Last 7 days Popular Posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This week I decorated a Christmas tree in the Lobby of the Sutton Place Hotel, for a very worthwhile fundraising initiative benefiting Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Canuck Place is a story of courage and vision and offers a continuum of care to over 350 children and teens with life-threatening illnesses and their families throughout British Columbia. I am very honored to be a small part of making a difference in the lives of these children and teens. The trees (9 in all) will be on show in the Lobby of the Sutton Place Hotel through January 2, 2009.

It all started in August of this year when I teamed up with my buddy and fellow Interior Designer, Linda Sale, to collaborate in the decorating of this tree. What happens when two creative minds, and two 'Type A' personalities come together? 

We decided to make the decorations, with the theme being 'Home for the Holidays', represented by Children of the World made of gingerbread, dressed in their native costumes and holding the flag of their Country. Our first batch of gingerbread in September crumbled and we then tried a Martha Stewart recipe and it was a success.  The holes to hang the gingerbread were formed with a straw and we put an egg white glaze on the cookies.  After they were baked they were cured in a 200 degree oven for hours. That Sunday we were well under way with 7 dozen cookies prepared. We then spent the next three months creating costumes and the flags for these little treasures, as well as Jerseys for the entire Canuck team. (Insider Scoop: 7 of the Canucks are currently living at the Sutton Place Hotel, so if you are a fan, you might by chance see one of them walking through the Lobby as we did the day we were decorating the tree.)

Sutton Place 002 Sutton Place 033 

Before decorating - Linda & me                                   After decorating

ChristmasTree029_thumb2 Nov2508SuttonPlace009_thumb3  Nov2508SuttonPlace006_thumb2

 Nov 25 08 Sutton Place 001

image_thumb12  

ChristmasTree044_thumbChristmasTree048_thumbChristmasTree053_thumb

ChristmasTree045_thumbChristmasTree038_thumbChristmasTree049_thumb

ChristmasTree046_thumbChristmasTree050_thumbChristmasTree043_thumb

ChristmasTree058_thumbChristmasTree039_thumbChristmasTree051_thumb

ChristmasTree055_thumbChristmasTree047_thumbChristmasTree042_thumb

The presents were wrapped with the greatest of care....

Nov2508SuttonPlace024_thumbNov2508SuttonPlace032_thumb1  Nov2508SuttonPlace018_thumb

Nov2508SuttonPlace025_thumbNov2508SuttonPlace022_thumbNov2508SuttonPlace026_thumb

Nov2508SuttonPlace030_thumbNov2508SuttonPlace019_thumbNov2508SuttonPlace020_thumb

Canuck Jerseys were hand made to hang on the tree.....                           

SuttonPlace031_thumb1 SuttonPlace008_thumb1 SuttonPlace012_thumb2 

SuttonPlace016_thumbSuttonPlace024_thumbSuttonPlace020_thumb

SuttonPlace009_thumbSuttonPlace028_thumbSuttonPlace021_thumb

SuttonPlace005_thumbSuttonPlace013_thumbSuttonPlace017_thumb

SuttonPlace025_thumbSuttonPlace029_thumbSuttonPlace006_thumb

SuttonPlace022_thumbSuttonPlace014_thumbSuttonPlace018_thumb

SuttonPlace010_thumb  SuttonPlace026_thumb SuttonPlace030_thumb 

SuttonPlace007_thumb1SuttonPlace011_thumb1SuttonPlace023_thumb1

 SuttonPlace015_thumb SuttonPlace019_thumb  SuttonPlace027_thumb

Opening night and the unveiling of the tree.......

SuttonPlace040_thumb2  
Alexa, Linda & I standing in front of the decorated tree

   SuttonPlace043_thumb2 
                                                                         My nephew Sean

SuttonPlace038_thumb3  
Fellow Blogger Maria Killam, who I officially met for the first time that evening

Sutton Place 036 SuttonPlace044_thumb1
                                                                                  Interior Designer Colleen Jamieson

Every vote for the best tree costs $5.00 and all proceeds go to Canuck Place so if you are downtown, be sure to drop in and place your vote!
Or go
on-line to get your ballot.......we are tree #3.

 

Patricia Gray writes about emerging trends, her inspirations, and "What's HOT" in the world of Design. 
While you're here, subscribe to this feed so you don't miss out.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Post

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...