Solstice Cards - Summer? No! Winter Solstice - Batch 1

Today and Monday's blogs will be picture heavy and text light. As promised, I'm bookending the Summer Solstice with photos of the wonderful Winter Solstice cards I received from friends throughout the world. I hope you enjoy sharing the diversity of images and the generosity of friends along with me. It was a joy to review these once more, and an equal joy to share them with you now. 

I'm starting off with two views of the first card I received, 
which seems an appropriate way to kick things off here. 
This card, from my friend Tinnean, was a pop-up 
card. Such fun! I had it on top of the mantlepiece for 
the season. It's so detailed, I had to take a second 
shot to show a different angle. 

In this angle, you can see the snowman made 
from beach sand, and the flamingo. Of course, 
Tinnean lives in Florida, so that explains this 
wonderful, tropical Christmas scene. 

cmcmck (l), a friend on Dreamwidth, and Alexcat (r) sent 
these two cards. Since cmcmck is a medievalist scholar, 
who lives in a small village near Wales, the card is a perfect
choice for her. Alexcat, from the Southern USA, always
has a sense of  the mischievous about her, so the
 holiday fairy was apt.  

Some of the best cards were "thrown together" by friends 
who were running out of time. I loved the sparkling 
holiday trees that Curious Wombat put on her card. 
I also loved the animals looking at the holiday star 
from my friend Cindy Durand. She's a long-time 
friend who has MS. It's gotten bad enough that she 
doesn't even sign her name any more, but she never 
fails to send a card to me. *hugs*

My cousin/sister/godmother's daughter Missy sent me the 
wonderful wolf. I adore the card. It's been great to be  
in semi-constant touch with her over the years. She now 
lives in Colorado with her family and two horses. 
On the right is a card I wasn't expecting and loved 
to get - from LindaHoyland in England. Of course it 
has cats on the cover - I would expect nothing less 
from my favorite cat lady. 

I'll end today's scans with two Pam cards. 
The top card is from a long-time high school 
friend, Pam L. We only communicate via 
holiday cards, but she still lives in the same 
house after all these years. The bottom 
card is from my friend and former Bead 
& Button Show roomie - Pam P. She's 
currently selling her California house and 
moving to a new home in Tucson. I wish 
her a smooth move and a very happy life in 
her new location. (Too hot for me! - LOL) 
Pam P always hand-makes her cards 
and this one was spectacular. 

So, there you have the first batch. I'll share another six images with you on Monday. In more general news, my tattoo artist finally got a drawing to me late last night and it's stunning. I'll be looking it over closely today and showing it to DH tomorrow to see what he thinks, but I think it could be truly magnificent. I'll share with all of you next week. Good Solstice to all. I'll be thinking about the fall of Gondolin as the sun rises on Midsummer's Day, and will continue trying to relax through our ongoing heat wave. But, all is good. For those of you celebrating Father's Day, enjoy the day. Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday.