Inviting Alice to Christmas

As promised, I'm posting my newly redesigned Alice in Wonderland Christmas Trees. For the last several years, I've done an Alice tree with glass hearts, golden keys, little mushrooms and a collection of resin ornaments (of indeterminate provenience). This year, however, I discovered the wonderland that is Ebay, and scored some delightful Polonaise pieces.

     The new ornaments include Alice herself (who is very pretty but arrived broken-curses!), the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit and Red Queen. Once they arrived, I knew they needed their own place without their resinous counterparts (which are cute but not nearly as interesting). They were given pride of place on my tallest spiral topiary, and the old collection was moved to a smaller bush across the room with blue and silver pieces. Now there are two Alice trees to complete my Winter Wonderland! I'm actually working on a third as well! My newest quest is for the perfect fabric roses.

     Unlike so many of my blog friends, I'm not much of a photographer so I know you'll forgive my less than perfect pictures. I haven't finished the dining room completely, but I'll be displaying little vignettes containing other pieces from my Alice collection to create a whimsical holiday scene sure to enchant all the children in my family from now until January. Please feel free to throw in your ideas, or tell everyone about how yooouuu roll at Christmastime! Oodles of Toodles, Your Kitty.

My brother and my nephew think these ornaments, especially the Hatter are "creepy."

I had to tuck Alice and her flamingo into the tree strategically; the bottom of her dress broke in transit. Apparently, I'll just have to deal with it and spend the rest of my life looking to replace this lone piece of the set. Bollocks!

The Red Queen of Hearts is my favorite; this old girl is bigger than my palm.

The blue and silver Alice tree with my old resin ornaments.

These Alices feature a tiny, glittery red bottle. I love the way she falls off the branch with her dress billowing as if she's headed down the rabbit hole!

I haven't found a perfect Cheshire Cat yet, so I'll leave you with this mysterious grin for now. Meow!

See the complete collection of Alice party ideas and other Wonderland topics on my new blog, Cabbages and Kings!

Curiouser and Curiouser!

Dear Kittens,

   Through a cursory analysis, I noticed my most popular posts on Shindigs are the Alice in Wonderland features. They're certainly the most fun to construct! I've decided to organize them and expand them on this new blog, Of Cabbages & Kings. I hope you enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoy writing them. I've had a penchant for Alice since early childhood, and I've been collecting ever since.

     I've never been much of a fan of princess crap, preferring instead to live in a Wonderland of sorts, gawking at the absurdity of life the way Alice herself learned about reality. Alice in Wonderland is as existential as Camus or any dharma book I've ever read. In fact, if there is one work of literature that has run like a sutra thread through my life, it is Alice in Wonderland. I just love it. And from the looks of it, so do you!

     Here you'll find reprints of Shindigs & Soirees party planning posts, my Alice collection, special features and shopping links. In fact, from November 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010 we will donate 75% of our advertising revenue for the Innerspace Yoga Seva Project 09. Please click here for more information. Meanwhile, please tumble down this rabbit hole with me...and do drop a line. I want to see your Alice stuff, too! Oodles of Toodles,

Your Kitty, the Duchess of Bucquette.

My Alice in Wonderland Tree

     I just can't wait to put up my Alice tree. Forgive my photos from last year. These pictures don't do it much justice; it's adorned with red glass hearts from around the world (mainly compliments of Bebe) weird keys, smaller topiaries from my wedding 13 years ago, glass mushrooms, and very intricate Alice ornaments. It's also the place where I hang MIL's lone surviving antique ornament from her own childhood. Because of the red hearts, I stack red, white and green gifts under this tree. I can't put them under the main tree, obviously because that room is brown and tiger striped and neutral. Christmas morning is always a little treasure hunt through the house for all of us!
Update: I just scored the sweetest glass Alice ornaments on Ebay! They're from my favorite year, 1996, and each is palm sized. I'll be receiving Alice, the Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit. Although Radko made Alice in Wonderland ornaments that are somewhat rare and very cute, these are waaaayyy better and I can't wait to get them and put them up!
Update 2: Attention Alice fans: I've created a new blog, Cabbages and Kings. It's all Alice all the time. I hope you'll all join me there and on the other kitty: channels: Organic Orgy and Zen of Homekeeping. Toodles, kitty.