Oh, no, no, dear Ivette! Forgive me, I've been away for two weeks (my mother and father are failing and we wanted to have one last "super" memory with them) and have been busy as a head hostess for our city's historic home tour, happening today and tomorrow.

I got back yesterday and now came to the computer to check mail and the forum and saw your post.

I miss you, and want to see you. AND your house project! And your Dx2S (who, by the way, was not acting up when I saw him last. He just wanted to be part of things.) Holiday lunch or b'fast, close to you?... Maybe with Deb and Maureen and Sue???...

I'll get through the event this weekend, and then email everyone. I'm here, and, well--just slammed. Thanks for the APB. So nice to be noticed as missing. See you soon!
P.

(((Pamela)))~
I'm glad you're ok ~ and so sorry your DM & DD are getting to this point. I'm happy for you that you had this opportunity with them. Stay well.

Thanks Trooper Ivette for locating Pamela (lol)!!!

Call off the dogs!!!

Whew! Boy am I relieved, thanks for your email Pam and I'm really glad you're okay. I'm sorry Mum and Dad are not, jeez what a drag.

I'm TOTALLY game for a breakfast gettogether next weekend with the local gang. Pauliiiiiines: jetBlue is cheap!!

Ivette

Part witch? Catholic guilt voice? Speaking French?

(My mind is whizzing!)

Pamela, I'm glad all is well!

Oh how I'd love to meet up with you all Ivette. As you probably know though, the timing isn't great (I must find employment-lol) I'll be thinking of you all!!!

Pamela,
How did the home tour turn out? Meet your expectations and raise some charitable dollars? Spot any new trends in holiday decor?

AnnaLee--

Hi! I think of you often and try to think of how we might meet again!

The tour went very well, thanks for asking, the weather was great, and I think we had record crowds. The decorators did a nice job--little bit of everything, 'tho I can't think of anything they did that would be a real "trend." One decorator placed 11 frogs of all types throughout the house and we told people to try to count them. That went over well. Another one put strings of green mini-lights (lit) inside wine bottles and grouped them on top of the kitchen cabinets. Nice effect. Another one covered the powder room toilet seat with full-blown red rose heads. Slightly silly. Another painted gold the white leather portion of several pair of figure skates, and hung them on pegs with lots of assorted greenery. Lots of clever little things. Someone tucked the silverware on the holiday table into little red Christmas stockings.

How did your Festival of Trees go? Any great new tree concepts? Or a hot gift shop item? Ours did pretty well here, but the event is ready for a new component of SOMETHING. It will probably move to a new larger venue next year, so there's room for something new.

Man, it gets tougher and tougher to raise real money each year...
Pamela

Glad it went well, Pamela!
I am intrigued by the green mini-lights in the wine bottles and the painted skates with greens.

Festival went well and we raised close to $80,000. That was up over $25,000 from last year, so the committee is pretty happy. I adapted your theatre idea and created a "Give my Regards to Broadway" tree with lots of gold lights (for the bright light of BW) on a gold wire tree with a red faux "fur wrap" garland. It was bright and brash with golds, reds and blues from the playbills and provided a textural contrast to the nearby green trees. A NY actor happened by the display and was pleased that the play that occupied the top spot on the tree was one he appeared in last year so that was fun. I also created a Black Tie & Tails Tree with champagne glasses and silver slippers, many more silvery ornaments and a black top hat at the top.

One of the entrants created an interactive Frosty the Snowman tree with snow coming out of the top hat Frosty was wearing and falling down the tree. He also sang his signature song if you pressed his hand. It created quite a lot of interest among children and adults.

An artist created a "Twelve Days of Christmas" theme with hilarious hand-made renditions of each verse. Two of the Five Calling Birds were talking on cell phones. The Drummers Drumming were actually famous modern drummers and a pair of the geese a-laying were actually in bed together.

Another unique tree was created by a stained glass artist. He constructed churches out of wood and designed & installed replicas of the stained glass windows of famous French catherdals. He added gargoles and gothic angels. It was purchased and donated to a local Catholic church.

We had a tiny pink feather tree with minature bottles of nail polish which all the little girls wanted, so we could have sold a dozen versions of it!

All in all, we ended up with about 78 trees and our head designer had wonderful themes for the top sponsor trees created from lush materials. One was in limes and rich russet on a lightly flocked tree. It is just magical and is installed in a medical office where the patients are raving about it.

Back to my cookies! Hope you have a chance to rest. The parenting parent time is very intense for both of us, I think.

AnnaLee--

I LOVE these descriptions!!! Your event is so big and high-quality. Congrats on the huge increase. I'm sure you already know how that money can be used.

I'll share these great ideas with some friends who design trees for the event. I think I could donate a couple small pink feather/nail polish trees next year. What a great idea!

One of my friends did a Viva Las Vegas tree, with fans of tiny playing cards glued together, garlands of dice and beads, and red martini glasses tipping over with cranberries and ice cubes glued inside. Lots of ornaments on the theme. Another did a white Wizard of Oz tree with a yellow brick road garland and all the large size dolls and striped witch stockings, tin funnels, hot air balloon, poppies, etc.

OK--I'm thinking of how we can all meet this Spring. Maybe in NYC...???
Pamela

Pamela,

Vegas & Oz - GREAT ideas! Thanks so much!
NYC in spring - sounds very doable. If I get a chance to get down south to see the SC kids before then, I'll let you know.

ALF

Spring in NYC sounds wonderful! Perhaps we could start early and organize another KF get-together? I would love to see you all!

I am so usually over in Cooking (or travelling before session) that I miss you guys.

Pamela ..we need to plan a trip to see ALF's trees next year too, esp since there IS parking at BWI Amtrak or really do a roadtrip this time. Yowza!!!

What a good idea (2 good ideas)! Trees will be November 17 to 19th, 2006!
MzA - your one Christmas ornament was out of stock and never came in! I forgot to write to you with all the parent/hurricane stuff happening.
pauline - it is always a pleasure to see you & you'll be a KD by spring with stories to tell.

Yes, yes! Let's plan a NYC thing in the spring, and the AFL forest in the Fall.

Got to have things to look forward to, don't you think? I will make murmurs in January to get us planning ahead. Plus, Pauline needs to put in for vacation at her new job!!
P.