Favorite Things: Tea Cookies

Thought you all might enjoy this sweet shot since I'm working on tea themed CQ!  One of my favorite teacups a Royal Albert 'Old Country Roses' and my fave tea cookies on one of my antique Haviland Limoges plates!

Snowflake Ballerinas or Ballerina Snowflakes!

I just took some quick photos with my phone of these snowflake ballerina's I've been making!
Ever since I posted about the Nutcracker I've been obsessing just a little bit about the Ballet!  In fact I looked up The Nutcracker Ballet and found it and was able to get tickets to see it preformed by The Los Angelos Ballet!  AND I got orchestra seating and we go see it Sunday!  Woo!!!  I am so excited!  I've never seen a real professional ballet before!  Ever since I saw a great dance recital I've wanted to see one too!

 I had never seen The Nutcracker before either so I did research and found out the plot and watched a few versions on YouTube so when I go I can fully enjoy it all!
Ya gotta love the Dance of the Snowflakes!  And snow does look like it's dancing when it falls so pretty!  It doesn't take much imagination to think of little fluffy ballerinas floating about spinning and leaping!
And don't you think these paper snowflakes are the perfect ballerina skirt?!  Lovely serendipity!

 I had seen some snowflake ballerina ideas on Pinterest one of them was this one: Snowflake Ballerinas
I made them (didn't upload photos though) and then I loved them so much that I had to find other ballerina silhouettes and ideas for cut snowflakes and I made these.  They are a tiny bit smaller than the ones from the above link.  I added lace to all of them because I love lace and I think it just adds a perfect extra special touch to them!

I didn't have any poster board to use for the silhouettes so I traced them onto some heavy duty sketching paper I had and it is stiff enough for them to hold up.  And the snowflakes I just used regular ol' printing paper.
I liked this snowflake cutting patterns link.  I couldn't really follow any of them perfectly, it's really hard to cut through the paper all folded up.  So I just followed some them loosely, doing the best I could and they came out pretty I think!
I want to make a few more to hang on the sides of the wreaths in my windows from the curtains.
I also think a tiny version would look adorable to hang on the tree!  And I think making some out of special printed paper would be pretty too!  Too many ideas flittering about! ;D

My Favorite Things: Christmas and Ginger!

I so love decorating for Christmas, and because of that I've been doing it earlier each year!  And what's so cool is that I'm not the only one doing that either!  It seems to be gaining popularity to decorate earlier!  And why not?  I always feel sad when they come down and feel like it was never long enough...it kinda makes you understand why some people love to have Christmas decor all year round.  But I also love garden stuff so I wouldn't want Christmas all year, but during the months the garden is sleeping it's nice to have something pretty!  Since we got the Ektorp couches from Ikea I got the white covers to put on for Christmas time, and I got green velveteen pillow covers and I made bands of Christmas fabric to go over them so it's nice to be able to change the covers at my whim!  LOL  (and they are washable, a must for white!!!)

My Hubby saw our little dog Ginger sitting here all cute and since we had the camera on the tripod still from taking photos in the garden he thought it would be perfect to get a photo of her!  But he's forgotten how to use a SLR so deferred  to me to get the shot.  It's cool that we both enjoy photography.  It's been a long time since we've gotten to do any this way, the last time either of us used a SLR camera was back when you used film!!!  LOL  So I've had a time getting used to thinking about photos in Manual settings instead of the old point and shoot we've had for 10 years of digital cameras.  Back then it was way too expensive to get a digital SLR and it still can be if you get a fancy pansy professional one, but I got a good starter SLR (Nikon d5100) which is perfect and it's all about the lenses you use anyway than it is about the camera itself.  I'm really enjoying using a wide open aperture and getting some nice shallow depth of field photos (where only a small area is in focus and the rest blurs).  I think it's nice to look at this photo and see Ginger in focus and everything else not so much, which usually with point and shoot you get everything in focus and it can be a bit plain.  I like how it gives it good depth like you are looking in a window at her.  If you take your hand and focus your eyes on it and bring your hand closer or further than your face you will see that your eyes blur what's around you as you bring it closer to your face, and that is the effect of a wider aperture which I LOVE!!!  LOL It's fun to play around with it and practice, so I can capture the feeling I want in a photo!

Anyway isn't Ginger adorable?  And she loves to snuggle too!!!  So I guess this photo is really 3 favorite things in one!!!  Christmas, Ginger, and Photography!!! LOL

And this reminds me I need to make my annual Christmas Ornaments!

My Favorite Things: Nutcrackers

I took this photo the other day experimenting with back lighting and depth of field.  I love nutcrackers!!! They are one of my favorite things!  Having been a military brat, I lived in Italy when I was a kid, and nutcrackers are everywhere!  I also have never seen The Nutcracker Ballet and would really love to someday!
Also with all his sequins I think he provides some good embroidery inspiration!

Caught a Hummingbird!

I really love this photo, isn't it so cute?  This little hummingbird found a little perch in my climbing rose that it kept coming back to, so I was able to set up the tripod and capture a photo!  One of my Favorite Things!