Gaw, isn’t this gorgeous!?! I’m ready to pack my bags & a tarp
to go live in a lean-to right there by that fence in Who-Knows-Where,
South Carolina. Purple azaleas, mossy-green grass, gravel road,
weathered wooden fence, misty forest…heaven.
I have this photo open on my desktop while I work and when I drift
off, I drift off down that path. Kinda nice, really. You should try
it.
If you live somewhere as beautiful, pray, do tell where. Sigh.
I know, I know, I’ve been absent from these parts for most of the last month. Beyond taking a much
needed holiday break, I’ve been wrapping up some big projects and
structuring my world to take on the new year. If I get some of these
things done quickly this week, I just might get to tap into the
new-year enthusiasm in the air before it dissipates. That’s the plan.
That’s the hope. I love a new year! And I’m happy to bury 2007.
Things will pick up here as well. I have some great new crafts and
free patterns in the works for January. And some fun finds to share.
Looking forward to it. Thanks for hanging around : )
Happy New Year!
I just added an automatic response to my inbox to alert folks that
I’d be out of the studio through Christmas and it appears to have gone
berserk! From what I can tell, it sent an "I’ll be out of the
studio…" message in response to every email I’ve received since
somewhere around Oct 17th. Sheesh! So, I apologize if any
of you are greeted with a dozen auto responses from my inbox today.
I told it to only reply to emails that were less than one day old. I
don’t know what went wrong. So sorry.
I do expect to pop back in here before Christmas is through though.
Happy Christmas Eve Eve — Sing lots of holiday songs today and make a big, floury mess or two in the kitchen with your loved ones. I plan to.
Okay, so the Trash Ties response was amazing! And a bit
overwhelming. We’ve turned our house into a full-on workshop and I’m
experiencing Christmas through the eyes of Santa’s elves. Thank you
for your orders. We’re making and packaging them up round the clock.
I’ve added a post to the Trash Ties blog to answer some questions about
shipping, security, applying discounts, extended coupons! and such. If you’ve placed an order or are about
to, you should have a read through that post. (There’s also a giveaway!)
Other than the
elvish nature of this week’s work, we haven’t yet had a chance to break
into Christmas this year. The Christmas decorations are stacked in
boxes in the middle of our living room and have been for two weeks.
This year will have to be condensed, with extra Christmas effort and
activities packed into the end of next week. We’ll make it particularly fun
so the kids don’t notice they had to wait!
Oh gatz! I’m
getting weepy. My friend’s two daughters are over to help and they’re
watching Fiddler on the Roof while they work. Sunrise, Sunset is
bellowing from the other room and I can’t get through that song without
tearing up, even if I’m in a distant room focussed on writing this
post! I’ve got to wrap it up before they get to the Chava Ballet song, the
one that starts, "Little Bird, Little Chavala." Oh forget it, I can’t
even type it out. I’ll move on. One of my favorite movies, anyhow!
The fish? I’m
looking forward to the fish. I made him for our Christmas tree about 5
years ago or so. Beyond my funky junky collection, he’s one of my
favorite ornaments. I just love the idea of a goldfish swimming around
in a pine tree. A few more days to go…
I have had the hardest time falling asleep this week. And I’m not
talking about midnight or 1am. I’ve been up till 4, 6, 7am before
falling asleep. Such a drag! But, I’ve made some important half-alert
discoveries.
For instance, last night I analyzed the implement of leg warmers. I
thought back to the dance classes of my childhood and had no
recollection of cold ankles or even dancing outside in cold weather.
And if a dancer were to dance outside in cold weather, wouldn’t her whole body need an extra layer, not just her lower legs?
I then flashed back to 5th grade and the vague recollection of a
leg-warmers- over-jeans trend. Now in that case, leg warmers were an
accessory, an expression of personal style and good taste. Right?
Anyone? So, is this what leg warmers are to dancers, just an
accessory? Hmmm, no, that couldn’t be, as they would surely have been
named something other than "leg warmers." They would have needed a
snappier name like Kickies or something. Or Lady Legs. Ya, good one.
No, no, there’s got to be something more to it. Hmmm… legs, ankles. Oh yes, ankles! Skinny jeans! (Hang in there.)
Skinny jeans only look okay on a small sampling of female forms. I’ve
got it! Leg warmers balance out the figure. Make a dancer’s hips look
smaller. Just like flared jeans do vs. skinny jeans. Some smart lady
from way-back-when just named them "leg warmers" so dancers of all
shapes and sizes could save face. "Oh, these old things, they just
keep my legs warm." Such a nice lady. I wonder what her name was…
And so my evenings have gone. One important discovery after another.
It’s getting about time to pull out the potholders. Every pretty, vintage potholder that makes its way home with me tends to end up on my funky junky Christmas tree (check these out).
Makes me laugh to see them hanging there in the mix, "Hee, hee, there
are potholders on my Christmas tree!" I even like them there when I’m
well-rested and sane. It’s true.
Okay, I’m off for a Friday date. Make sure you stop by on Monday — I’ve got something REALLY BIG planned.
How are you guys doing this? Getting through the turkey comas,
family get-togethers, late-night movie parties, early-morning shopping
sprees, etc, etc, & so on, then fitting in a Happy Thanksgiving
blog post?
I missed it. No Thankgiving post. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving,
but I have no photos and I’m a couple of days late in posting. And of
course, there are no luscious pies left to photograph! So shall I move
on or add my thankful chimes to the music?
I’ll chime a little.
"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment
which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words." — Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am so deeply grateful for so many things this year. A bulleted
list could never cover it. And my little niece was baptized today to
add to an already moving week (Ocho is now an Adam!). My mother gave a
perfectly beautiful talk that had me fighting tears several times
throughout.
Then Charlotte decided to be a big girl this week. Monday night she
announced, "I need to go potty," and she hasn’t turned back. I’m even moved by this! What’s up? She’s just been so responsible about the whole thing. It’s her thing; she owns it. My baby.
Oh, I really could go on. Whole categories I’m not touching on. I’ll say it’s been one of "those moments" (from that quote up there) all week.
Good timing for a holiday called Thanksgiving. Of course, I am eyeing the couch (still feeling my turkey).
Before I go though, I must express my gratitude to all of you!
Taking time from your days and families to make me smile, bring me to
thoughtful tears, send me rolling on the floor with laughter, provide
me restorative distraction and share with me sweet sisterhood from
around the world. What a magical force you are for good. Thank you
dearly.
Happy late Thanksgiving!
Love, Heather
What do you do when your sweet sister’s in the hospital giving birth
and you’re anxiously awaiting the news? Assuming you’ve already worn a
hole in the floor from pacing, you can fiddle with your hair. Then,
when it’s finally time to go see the baby, your hair is all ready.
And that’s about how it went yesterday.
Introducing my newest little nephew, what’s-his-name, or as my dad
likes to call him, Ocho (the eighth grandbaby). He doesn’t have a name
yet, but isn’t he darling and perfect?
He
looks a lot like my little Elijah did when he was born, but for the
nose. And his little head feels like the inside of a rose petal —
velvety, velvety soft.
So, hooray and heaps of love for my sister Julia and her
husband Brent — well done! A perfect and sweet new baby boy to fight
over at family get-togethers.
I love him the most – me first!
Lots of artwork going on in the studio this week, keeping me
occupied and content My sister’s due to have her second child any day
now, so I’ve got that on my mind as well. I’ve got about five projects
that each need a good nudge before the week’s over and I’m enjoying the
busyness. Perhaps getting sick last weekend was just what I needed to
have a good rest in prep for a carnival of activity this week.
Feeling grateful. Looking forward to Thanksgiving.
Anyhow. Two TV things:
1. My good friend will be on Martha tomorrow (Nov. 15th). I’ve got
a Martinelli’s chilling in the fridge and popcorn ready to pop.
Martinelli’s and popcorn? Not sure why. It just seems like a good way
to celebrate such a thing.
2. Project Runway is back. Tonight. It’s been a while.
One more Halloween photo — If you could capture true magic on film, I expect it would look something like this. This is Charlotte "poofting" me into a pink frog. She’s been poofting cars into carriages, toys into cakes and balloons into horses. Today she "poofted Daddy into a kingdom" (king). Ribbit.
I went on a date with my mom tonight. We tooled around some new
boutiques in town, then went to see 3:10 to Yuma, which was excellent!
I love when a story ties every wandering thread into one tidy bow for
the ending. It’s, well, magic when you realize, ""Yes, of course!"
And Christian Bale. What can I say? Just go see it/him.
Hmmm. Well, I didn’t intend to drift into a glowing movie
endorsement and then call it quits, but I’ve got the flu and was just
hit with a wave of fatigue. Next post will be non-Halloweenish. Or is
that non-Halloweenie?
(Did you know that Christian Bale starred in Empire of the Sun (amazing movie) and Newsies as a kid? I didn’t realize that until tonight.)
