Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with lots of singing, dancing, and joy!
And big hugs from someone you love.
(Info about the secret Santa gift drawing and the 30% off sale in the Boutique can be found in the previous post, if you scroll down, but that is enough "business" for now. I'm off to get in on some of those hugs!)
We were out shopping the other day and Sugarwings saw this sign on a stand and in her mind, it was the perfect microphone, so she started to serenade all the shoppers. The kid seems to have inherited my singing voice. And also the joy of singing out, loudly.
Its a short video if you want to watch it, and my favorite part is where she is distracted by something shiny and walks away just as she sings "look at Frosty go".
This year, the holiday month seems to be racing by faster than I can keep up.
Its happening too fast and will be over before I know it! So, I'm slowing down and making myself take in every minute of it. Sugarwings has been spending a lot of time with me and she agrees that we need to make the most of our days. We've had a hot cocoa party every night that she sleeps over, lit only by the lights of the tree.
We make an event of it, setting the table with our best china, filling our favorite tea pot with hot milk, and passing around tiny bowls of shaved chocolate, mini marshmallows, and peppermint sticks. Not only are we getting a delicious bedtime snack, we are learning about manners, polite conversation, and building memories to treasure.
We are watching all the holiday specials that we can cram into our time together, without losing out on time to create and cook too. As much as I love holiday baking, its even better with her.
There has been a ton of cookies and fudge being whipped up, as well as a gingerbread house we had to put together with hot glue before we could decorate it.
I'm trying to show Dewdrop about the joys of baking too, she held the mixer for us last week. Its a start! Soon, I'll have two little helpers.
With her Daddy being so busy getting the Yurt weather proof and ready to live in for the long, cold winter, and her Hippy Chick Mommy studying hard for her first semester of nursing school finals (I'm proud to say that she is an A student!), I've been lucky enough to have lots of holiday play time with my fairy girl.
Sometimes, we invite guests to the parties too, like Luna Moona, her Raggedy Ann doll.
Last week, Dewdrop came to her first bedtime cocoa party and I have a feeling, she will be a regular at them with us next year. She adores anything that has to do with food.
And for some odd reason, Sugarwings has been setting an extra place at the table for my sisters. She is fascinated by them and talks about them a lot. I guess she knows how much I love and miss them, even though she has only met them a handful of times in her short life and they live far away.
Yes, its been a sweet December!
Wouldn't this be a good idea for gift giving? It would be sweet to slip a gift into a box that is a gift itself.
I made this box for another reason, but it kind of got me thinking of the possibilities.
Of course, I haven't even done my Christmas shopping yet, so I should probably stop thinking about what I'll put the gifts in and start thinking about what I'll buy instead!
There was a teensy bit of time to shop while I was in Palm Springs last weekend, but it was more sight seeing than shopping.
If I'm in an area where the stores are Rolex, Coach, and other high dollar specialty stores, chances are pretty durn slim that I will be buying my family any holiday gifts there.
These guys simply aren't the type to wear a watch that costs thousands of dollars.
Not that I am the type to buy one, anyway.
But it was fun to look.
It was fun to be a tourist and go sightseeing. At the stores as well as out and about. We took the tram up the mountain side, 8,500 feet up to catch the views one morning.
And drove to Temecula to do a little wine tasting after that.
My brilliant husband had a great idea, that I'd never have thought of. He said we should go to the lounge, sit down and sample there instead of standing in line to belly up to the counter in the crowded tasting rooms.
The four of us got to try a good selection from the winery, relax in comfy chairs, and share a cheese plate. That was much nicer than standing up at the counter in the crowds of other testers.
Isn't this a cute display for the holidays?
And I loved seeing poinsiettas growing outside! The weather wasn't perfect, we needed our coats, but it was still warmer than Kansas and I really enjoy seeing all the flower beds full and blooming in the sunshine out in California. Its probably my favorite part of the trip, because back home, my garden is brown and crunchy with a hint of green slime where the last plants froze and are rotting.
The whole trip was just beautiful. But its good to be home and have a couple of days with Sugarwings and Dewdrop. They both stayed over night the last couple of days, so I'm just now getting back to work. That was a great way to ease out of the vacation and back into the real world.
Two days of llittle girl cuddles was a welcome extension of my time off!
Now, its back to normal and back to work.
And thats not bad either! Its good to be home and I'm happy to be back in the studio.
Was your holiday nice? I hope so! Ours was pretty wonderful. I think we had the best turkey dinner ever. My son helped me cook, and it was a lot of work, we went all organic, local, and from scratch. We tried to avoid convenience foods or short cuts. Man, it was tasty! But it did seem like we were in the kitchen non-stop for about 24 hours… Roasting a pumpkin before you can bake the pie isn't the quickest way to fix dinner. And about midnight on Wednesday, I was wondering if if was the dumbest. But those pies and pumpkin cheesecakes were really, really good on Thursday and we were glad we'd stayed up to do it.
Quality ingredients do make a big difference in the end result of the meal though, and cooking side by side with a grown up son is pretty cool too. The whole family pitched in to help, but Sugarwing's Daddy and I were in it for the long haul.
Our fresh, free range turkey was the best ever. I don't know if it was how he cooked it, or if it was the bird itself. We soaked it overnight in a brown sugar/sea salt brine, then he tossed an orange, onion and celery inside the cavity before rubbing it down with a blended slurry of fresh herbs, garlic,olive oil, honey, and S&P, then slow roasting it till it was tender and juicy.
Our local grocery store was selling these herb planters, brimmed with just what a holiday dinner called for. I made good use of them too, stuffing with fresh sage is sooooo good. We used a toasted loaf of whole wheat bread, and added rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic to the onions and celery that I'd chopped and cooked in veggie broth the night before. We also through in a little olive oil and a cup of chopped kale.
In the past, I don't think I've given kale a chance. But now its a fave. We used dark green, purple, and the pink and white kind in our tossed salad too. Sugarwings and Mr. Finn both helped me with the greens. We tore a head of Romaine up with the kale, and added chopped radishes, pears soaked in lime juice, dried cranberries, sugared pecans, roasted pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese. Letting the kids make the salad themselves and filling the bowl with such pretty colors encouraged them to eat lots of greens (and purples).
The dressing was a half cup of cranberry pomegranite juice, a 1/4 cup of white balsemic vinegar, 1/2 cup of olive oil, S&P, and a tsp of chopped garlic. Fast, simple, and a good compliment to the kale.
To go with all that, we had sauteed fresh green beans with red peppers. And to make sure the meal wasn't too heart healthy, we had a good, gooey, sweet potato and butternut squash casserole that our Gypsy girl made with lots of butter, blueberries, and brown sugar, then topped with marshmallows. I baked the potatoes and squash the night before while the pumpkins were roasting so she just had to work her flavor magic and pop it in the oven to heat up while the turkey was being sliced.
Oh, and of course, there were mashed potatoes too. I try to keep those healthy by using golden potatoes so they look buttery without actually adding any butter. It seems to trick my family. To make them creamy, I use a cup of fat free cottage cheese instead of sour cream.
Dew Drop discovered that she could pull up a chair to the kitchen island and sneak some appetisers while we waited for that turkey to bake. I'd never cooked a fresh, free ranger before and discovered that they seem to take another hour longer than a Butterball turkey does. They also cost about 3 times more.
That part was painful. But I'd already committed to the whole fresh/local food idea before I saw the price tag and it was too late to back out. I'm still cringing at what fresh/local/organic costs for the whole meal compared to canned goods and a frozen bird.
But I'm thankful that I have a houseful of grand kids that think purple kale is an exciting thing to see on their plate. I spend a lot of my life in the kitchen, cooking healthy foods for my family and sometimes I complain about how much time it takes to chop and prepare the meals. But I love it that they care about eating well and appreciate the good food.
Its not cheap, its not fast, but maybe we'll end up with longer lives because of it, and that will make up for all the time I've spent in front of the stove?(of course, I will probably also die poor from paying three times as much for food to get it organic)
And with this great newly remodelled kitchen, how can I complain about spending time in it??? Its a joy to have and to work in!
Don't forget, I'm celebrating the holiday weekend by giving away a couple of my online cuff bracelet tutorials. If you are interesting in winning one, please mention that in a comment to enter. I'll draw winners on Monday.
Thanks for all your well wishes on the additions to our family!
This book just happened to be sitting on my desk and I thought it was quite appropriate to our situation. Although the little girl clutching the cat at our house isn't quite this lady like. She's every bit as happy to have a kitty to hold and cuddle, though.
This is scanned at high resolution, if you'd like to print it to use in your art, please click on it to open in a larger window, then save that one to your computer and you'll get better results than saving it directly from my blog.
No, we didn't adopt an eight legged cat, Sugarwings is carrying them both.
Everywhere she goes.
And it surprises me that the cats seem to like it. If she sets one down, it will follow her around till it gets picked up again.
Little Dew Drop is not as interested in the kittens, I think she is more of a dog person. She likes the new family members, but is more fascinated by Twinkle and Agnes.
Plus, she has other things on her mind, like learning how to walk and celebrating her first birthday this week!
My goal of adding new stuff to both shops every day kinda slipped from my grasp.
There was no school on Friday and Sugarwings kept me hopping. That and the new kitten/lost kitten/ new kitten/ found kitten excitment that we had. Then, along came the weekend including a concert, a fun craft day with Beth, a big family dinner, and before I knew it, I'd missed three days of getting photos posted in the shops.
But I did get a chance to make some new things!
These decorated 1" wreaths are in the Boutique.
And their ready to be decorated cousins are in my Etsy shop.
There are lots of trees added to the Etsy shop, I got to work on listing some Monday afternoon. The white ones are always popular.
And so are the eensy teensy ones.
There are still a few million trees filling up one of my work tables ready to be sorted and packaged and sold, but at least that is a start.
Some of my paper clay fairies are now in the shop too. This one is made on a vintage cake topper.
And this one sits on a wallpaper covered box.
Her eyes are vintage crystals taken from an old necklace. I pushed them into the wet clay, then added a black sequin crystal pupil, and painted the rest of the eye. They really have a nice sparkle when the light hits them.
I'll leave you with some photos of more new stuff listed. There is more to come too. I'm wrapping up purchases today and will have more photos taken to list goodies after that gets done.(thanks so much to you shoppers out there!) I also need to get pictures of all the new things I've been making. It sure felt good to get some time to sit at the worktable and mess around with all my toys!
The cuff bracelet tutorial I promised is up and running. There is a button on my side bar to click on for more info, or click here.
Its a $6 class.
The class is online, in blog form, and holds written instructions lots of photos of the steps that I use to make my own cuffs.
(why on earth don't I ever think of polishing my nails before I do one of these???)
Here is a button for the class if you'd like one.
Its up and running, with no end date. So you can refer back to the blog in the future for a refresher.
I've also made up some kits for sale. You can find them in my Boutique, on this page.
The tutorial is included in the kit price.
There are a few kits listed and I am waiting on a bulk order of the aluminum cuffs to make up a few more. For now, I have the 1-1/2" size, next week I'll also have the 1" cuffs. Today I found some toasty, cream cotton velvet too, won't that be pretty?
And if you aren't in the mood to make your own, I have listed a few that I made myself too.
You can find some here, and some in the Etsy shop, here too. (Yay, I got it reopened! And have big plans to restock it for the holidays)
I've got another half dozen cuffs to photograph and list, but today was busy with putting packages together. I've been in bed with a cruel stomach bug all week and haven't had a chance to get my orders filled. But if you are waiting for a package from me, thanks for your patience, its on its way now!
Little Dew Drop and the rest of these photos don't have anything to do with the stomach bug, I figured they were much prettier pictures than anything along the lines of what I was talking about. Its been a rough week, but with a trip to the ER for fluids to revive me, I am on the mend.
Seems like the worst part of being sick (beyond losing a week of work, when I am trying to fill my shop for the holidays) is finally crawling out of my dark, depressing, sick room to find the house a mess. Now, I'm not blaming my sweet husband, who spent the night sitting up in a stiff chair at the ER while my veins were pumped full of that wonderful IV nectar that made me better, and who watched Sugarwings on his own while I was out of it.
He was just great. He was helpful, he was loving.
But he just doesn't notice messes.
I honestly think he doesn't see them.
So, when I finally was able to get up on two legs and left the bedroom, instead of just crawling from the bed to the bathroom, I was a bit down to see how things had piled up around the cottage.
But the worst part was that I passed the bug on to him and to Ryan and then had to take care of them, while I was still feeling like noodle legged mush myself. Not to mention taking over the care of an energetic Sugarwings for the night.
The two girls were already exposed to the bug last week when their Daddy and his Gypsy were sick, and haven't caught it yet. I'm hoping they don't. Its awful. I feel guilty enough that the guys picked it up while bringing me juice. They were very brave and are paying for it now. So, I'm off to go check on my menfolk, and see if they need a refill.
I hope all is well at your house. WINTER IS COMING (that Game of Thrones quote stays with me) and so are the bugs. Dang, I miss the summer bugs, as much as I hate mosquitos, they are better than the stomach flu!
We live in a great town, it has everything, a good school system, community arts, a vibrant downtown, loyal Jayhawks, great food, and zombies.
Yep, real live zombies. Not the dead kind.
We went downtown for dinner, and snagged a street side table to watch the annual parade.
At first, Sugarwings was enjoying the site as the zombies arrived and made their way to the start of the parade.
But soon, we were in the middle of HUNDREDS of the walking undead.
That is when she dove under the table.
I have to admit, it was pretty freaky.
I thought about joining her under there!
But she could see we were having a lot of fun with the parade and we'd been talking about costumes and how zombies aren't real, so she came out and joined us for dinner.
But she did stay on her Pop Pop's lap.
The food was great, the weather was perfect, what a great night to sit outside and eat a big ole juicy steak as blood drenched corpses walked by.
This was a fund raiser for the Humane Society.
It was $15 to join the parade, and I'd love to know how much the shelter made, there was a huge turnout.
Zombies of all ages participated.
Brides seemed to be very popular.
And the local costume stores must have sold out of fake blood.
We saw the Skipper and his Lil Buddy, Santa, Batman, Superman, you name it, that zombie was there.
And many were ready to stop and chat at our table.
Some of the acting was really impressive.
And some of the costumes were almost too scary.
One little zombie boy stopped and gave our Sugarwings a flower. She was really warming up to it all by then.
Soon, she was hiding under the restaurant's menu board and jumping out to scare people herself.
But her bravery didn't last, one zombie pulled the same trick on her, jumped in her face and growled. The poor kid was terrified after that and just sobbed.Luckily the parade was over and it was time to go home.
I felt so bad for her. She'd been having so much fun watching the hoarde go by, til that one girl jumped into her face.
My mom raised me to love horror movies, and my boys watched them growing up too. Sugarwings has always been attracted to the scary characters in every fairy tale and story, she is a big fan of flying monkeys, witches, and trolls.
But I don't know if zombies will be very high on her list of faves.
We'll see. If she takes after me, she'll be fond of them. 
Ariel and Ursala the sea witch were also guests at our Halloween party last weekend.
Sugarwings has been a huge fan of Ariel since before she could even talk. Dorothy and Ariel have been a in tie for her affections for her entire life, she has loyally loved both forever.
I found this dress at TJMaxx for $9, because it was part of a whole princess set, but was missing the rest of the pieces. I bought it because I knew we could always use another pink princess dress, not even knowing it was meant to be Ariel's. Lucky find, because our little princess was thrilled.
They kind of look alike now that Sugarwings has the firey hair do, don't they? Of course, by the end of the evening, her hair was a tangled mess, and the red spray had it sticking up every which way, her face was all dirt, and her gown was too. She looked like ghoulish Ariel after playing flash light tag in the woods and sword fighting with the boys for hours.
And we have one pink chair from where she rested after getting worn out. Happily, it was the recliner in my husband's office. I hate that chair. You know, recliners can be pretty ugly, but a little bit a pink helps makes it look like it really belongs in my house.
After playing fairy dress up all weekend in Asheville earlier in the month, I was still in the mood for getting my fairy gear on. But since it was Halloween, I took it up a notch and added green/blue eyeshadow to my face and lots of glitter.
And some witchy socks, too. No one knew what I was supposed to be, and I really didn't either. A witchy fairy? That is probably close.
We all love dressing up. I'm lucky to have this little sea sprite to play dress up with anytime we want to.
Its been a while since I had a chance to do any creating. So, I was happy to have some time to make this Halloween tag. Its a good example of "Using the Good Stuff". All the supplies are filled with vintagey goodness.
And what did I do with it? I tucked it into a package that I was packing for a very nice customer. Its fun to surprise people.
I hope your Halloween is filled with the spirit of fun too!
(don'cha love picnik?-what fun for Halloween!)
Note: Pixie Pie is still in the hospital, and in a lot of pain. Thanks so much for the cards you sent, her mom has them all hanging by her bed where she can see them, and she enjoyed having the nurses deliver them to her. The site was easy to use, wasn' t it? Very simple and quick, its a nice service for the hospital to provide for the kids there.
Our little Halloween party was such fun. And it was a good excuse to show off the new kitchen!
Complete with its new spooky decor. This beaded cob web was one dollar at a thrift store, and the shabby chic witch is the one I made at Sissy's house last week.
She has a paper clay head and jet bead eyes pushed into the clay while it was still wet. I made her hat from pink velvet millinery petals and it is sporting a beaded spider made with an old button for the body.
I made another one to climb on my white pumpkin. The big ole punkin is sitting in an old wash bowl and is the center piece for the dining room table. Or should I just call it the kitchen table now? There are no longer two rooms, its all one space!
Our local grocery store had the fancy schmancy pumpkins for the same price as the orange ones. I'd never tried cutting one before, but this white one was soooo much easier to carve than the traditional ones. It was more like slicing honey dew than a jack o lantern.
When I redecorated after the remodel, I kept everything pretty simple. Well, simple for me at least. It seemed like all the stuff I had out before was way too cluttery in a big space, I guess because your eye takes it all in at once. In the small, divided spaces I had before, I liked more stuff out than I do now in the bigger area.
I thought it would be the opposite of that, I was surprised.
The Halloween decor I added is simple too. Just a few touches here and there, mostly black and white.
These crows are from the dollar store, I'd like to add some glitter but haven't had a chance.
Normally, I try to seat everyone together, but that is one more thing I didn't have a chance to get done. I set up room for about 10 in the studio, some people ate in the kitchen, some in front of the football game playing in my husband's office, and a few outside. We were lucky to have beautiful weather.
Still, NO rain though, so that meant no bonfire.
This was a quickie center piece, the boot, baby head, and flowers all came from the same garage sale and were $1 each. I just stuffed the witchy boot with paper, and sat the head in it, then tucked the flower in the laces and added a feather.
And this doll head is modelling the witch hat I made for a bonus tutorial on Romantic Gothic Ghosts.
(scroll down on the workshop page if you are interested in taking the class, White Christmas is also on that page, both are $25)
This one broke my no orange rule. I bought the hat for its pinky flowers, but after plucking them, I thought it was ideal for a stylish Halloween hat, with a bit of black ribbon on it to cover up the globs of glue left behind when I tore off the flowers.
Speaking of breaking the no orange rule, the garage was an explosion of orange and purple.
Well, with black and white ghosts. They are cut up, paper drop cloths left over from my kitchen redo. I stuffed their heads with newspaper, tied a ribbon around the neck, and painted a cutey pie, kid friendly face on them. They serve the purpose of hiding a closet with no door on it.
Sugarwings planned the decor and helped with it. We painted a tarp with glow in the dark paints, to hang over some more garage mess that I was too lazy to move, and when we started throwing the paint for a splatter effect, she had the idea to climb up a ladder for a better aim. I told her that was how Jackson Pollack did it, and started calling her Action Jackson while she was at work.
Most of what is in the room was hand made by the two of us, from the dollar store, or a thrift store. My advice for party decor (for kids) is to shop the dollar store first, get as much as you can there, and then look at thrift stores.
The lighting was the only expensive thing, and the strands of lights were on clearance at Hobby Lobby, and I can use the lights again and again. I would NEVER buy black light bulbs again, they were my biggest splurge and were useless. No effect at all, and I spent $9 on three bulbs to add to the clamp lights that I hung by the ghosts.
The other expensive thing was glow in the dark paint, about $10 worth, and it wasn't dark enough in there for it to glow. But we had fun smearing it on everything!
I'll leave you with some scenes from the party.
Its so fun when grown ups get in the spirit and dress up too! Beth and the other Karla got their husbands to play along.
They were "gang green".
Beth had to give the "dur" sign a lot when she explained it. It was pretty cute.
I hope you have some spooky good times ahead for your Halloween too. Are you dressing up?
Dear little Pixie Pie is ill. She is in the hospital with meningitis.
Her mother posted on Facebook that the hospital has a site where you can make a free card for her, with a message that the staff will print and take to her. She is 4 and loves to get cards. If you'd like to send her one, it just takes a couple of seconds to do, and I'm sure she will enjoy getting one.
It breaks my heart to think of her in pain.
If you want to send her a card, please contact me for her info. The site is here
