Decorating the Tree (SA Supporters ONLY)
In the pavilion at the long table full of decorations, those who have provided the Nachton Children's Foundation with a donation are welcome to make their own ornament. Put it in the pool and receive a numbered ticket, and at the end of the night all the decorations will be randomly redistributed to everyone who has participated!
((ooc: This is a mini art exchange! Each character in this thread must contribute an ornament in the form of a 60x60 button. You may have multiple characters contribute, as long as each makes and contirbutes his or her own original 60x60 button. Buttons must be submitted to Aishe by December 23rd, at which point your character will receive a numbered "ticket." On December 24th, buttons will be handed out to everyone who contributed. You will be given the name of the person who designed your button, but only for crediting purposes; unless one character expressly tells you that they made the ornament in a RP'ed setting, your character will not know whose ornament they've been given.
Feel free to RP in this thread if you are an SA supporter. Make sure, as with the rest of the Festival, that you are in this thread and no other in the event. Any character who enters, however long or short, will be considered a contributer and will be expected to make a button! :) ))
Her fingers were busy holding the ribbon onto the drying glue so she could only lean over and kiss Connie on the cheek and hope things didnt move too much. Once she was upright again she resumed smiling.
"Want to make an ornament too?"
Feeling that she had given the glue long enough to dry, the artist used one hand to hold it gently while the other cleared stuff from her lap before moving the backpack to the ground. Patting the seat she looked at Connie for a moment.
"Are you warm enough? I have a hat in my pocket if you get cold."
She wasnt even sure Connie could get cold but she offered none the less. Whispering conspiratorially she let her lover in on her next project.
"Soon as this dries enough I am gonna do just a spot of painting. I brought along a small canvas and I wanted to capture this scene for the Foundation. Do you think they will like it?"
"And I think I will make an ornament... as long as it's not a snowflake," she said with a snort.
Nyra's offer of the painting didn't surprise Connie; rather she had half expected such a wonderful gift. "I think they'll love it. They may ask you if they could auction it to add the monies to the charity, but still, they'd appreciate it." Connie glanced around, saw the gimungous tree, the snack and decorating tables, a cute young couple off to their right creating as well, a number of people just walking through. "What do you think you'll depict?"
Ever so gently he lifted his creation and signed his name to the bottom of the gift box with a nearby marker, along with an '06. He put the little green present in the center of the table with several other drying ornaments and picked up the paper towel Ana had placed next to him. With some effort he began to clean the glue from his hands.
"Did your paper freeze?"
His eyes roved over the crowd again as he continued to rub his fingers against the paper towel. They landed on the blonde woman he'd noticed before and something struck him as familiar. Then he recalled her photograph in the gallery where his own paintings hung for sale. She was a fellow artist. Perhaps he would take the time to say hello. With a smile he let his eye go back to roaming the crowd, and they went back over to the pond. He watched the antics of the skaters for a moment before returning his attention to his hands.
They were mostly glue free, the rest he could peel off later, so he abandoned the paper towel and turned his attention where it should be, Ana. Her cheeks and nose were still rosy from the cold and he wanted very much to place little kissed all along the line of pink. He contented himself with watching her create.
Ana hoped what she'd heard was only a partial comment, and brushed it off, then turned her attention back to her creation. Using the scissors, she cut two long, shallow curves along the long sides of the paper, then used the edge of the blade to abrade the four edges. Next, she took the tip of one blade and, holding the paper up in the air, swatted the sharpness of the blade at the paper, roughing it up and making little cuts. She set that aside, and stood back up to head back to the decorating table.
Turning to Joey before she stepped away, she asked, "No, actually, it didn't freeze, thanks for taking care of it; I'm sorry if I spaced on your question. Do you need anything from the decorating table?"
He watched her walk away again, quite content to be a spectator to his lovely Ana's movements. Though in all honestly he was ready to call the evening to an end and take her home and warm her up. That sounded so much better than anything else the festival had to offer. She returned before too long and set about finishing her creation.
"So what do you want to do next?"
Then she looked up at him, saw the smile in his chocolate brown eyes, the set of his lips. A tiny flickering bonfire of an idea tried to pass her lips and make her say 'We could kiss again' but instead she simply smiled and turned back to her ornament. "I'm almost done here, though. Just need to wait for the glue to dry a bit more so I can write on it..."
"I wouldn't mind taking a sleigh ride or we could ice skate again, or if you're feeling the cold we could head home."
There that gave her the option of staying or going. He was happy to oblige which ever choice she made. He picked up his ornament again and checked it for sturdiness. It appeared to be just about dry, or the glue was frozen, either way it would hold up nicely. He set it back on the table, and pulled his gloves on over his glued fingers, then turned his body until he straddled the bench, facing Ana.
He gave the side of his nose a scratch, then moved up to his ear and gave it a paw like swat. He caught himself and quickly put the offending hand into his lap. He only hoped Ana didn't catch the movement. He wasn't prepared to reveal that portion of his life to her quite yet.
Wrapping a paper towel about her re-mittened hand, she gently patted the snowflake-on-scroll contrivance, then unwrapped her hand. Shaking the paint pen, she carefully wrote an exaggerated word on the combined thickness in large, flowery letters: "JOY". Stuffing her mittens in her pocket, she blew gently across the still-wet paint, then after a moment she cradled her ornament carefully in her hands. Looking at Joey, spread on the bench, she said, "I'm done, shall we?"
She walked to the bench next to them and stood just a step away. Leaning her creation towards the raven-haired woman, she gently cleared her throat, and amiable said to the blonde and raven-haired women, "Happy Holidays, ladies. Have a great night." Smiling warmly, she stuck out her elbow to Joey, which he took, and moved over to the decoration table to hand in her creation, before moving over to the queue for the white sleigh ride.
(( Ana and Joey out to the White Sleigh ))
But.. it lacked something. Pursing her lips, the vampire thought a moment. "Ahhah....!" Setting the orb down gently, she hopped up and rummaged through the supplies a moment before returning with a paint marker in hand. Shaking it loudly, she stirred up the silver liquid inside briefly before picking up her creation again. Delicately she wrote on it in soft, flowing script "Joyeux Noël". Up near the rim, where the ornament hanger would normally cover, she wrote her initials as tiny as possible. Quickly, before the paint dried, she splashed it with some of the silver glitter for a little extra sparkle.
Waving it gently to dry, she sat and sipped her chocolate for a few minutes and watched the Festival around her. Once she had finished the drink, she stood and went to choose a hanger for it from the piles available. The simple silver top pressed on easily, and she gave it a soft air kiss before placing it on the table with the finished creations.
((OOC Amby out!))
She tried not to stammer out some half-assed apology in relation to her comment about snowflake-based ornaments... Instead she impressed the ornament upon her mind and resolved to get the girl's name from it before it was passed out. Or after.
When the couple moved along to the line for the sleigh ride, Connie leaned over to place her forehead on Nyra's shoulder. "Oh, honey, I feel like such an ass... I think I may have inadvertently insulted that lovely girl's ornament. She did such a lovely job, too. How uncharitable of me, even to make such a comment in an environment such as this. I should be forced to walk the plank for such scurrilous comments."
For a moment she took a mental snapshot of the youth's arm in arm, walking towards the tree with the skaters in the background and a sleigh arriving. The small canvas before her already depicted the basic background of icy lake, forest and lighted tree. Dabbing her brush into the paints she quickly loaded her brush with white and added the sleigh. Once this was dry she would add people.
"Love, the first thing artists realize is that not everyone will like or even appreciate their art. So you don't like snowflakes. Its ok. I can gguaranteeyou someone will take offense at my little peace dove. Claim its not seasonal enough or unpatriotic. Pish. Be happy with what you make and don't try to please everyone because then you wont be pleased. And that is what matters."
Nyra started to go back to her canvas but she suddenly sat upright with a jolt, blinking suddenly.
"I think I just channeled my mother. Perfectly."
Seriously, who says 'pish' anyways? she wondered. Only her mother did and had probably given her the same speech five hundred times. Shaking her head she thought about it a moment.
"If you feel badly, get her name from that snowflake ornament and make a donation to the foundation under it."
She watched for a moment longer as Nyra painted, then explained what she thought Connie might be feeling. "Oh, no, dear, it's not that, I love snowflakes. It's just that, well, for quite some time," she made a couple motions with her hands, 'three fingers' then circled her pointer and thumb as to say 'zero' "years I didn't have or want a tree, since I was living on my own, and instead decorated with strings of hand-made snowflakes. I'm kind of tired of making them. That's all."
Explaining it didn't make Connie feel that much better, so instead she wiggled on the seat, angling herself back towards the decoration table, preparing to stand to get materials when Nyra suddenly straightened. Her observation about channelling her mother made her giggle. "Well, she hasn't called you in a few weeks, maybe you're missing her? After all, this is the second Christmas you won't have been at home to see her."
She nodded at Nyra's suggestion, and after gently rubbing the back of her lover's head, stood to head to the decorating table. She knew what she wanted to make; the trick was getting it to translate successfully to ornament shape.
Once at the table, she asked for a piece of card stock, and a pencil, some small sheets of aluminum foil, glue, glitter, and string. Collecting her items on a paper plate, she also grabbed some scissors and returned to the bench with Nyra.
Quickly, Connie outlined the shape of a ship on her cardstock and cut it out, then impressed the shape onto two of the pieces of aluminum foil.
After she got the pieces settled and the glue dry to the point where it wouldn't slide, she held her forefinger backwards against the sails of the ship, and gently dragged her rounded nail across the triangle pieces, evoking a 'billowing' effect. She gently pressed the point of the pencil along the mast, and where the waterline would be, and also imprinted the year on both sides of the hull. She looked at the glitter she had been going to toss about on the design, but decided against it. Instead, she pierced a small hole in the top with the scissors and strung a loop of string through to use as a hanger. Signing her name, she grabbed her purse and marched up to the decorations and donations table. Handing in her decoration, she asked for the name of the girl who'd handed in the snowflake scroll, and made out a check in her name.
She received an ecstatic hug and kiss from the blonde woman at the table, and after a few moments of 'oooh and ahh'ing at other creations returned to the bench with her lover.
Putting her mittens back on she smiled as Connie returned.
"Do you mind if we just sat here and drank some cocoa? I am not much for skating and I would prefer to sit here while the painting dries rather than go on a sleigh ride."
"Cocoa sounds just fine. I have never been ice skating myself, so I don't know if my penchant for 'undancing' would extend to that, since it's not much more than dancing on ice, and sitting here with you is a lot warmer than going on the sleigh, I think." Not that Connie needed to worry about being overly cold.
"Did you bring your special marshmallows?" Connie had remembered something Nyra had said about most commercial marshmallows containing gelatin... And came up with a concoction of her own that was basically sugar and water. It looked more like a white turd than anything else, but it almost sufficed for the effect of miniature marshmallows.
"It's addictive," she said softly, with a cheerful grin at her neighbor. "I couldn't avoid the shiny things."
The other woman, eyes shining with amusement from a tanned face, nodded and held up a slightly wobbly green and gold star. Sharing a laugh, mutually agreed that perhaps sculpture wasn't a calling for either of them, they nonetheless put their little ornaments in with the rest.
((ooc: Ysabel out))
Delighted, Aishe managed to find some shiny gold tinsel and spent an inordinate amount of time edging the star with it. It was perhaps slightly lopsided, but when she finished and added some shiny glitter as a finishing touch, she held it up just as the young blonde beside her held up a similarly beglittered snowflake.
They exchanged glances and laughed, and as the blonde admitted she had been unable to resist the sparkling glitter, Aishe nodded in agreement.
"It wouldn't be a proper Christmas ornament without it," she said decisively. She wouldn't win any awards for 'best ornament,' but at least the sentiment was there, and that's what counted.
((ooc: Aishe out))
All in all it didn't turn out too badly. Artistry, for him, was expressed in music... not visually. All the same though, making an ornament had appealed to Aishe and therefore he would do his best at it. Hearing her laugh with the woman next to her, he simply smiled quietly to himself.
((ooc: Kem out))