This silk ball-hydrangea flower has been part of my giftwrap iconography for a loooooooong time, though I seemed to have lost some of the intervening uses.

silk flowers, mistletoe, snowflake, assorted ribbon, eco-friendly packaging paper (in green); 20dec2020

I don't feel this effort is as good as the original, nor even the xmas wrap featuring it that I did in 2019 but it did get me started on decorating gifts for this year, so it functioned as a nice warm-up

another view: I darkened this image a bit in gimp, which I do think improves it, but it also really makes the blown highlights obvious—c'est la vie...

Coffee drinking is for me a lovely way to visit with friends, especially when art making together, but my parents, my mom in particular are avid drinkers of strong black coffee, and I generally don't have any in the house, so my dear friend Tech purchased some espresso from our local roasterie and f2tE (at great personal sacrifice) loaned me zir burr grinder for the duration of my parent's visit.

Alas! My mom just wanted coffee “that smelled like coffee” —we ended up getting some from the local coffee shop—it was a nice walk, anyway...

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.