In Bloom

I love Christmas and the weeks leading up to it--the ornament making, cooking baking, tree decorating, shopping, wrapping, Christmas music, seeing family and friends, food, food and more food--I love it all. But I'm equally over it almost as soon as 25 December passes! I'm ready to put all the decorations away, clean out closets and cabinets and think of things I want to accomplish in the new year. I don't make resolutions as such, but I often make a list of things I want to get done around the house and goals I'd like to achieve. This year some of those include ordering many photo books and yes, I've made a long list of them. Lois is now 7 and I've only been meaning to to that for all of those 7 years! (Only just today I uploaded her 5th birthday photos to an album online.) I want to organize and clear off the 2,000+ photos on my phone and about a bazillion on my computer, which I have a hard time keeping up with regularly. I want to keep challenging myself with new sewing patterns. Though I still haven't knocked out the quart coat it's next on the sewing table, yay! Ah, there are really so many things on my list! I'm sure it would be a bit boring to hear me rattle on about too many more of them, but one crafty thing I'd also like to learn is how to make beautiful paper flowers, and I think it would be a fun activity to do with the girls as well. I've made some basic paper flowers in the past but never detailed, intricate or particularly life-like flowers.

Last December when I went to New York, I saw the most beautiful paper flowers at John Derian's shop. I didn't realize they were paper until I was very close and was stunned to see that the geraniums I was looking at weren't real. I saw striking displays like this and this. So beautiful! John Derian carries Livia Cetti's flowers, under the her company name, The Green Vase. They are stunning works of paper art. I'd love to take one of her workshops in NY. But seeing as I'm a long plane journey away, I will get her book, The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers, and give it a try solo. The photo above is from The Green Vase's instagram account, which is filled with paper flower beauty. I also recently learned of The Cobra Lily paper flowers. This photo below is from The Cobra Lily web site. Stunning! So much more paper flower beauty on the web site. And I'll be keeping an eye out for more paper flower inspiration and posting it on my pinterest.