Art and Sand: New Year

Thursday, December 31, 2015

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans..."

John Lennon's lyrics to "Beautiful Boy" seem to fit my life lately.

I have been wanting to read blogs, write posts of my own, and a million other things, but LIFE just seems to be getting in the way - a tiny health blip cut into my time - everything is fine now, but I haven't done a lot of the things I had planned.

Added to that, while we were in Kauai, I got an email saying that we were hosting the "soup course" on our lane's annual New Year's Eve Progressive Dinner - you'll note that we are not a late night crowd!

The good news there is that I had an excuse to leave up my Christmas decorations - in year's past, guests have asked me why the house was stripped of all Christmas.

This year there is still plenty of "Christmas",

but I wanted a little New Year decor.

A burlap bag on the Dutch door will greet guests with a simple message - It's Party Time.

A quick and easy banner made out of book pages (stenciled and colored in) hangs across the dining room windows.

My number collection was raided for a 0, 1, 2 & 6.

Everything except the 1 was found, but for some reason I had two 4's and Steve kindly made a 1 out of a 4.

My first thought was to have the numbers as a centerpiece on the table, but with three different soups and condiments on the table, I decided to put the numbers in the window,

The side windows needed a little something so I found inspirational quotes.

I simply printed them on colorful paper, cut them into flags, taped skewers to the back and stuck them into mason jars.

Despite the cold weather we are experiencing, there will be overflow into the garden.

The garden window went from Christmas to New Year's simply by adding a few stickers.

I don't know if anyone will actually eat their soup outside, but the patio table is ready and we will have a fire in the fire pit for people to stay warm.