Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016 was held at Jody's this year and we were lucky we had good weather for our travel eastbound.  If there is going to be any snow in the week, it often tends to fall on our Wednesday night meetings.  Clear skies all the way with stars as bright as the lights on Jody's tree!   One of these days, I should post ALL our Christmas photos from years' gone past so you can see how we've all changed these past 20 some odd years.  Sometimes we surprise ourselves at how well we colour coordinate for our pictures without even consulting with each other in advance.  I just happened to notice now that Tracey and I are in blue tones, while Jody and Anita are in black & grey.  In fact, we had quite a chuckle when we were looking at a photo from 'a few years back' and Jody realized she was wearing the same shirt then that she was that night.  We realized a couple of things after Jody commented that she better go shopping after Christmas for some sales on new shirts!   Some items of clothing are just too comfy to get rid of and some things are classics that never go out of style; much like our friendship! 

It's always exciting when we do our gift exchange because one of us almost always makes something for the others and this year Tracey blew us all away with the surprise of her unique gift.  She created a project bag and the material she used was a print of two photographs she had taken at our yearly retreat at Brentwood on the Beach.  The second I opened the box and saw the sunset on the material, I knew what she had done.  So beautifully crafted! Tracey has opened up her own Etsy shop with all her unique bags, called Bags She Built; click on the link to read Tracey's story and how she came up with the one-of-a-kind name. 

One of the many beautiful sunsets at Brentwood on the Beach
captured for us to enjoy every single time we open up our project bag.

These stunning red poppies are almost always in bloom the week we are at Brentwood. Often closed up upon arrival, they are sure to be in full bloom before we leave 4 days later. They enjoy our company so much that they wait for us. :-) 

Tracy lined each of our bags with a design that suited each of our personalities. She laid them out on the table and asked her husband if he could tell which one was for each of us and he was spot on with the answers. He knows us well!  Each bag is finished off with a charm on the zipper pull along with a button from Tracey's Nana's button box. 

Jody always finds the most unique and decorative friendship blocks. 

Anita and Jody filled their gift bags with oodles of goodies.  Lucky for us this year, Anita found the Christmas spatulas that she bought for us last year. LOL.  She included beautiful decorative tea towels, napkins and a scented pot holder and a gift card.  Jody found a notepad with each of our initials, but she couldn't find hers at the time of the photo so I had to decide if I should take the photo with BAT or TAB.  The bat won.  Along with our notepad, we got a beautiful scented candle, friendship block and friendship charm.  

For the past few years, I have been making desk calendars for everyone with a collection of our projects over the years.  With four of us creating so many different things, I should be good to go for a few more years with this item. 

Along with the desk calendar, I gave everyone a Satin Hands Pampering set in a key lime scent.  You have to have silky hands for crafting don't you?  Each card was given to Anita, Jody and Tracey to suit their personalities.  I wonder if there is anyone out there who may be able to figure which card was given to whom.  (perhaps Jayne with a Y can take a guess...? -- she seems to know us pretty well.) 

This past week we started our cross stitching year at Tracey's and we were greeted with the sight of her beautiful mantel.  I swear there are enough pictures of her mantels over the years  to create a book of its own!  Winter is upon us, and Tracey captured it beautifully. 

This mantel has just a little piece of everyone on it.  One year for Christmas, I gave everyone the snowflake made of buttons that is hanging on the front of the mantel.  

Tracey's joyful little snowman cross stitch sits beside a unique frame that Tracey found and it just so happened to perfectly fit one of the handmade cards that Anita made.  And Anita had given us all the pretty little snowflake lantern;  my granddaughter Scarlet loves to play with mine all the time and carries it around with her all day. 

This picture is a tad blurry, but we'll just pretend it's a little foggy outside.  I love this little cross stitch.  The dog looks just like Tracey and Paul's dog Heidi.  She was a such a beautiful sheltie and always a joy to be around.  

As noted before, here is Jody's pretty little friendship block.
And the cute little sign at the back was made my Tracey's son Mitchell when he was quite young and she commented how fitting it is right now as it's so much the style now.  It has made it's comeback. 

Happy New Year to all our followers!   We would all like to offer our warm wishes to you and your families for the best of everything in 2017.  Peace, joy and love to all. 

Bonnie