A Little of This & A Little of That

by Deanna

I am still in the midst of my Christmas decorating, these days I am ALWAYS running late for just about anything and everything I do.  How about you, are you done and have all your Christmas shopping complete or are you a little like me....still in the midst of it?  Tonight I am joining some very good girlfriends for dinner and thought, since the hostess insisted that we bring NOTHING (how sweet is that??!!) that she wanted to prepare the entire dinner, including dessert I really should bring some kind of hostess gift.

So...yesterday I was at my local grocery store and while there picked up those miniature poinsettias, right now they are buy one, get one free.  Not even thinking about a hostess gift when I purchased them, but thank goodness I did have the sense to take advantage of the sale, I now have a hostess gift.  To make it kinda special, I added some left-over berries and a bow to the (free) poinsettia.  And speaking of left-over berries.....I buy garlands of berries, or flowers, or ivy, or greens whatever and cut it up.  It is amazing how much product you can get from a garland vs. buying individual stems. And you do know I am talking fake here, not real.

I updated my front door wreath with a garland of berries, the old ones were fading from a bright red to a fuschia pink along with the ribbon.  I just cut off the old berries with a wire cutter (a must have in any craft room) and added a fresh new garland of berries and a new bow....voila a brand new wreath.  And I still have plenty of berries left to add to anything else I might find that needs a lift.  That is exactly what I used in the poinsettia hostess gift.

And speaking of new....I bought a new lens, the new Tamron 70-200 mm 2.8 zoom lens.  I just received it this afternoon and I am amazed, simply amazed by the sharpness.  It is my Christmas present to myself.   I have had several family photo shoots in the past few months and I decided to save the money and buy myself this lens, I figured this was the perfect way to spend the money, upgrading my equipment.  I think I am going to love this lens especially for my daughter's dance recitals...photographing those sweet darlings in their cuter than cute tutu's.  And dress rehearsal is Saturday....perfect timing.

A couple of shots with the new lens.....

I think Cinder needs a trim, you can hardly see her eyes...she is all decked out in her red Christmas sweater.  It has been so frigid cold here that she is happy to have this extra layer.  I bought Toby one too, but he acted like he was gagging when I put it on him.  He wanted no part of a sweater.

So I know this post is a little of this and a little of that...but my life has been like that lately.  Little bits of happiness and little bits of sadness, but you gotta have the sad to recognize the happy.  And in perspective, the happiness bits have far outweighed the sad.  Hope your life is like that too.  This is my last post here on Focusing On Life before Christmas, so I am wishing you a beautiful, merry, bright & holy Christmas.