shades of blue

Have you ever bought a new car? You fell in love with the model and the color and knew it perfectly fit your unique style?

Then you drove to the mall for the first time and when you came out you couldn't find it? Because there were 20 other cars exactly like yours? And you never even noticed that kind of car before? Or that so many OTHER people also loved YOUR favorite car color?

Well, that's SORT OF like what happened to a group of women from my church recently, except in a really good way.



We were planning a peppermint theme for our first-ever women's Christmas event. Candy canes. Red roses. Red and white ornaments.



Then we went to look at the room where we would be holding the event and we immediately noticed the dark blue chairs. I went searching around for some nesting boxes for our illustration on "Unwrapping the Gift" of Christmas. I remembered I had a stack in my basement in blue and white.


So, we decided that rather than fighting the blue, we would go with a Winter Wonderland theme.

Suddenly, we started noticing that every store in town had tons of blue and white Christmas decor. Since blue usually makes me feel, well, a little blue, I must have always headed straight for the greens, with their calming effect.



We had four "table hostesses" and we asked each one to decorate her table with only one criteria: It needed to be in shades of blue and white. The result was amazing! Each table was wonderfully unique and beautiful, and the whole room was coordinated even though it was put together without anyone knowing what the others were doing.



This is my table. I went with a sweets theme. Imagine that.

This is Lara's table. She had this really cool ice-skate planter to work with.

This is Lori's table. Don't you love her china? And that glittery silver garland?

This is Jolie's table. The ornaments in the glasses made it so elegant.


These are the cute little jars of hot cocoa mix that each woman got to take home with her.

I've never felt so good surrounded by shades of blue.