Still Life No.3

Christmas.

I'm breathing in that heady evergreen scent.

I'm loving it.

Christmas.

I'm up to my ears in it.

I sooo don't have everything ready.

And I'm okay with that.

Because I'm breathing deeply of evergreen.

And loving it.

To Tradition or Not To Tradition

Day Two

I won't lie.

This has been a difficult holiday season for the Farmboy and I.

Too many important people missing.

Too much sadness.

However, I am most grateful that the sadness felt comes in short spurts.

Thankfully it has not been a constant.

That really makes a difference.

{ADD? If so, no need for Ritalin here... we'll take it.}

So we're doing things a little different around here this year.

Breaking with traditions.

For me, being me, this was difficult at first.

I'm a stickler for routine.

Not a fan of change.

But, I'm keeping a positive attitude.

Maybe we're making new traditions.

Fa La La La La

I'm still moving stuff around.

I'm so over it.

But only half the house is put back together.

Hoping there will be a couch, in front of a television, to sit on tonight.

I needed a break, so I thought I'd pop in and share

Day One.



Day one is all about the music.

I LOVE Christmas music.

But we have a rule in this house.

No Christmas music is to be played until the day after Thanksgiving.

I whine a lot about it just before Thanksgiving, but the Farmboy sticks to his guns.

And he's totally right.

He knows if we start before then, we will totally burn out before December 25 gets here.

However, it doesn't ever stop me from purchasing it before I can listen to it.

This year I downloaded two albums.

Mindy Gledhill's Winter Moon

and

A Very She and Him Christmas

(Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward)

I've been Falalalalaing since the day after Thanksgiving.

What are some of your favorite Christmas tunes?



It's A Start

I've been trying to post this for half a week now, but I've been too busy moving everything, that everyone living in this house owns, around for the last week.

Literally.

And the reasons will no doubt end up within the covers of this journal.

A week ago I managed to get my book put together.

I hand bound Basic Grey's Wassail paper collection together

(I knew my paper hoarding problem would come in handy at some point)

and housed it within this fabulous vintage book called

The Fireside Book of Christmas Stories.

I'm so glad I took the time to do a little online shopping to find this book instead of just using any old book I happened to have on hand.

I'm completely reusing this old book outside and in...

whole pages, illustrations, as well as, specific words and sentences.

If I didn't like the things I own so much, I would totally have an estate sale just so I didn't have to move everything about anymore.

And then I could use all that precious time to play in my

December Daily journal.

December Daily

I did it.

I finally finished my December Daily.

From last year.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Last year.



And it's ridiculously thick.

We either did a whole lot last December

or I have an affinity for three dimensional embellishments.

I think it may possibly be the latter.

And I have just enough time to build my book for this December.



Which hopefully, I'll finish this year.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a picture perfect Christmas!

From my family to yours.

Wrapping Things Up

I wish I could say I have everything ready and wrapped up for Christmas, but alas, I don't.
And I'm trying to make myself not stress about it all.
Mind you, that's a whole lot easier said than done.

I do have most of the presents wrapped.
And I made this part of the "getting ready" fairly easy on myself.
Simple brown paper packages wrapped up with yarn and pompoms.
The name tags are even simpler-
shipping tags with a stamped initial.

Now if I can just finish up those last minute handmade gifts...

Are you ready?

Let the Festivities Begin

I had a couple of days of
baahumbugness
happening this week.

But thankfully it passed

and I was able to enjoy putting up some of the
Christmas decorations.

Even though I didn't put everything out this year and kept it all pretty simple,

the house sure is looking all sparkly and festive.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend!

Color

For the most part, I am a muted color kinda gal.

I've never been much into bright and bold colors.
But that seems to be what my December Daily is.

And pastel colors have never really grabbed me.
But I seem to keep going back to this post and gazing at the photo.
(and not just because they look sooo yummy!)

I'm somewhere in between.
I like color, but more of the dusky variety.
(as long as it's not too dark.)

Am I making sense?
Or have I put down too many words here... making it sound complicated?
(I do that sometimes... make things much more complicated than they need be.)

What seems to be complicating to me at the moment
are my Christmas decorations.

They used to be deep jewel-toned.
But two years ago I got rid of all of it and went mainly neutral.

Now the crux of it is,
I'm craving color again.

If anyone needs advice on how to make a simple life much more complicated,
let me know.
I'm sure I can give you a pretty nice and hefty list.
;)

Have a beautiful Wednesday.

Merry Christmas

From my family to yours!

The Scent of Christmas

Scents can take us back... to a specific place or time or even person.

I know that I can't walk by a Crabtree and Evelyn without immediately thinking of my grandmother.


And when your sniffer is as strong as mine, the past is always visiting. In fact, I have a tendency to smell smells that nobody else in my family can. And this is really crazy... I dream smell.


So back to the point of this post. The scent of Christmas.

Evergreens, peppermint, a burning fireplace, oranges, Christmas dinner, spices, snow, hot chocolate, baking cookies.


I could keep going, but instead I'll tell you what the scent of Christmas is for me... if you haven't already figured it out by now.

It's a mixture of evergreens, oranges, cinnamon and cloves.


Oh, how I love this scent! I can smell it anytime of the year and it suddenly becomes Christmas time.

So tell me, what does Christmas smell like to you?

She Just Can't Stop

...crafting Christmas decorations, that is! And I still need to get my Christmas cards made and mailed... ack!

Here is another project from Teresa's 12 Days e-zine.

A front door hanging, but I have put mine just inside my front door. I didn't really vary too far from her original design. But I did use different materials than she did... fabric, fringe and left over bits of this and that.

Like I said, I still need to get my Christmas cards done, but I SO want to make one of these! Oh my word! I think it's just gorgeous and would look so lovely hanging on the mirror above my dining room sideboard.
And also, I want to finish my Lineage of Love garland that I started in Pam Garrison's class, so I can hang it up too.

But, alas... I'm off to get those cards started! Have a beautiful day!

I've Been Framed!

Okay, well not actually me. It's my dining room wall.

About six months ago, I decided it was time to retire the wrought iron adornments that were previously hanging here. Coincidentally, I made that decision the moment I found the gorgeous antique oval frame. From that point on, I was on the hunt! They had to be the right patina of weathered gold, made of wood and not 65 dollars. That last one has been tricky to find around here. Which is why at the moment there are only three. But, I'll be back on the hunt full force, after the New Year.

As you can see, I've spent the last couple of days dressing them up.

This first one, is my take on one of Teresa's latest e-zine projects. Hers was actually a wreath, but I decided on a garland instead.

I was going to glitter a few of the leaves with some silver glass glitter, but really just didn't have the time, so added the jingle bells instead.


For this one, I took the vintage image plaque, that I already had, and just glued some gold foliage to the back. I had a few extra paper holly leaves left over from the garland so I tucked those in too.

And this one, will no longer make the dogs bark at the front door.

What?
Let me explain...
The big jingle bells used to be attached to a thong of gold vinyl, that was made to hang on a door knob. It was ugly. But I used to hang it on the front door anyway. And the dogs learned, a long time ago, that at this time of year if they heard loud jingle bells, then someone was opening the front door. Which of course means, if you are one of my crazy dogs, that you must run as fast as you can, while barking as loud as you can, to the front door to either greet or eat whomever it may be. But unfortunately for them, we got a beautiful, new front door this year and I wasn't about to mar it with that ugly jingle bell thing. So this is what I did with it instead. And as you can probably guess, there was A LOT of barking and running and confusion during the alteration.
Funny dogs.

Till next time, have a beautiful day!

Peace and Joy

Happy Sunday!

I spent the entire day, yesterday, partying. I had two Holiday parties to attend and we played White Elephant games at each.

Here is what I made for them...


The first party was with some scrapbooking friends.

Amongst other fun festivities, we had a pop quiz.... Christmas Trivia. Out of 20 (I think) questions, plus a bonus, I only got 8 right! Pathetic isn't it? Can you name all the of the children from the Sound of Music?! I couldn't.


The second was with the Texas Bellas. Shea and Debbie hosted in their amazing, renovated church. Seriously AMAZING!

They had an ornament project for us to do. Lots of fun! And it was so lovely to get to see so many Bella friends again.


Have a beautiful day!

Holiday Home Tour

Welcome and come in, come in! It's chilly out there, isn't it.

Ignore the dog, she's just trying to sneak out for a romp, even though she knows better.
Well, you're in luck. I just put the kettle on... would you like a hot cup of tea?

Did you have a nice weekend? I spent the whole weekend feathering my nest for Christmas. Feel free to look around!

This is our sitting room, and where we put our tree every year.


Our dining room.

You can never have too many candles lit while dining, if you ask me.


And here is our family room.

Come stand by the fire place and get good and toasty before you have to go.

Well that's it! Thank you for stopping by to visit.

I wish you a happy and cozy Holiday Season!

*************

I just found out that the shell ornaments that I made last year are being featured here. She has all kinds of cute, beachy ornie ideas.
Have a beautiful Monday!

Cleaning, Sorting and Organizing

With the New Year always comes a major overhaul at my house. Closets are sorted through, cabinets are cleaned out, files are organized, etc. I'm sure this is the case for a lot of people. And really, in my mind, it's the best time to do it. That Spring Cleaning thing doesn't work for me. Spring is my favorite season, so as soon as I spy good ol' Spring, I dash out the door and try not to come back inside until the Summer heat begins to wilt me.

I've started with the biggest mess. No, not the 16 year old's room. Although I admit, that is exactly what it looks like... a teenager's room. Nope, I mean my space. Seriously, it's a disaster. Well it was. It's in much better shape now... not done, but definitely better!


The Christmas decorations are in the process of coming down. I know I said I would keep them up a little longer than normal, but it was time.


And along with Winter Cleaning, we have crud that isn't fixed as easily. Yep, the Farmboy is sick. Bless his heart. I asked him if he wanted some chicken noodle soup today and he said yes, but not that stuff in a can. He wanted me to make some homemade soup. Which I would have done for him in a blink of an eye, but he didn't want to wait for it to cook. So I fed him sushi instead. *Shrug* Yeah, I don't know either, but it made him happy.

After spending the day cleaning, sorting and organizing, relaxing by a warm fire is the best. I've been entertaining myself during this time with these.


Oh, I totally have to share this. Remember how I called my old Christmas tree a Charlie Brown tree? Guess what my parents sent us for Christmas? Yep, that's right. A real Charlie Brown tree. As silly as it is, I LOVE it!!! But, that's probably why I love it so much... silly and I go hand in hand.


Hope you're having a beautiful Monday!