welcome to the family christmas

[tielan]

Welcome to my family's Christmas!



This is the serious photo. The silly photo is silly. :)

This photo encompasses:
Me, my two sisters, mum, stepdad, two stepbrothers, a stepsis-in-law, a stepsis-in-law's mum, three uncles, two aunts-by-marriage, an uncle's girlfriend (fiancee, actually: I saw the ring, it was HOLY COW GINORMOUS), five cousins (out of a possible nine), one cousin-in-law, and four second cousins once removed.

Our Christmas is simple: people arrive for lunch, lunch is eaten, then we roam or collapse into food comas - this year, due to the four second cousins once removed, we roamed the house and the garden and played games and discovered tadpoles, played tennis, banana scrabble ("split!" "peel!" "BANANA!"), had a lot of fun trying to corral the two year old, and I didn't get around to reading my Yuletide until late afternoon/early evening.

At which point my stepdad tried to feed us dinner.

I received some lovely presents this year - a triple scented candle, a stick of Besame lipstick (Red Velvet; Peggy Carter's colour), some very pretty Maxwell Williams china and porcelain, and the usual gift card from the stepbros. :)

Me and the lipstick:



Bitch crimson all the way!

Oh, and a goat. Which was given to a family in Mozambique on my behalf from my mother. :D

I gave gift cards to my sisters and my stepbrothers because I spent all my time making the gift for the parentals:



That would be the two circular cushions on the seating set, which match the quilt and pillows on the bed (which I made previously).

In progress:


Detail:


Twas an excellent Christmas.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Impressive gifts you made!

And aww, your family photo -- I assume the sister next to you is the one close to you? :)

[tielan]

Thank you!

Actually, that's the other sister. :)

[hyperfocused]

You are exceedingly talented, and have a very photogenic family! (Including a princess!)I love all your needlework, and those chairs are the coolest.

Glad you had a great Christmas.

[tielan]

Hehe - the princess got given her tiara early that morning by her big sister. And is the most extroverted extrovert that ever extroverted. All bounce and chatter and announcement. :)

Hope your Christmas was similarly good! (And if not, hope you're getting a chance to wind down before having to go back to work.)

[theladyscribe]

Ooh those pillows are gorgeous! And your family is super cute!

Also, I've come to the conclusion that Red Velvet seriously looks good on everyone. I haven't met a person yet who didn't look fabulous in it!

[tielan]

Another friend (the friend who gave it to me) said that Red Velvet has enough blue in it that it works for everyone. Which, IDK about lipstick colours (she can wear a pink that makes my mouth look like a baboon's bottom) but, hey, this one certainly works for me! :)

Now I just have to work out how to apply it neatly, and when to wear it. (I'm not usually a makeup wearer, and I don't have too many opportunities.)

[theladyscribe]

Sephora has a video tutorial on how to apply Besame lipstick (below the photo of the lipstick/tube) that I found very useful, since the stick shape is different from what I'm used to. As for the when, I'm a big fan of wearing it when you feel like it, ~convention and ~fashion be damned.

[justhuman]

Happy Christmas!

You and your family look great, as does your sewing!

[tielan]

Happy Holidays to you!

And thank you!

[bridgetmkennitt]

The cushions are very pretty!

[tielan]

Thank you! My mother was very pleased with them and kept dragging people up to her bedroom to show them off. :)

[thothmes]

Gorgeous pillows, but I am not surprised, because I have seen your work before and it is always impressive. The fabrics in it are stunning, even before you began to work.

Thank you for sharing your family too. An impressively handsome bunch. I was glad to note the princess. Every family has one. In ours it is my sister, who is 47, teaches math to ten and eleven year olds (fifth grade) and makes sure to wear her tiara for picture day, so that (she tells her students) she will be sure to look fabulous.

I like the lipstick. I never wear makeup myself, not even for my own wedding, but I can appreciate the look on others.

[tielan]

One of my sisters (not the one I live with) in the yellow shirt down the bottom of the picture - she was wearing a little tinsel tiara when she came around on Christmas Eve to prep the potato salad and stay the night (so she didn't have to drive over from her place on Christmas morning), and it looked good.

But, yes, the princess got her tiara from her big sister for Christmas and wore it pretty much all day!

[rmc28]

What lovely photos! I am amazed and impressed by your glorious cushions and not surprised your mother kept showing them off.

And that is one fabulous family photo :-)

[gaffsie]

Oh, wow, I'm so impressed with the gifts you made! They look fantastic. Also impressive is the way you're pulling off that shade of lipstick. You are rocking that look!

[everbright]

My Grandmother always fed us Lunch and then Dinner in an effort to keep us around a bit longer, is it the same for Stepdad?

I'm glad you had such a good Christmas! It sounds like a wonderful lot of family and conversation and cheer.