Va Va Voom...for music to my ears

We have an exceptional symphony in our medium-size town of Windsor, Ontario. We are one of the cities in Canada that is right in the heart of the economic downtown and car industry meltdown, so the only music a lot of people want to hear is the hum of a well-functioning auto assembly line. But we are the keepers of our children's future world as well so I don't think this should mean we ignore the arts, though sadly it can be the first to go when concerns are more pressing. I think it means we should support it if we can, go listen to the local talent, go to that local artist showing, look around closer to home. Music needs to be heard, artists need to draw, and we need to hear and see beauty more than ever. Some of the most creative solutions will come from this very bleak time as the world re-aligns itself. With that in mind......I decided to do some va va voom in exchange for music to my ears.

A la la friend of mine is involved with the local Windsor Symphony and every year they have a fundraising gala. You know what that means.......silent auctions. I donate this Tower Of Gifts for three reasons, my friend is a really good one, two I hope it raises funds for our symphony, and three.......I hope the bidder has a wonderful la la moment when she opens it all ( last year's bidder had a "la la " un-wrapping party but they didn't invite me). I expect it will take about 3-4 hours to unwrap this production because it took double that time to put this tall lady together. It did run through my head to downplay the gift production, being that the economy is awful and I don't want to send the wrong message. Then I thought......just go crazy, I'll try to make it gorgeous and maybe it will fetch a few more dollars for our worthy symphony, in which case I'm going to bring out all the stops. I thought you might enjoy seeing this presentation, it's not often I do a tower (3.5 feet tall) that includes 5 boxes and 17 gift wrapped gifts (every single one of them) and likely about 200 yards of ribbon , I'm exaggerating, not quite that many yards.

The gala colour scheme is Black & White so I thought a strong dose of coral and orange would make it stand out and loosen some wallets. I used my vintage Paris label gift wrap and all 17 gift items of various sizes are from France (or look like they could be). In wrapping each item, I used 10 different gift wrap styles for a delicious pattern mix and just about every ribbon colour I have ( I did pass out at 10 pm). The Windsor Symphony director and conductor John Morris Russell is a fabulously energetic and creative one and I hope he will stick around, we are lucky to have him.

Just in case you think I've lost my mind with this over-the-top presentation, I thought I would share a simpler gift wrap presentation I used when wrapping up this lovely notebook. Look......no bows, just simple knots over matte gold metallic paper, it can be done.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau