My Crabby Christmas

 I love setting a festive holiday table......it usually starts with the food.  In this case -crab....typically what I would think of for New Year's but somewhere got it in my head I wanted to have crab. I was going for something sort of earthy but bright and happy....a little bit clean and not too fussy.  I decided we'd serve ourselves most of the food  buffet style in the kitchen and then just have the crab and accoutrements on the table.

 I went out for a  walk in the filbert orchard behind my house and came home with some goodies for the nature part of the table- lichens and moss and a sweet little licorice fern (something very special about licorice fern) ...starting to look a bit like Christmas.

 But uh, oh, starting to get a little crowded on that table with all the crab paraphernalia - you know crackers and pickers, and lemons and aoili, and the crab itself and places for the shells. Plus we needed candles and  I wanted to have three little mossy vases down the table but I was definitely running out of room.

 Problem solved, I would just run red and white string up and down the table.....lots of color punch and it wouldn't take up any space. 

Keeping with the new design directive that all decorative elements must lie flat on the table, I added these  masks I was going to give away as party favors.....a little devilish for Christmas perhaps but the red seemed just right.

What can I say?  Try as I might (never), I'm not a minimalist......

And the food hasn't even made it to the table.

The Amazing Becky Tonkin

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 I want to say a few words to Passionflower's amazing store manger, Miss Becky Tonkin.  

 First off , you are a great sport and let me post all sorts of quasi flattering  photos of you for Pflower promotional purposes.  And I super appreciate that. :)

 I also think you could have a second career as a make up artist (I really do,that is if you lived in LA I guess)...just one more of your many talents.

But what I really wanted to say is that I thought you looked spectacularly beautiful at our Holiday Party this year - and you kind of rocked my world with all those jewel tones - the red of the rose, the deep plum of your lipstick and the emerald green of the ayala barr necklace were all just reverberating!!  Thanks for being the most beautiful manager a girl could ask for. 

Celebrations at Passionflower Design

 At Passionflower we believe in the art of the party.  Here's a few of our favorite goodies to make those festivities extra fun:

Colorful bami balls are super fun to unroll and play with all the surprises inside.  Plus they're locally made and we love supporting local businesses!

 Sparklers really sparkle :)!  We have three different sizes.

And what's a party without a tiara?

So come visit and we'll help you celebrate.

All images (except very top which came from our holiday party) courtesy our vendors.