Christmas Show-Off

A few of my favorite Christmas gifts! Just pretend these are good photos and not bad iPhone pics.

John got this for me and I thought I was going to be all Bad A and dominate this game. I was sorely mistaken and was swiftly taken down several notches. It's wicked haaard. (But I'll still beat you.)

Pretty, pretty vintage locket from Beth with pics of my sistas. I pretty much wear this every day.

A wee little 1930s copy of A Christmas Carol from my brother, Trev. It's amazing and sweet.

Anthro earrings from Ruth. I had been wanting these forever. I never want to take them off.

Adorable bag made by my Mama. She made all of the girls bags like this with different fabrics. Mine is now my official knitting bag and it's so perfect.

I'm sooooo excited about this cookbook! It's so beautiful. I love just looking through it and smelling it and dreaming of cooking all of the lovely, rustic, delicious things. This was also from John, cause he is the best!

2009 Christmas Card

I think pretty much everyone who reads this silly blog is on our Christmas card mailing list, anyway, but here is the card we sent out last year. The photos and design were 100% John and I think he did such an amazing job! I loooove this card! How are we going to top it this year?

Letterhead Love

I am a big fan of stationery. And I have a lot of it. I used to write little snail mail notes quite often and need to start writing more again. I don't know if anyone loves receiving mail as much as I do, but I'm going to send it to them anyway!


I recently discovered this blog, Letterheady, through another favorite blog, Letters of Note. Both are fascinating. I especially love the Letterheady. I want my own letterhead. You know, for all of my business correspondence. I really really love this letterhead of Eva Peron's (above). It's so lovely and simple.

Here are a few more favorites:





Super love the font on the "Lawrence Welk" on this one:



There are a couple Adolf Hitler letterheads that I actually really like. But then I felt weird about posting them on my blog. Go check them out on the site.

In other news:

-Bread making has me completely baffled
-William went for his first dentist appointment and was complimented up and down
-We're starting pre-pre-school activities this week!
-My dining room has been taken over by t-shirts and scraps
-I've had to capture and release 5 earthworms that have been found in various states of distress around my dining room floor. They keep coming in, somehow, trying to escape biblical flood that is currently in my backyard
- Today is the most beautiful gray, rainy day and all we're doing around here is playing, baking, reading and lots of cuddling!

Waiting...

I've got lots of things to share. Just waiting for the pics. Patiently waiting...

And I haven't forgotten about that give-away! Stay tuned! Especially you cold-climated folk!

Must Read

My brain will not stop thinking about these books I just read. My friend Ruth lent them to me on New Years Eve and I spent the next two days doing nothing but reading. I'm horrible at writing book reviews or synopsises (synopsii?) so please just go read the summary on Amazon and then order them and then read them. You will be glad you did. Either that or be annoyed that you can't drag yourself out of the world in the books and back into reality. Regardless, it'll be worth it.



The third book in the series comes out in August and I may go nuts in anticipation!

The Fam

These portraits were John's Christmas gift to my mom. He did all the photography, printing, framing and surprised my mom on Christmas Eve with them all hung up in the family room (special thanks to Trev for hanging them). I think she was pretty excited and happy. Especially since before these, everyones' photos were about 8 years out-of-date.

Mom & Dad
Greg
Trevor & Christi
Bethany
Ivan
Alexa
Ryan

Also, a little photo shoot of Greg and his girlfriend Erin and her son Griffin. Aren't they the most adorable little family you've ever seen? I love these kids.

Paper cuts

Yet another Angry Chicken project -- this one from her Mailorder #10 -- for a couple of friends. I'm sooo hooked on paper cutting now. It's so like, meditative, slicing through the paper with precision. I love it. I wish I could draw so that I could design my own -- I have so many ideas in my head -- but I'm thinking there are probably a lot online that I just have to look for to find.

Isn't the laundry line so adorably perfect for a laundry room? I wish I had a cute laundry room to decorate! I'm planning on doing another "Hello" for our entry, along with the two others that are in the Mailorder set -- a quilt and a kooky little house. Can't wait!