MariaSaracino's Blog

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends . . .  and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Here’s a beautiful way to make your holiday floral arrangements extra special.

Add an Elf!

Whether you are creating a table centerpiece for a dinner party or buffet table or giving a floral centerpiece as a gift, make it memorable by adding a whimsical Elf. After the flowers have wilted the Elf will be a wonderful reminder of your gift.

Do you have any other ideas?  Let me know and I’ll share it with our collectors.

If you’ve been waiting to place your order, our last guaranteed shipping date for delivery before Christmas is Tuesday December 14th.  Check out our website at www.saracino.ca

I’m holding a Studio Open House this weekend for my local customers and friends. Anyone in the Ottawa, Ontario area is welcome. I’ve decorated the house with my Elves and Santa as well as some of my original works. I wanted to share a few arrangement ideas I’ve created using the elves that I thought would inspire you. This first one is a little baking corner. I’ve used an old stool for the baking table and whatever I could find to create the scene. The miniature “Joy of Cooking” book is available on my website, but you can also find them at any Hallmark Store for about $5. It’s a very cute scene and I think it would work really well with a ginerbread house theme as well.

This next photo shows my staircase with a gaggle of elves spilling down the stairs. I also like to hide them around the house so that they surprise people. I’ve got a happy little elf hiding in my medicine cabinet in my guest powder room. My grandkids get such a kick out of opening the cabinet door and being surprised by “Gabriel”. I’ve even put one in the fridge with a sign warning my family to stay away from the leftover cake.

This last photo shows a few elves hanging around a potted hanging poinsetta. They add a touch a whimsy and magic to everything. You just gotta love them!

Don’t forget to send me photos of how you position the elves in your home to share with our collectors.

www.saracino.ca

Some of my collectors have sent me their decorating ideas to share with you. It’s great to see how the Elves have become part of your holiday tradition. Here are two great ideas.

Christine from Ontario creates a little frozen moment in time with a whimsical snowball display. She picked up these mini styrofoam balls at the local dollar store and after a little Elmer’s Glue and glitter, stacked them for a mini snowball fight. She positioned the Elves to look like they are in mid action. A little dab of glue keeps the snowballs in the Elf’s hand and is easy to remove if you change your display.

Joanne from North Carolina puts a few Elves in her wreath to create a personalized welcome to her home. This arrangement is super easy to do. All you need is a plain store bought wreath and six yards of ribbon. Use half the ribbon to weave in and out around the wreath. Use the other 3 yards to create a large bow that you attach to the top. Position two or three Elves in the wreath using the wired greenery to hold them in place. Glue a few gift packages in and around. Print a personlized welcome banner on your computer and have the Elves hold it in place. Instead of gift packages use pinecones or mini toys to create your own unique version.

www.saracino.ca

After a courageous battle with lung cancer, my Mom, Rita Petti, died on Thursday, November 11th. Chemotherapy was too hard on her body and she died of complications of the treatment. We thought we had more time with her. Although we are terribly sad, we are trying to count our blessings. We are grateful that she did not suffer through a long and drawn out battle. We are grateful that she was aware and made all her own decisions right to the end. But, we are most grateful that we were able to tell her how we felt and she was able to tell us.

I want to tell you a little bit about my Mom because I think it explains a lot about me and my love of Christmas and what I do.
My Mom was born in 1938 and lived through the depression in Italy. She was one of 9 children. For some reason her parents sent her to live with her grandfather and his wife in a small village. Although times were difficult, she was loved and these were the good years of her childhood. When her grandparents died she was sent back to live with her parents. This began a period of neglect and abuse. In an attempt to help her, a dear aunt arranged for her to come to Canada as a fiance. Her uncle worked with a young man (my Dad) who agreed to help and all the paper work was done. She arrived in Canada at 17 and fell in love with my Dad. She was 18 when they married. I was born soon after. This photo on the right is from her passport.

My earliest memories as a child are of lavish, colorful Christmas trees, food and toys and gifts under the tree. I remember the excitement as a five year old opening a box to find the Thumbelina doll I had wished so hard for. I remember the magic of the ballerina in my tiny jewellery box. I remember huge dinners, candy and pastries. I look at pictures and see I was always dressed in beautiful party dresses. Dresses I later learned she made from cutting her wedding dress. No matter what was going on in our family, Christmas was a huge celebration. She worked hard to create the magic she never had. It worked. The excitement of the holidays started building weeks before with baking, shopping and decorating. To this day I still do the same with my own family. This photo was taken around Christmas 1985. Here she is with my children when they were little.

In the last few years we learned a lot about my Mom’s past and the reason she did a lot of the things she did. She collected toys and stuffed animals. She loved having a supply available for grandchildren and great grandchildren. When my Dad would complain she would say “I never had toys as a child . . . I want them now”. The food was always incredible – family gatherings were always bountiful and at times excessive – later we learned to make up for the times she was often denied food as a child.

Regardless of the hardships she endured as a child, my Mom overcame and made up for it by lavishing her own family with love. Unconditional love. Not only at Christmas, on birthdays and other celebrations, but everyday.  She wasn’t a pushover but she was fair and we all loved and respected her.  This photo was taken two years ago on her 70th birthday with her three children. That’s me in the top left, my sister Sandra and my brother Emanuele.

We will miss her so much. As sad as this past week has been we have continued to learn about our mother. She touched a lot of people and will be remembered not only by her family but by an endless circle of friends.  

This was her favorite poem. It’s been pasted on her refrigerator for years. We had it printed on her memorial card.

The Time is Now

If you are ever going to love me, Love me now, while I can know.

The sweet and tender feelings, which from true affection flow.

Love me now, while I am living.

Do not wait until I’m gone, and then have it chiselled in marble, sweet words on ice cold stone.

If you have tender thoughts of me, please tell me now.

If you wait until I am sleeping, never to awaken, there will be death between us, and I won’t hear you then.

So if you love me, even a little bit, let me know it while I am living, so I can treasure it.

Party season is fast approaching and if you’re like me, I always find myself scrambling to put together a hostess gift at the last minute. One thing I like to do is bake – so I always have an assortment of cookies in the freezer ready to go if I need to put a cookie tray together quickly. This idea works well with store bought cookies or even a box of chocolates. To make my goodies stand out I always include a cookie elf either holding the tray or package or part of the arrangement. Here’s a picture of Albert sitting right on top of the plate of cookies holding the cellophane together. This presentation is fun to put together, but it’s even more delightful to receive.
A wine bottle is always an appropriate hostess gift for a dinner party, but in most cases nobody ever remembers the wine or the presentation. Here are two ideas for preparing a wine bottle gift. The first is one of my artist’s limited edition resin ornaments. Each piece was reproduced from one of my original sculptures and hand painted in a pearlized silver finish with crystal details. It looks great hanging around the neck of a wine bottle and can then be hung on your tree as a beautiful heirloom ornament. Being from Italian background it goes without saying that this is a bottle of my Dad’s homemade wine.
For a more whimsical presentation wrap a little elf around the neck of the bottle –                I guarantee your hostess will remember this. Or put an elf in a wine bag instead of a bottle or together with one. Either way they make a wonderful hostess gift. Here’s Oliver toasting your hostess.

Do you have an idea you want to share? I would love to hear how you incorporated an elf into a gift idea or perhaps a family tradition that includes the elves. Please let me know and I’ll include it in a future blog. You can send it to me at elves@saracino.ca or by leaving a comment on my blog.

By the way we ship orders every two weeks and our next shipping date is November 22, so get your orders in before November 20th to be part of the next shipment.

www.saracino.ca