swallowfield :: jennifer judd-mcgee

happy holidays!

wishing you and your family a very happy holiday and a cozy time together, however you celebrate.

xxoo

things are all a-twinkle

i finished my last craft fair/holiday sale of 2011 this weekend. i have a few more deadlines, but stuff's coming along well, and i'm hoping for a little time off here soon. looking forward to making some homemade gifts with the kids and staring at the twinkle lights. and hopefully working a deal out with my pandora holiday station that stipulates skipping over the trans siberian orchestra. pandora's been throwing me a few curveballs lately, but we're mostly getting along.

and i'm wondering what you're making for holiday treats and gifts this year?

 

 

 

handmade gifts, part two

this morning i am listening to a pandora holiday station i made and slowly uploading pictures to shutterfly (i am so far behind on my photo albums that it's laughable! and last night i dreamed that i lost all of my pictures when my laptop floated out to sea. (??))  while the uploads are happening, i thought i'd share a few christmas ornaments i made. plain glass balls (pack of four at the craft store, $5.00) and chunky sharpie paint pens (my first time using them, and i am smitten.)

this is the first drawing i've done in a good while, and it felt good to do it. it's hard to photograph glass balls, i discovered.

special delivery

my friend lisa surprised me with these gorgeous eggs this morning. i kind of want to just stare at them for awhile. the kids are lobbying hard for chickens someday soon. perhaps when we are not renting a house.

tomorrow is the last day for the little sale in my shop. thank you to everyone who's taken advantage of it so far.

off to bake, wrap, pack and ship orders, and listen to sufjan stevens holiday songs.

 

handmade holiday, part one

we celebrated our first of several different christmas gatherings last night, this one with my dad and stepmother. i made them a papercut of the island in south carolina where they spend time in the winter, and included nods to palmetto trees and the trillium that grows there. i really enjoyed working on this, and giving them something handmade.

(i think i am also gearing up to make a large scale papercut of mount desert island (my new home) this winter.)

i haven't done much decorating yet, other than hanging up my favorite christmas ornament wreath, some lights and a few paperwhites. i think we might get a tree this weekend, though. i am slowly getting in the spirit. in the meantime, i have been loving everyone's pictures on blogs and flickr of lights and glitter and festiveness. thank you for sharing them.

 

twinkle, twinkle

merry, merry. i have been enjoying some mellow time with my family these past few days, with a lot of singing, delicious food, and plenty of laughter.

i received the surprise gift of a new macro lens for my camera, so i thought i'd better warn you that there may be some experimental photos happening here for the next little while. it's pretty nifty. also, my mom surprised me with one of erin's camera straps. yay!

wishing you peace and joy this year. thanks for coming and visiting my blog.

ps: i was so sad to hear that vic chesnutt died. you can listen to some of his music here.

festive

thanks so much to everyone who came out for the sale on thursday night. the house was transformed into a mini art/craft sale with fabulous shoppers and it felt nice and festive all evening. i think we all had a great time, and it was a terrific excuse to clean and de-clutter my house. we'll definitely do it again next year, i think. read more about it and see a few photos here.

during the sale we got a chance to play guy capecelatro iii's new holiday cd, this time of year, which is pretty fantastic. i had the pleasure of working with guy to draw the cover for it, and i love how it turned out.

now that shows and sales are behind me for 2009 and i'm just working on etsy orders,  i am trying to keep things simple and easy as far as gift giving goes. i'm dreaming of making molly's caramel corn, and giving a few gift subscriptions to maine magazine. i've bought a lot of other local and handmade goodies, too, but i think surprises could be spoiled if i talk about them here. what are you making + giving this year? 

i love this song. it's been in my holiday rotation for several years, but i always look forward to hearing it at this time of year.

i hope you are enjoying your weekend.

all is (mostly) calm, all is bright

hello!  december is getting past me, i think. too many pots on the stove, or something like that. we've been busy decorating, playing in the snow, making paper chains, baking cookies, eating cookies, mailing packages, finishing custom orders, and trying to keep things simple.  i have a pandora station with a sufjan stevens holiday thread going pretty much nonstop right now - it's good if you are a fan of (mostly) holiday tunes. i've had the urge to pull my kids out of school early and do fun things with them, but i've resisted it so far. we'll have two weeks together starting next wednesday.  i watched love actually last weekend for the eleventy-gazillionth time and loved it as much as ever. especially this part. shut up. 

here is this year's edition of my annually pink and sparkle-tastic mantel. i am not a huge fan of pink in my every day life, but once a year for a month or so it sure does make me happy. my sister made me the wreath about four years ago and it is probably one of my most treasured belongings. 

this past week has been a mixed bag of feelings for me: december 14th was the 10th anniversary of when my stepbrother mark was killed. the day is usually a really hard one for me, mostly because the news was so shocking at the time that it sort of felt like the world just stopped.  this year i think i subconsciously decided not to dwell on the day he died and instead think about other things i remember about him that make me happy - and there is plenty of material. five years ago my stepfather made a cd of mark talking and playing music, and the kids and i had a chance to listen to it together and talk about him. it was nice. he is still incredibly missed. (the holidays can bring up a whole bunch of crap for people, can't they? maybe that's why everyone seems to drink more than usual...or wait, maybe that's just my family. who knows?)

i wish you luck with your to-do lists, and the chance to sit and stare out the window a bit with a cup of tea. 

she's making a list

• sufjan stevens songs for christmas box set pulled out and put on - check!
• halloween decorations taken down and rotten pumpkins scraped off the porch steps - check!
• pink wreath, soft trees and bottle brush trees taken out and dusted off, whilst humming - check!
• dining room table covered with glitter and scraps and projects - check!
• thinking almost everyone is getting a handmade something-something from me this year - check!
• saying hello to these guys again (made by my lovely + talented pal diane at ferdinand) - check!

what are you making for the holidays? lay it on me - what's your project or cookie recipe or idea?  i'd love to hear about it.

have a great day!