National Cherry Festival July 2-9, 2011

The Grand Traverse region, known for its world-record tart cherry harvest, bursts with visitors eager to savor the flavor of cherries tucked into everything imaginable.  Each day Festival goers find cherry delights along with parades, family and kids events and entertainment.  In all, there are more than 150 events along the shores of Lake Michigan & Grand Traverse Bay.

 The Festival has been named in USA Todays top ten festivals for several years running. Visit the website National Cherry Festival for more information.

Now if you need Cherries…..we got em! Even have a Slice of Cherry Pie from Old World Christmas!

Choice Cherries Inge-Glas

This Choice Cherries Inge-Glas Christmas ornament just arrived yesterday! Red long stemmed cherries with green leaves. Very luscious looking.

Piece of Cherry Pie

This Piece of Cherry Pie ornament from Old World Christmas looks just like a slice of cherry pie with sugared lattice top. The Hang Tag Reads: Wild cherries are indigenous to the North American continent making cherry pie a truly American dessert. To show off the colorful filling, the cherry pie is usually made with a lattice crust. The crust looks like basket weaving with its fancy, sugar frosted criss-crosses.

The Piece of Cherry Pie ornament makes a great gift, especially with packaged with a nice pie plate or a copy of your favorite cherry pie recipe….or maybe even a real cherry pie……that’s what I would want…….just saying…..

Hope Watermelon Festival August 11-13, 2011

The Hope Watermelon Festival in August promises three full days of fun! Located at Faith Park, Hope, Arkansas. There is a pageant, car show, arts and crafts, softball tournament…..and cold watermelon by the slice!

If you attend this fun-filled festival and need a keepsake Christmas ornament, we have just the thing for you. Or, if you can’t attend and just love watermelon……we have the ornament for you)))

Old World Christmas Watermelon Wedge

Inge-Glas Summer's Best Dessert

Take your choice! Maybe one of these days we’ll have a yellow meated watermelon ornament…..Inge-Glas….are you listening??

Visit us at Trendy Tree to see more summer fruit Christmas ornaments!

Gilroy Garlic Festival Starts July 20th!

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is a three day event starting July 20th. Sounds like they have three days fully packed with entertainment, cookoff, children’s activities and even a Miss Garlic!

To learn more about this interesting festival, visit the Gilroy Garlic page. In the meantime, I think I’ll settle for collecting more of the less savory buds……these don’t smell one little bit)))

Interesting Garlic Facts:

China is the largest producer of garlic.

In the U.S., garlic is grown in every state but Alaska.

Garlic is mentioned in the Bible.

Its use in China was first mentioned in A.D. 510.

In the 12th century it was recommended as a palliative for the heat of the sun in field labor.

In the early 20th century, it was used to treat tuberculosis.

It was used an antiseptic and to prevent gangrene during WWI and II.

Garlic supplementation in rats, has been shown to increase testosterone levels…..just what we need….macho rats!

Garlic has been shown to be superior to placebos to lower systolic blood pressure.

The sticky juice inside the cloves is used as an adhesive in mending glass in China.

Yes, when eaten it does exude through the skin.

Garlic is know for causing …..halitosis……..you’re kidding…..

Sipping milk while eating garlic can help with the smell.

High quantities of garlic and garlic supplements can cause an increase in bleeding risk.

And my favorite……it wards off vampires, werewolves and demons.

World's Largest Brat Fest!

Madison, Wisconsin May 27-30

Old World Christmas Bratwurst - Retired

In 2010 a record 209,376 bratwursts were eaten with relish - 172 gallons worth, to be exact. The event starts at 6: am on Friday, a.k.a. Take Your Brat to Work day, when you can buy a brat-to-go!

For more information visit bratfest.com

Our Brats can be kept for years and years! Plain or with relish.... The Brat above is a retired Christmas ornament from Merck Family's Old World Christmas.....we only have a few of these left and they will be gone forever. The hang tag on this ornament reads: The word Bratwurst comes from two German words: "Brat" which means to fry and "Wurst" which means sausage. Cooked up crispy on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside, they are served with a variety of toppings. "Brats" are a favorite food at ballparks, at games and picnics.

This year, we received a dressed Brat from Inge-Glas of Germany. This is a Bavarian Brat on a bun with mustard. This ornament will be arriving this summer to Trendy Tree.

Inge-Glas of Germany Bavarian Brat

Little Red Riding Hood

Who would have ever thought that a tale so simple as Little Red Riding Hood, could cause so much mystique, cultural awareness ....and even have Freudian connotations. There is even a "politically correct" version....give me a break!

My suggestion is to stay with the Little Golden Book version and package the beloved book with a Christmas ornament of Little Red Riding Hood herself. We have three different ornaments to choose from, all in different price ranges. Perfect childhood keepsake gift......a book for now.....a collectible ornament for years to come.

Old World Christmas Little Red Riding Hood

The Old World Christmas ornament has a hang tag that reads: The fable of Little Red Riding Hood tells the tale of a little girl who always wore the red hood her grandmother made for her. On an errand one day, she disobeyed her mother and left the path - almost getting eaten by the big bad wolf. Rescued by a brave hunter, she reminds us to always obey our parents.

Inge-Glas Little Red Riding Hood

The Little Red Riding Hood from Inge-Glas was painted using the new Life Touch method of hand painting. The ornament is new for 2011 and from the Fairytale Forest collection.

Inge-Glas Little Red Riding Hood

This Little Red Riding Hood ornament was introduced in 2009 and is the most expensive of the three. It is also larger and packaged in a royal blue gift box.

Little Red Riding Hood on her way to grandma's with her basket of goodies. Ornament measures approximately 5". This heirloom Christmas ornament is from the "Fairy Tales" collection from Inge and introduced 2009.

This ornament was created using the new "Life Touch" Life Touch is introduced by Inge-Glas, an amazing development adding to their colorful 400 year family history of German glass blowers; a classy new and innovative painting technique known as "Life Touch." With precise and meticulous detail, skillfully trained Inge-Glas master artists apply ultra fine feather strokes revealing delicate life touches to enhance their uniquely beautiful Christmas ornaments.

Ornament is packaged in a royal blue Inge-Glas gift box.

If you want to know more about the controversial history of Little Red Riding Hood, visit Wikipedia and browse through the history there. For me.....I'm staying with the Little Golden Book)))

The American Bible Society

Today in history, the American Bible Society was formed in 1816 in New York City. IT is non-denominational, nonprofit organization that translates, publishes, distributes the Bible, study aids and other tools to engage people with the Bible. It's mission is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format that can be understood.

The American Bible Society placed the first Bibles in hotels and also provided Bibles to the soldiers of the Civil War. It also was the first organization to translate the Bible into Native American language.

The American Bible Society's main headquarters is housed in Manhattan, New York City and contains the largest collection of Bibles in the Western Hemisphere.

In the aftermath of September 1, 2001 and Katrina 2005, it sent over a million Bibles and scripture portions each time to people affected by these disasters. It has also maintained its commitment to military, including producing a pocket-sized military Bible, developed jointly with the aid of Catholic and Protestant chaplains from all branches of the armed forces.

Visit the website of the American Bible Society for more information. (Information taken from Wikipedia and ABS)

At Trendy Tree we have two styles of Bible Christmas ornaments that make wonderful keepsake gifts. The first shown in from Inge-Glas of Germany. It is a black Bible from the "Faith" collection and has gold glitter details with Bible written on the front and a gold cross.

Inge-Glas Bible

The other style of Bible is from Merck Family's Old World Christmas. It is available in three colors, black, white and red. It also has gold glitter details and has Holy Bible written on the front. The Old World Christmas Bible has this information on the hang tag: Considered to be the "word of God" by many religions, the Bible is a collection of 66 books written by more than forty authors over sixteen centuries. Telling the story of God's interactions in human history, it is the world's all-time best selling and most translated book.

Holy Bible Old World Christmas

Gifting one of these Bible ornaments is a wonderful way to acknowledge cherished events of faith. Either one of them could easily be personalized with a name or date. (We don't do personalization here at Trendy Tree, but it could be done with a special writing pen made for glass.)

Visit us a Trendy Tree for more great ideas for gifting Christmas ornaments!