Everyday Beauty

Only 6 Days Left!

 
According to the boys' Advent calendar, there are only 6 days 'til Christmas. It doesn't seem possible! This past week was crazy and busy, packed full of doctors appointments, visits from friends and baking. 

On Monday, I woke up in so much pain I thought my head would pop off....double ear infections. Pretty bad according to the doctor. I'm feeling much better now thank goodness.

On Tuesday, Hope came to visit and spent the night. This is a little present I had for her.

 
We got SO much done! I taught her some basic jewelry techiniques, and she made this pretty necklace.

 
We sat at the computer and we {mostly she} designed these Christmas cards. I had been dreading doing Christmas cards for some reason this year. I didn't like the ones I had bought and just kept procrastinating. I l-o-v-e these cards.

 
On Wednesday, Sam's cold started to get worse...took him the doctor...found out he had a respiratory virus. Poor little guy. So, I cancelled my antiquing and lunch plans with some local friends on Thursday, but I ended up having them come to my house on Friday, and we had a delicious lunch and handmade gift exchange.

On Thursday, while Sam slept {quite a lot}, I baked.

And then baked some more. I still have to do the colorful ones {cut-outs and some Italian ones I love the most}.

 
And today, we woke up to this:

 
I went out and {slowly & carefully} shovelled a skinny little path for the mail lady to get to my door. She comes in everyday to use the bathroom. I figure it's the least I can do for all the boxes she has picked up for the past 2 and a half years.

George has been out of town for a month now, and returns in just a couple days. Thank goodness because I am NOT into shovelling snow...or dragging the garbage to the street......and I am exhausted! I can't wait 'til Christmas though! 6 days.....are you ready?

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

 
.....I made a necklace to give away!

I was asked to create a piece of Vintage Trinket Jewelry for the "12 Days of Christmas" festivities going on over at the Where Woman Create blog. Naturally, I was honored and happy to participate with the other 11 women who have also donated prizes. There are all sorts of lovely things to be won.

 
To put your name in the hat for a chance to win this or any one of the 12 prizes, you simply need to head over there and leave a comment on any of the 12 posts dated December 1st through the 12th. The deadline to enter is December 12th at midnight. What fun! Good luck girls!

Making Magic

 
Such a magical time this month of December is. I try not to rush through the season and really enjoy the process of each little thing. It's actually a little mantra of mine for everyday life.

 
I've been slowly bringing boxes in from the garage and placing decorations here and there, sometimes with no real plan. I like it best this way, and Mario has been my little helper elf. So far only one broken ornament!

 
During all this hustle and bustle, don't forget to slow down and enjoy the actual process of decorating, baking, wrapping, singing, tree trimming (preferably while sipping hot cocoa, please and thank you.}.

 
It's not a race to see how quickly we can get our houses decorated or who can bake the most cookies. For every decoration I've got out, there are 3 more still in boxes. As for cookies....I haven't even begun, and I've got some serious visions of sugarplums this year!

 
It's about having fun, being with family, and really stopping to take a deep breath, look around and be in the moment. 'Cause we all know how quickly the moments pass.

 
Find magic in the little things this season....if you pay close attention, you will see that it's everywhere.

Saint Nicholas

   

Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Nicholas in the Catholic Church. As you probably know, Saint Nicholas was a real person renowned for his great kindness and generosity, and he's the origin of our modern day Santa Claus. You can read more about the real Saint Nicholas here.

It is still tradition in many European countries for children to leave their shoes out on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, expecting to find small gifts and candies in the shoes when they awake on December 6th. I love any reason to celebrate the joy of giving and start a family tradition so I've filled the boys' shoes with goodies for them to discover when Mario returns from preschool and Sam wakes from his nap.

 
I look forward to watching their faces light up with delight. And they won't even know I'm a day late!

On the Floor, Looking Up

 

I was laying on the family room floor and loved this angle of the Christmas tree so I asked Mario to get my camera.

 

Now, if he could only help me get up!

Hey, speaking of Christmas trees, I have been wanting to flock our tree for years now and finally bought this Tree Flocking Kit a few weeks ago. As it turns out, with George's travel schedule this month we didn't have time to get to it this year. Maybe next year....if I'm still into it. One never knows! I'm actually loving the natural green of the pine right now. Anyway, I wanted to pass along the info for anyone else who's been thinking of adding some wintery white flock to the tree!

Making a Circus Party

 

On Monday, we'll be celebrating Mario's 5th birthday and Sam's 2nd birthday. One good thing about having two October babies is that we can do one big party. Although I do still bake each of them a cake on his actual birthday, and we sing Happy Birthday and the whole bit. It only happens once a year and I want it to be special. Mario still talks about his previous birthday parties with such happy memories.

 

This year's theme is the Circus! The photo at the top shows my kitchen table as I was getting everything ready to pack up in the car. {The party is in Ohio, at my mom and dad's house, so we could celebrate with family.} I am so pleased with the invitations I ordered from Ciao Bambino on etsy. She was so nice and accomodating and even offered to reprint them after she shipped them....because I realized that I had told her the wrong date! In the end, I decided just to add this little tag with each invitation instead.

Animal crackers are a must-have for a circus, don't you think? Such great graphics on these classic little boxes.

Cotton Candy

Circus Peanuts

 

And regular peanuts 

I tried to find as many useful red & white striped things as I could.

Love these straws.

Some little cups for treats

These are actually Christmas napkins, but they'll work Ggggggreat! {Sorry, I couldn't resist.}

Some animals from the boys' playroom

I picked up some plain party hats...

...and added some pom poms and festooning to make them more fun.

Animal cupcake picks & striped treat bags

And candles for the boys

I had some vintage greeting cards that I scanned and copied to make a garland.

 

What does a duck have to do with the circus? Absolutely nothing! It's just what I had on hand....

A little game for the kids to play

And a pinata full of candy & treats of course! {if our teeth haven't rotted out of our mouths by the end of the party, it will be a miracle.}

All we need now is the pizza {from my Grandma's pizza shop} and cupcakes {which I will bake} and our family! Mario is so excited he can hardly stand it. Sam is clueless, but will have fun once the party starts, I'm sure. Everybody loves a circus!

En Le Jardin

 

I'm looking so forward to this, I can't even tell you! My friend Jennifer is hosting En Le Jardin, an Alfresco Art Event. It's going to be a wonderful, small-scale retreat with lots of time for crafting, chatting, sipping sweet tea and seeing the sights of the beautiful South. Jenn has planned it out so well, and we are all in for a relaxing creative weekend that's full of beautiful details. The event will take place at her home in Macon, Georgia, and several girls from Blogland will be attending. It's always so fun to spend time with like-minded women! If you'd like to join us, a couple of spots are still available. Click here to take a peek at the pretty garden-inspired projects, see the schedule of events and be transported to Jenn's enchanted garden!

Trimmed with Memories

 

I'm thinking the tree will be staying up through all of January. This is because: a) we're out of town for Christmas, and I want to enjoy it a little longer. b) There's just nothing like sitting on the couch relaxing with the tree lights twinkling, and c) The thought of taking it down right after Christmas is so not appealing to me at the moment! Amazingly, Sam doesn't really go near it all that much. Only one ornament casualty so far this year.

Unpacking the ornaments and remembering each one is a ritual I always look forward to. They all have special memories and many were handmade or given to us by friends. These are some of my favorites.

This vintage-inspired bird ornament was a gift from Holly. She even hand-stitched the strawberry. Isn't this the sweetest thing?

 

I bought this cute one from Analise at Silver Bella.

Sam's 1st Christmas baby bootie ornament.

 

Mario's 1st Christmas candy cane.

A favorite mercury glass pine cone.

 

Some pink ones I like.

 

A sweet little cone made by my friend Pam.

 

 These pretty flocked bells were a gift from Dana.

 

You know what they say, "Once a Marine, always a Marine". {this is George's contribution to the tree!}

 

A sea shell from a vacation to Hilton Head Island.

A vintage ornament from Pam. Love this!

  

Just Married.

 

Vintage Lambie.

 

Just an old one I like a lot.

 

I glittered a load of pine cones again this year and tucked them into the tree here and there. Then I placed some on the mantle's garland as well. I just love the way they look, almost frosted. And it's always nice to have natural elements incorporated among the glass and other decorations.

There are more ornaments hanging other places too. We have another pine garland wrapped around the railing that leads upstairs, and this is where we hang our annual family ornaments. Here is last year's:

And the one we got this year:

The boys have colored lights strung around the playroom and a small tree with some of their "toy" ornaments like this train I got for Mario this year.

 

So nice to see all of these ornaments come out of their safe wrapping each year and to play Christmas music while we trim the tree.

We're at my parents' house now, for the week, and as I type this I'm sitting by their tree while my dad snores on the couch, my mom reads a magazine and George alternates between snoozing and watching TV. All around their cozy tree full of lights and memories. Christmas trees are magical, aren't they?

Holiday Wrapture

 

Oh goodness! It is Thursday already? Ack! We leave on Saturday for Ohio, where we'll be spending the week with my parents and all of my extended family. Seriously cannot wait. Shopping is done, baking is done {what little I did this year}, and now it's time to wrap it all up and load up the car for the trip.

One thing about owning my shop is that I never have to look very far to find gift wrapping materials. Although, can I say that it pains me to see good ribbon go into the giant Christmas trash bag along with all of the wrapping paper shreds on Christmas morning. I know I'm preaching to the choir here. You guys are like me, we can spot a good ribbon at 20 paces, and we snatch it right up out of that trash bag and tuck it into our purses, don't we?

The embossed foil paper {above} is a wonderful thing I thought I'd mention here. It's sold at bakery supply shops, and is used to cover cake boards. Makes a great gift wrap {and sharpens your scissors as you cut!}. It's available in many colors and has been a staple for me for a few years now, ever since I took the Wilton cake decorating classes and the teacher told us all about it. And it's cheap too!

 

Pretty crepe rolls are fun to use. I like to sometimes wrap smaller sized gifts in this.

And sewing patterns always make interesting tissue paper, in poofs coming out of a gift bag or tucked inside a box. Great graphics and neutral colors.

  

I dug through some millinery-filled baskets to find some pretty gift toppers.

 

Most people on my shopping list probably couldn't care less about a millinery flower, but a few of my friends will appreciate them. I always use them on my mom's gifts, and then she gives them back to me to use again. So funny.

 

Well, I'd better get wrapping I suppose. 24 hours from now we'll be loading the car {and George will once again ask me why I need 5 pairs of shoes and  4 different purses}. Mark my words, that will be the conversation as he packs the back of the car.

Happy wrapping, my friends!

A Pretty Little Christmas

My friend Heather is hosting a blog party called "A Pretty Little Christmas", and I thought it would be fun to join in! Participants are supposed to blog about how they are having a pretty little Christmas, by showing photos of whatever they wish to show: their homes, wrapped gifts, Christmas trees, etc. These are just some random snapshots of my holiday decorations.

I don't have space for an entire Christmas village, but I do have a couple of pieces, this wintry church being my very favorite.

 

A customer and friend, Gabrielle, made this pretty sequin-adorned tree for me! I just got it in the mail over the weekend. {love getting good mail!} It looks perfect with the rest of the forest on the buffet.

My feather tree is full of feathered friends. I used all birdies, pine cones and acorn ornaments on this one.

 

You can see them a little better here:

 

A simple little wreath on a mirror. Sometimes a small touch is all you need.

I got this wonderful ruffled stocking at Garnet Hill. I'm still working on making stockings for the 4 of us, but it doesn't look like they're going to be finished this year. So, this will be my stocking, and my 3 boys will get our old classic cream plush stand-bys. {I'm sure they won't mind as long as they're full!}

I have lots more pictures {of the tree, other decorations, and some wrapped gifts} and will post them later this week. Now, I'm going to hop around the Internet and visit some festive, inspiring blogs. Heather has posted a list of all of the participating bloggers, so we can easily see who else joined the Pretty Little Christmas party!