The Buhlawg (I'm Nothing if not Southern...)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!


I hope all of you are well and warm. I've been busy, busy, busy preparing for the holidays. And I'm ready for one! I have a few pics of stuff to share. First of all, on Thanksgiving my sister, Amy, spotted this "lurking visitor" in the backyard. That was one of Santa's reindeer, no doubt, checking to see if we were being naughty or nice. We were trying to be nice at the time. It's hard to get into much trouble if one is stuffing one's face with Mattie's homemade rolls. Oh, they're good. We haven't been able to spot the reindeer since, however. I think it must be like Stonehenge where there's one day per year that particular shadow appears. Heehee!

We had a little surprise weekend before last. It snowed! And it stuck to everything except the streets! We seldom get snow before January here. I can only remember a couple of white Christmases ever. Who knows? Perhaps we'll have one this year. Anyway, this is what our street looked like. I love how quiet it gets when it snows.


































I've been busy making it snow inside the house as well. I love taking a pattern and playing with color and beads and such. This is the second snowflake from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn (yes, Gina - I was tatting that snowflake also!). Isn't it interesting how the overall design of the snowflake appears to change with the addition of color and where it's placed. The little blue snowflake was the result of some bead play. The big snowflake is a beaded version of "Connie's Snowflake". We "studied" it in the online tatting class Monday. I put "studied" in quotes as a) my diagram and pattern had some "issues" and b) we were generally pretty rowdy that night. I don't know what they slipped into the tea that night!






















Connie's Snowflake






My sister, Amy, asked me for a painting this year. She wanted a painting of Santa Clause done in the style of Haddon "Sunny" Sundblom - the man who painted the Santas for Coca Cola (and also coined the phrase, "The pause that refreshes"). Dagwood painted one for us when we were kids and of course we all lust mightily for that painting. This isn't as good as Dagwood's, but here is the end result. Apres Sundblom, 16"x24", oil on canvas.