A few favorite ornaments seemed to be a good place to play around…..

These first two are from my childhood….my parents picked them up for me on their travels in the 70′s.

A family favorite was “Pancho Claus”  picked up south of the border.  He was a candle in the form of Santa wearing a sombrero….the wick came out of the top of his hat.  One brutally hot summer he melted in the attic and we mourned his loss, not unlike a pet.  What?!  It was the 70′s and Pancho Claus was cool I tell you….Trust.

These glittery little beauties were found at estate sales in my 20′s….from someone elses childhood.

Um…all birds.  Sorry.

The red flocked deer below belonged to my parents, and I adored them growing up.  They used to be on our dining room table every year, in front of a silver punchbowl full of poinsettias. Sometime in my 20′s or early 30′s, I begged for them, and they were kind enough to oblige.  The vintage brass deer candle holders are a recent Etsy purchase.

Felt circles bought from Fred Flare a few years ago are sill holding strong….

On the puppy front, Otto is growing very fast and into everything…..he even tried to chew the lights!

He is Ottofabulous the LoveShark.  Sometimes he’s Pushkin (the CC wanted to name him that at one point, so it’s one of his bazillion nicknames.)

What are some of your favorite holiday decorations?  Hannukah, Chinese New Year, etc..  Is there a piece from your childhood that you cherish, or have you gotten something new that will be a keeper for years?

 Photos brought to you by Diptic, Hipstamatic, Big Lens and Instagram.  I found a plug- in that imports the Instagram photos to the right sidebar, so the latest snaps will be there.  I swear, I will pick up the SLR again at some point.

Their coats are changing from caramel to grey…fall is here.

This year we had a surprise visitor…

I think that his days may be numbered.  This is the first time in our three years here we’ve seen a rabbit.  There are so many predators, but this one has managed to escape the hawks for the time being…good luck Thumper!

We’re trying to make the most of our last 9 days of freedom…long walks in the woods, Shark Week, lounging at the pool and not getting out of pajamas on rainy days…they grow up too fast to consider otherwise….

The round tables were so hard to make look decent.  I hated them, but everyone was very nice and seemed to like the pale blue overlays with the kraft. The clean up committee really, truly loved me though.  It was a snap for us to uncover the tables at the end.

I had really wanted to cover the ugly legs with paper to the floor, but we couldn’t do it…not enough money in the budget for the extra paper it would take, and not enough volunteers to help wrap the tables.  Sigh.  That’s life.  It’s not the costume gala at the Met, so just have a margarita and get OVER IT.

Did I mention I hated them?  Let’s not even discuss the chairs.

I hung the tissue pom poms from the ceiling and they seemed dwarfed by the massiveness of the room and tent, but again…just not enough manpower or budget, so I broke down and resorted to the flags for impact.  Have another margarita.

This is where all the auction items were…it’s Nashville, so we had lots of signed gee-tars from your favorite country stars.  What I wanna know is where our school’s goddamn Jack White connection is?!  I don’t listen to country music, so it’s kinda wasted on me.  Jack could change my interest in the music prizes, fo sho.

Packed house..haven’t heard the grand total yet, but hopefully that margarita machine lubed up folks enough to make some nice sized donations to the school.

There was a wheel, kinda like on the Price is Right….I gave it a few spins, got a few small prizes.

I decided to make a few woodland scenarios for those not digging the Southwest vibe of the evening…..Everyone loved the terrariums, but didn’t/couldn’t read the tags, so we didn’t sell them all.

You knew there would be fawns, right?

I must have made the flags too tall since many people didn’t know they were for sale…boo.  It’s funny, of the ones that did sell, some swapped their figurines with other arrangements, so I ended up with a “desert fawn” since someone obviously wanted a “woodland coyote.”  I don’t know why that cracked me up so much…possibly exhaustion.

A really fun, yet super tiring weekend….

I’ll update you on the treehouse later this week.  Adios amigos….

For those who wonder why I have this oft despised cardboard deer head, allow me to ‘splain why I love him….it’s a bit personal really.

I grew up in a family of hunters, and there was a room in our house with multiple taxidermy deer heads.  When I was little, I would sit in that room by myself and cry for those deer.  I thought Bambi was traumatizing…I just never got past the first 10 minutes.  Yeah, Thumper’s cute, but THEY KILLED BAMBI’S MOTHER!!!!!  This is the same kid who had to be removed from the theater during Snoopy Come Home sobbing uncontrollably because Snoopy RAN AWAY.  I was an emotional kid, just sayin’.

Bucky is kind of my payback.  Now, I live with (protected) deer in my yard daily, and I enjoy their majesty on the wall, the same way my family did, but on my terms.  A nasty pest to some…a sentimental favorite for me.

What is a controversial item in your house and why do you love it?

Via PeregrineHonig.net

You’d have to be stone cold for that not to break your heart, just a little….no?

As it stayed under the tree for the rest of the afternoon, we kept watch for the reunion…we sat in the nook at dusk to observe the does arriving in the front yard so we could see which one was the fawn mama.  This little one clambered back over the retaining wall to go to the does.  We couldn’t get any good shots of the doe/fawn reunion, but we hope there will be more visits!

…..and Happy New Year!  Nothing like a little fawn love to start off 2010.  I swoon over these photos by the late, great Bob Willoughby of Audrey Hepburn with her fawn Pippin, or Ip.  Then husband, Mel Ferrer, gave her the fawn from their Green Mansions set following her 2nd miscarriage.

All photos by Bob Willoughby… his Flickr feed is here…via one of my fave blogs…The Jealous Curator.