Mr. Bingle

When I was a little girl (yes, back in the dinosaur days as my girls say), there was a local department store called Maison Blanche.

Every Christmas season, Momma & Daddy would bundle us into the car and we'd drive downtown into New Orleans to see the lights, and we would ALWAYS drive down Canal Street past the Maison Blanche store.

Mr. Bingle was the store's mascot...and there was a huge Mr. Bingle on the outside of the store. Mr. Bingle = Maison Blanche, get it????

And Maison Blanche always did it right! There was a song and even a puppet show in the afternoons! It was great growing up with Mr. Bingle!!! Watch this video!


Now, Maison Blanche is gone, Dillard's owns the store. And Mr. Bingle now resides in City Park for their Christmas in the Oaks celebration, but since Katrina, you can only see him on the walking tour.

Even after all these years, Mr. Bingle is alive in many adult hearts around the world. And he has a fan club. Enjoy him!

This is my 2008 Mr. Bingle ornament...I think I have all of them! I'll take some pictures of him once I put him on my Christmas tree.

What's wrong with me?? LOL!

I've been working. I don't know exactly where it's all coming from, but I'm happy.

ScrapShanty had one last week, and today was the last day. My friend, Mel, wanted us to create a Christmas card using non-traditional colors. Red or green but not both. It was harder than you think!


I think it came out pretty well. I was a little disappointed that the glitter on the snowflake doesn't show up better. Oh, well, next time.

Scrap Shanty card details:
Stamps - Holly Jolly Christmas (Studio G)
Cardstock - Soft Sky(SU!)
Patterned Paper - Rhonda Farrer (Autumn Leaves)
Ribbon - Certainly Celery, Whisper White (SU!)
Ink - StazOn Jet Black
Misc. - stickles glitter glue, Fiskar's punch

Check out their challenges! I had a blast! And thanks for looking!

Heaux Heaux Heaux!

Less than a week....yikes! Six days til Christmas!!!

My dinner is planned and shopped, everything is waiting to be diced, chopped and cooked. I have 15 people coming for Christmas dinner but I do 99% of the cooking and baking. My menu is pretty standard (for us), but every year I try to add one new thing. This year it's a new spinach recipe and we'll see how it goes. I get tired of cooking the same things each holiday dinner...I'm trying to add a little excitement, lol.

turkey
honey baked ham
shrimp dressing
oyster dressing
cornbread dressing
beef & mushroom rice
mashed potatoes
macaroni & cheese
green bean & artichoke casserole
bacon wrapped green beans
spinach madeleine
baked cauliflower
corn
tossed salad
rolls
biscuits
pecan pie
christmas cake
brownies
assorted cookies
wine
tea
coffee

Yes, it's a lot. I got in the habit of fixing all this food when my girls were small and extremely picky eaters. And it stuck, lol. I'll do the baking on Saturday, start putting the casseroles together on Sunday. By noon Monday, my refridgerator will be stuffed full with my dinner. I'm hoping to get my table set Monday night, but we are going to the bonfires in Gramercy Christmas Eve night, so I'm not sure I'll get that far. I'm still hoping though.

If anyone would like a copy of one of my recipes, email me. I'll be happy to send them to you.

I still have a few gifts to finish making (altered calendars, pens, notepads and mini photo albums in a coordinating tin) but everything else is wrapped and hidden. Mia is hard on any presents that we've put under the tree, thank goodness nothing she's unwrapped was hers, lol.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas season. I'm not sure I'll have enough time to post anything for the next several days and I wanted to make sure I said that. Joyeux Noel!


glitter-graphics.com

I'm so proud...

I'm so thrilled! I made my very first handcrafted Christmas cards!

I don't know if I was inspired by the paper, which is gorgeous. I don't know if I just saw the images in my head. What I do know is that I bought the paper to do a Christmas layout for this year's big day (I actually did 2 layouts with it) and just saw potential in the paper.

The cards just sort of flowed out of me...I can't remember the last time I was so inspired, so determined to finish a project. I liked the fact that I have finally found a use for all those little scraps of paper that I've saved for years.

And the creativity just kept flowing.

I had a bunch of tins that I had purchased for future projects (don't ask me what) so I took one that I had painted pink, added some of the same paper and ribbons from my huge reserves (again, don't ask) and voila! Instant card storage box! I can tell just with a glance that there are 24 beautiful Christmas cards with envelopes in there!



I'm so proud of myself!

Now I'm wondering what else I can do like that...the mind boggles :)