolate.  Then we poured the white  or peppermint chocolate on top of the dark chocolate.  Immediately, we sprinkled the peppermint candies on top of that. 

The pan was then put in the refrigerator to cool.  After about 15 minutes the bark should be solid enough to break into tasty pieces!  Yum! Yum!

Then We Ate Lunch!!!!

I made some Sugar Cookie Trees to follow along with our Tree theme.  I used a big bag of Sugar Cookie mix that I picked up from Costco!  They were delicious!

A tree of Vanilla pudding filled Chocolate cupcakes sprinkled with red candies and white snow flake candies!!  The dirt area is gluten free shortbread cookies for our Gluten Free Friend!

On the healthy side I made a tree shape out of steamed broccoli on a parchment lined pan and added uncooked cherry tomatoes as ornaments!!  We also had deviled eggs fresh from our chickens, ham, scalloped potatoes and rolls with honey butter!!!!

We are looking forward to our next Debi, Sue & Friends in 2012!!!

Please let us know if you would like to come and help!!!  You will be able to make one of our lovely crafts for yourself and have a delicious lunch with us!!!!

Grace's 50th Party Stuff

Starting with......

The invitation, Designed and printed by Deborah Gayle Studio

Directional signs Welcome you to the party!

I wouldn't try to follow them all, but they do look cool!  

Created by Frank and Debi

Have to have the balloons!!!

Blue, is the color for the party, one of Grace's favorite colors!  A Blue checker feed bag served as runner for the island.  Blue serving platters and dishes were chosen for the delicious foods prepared. 

The large medallion in the flower arrangement was one of 8.  Each side of the medallion had a different photo from Grace's life. They  were numbered to correspond with a numbered sheet of paper containing questions about each photo.  Sixteen in all.  Guests were encouraged to find the various photos and answer the questions.

The question for this one was, Who is Grace with?

The answer was her brother's Bob and John

Smaller medallions were made with photos of Grace as a young child.  They were also numbered and corresponded with a numbered paper to record the year of each photo!  Francie Fox won the prize for this game!

Cupcakes galore!  Marie D'Amico made the fabulous variety of Cupcakes for the party! 

We had Carrot Cake, Red Velvet, Oreo Cookie and Chocolate cupcakes.! 

Each one was delicious!  Marie also added the tulle to give the desserts a fancy fluffy look!

Happy 50th picks were made by Debi and assembled by Prudence!

Not very many blue flowers available, but these worked well!

Lots of flowers around the house.

These jars accepted the many gifts brought to the party!

I did not have time to make the individual signs for the jars,

so the chalk board was a handy way to get the message across to the guests!

Grace asked for donations to the SPCA and lottery tickets!  

We also celebrated Frank's birthday which was October 15th.

Dog Tag Art

Dog Tag Art, an opportunity to create for everyone that attended!! 

Stamping on various metal surfaces to create individualized wearable works of art to commemorate the occasion!

Some of the tools available to use!

Door prizes and game prizes!  Grace is big on Corona Light and recycling.  The slumped bottle was done by Blue Bird Glass Studio in Stafford, VA

Decorated with ribbons by Francis and Kristen!

Janis Lambrose gifted us with a box full of S'more kits to use by the fire!  

 Fire pit was ready for the big night!

 That's it for now!  If you made it to the party, I hope you had a wonderful time!  If not, sorry you missed it!  See FB for more party photos!

A Banner for Sarah & Josh!

The Wedding colors are pink and dark blue, the bride is a writer and they are having a typewriter at the reception to be used as a guest book!  So, original and that is what inspired me to use pages from a vintage typing book as part of this banner of celebration!

See the girl at the typewriter on the top right corner?  

 A little closer look at Sarah!

A little closer look at Josh!

 A very close look at the medallion!  

This was very fun to make!

Let me know if you have a special banner you would like to make and we can have a class!!!!!

Enjoy!

Frank's Rocking Chair Painted with Reclaim!

Frank's rocking chair from the front porch, all spruced up!

Before!

Frank cutting the old torn seat out of the chair.

Frank is making sure that the surface is Clean, Dry and Grease free.

Ready for painting, Frank settled for my choice of black, to match the other two rocking chairs on the front porch.  Frank is using Caromal Colours Reclaim in Licorice!  Please feel free to call me to order paints at 540-429-1942, or order directly from Caromal Colours and use my coupon code "DGS" to get a discount on your shipping, I will also receive credit for the sale!

Time to dry!  3-5 days of drying is recommended by the company.  Cure time is 30 days before cleaning.  

Because this rocker will sit on our front porch, Frank will apply a couple coats of a polyurethane varnish after the 3-5 day drying period.

Frank wove the seat with Shaker Tape in Black and Blue.  Great job Frank!  You are so good at weaving the seats!  Only problem is putting it back on the front porch where the cats are going to want to sit on it!  But I found a solution, that has worked for a week now!  I put an large tub in the seat!  ah ha!  It is working so far!

Go to Deborahgaylestudio.com and request a class to learn how to weave the Shaker Tape seat!!