I am really looking forward to what 2009 brings!  Happy New Year! 

We had a really wonderful holiday this year.  After weeks of snow it is now all the consistency of a slushy.  We got our last good snowfall Christmas morning, what timing!  Here are some of my favorite pictures, and no I didn’t get a polaroid camera, but quite possible something better.  I have been eagerly anticipating the windows version of this program to turn your digital photos into ‘polaroids,’ and it is now available.  Oh the hours I will now spend playing with this…

Well, we made it downtown yesterday via the max train and were treated to nearly empty stores and Santa all to ourselves.  Seriously, we were it.  It was almost funny to see how long we could make the poor guy come up with things to talk with the kids about.   The snow is expected to keep falling and the kids are loving it.  An igloo adorns our front yard and we went sledding down dead mans hill late last night.  The snow has slowed our pace and I am looking forward to more slow days and games of gin at night!  Happy Holidays!

We have an unusual amount of snow outside keeping us at home.  We are venturing out this morning to go downtown to visit Santa (wish us luck!).  We spent the better part of the day yesterday sledding and gave me the chance to finish up some holiday decorating.  Here are a few peeks around.

a vintage ebay purchase I painted white

our entry way chalkboard adorned with holiday words (inspiration via somewhere, but it is now lost on me, if you know who posted similar, please let me know so I can give credit!)

a bit of an untraditional but no less lovely choice for our centerpiece

out the window…

and inside…

I am happy to announce I am offering 20% off all orders placed by Christmas, this includes my etsy shop as well as portraits.  Just type ‘discount’ in the message to seller or comments section at checkout and I will refund your 20% via paypal.  Also please note, I will ship prints asap,  but I can’t guarantee delivery by Christmas.

My last big thing can now be checked off!  I made these mini calendar cards, now just need to get them sent off.  I’m really happy with how they turned out.

This year I decided to stream line my gift wrapping.  I bought two papers, two ribbons.  All of my wrapping will be done in some combination of these (with the exception of Santa gifts, we don’t want a repeat of the ‘you’re santa aren’t you, that’s your bakers twin’ gate of 2007)…

The last of my holiday orders went out this morning and I am settling in for the snow and ice (eek!).  The kids are out of school probably the whole week, and I am finally sitting down to plan our holiday cards.  

I went and got a nice stack of movies for the kids and magazines for me and am especially loving this mantel with cut paper artwork by Helen Musselwhite Bailey via Living etc.

I book marked this a bit ago knowing it would be the perfect teacher gift.  The kids and I made a couple yesterday and it’s a really fun and easy project.  You can find step by step directions at Cheeky Magpie.  We used a little green paper leaf instead of the ribbon.  Of course in the rush this morning to get off I forgot to take pictures.

All the white outside inspired me to show you my favorite bits of white inspiration from inside…

1.  Snow globe by Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz  2.  Feinedinge Butterfly Magnets at Olio United  3.  Ribbon, Martha Stewart  4.  new piece I’ve been working on  5.  Innermost Ltd Delight Drum Shade from Velocity  6. installation piece at the Rice Gallery

Who has a bigger smile on their face, the kids or the dog?

We may see a little snow around here this weekend!  The kids are beyond excited.  We get just enough snow here each year to look forward to it with great anticipation.  Usually it amounts to a few days of flurries, and maybe if we’re lucky, enough to sled down dead mans hill.

 Happy weekend!

We have done a little decorating around here for the holidays, but I am waiting until I finish up all my orders before I really tackle it.  My favorite spot so far this year is the mantle.  I put these cute little toad stools under glass and wound this really lovely ribbon (from Martha Stewart at Michaels) with some lights.

Thank you to Brittany over at Tangled and True for her sweet mention of my wallpaper panel art yesterday! 

ok, back to work!

A quick little post today as I am busy, busy, busy getting all my work done.  If you’re waiting on a painting, no fear, I am hoping to get scans out this week of the pieces I am working on.

 On a side note, just got these today…

super cute, practical and now I can pretend I am off to go riding when I put them on, ’sigh’….

We are off to get our tree tonight!  I’m keeping it rather simple this year but I think we will be making good use of this sparkly stuff

Happy weekend!

true…

the following is a true story of how I maintain my afternoon energy level:

see the empty grande strbx cup

empty no more

yes, I buy a latte, drink and refill at home.  The good news, I like the one I make better!

My mom always said she wanted to be a window display designer when she was growing up.  I never quite got that, til now…

Totally get it.  I want to be a window to be a window designer now, TOO!

anthropologie windows (via black eiffel)