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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Holidaze

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Oh my goodness, she looks so grown up! It is boxing day and I thought I should post some Christmas eve photos. We went to Stephanie’s home and it was delightful. She made a delicious rustic shrimp soup with potatoes and Andouille sausage.

Steamed artichokes were enjoyed before the soup. One of Mia’s favorite foods.

The first photo is Mia in her new Jammies and strumming the guitar that we gave her along with 6 private lessons.

The floor under Steph’s tree was piled with gifts. Some of them were left to be opened on Christmas day.

Here is Miles in his new Jammies and the Walkie-Talkie we gave him. He brought it with him yesterday. We use it to send him on secret missions – keeps him busy!!

I finally got a photo of his two missing teeth.

A scene in Steph’s living room.

The goodies we enjoyed after dinner, provided by Mr C and I. The food pantry sold boxes of beautiful Holiday cookies as a fund raiser. I made fudge brownies and mini-cheesecakes. One of Steph’s friends gifted her with cashew brittle and nougat.

One of my favorite gifts is this painting of Maggie that Lisa did for us. This is from a photo when we still lived in North Carolina.

Yesterday, I made dinner for the family and we enjoyed playing some games in the afternoon. I neglected to take any photos. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.

Now, it is time to do some planning and list making for all that awaits me in the new year.

Enjoying the Season

Monday, December 14th, 2009

wreathpaperpaintglitter

I love making my own Christmas cards. Sometimes I do fabric. Sometimes, I create something with photos and print. This year, I am screen printing and embellishing.

First, I drew a wreath with an India ink pen.

indiainkwreath

I created a thermofax screen. I printed the wreath on cards. I printed a message and our names on the inside first.

cardproduction

The card at the top of this post has glitter balls. This one is foiled. I found that foiling on the paper was difficult so I switched to Elmer’s glue and glitter.

wreathpaperpaintfoil

I printed some on silk which I may stitch to cards or use for postcards.

wreathonsilk

morewreathsonsilk

This past week-end, we had lots of festive activities. I finished decorating the tree and adding some other holiday touches to the house.

2009tree

M & M and their parents came over for homemade pizza last night. Milo has two front teeth missing. I tried to get him to grin so that I could take a photo. I got this photo that does not show the missing teeth. He is so darned cute!

milosanta

I hope you are enjoying your holidays, too!

Seasonal Stuff

Friday, December 11th, 2009

newpaintrag

Here is my latest paint rag with paint from doing the construction fence scarves.

paintragdetail

Today Mr C, Scooter and I drove out to the country to cut down a Noble Fir. Saw this lovely red barn on the drive. Look at that bright and blue sky.

redbarn

After arrival at the tree farm, it did not take us long to find the perfect tree.

treefound

treedown

treeoncar

ohprettytree

I am not sure when it will get decorated. Mr C has to do the lights. I am supposed to go to a felting workshop tomorrow, but it may get canceled. We are supposed to get snow and/or freezing rain tonight and tomorrow.

I finished Big Pink and will be posting that tomorrow. If I don’t post it here, it will be on the 12 X 12 blog.

Let Christmas Begin

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

miamiloshelftree

I have been busy for the last couple of days with M & M, getting into the holiday mood. Yesterday, they had no school so Steph dropped them off early in the afternoon. We got tickets for the Holiday Laser Show at the OMSI planetarium. It was fun to listen to Christmas music and stare at the hokey graphics on the planetarium ceiling. We also spent some time in some of the exhibits. There is so much there for the kids to learn from experiments and exhibits like this one”

weirdscience

I think Mr C had as much fun as M & M.

MrCatOMSI

We had to go home to pay some attention to Scooter, then it was off to Burgerville for supper. Back at home we broke out the Peppermint Ice Cream and chocolate sauce — a sure sign that the holidays have arrived. Next on the schedule was Bah Hum Duck, a Looney Tunes version of The Christmas Carol.

This morning, we mixed up a batch of Nigella Lawson’s edible gingerbread tree decorations. M & M had lots of fun cutting out and decorating the cookies.

cuttingcookies

readytobake

decoratingcookies

miadecorates

milodecorates

yumtastesgood

Next, they implored me to get out the nativity sets and the shelf tree (Mia’s description of my wooden Swedish ornament holder.

miloshelftree

Scooter was very intrigued with the Santa hat and kept jumping up and grabbing the white fluffy ball.

We arranged all of the nativities. Mia remembered where each of them is assembled. I was quite worn out when their Dad came to get them at noon.  After a rest, I went out to Fred Myer’s, a local grocery with lots of other stuff. I bought a new hat and gloves for the cold weather and a Christmas adornment for Scooter. The antlers light up and blink, but that was too much for him.

scooterreindeer

I have a very busy week ahead of me and I still want to remake my pink piece. I think I can pull it off. I may just do a pretty pink collage and take the easy way out.

Art Every Day 27

Friday, November 27th, 2009

tiedyednapkins

I’m still feeling a bit stuffed, but enjoying the leftovers from yesterday’s feast at Steph’s home. This is one of the napkins that M & M tie-dyed.(Sorry for the blurry photo that I took with my iPhone.)  Here is how the table looked before we plundered it.

stephstdaytable

Except for the church key (smile), it looked like something out of Real Simple. Speaking of Real Simple, Steph and Maria’s first book, A Year of Mornings, was mentioned in the December issue.

1258575965

I finally received a copy of the just published, A Year of Evenings. It is a lovely representation of evening light as you go through the year. I am so proud of my children and what they have accomplished.

After dinner we played a new game, at least to me, called Apples to Apples – the junior edition. It was so much fun. I presume that there is a regular edition, too. I must look into it.

The art for today was more work on the pink piece. I am not really enjoying it and so am trying to make it more interesting. Sometimes, I wish I had just done “Pretty in Pink” and be done with it!!