holiday centerpiece class

after many seasons of talking about, i am offering a floral design class this december. in time for our holiday dinner tables, it will be a 3 hour centerpiece design class which will allow us to make our christmas/holiday floral arrangements and show them off to family on the day. sign up for a december 21st (sunday) 10am-1pm class in pennington. we'll have 10 spots, 9 are still available. it will cost $135 (cash or check) including the materials and you'll take a beautiful centerpiece home. we'll learn how to select, care for, clean and cut fresh flowers, how to prepare and green a container and how to make a natural look holiday centerpiece. we'll learn about vase life for different flowers and greens; how to make and use bows and other decorations in a floral arrangement, etc. all this right in time for the first day of hanukkah (monday the 22nd) and christmas is thursday the 25th.
bring your favorite low container or use one of ours. sign up here in comments or e-mail me at pensive.weeds@gmail.com with any questions. hope to see you there.

fun and games

this rooster costume was requested a long time ago by Fedia and he stuck to his selection. so about a week before the princeton parade i started making it with absolutely no idea of how to accomplish the look. the crest, the hardest bit, worked out as so many things in our lives thanks to t.Ira. she left me some bright red yarn that turned out to be perfect for this project. it was thick enough. i chrocheted without a pattern adding on every stitch in the third row to achieve the right curve. i reinforced on either side to help it stand up, but in hind sight should have crocheted a wire right into the backing. as it is, the wire is threaded in, sewn at the bottom and the crest still kind of flops over. the feathers were easy. an old sweater, fabric glue....a long evening, though after having done it and seen how hard and shrinky the garment itself got, i should have sewn them individually. the tail was a lot of fun. large feathers from a craft store, wicker-srapped wire and red fleece to make shorts to attach the tail. cannot do anything without a glue gun. red rubbery fabric to wrap old rainboots in and we were done. he actually liked it. i thought he may not want to wear it, but we are even keeping it all for dress up.

sonia was a frog. we have used this costume for the 3rd year in a row. it was too small. i forgot that i got it for fedia's 12-18 months. next year we'll have two make two and i cannot wait.