LOOKING & SHOPPING ALL OVER ORANGE COUNTY

This past Saturday, I decided that I needed to get out of the house and do some looking and shopping.  I picked up my friend and wouldn't tell her where we were going - it's a SURPRISE.  I set the GPS and off we went.  My first stop was to "Green Thumb Nurseries".  I had read in the paper that they were all decorated for Christmas with 20 themed decorated trees - WOW 20 trees.  Most of the shops set the trees up, but do not decorate them at all.  I guess it's just to expensive to hire a professional decorator.  This was the first tree we saw as we walked into the Christmas area.  Let me tell you I was not disappointed.  It's theme is Ocean/Beach - the ornaments were stunning - all glass ornaments, not your plastic ones, but very pricey.  It also looked like white coral sticking out of the tree.

The next thing I saw was this display of Gingerbread Houses.  They were very pretty - on to the next display

Oh my gosh... the Carolers were stunning.  Oh so many different ones.  I wanted them all LOL, but I didn't buy one

Another display, don;t they look real?

This tree had every kind of Snowmen that you could possibly think of.  Big, small, fat, or skinny.  The tree was so full of ornaments, it would cost a fortune to decorate like that.

The top of the tree had a lot of snowmen as the top ornament.  I couldn't move farther back as it was so crowded in there.

Do you see all the top of the trees?  They were really pretty with all sorts of decorations on the top.  This tree had a lot of elf's on it - very cute.

I thought this would be very cute for a small child to count the days until Christmas.  It had little pockets that you could put little candy in, money or maybe a note telling them where to look for surprise.

 I almost fell over looking at this topper.  It is the lamp from A Christmas Story.  It had a lot of ornaments pertaining to that movie and others.  Can you see Betty Boob in the lower left hand corner.  This was the lamp that they had in the living room in their home in Cleveland, Ohio.  Susan from Naps on The Porch did a wonderful and interesting post on this home.  Susan toured it on vacation -  check it out.

Just a shot of a lot of the decorated trees.  It was hard to take pictures, as I had so many people and children looking at them.  The children were priceless, their little faces looking at all the wonderful things on the trees, their little eyes so big taking it all in.

One of these trees had birds and little bird houses on it.  Everything pertaining to outdoors.

As we were heading for the cashier - there was Santa.  Not mass produced, but made by a local artist.

I was very good, I only purchased two small red plants for the front porch and 2 herb plants - thyme and sage.

Back on the road again to Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach, CA.  This is a very high end Gift Shop and Nursery. - Stunning trees and decorations.

This was the entrance to the store.  Beautiful real evergreen trees.  The candle sticks were very, very pretty.

If you look to the sides you will see black pockets - these are the rage here - put them on walls, fences and then fill them with what ever plants or vegetables you want.  Are especially good if you live in a condo, townhouse or apartment with a very small patio.  Just line them up on the fence or wall and plant whatever you want in them.  The dirt doesn't run out when you water them.  What a terrific way to garden, no bending over and weeding.

These two wreaths on one side of the entrance and two more on the other side.  Notice the bling crown on the lower one.  That seemed to be the theme here, lots of bling and crowns, crosses, etc.  When we left one of the wreaths had already sold.  The people were buying so many items.  You would have thought that there was a red tag sale going on - no such luck there.

This tree was mostly all gold - very lovely

This tree was breath taking - it had a lot of bling and a French theme.  I had such a hard time trying to take pictures due to the number of customers in there.

More of the French tree.

This tree was all about England - even had some Downton Abby ornaments.  Very pretty.  British guards, red telephone booths, and English Flag ornaments.

This is the Christopher Radco room with all his glass ornaments.  Let me tell you - they were stunning.

They start at $25.00 for a little tiny one.  But they are keepsakes.  The tree to the left has nothing but his ornaments on it.  The room was really dark and hard to take a picture of.

When my son got married I would get them a Christopher Radco ornament each Christmas.  When Kelly was about 2 years old she would go to the tree and any ornament she could reach she would take it off and throw it into the fireplace.  Needless to say many were broken and the rest were move farther up the tree where she could not reach them.  Kids, you gotta love them.

This tree was all in white and crystal, very pretty but lacked some punch. 

Well that was my Saturday, and let me tell you I was pooped when I got home.  There were so many people at Rogers Gardens that it was difficult to walk or look at anything.  I was so afraid that I would get pushed into a tree and break something. That I walked outside and sat on the bench while my friend looked around.  She is a artist, so she was taking in all the beauty in that store.  Neither one of us purchased anything.  The one thing that I noticed that they are not using a lot of ribbon on the trees, just heavy, heavy ornaments all over.  The top of the trees have bows, faux flowers, branches sticking out like a firecrackers is going off.  Very pretty.  They also had chandlers on the tops.  Red is the color this year and lots and lots of bling.  So gals get your bling out and go to town decorating.

We stopped to eat, about 1:00 p.m. at the Kickin Crab Restaurant.  Let, me tell you if you have one of these restaurants close to you - try it.  All they sell is Asian, Creole food and you can have it as hot as you want it.

I am a sissy so I always order mild.  We ordered Garlic Noodles (don't kiss anyone unless they had this also) and a pound of shrimp in a mild Creole sauce with pita bread.  There are paper table cloths and all the dishes are disposable  If you could have seen the mess we made, they even give you plastic gloves to use.  We had it all over as the shrimp is in a plastic bag and you have to take the shell and head off of the shrimp. It was delicious and we must have had 20 shrimp in the bag.  We shared this meal and still took some home and very reasonable.  Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Thank you for going along on this little adventure with me.  It was a beautiful sunny California dreaming day, about 75 degrees.

Happy Thanksgiving.......

Mary

I hope you leave a comment - I love reading them all and hopefully I am answering all your comments.

I won't be linking up to any parties as my computer will not let me do that. Why, I don't know. I am hoping I get a new one from Santa this year - I've been very good.