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happy, happy new year to my friends, family, and to all of you out there in blogland who come and visit here from time to time. thank you for helping to make 2007 a pretty excellent little year.
i wish you peace, comfort and a wonderful 2008.
love,
your generally new years eve-hating pal, who today is feeling sentimental, mushy, grateful and uncharacterisitcally celebratory in a low-key, low-expectation kind of way.
see you back here next year. :)
we went up the coast a ways for a few days to see family for christmas and had an unprecedentedly mellow time. i felt grateful and very happy to just hang back and watch things unfold. december has felt like a bit of blur for many reasons this year, and it was extra nice to find time to lounge about and dream for a bit.
if you celebrated, i hope your holiday was wonderful. i'll be back in a day or two with more to share and tell you about, but until then i'll share just a few photos from our travels. cheers!
a two hour snowflake making session
my mom's gift to my stepfather - a handcarved wooden herd of caribou by an artist in canada - they're absolutely incredible
the view from my dad's house in the late afternoon winter light. 
during yesterday's unexpected snow day, the kids and i had the chance to make several junky holiday treats to give out as gifts. i realized while we doing it that most of the fun is in the making of it all - the kids love it, and i love getting the chance to make sacrilicious things i wouldn't usually cook. (pretzel/hershey kiss/m+m treats, as spied on flickr, anyone?) most people who receive these kind of treats probably feel overwhelmed by receiving so many out-of-the-ordinary, over the top items all in one week, right? and maybe the bloom starts to wear off the rose when you get your tenth box of sugarific goodies, i don't know. anyway, the nice thing is that they're made with love and fun and that's what counts, i think. we did draw the line at running out to gather supplies to make cupcakes in a jar, though i was sorely tempted. next year, though, friends...next year.
here is some peppermint bark we also made yesterday, which is always easy and pretty much foolproof.
i was feeling surprisingly warm, fuzzy and full of love this morning when we arrived at the kids' school laden with class party goodies and cards and presents, only 10 minutes late and a tiny bit harried. when we walked in, every kid had a homemade gift or a card for their teachers, and there was so much cheer and glee afoot that i started to cry right in the middle of the hallway (much to mr. seven-year-old's utter horror. "um, did the kiwis fall off the fruit kabobs while we were walking in, mom?" he asked, horrified at my indiscretion.) i got all choked up and just started feeling this crazy warm love for all of the people at school who care for my children each day with genuine affection and humor. so okay, cool. i've got the holiday spirit now, and maybe a wee touch of the letters p, m and s. all's good in the world.
i had a pretty big list of to-dos for today, but when we woke up to the 3rd major december snow storm this morning, i quickly had to change gears. the kids, of course, were pretty thrilled to have a day off from school.
the revised list:
take a deep breath and try to remember that i will get it all done eventually, somehow.
admiring the mass quantities of snow we have outside {{me from my cozy + warm indoor vantage point , and the kids right out in the middle of it all}}
making my mom's christmas cookies
which were frosted with care by my kids (it makes my teeth hurt to look at them, how about you?) i hope you have some fun stuff on your list, too.
last night i worked on some ornaments for my own family and friends. i think they came out nicely and they weren't too scary to make, either! i used one of my drawings that a lot of people seem to like, but these would be sweet with a huge variety of images. my mind is spinning with ideas and possibilities. {{and yes, i know i'm a dork.}}
want to try it?
first, take an image you want to use and shrink it down in photo editing software to your desired size, and then create as many multiples as you can on a page. my image size was roughly 4x4", so i fit four on a page. i bought a package of ink jet fabric sheets and printed my page of four onto them. there are five sheets in each package, and they're not cheap, so it would be a good idea to do a test print on paper before you run a fabric sheet through your printer. i have also heard good things about this stuff, though i haven't tried it.
once my sheets were printed, i peeled the back off of them and cut out the individual house images. i then cut pieces of recycled, overdyed wool out to the same size, mostly just because i had it and i liked how it looked, but i think any fabric or felt would work nicely.
i chose a constrasting color of embroidery floss and blanket stitched around three sides, then stuffed it with wool (batting would be fine too) and finished stitching it closed. i found after several that i liked them not too stuffed, and they seem to hang better that way, too. i sewed a hanging ribbon on the top corners of the ornament - mine was organza but anything would work - and embellished with two vintage buttons. you could make the step faster by hot glueing the ribbon and buttons with a small dab in each corner.
i would like to stress that i am not good at sewing or this kind of handmade stuff at all, and that this was actually easy and fun. i hope you agree if you try it!
cheers! see you again tomorrow.
back in november i signed up for the 2007 holiday ornament swap with a foolish, no-big-deal casual excitement.
# of swap buddies in my group: nine besides me
# of ornament ideas tried and rejected: six
# of times regretted decision to sign up for swap: many
# of days past the mailing deadline ornaments are going in the mail: nine for international, two for domestic (i am so sorry, swap buddies)
after a fair amount of grumbling, i finally found a project i loved and went with it: vintage crocheted lace snowflakes carefully trimmed from a thrifted tablecloth, sprayed with fabric starch, embellished with with chocolate brown velvet ribbons and vintage buttons. they're pretty. i feel all crafty and idea-y now. and they're in the mail. phew.
the couch is a pretty cozy place to be during a blizzard. add a nap, a cat on top of you (also napping,) two children offering occasional, spontaneous drive-by hugs, a friend who delivers you an unexpected peppermint mocha + some holidays tunes, a fire in the fireplace, and lights on the tree, + it's even better. happy sunday. {{also:: how completely great is this? be excellent to each other, by ray fenwick. }}
Today I am thinking about the bittersweet feelings that can come along with the holidays. As we celebrate and observe family traditions and pull out special things we only see once a year is hard not to think about the people in our lives who aren't with us anymore. I usually don't feel comfortable sharing much stuff of a personal nature here, out of respect for my family's privacy, but I will tell you that today is the ninth anniversary of the day my very dear, funny + talented stepbrother was killed. I miss him every day but I really feel like 12/14 is especially tough because of the proximity to Christmas and because of memories I have of wonderful times together at the holidays. I feel sad for my parents, and for his mom and for our whole family, because he was a huge, goofy, warm presence and we all feel the loss so much, even now.
Okay, phew. Enough sad stuff. Yesterday I did my once-a-year special treat thing + I let my kids have a day off from school. We cleaned (gutted) their rooms, took some stuff to Goodwill, went out for a special lunch, did some Christmas shopping, went to see Santa and watched Harry Potter 5. It was fun, and just what we all needed. We also got a bunch more snow and it is really starting to feel like Christmas around here.
At the risk of sounding completely cheesy and sentimental, take a minute to scoop up/seek out the people you love and hug them.
i will have a few wreaths tonight at shop-a-do. they are so much fun to make. i've been excited to see my goofy project turn up on craft, whip up, and lots of blogs out there. i would link to them if i wasn't rushing about like a crazy person who has 1/2 hour to get her, um, act together.
more lights from last night - aren't they pretty? okay, bye! see you saner tomorrow.
did you know that christmas is in 14 days? holy smokes. i just realized it and had a bit of freakout. i don't feel ready! luckily, i will be participating in space gallery's shop-a-do holiday sale tomorrow (wednesday) night from 4-10 with some friends and local crafty folks. i am so excited to do my holiday shopping while i'm there - last year i bought some of favorite gifts to give at the sale and this year there are even more wonderful vendors.
on the non-making-things, non-business-y side of things, i did get manage to get some twinkle lights hung up outside. they're very cheerful. and my kids say they saw an elf in the fireplace, checking on them for santa to see if they were being good or not. i noticed an increase in piano-practicing and good manners this evening, and i didn't say a word. it's magic.
