Imagine

The *children's tree* in three parts. I posted this one before, but the colors were muddy. In these pics, you get a better sense of the way it looks, although it reality, it is much brighter than this. Many of the ornaments were made by NC schoolchildren.

My employer, Mel Day, told me that he wanted the arrangements to be *artsy-fartsy*, since the focus is on NC art and artists this year. I said....."Fartsy I can do - but I'm not sure about the artsy". In an attempt to project some art into the arrangement I do every year in the silver epergne, I used small silver balls and flexible silver wire to make "squiggles" and hang the balls from them. It was fun......so much so that I didn't want to stop making the squiggles and coils.They don't show up so well in the photos, but people seemed to like them. I'm thinking I should get some more wire and balls and make a hanging mobile!

Below is another of the art/craft pieces on display. Mel told me to accent it without touching the vase or detracting from it. The holly berries help to bring out the red in the vase's coloration. That was a good spot to showcase it, since it looks great against the deep red velvet of the Library sofa.

The two pieces below are companions, and together, they are said to be worth $75K. While I appreciate blown glass and the effort it takes to make it, I don't really understand what makes this so valuable. It was impossible for me to capture the nuances of color in these pieces, which are quite striking when you see it up close. But you know what I see when I look at it? The Loch Ness Monster.....LOL. It is displayed on the mantel in the dining room; a safer site than most when tours come through the mansion.