MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Whew. The day is almost over. And it has been such a fun one. It seems like just yesterday though that we had last Christmas. I remember as a child it never felt this way! But now as I watch my little ones throughout the year, it almost seems I blink and we are off to the next. I had promised myself this year would be more relaxed, that I'd take it all in better and enjoy the season. I'm not saying I didn't, but I did stay a bit too busy. One thing we did differently with our children however, is shop early and not get stressed about the bills and not being able to find what we wanted. We still don't own a wii if that gives you any indication of our Christmas last year. This year we hit the nail on the head with William getting a basketball goal and Mailey the S'mores pony. He's dribbled and shot baskets until I think his fingers have blisters and Mailey has groomed and played mommy to her fur real friend all day (7am wake-up not too bad). They also received the little I-pods as a trial run on them. Mailey has not taken them out of her ears since we downloaded some of her favorites- Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, Allison Kraus- Mom's favorites too and of course High School Musical. William has not sat still long enough all day to listen to his!

We are off to south Alabama for the Lewis family gathering which includes my Mother, Sissy, 2 aunts, cousins, little sis and her husband. The weekend is sure to include tons of yummy eating, fellowship, and some time out in Gosport shooting my new , well actually not new but new to me, 38 revolver my Father gave me last weekend at the Adkins family gathering. It is a beauty! I found this while searching for the above file. It has to be Mailey's 2nd Christmas, where she's 1 so William is 3. OMG she has changed so much in looks. William is just a bigger version of himself here, and he's wearing the construction boots he wore always always, so sweet. And they used to love on each other all the time. He carried her and held her ALL the time. Now they fight wayyyyyyy too much! Gotta show them this and maybe it'll joggle the good old days again!

Hope you and your families had a wonderful holiday!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...hahaha

Down here in Georgia, for some reason snow never falls in the actual winter months. It is more likely to come in March, if at all. So dreaming I am of a white Christmas. This is "Winter Bird" on the barren branch with tiny sprigs of life still hanging on. The painting is so much prettier in person...the textures...the paper...anyways, thought I'd share a new one with you.

I may be away from posting a bit over the next week. My little ones are having parties and getting out of school on Thursday! Whew, this year has flown! And I have some important pieces and parts to put together prior to their dismal from school. (catch my drift?) With that being said, I hope you have a creative and productive week. I'll be back next week with hopefully some fun news of new retail outlets and some new work! I'm itching to paint on this pile of 10 canvases I bought recently.

New Ways to Spread the LOVE

I found out about this super great site called papernstitch through reading my art buddy Sarah's blog last month. The genius Brittni Wood, also an artist and ART TEACHER (yeah!), started this site as a way for artists to gain more exposure. As many of you know, exposure is key to becoming a successful artist full-time. The great thing is I have a table here until mid-January. I've uploaded images from my etsy shop so that when you go to buy, you buy straight for there. Kind of hard to explain, just go and see for yourself. I am very excited and love who I'm hanging out with over there! Be sure to "spread some love" while there by clicking the heart to the left of my little Mattie and Mailey painting. Have a great night!

Featured on Cafe Handmade

I received an email this week from Kerri, the author of this great blog entitled Cafe Handmade. She mentioned featuring a tile she had purchased from me through etsy awhile back in the next issue of the blog. Okay, how flattering I thought. But then I went to her site and was blown away at how cool of a site she has. Click here to see it for yourself Cafe Handmade . I am under the A Little Fun tab. THANKS Kerri!

Greenery With Style

I love fresh greenery at Christmas. The smell.....ummmm.....Since we use a fake tree these days, using some live greenery around the house always brings me back to the real smell of Christmas. You know what I mean? What does Christmas smell like to you? If I could bottle it up, it'd be the tree smell. Yep. And right now, my car smells like that. Ahhhh....

So here are my cone baskets all decked out for the holidays. Perfect for door decorations, door knobs, or fence posts like I have here. They are sure to make the recipient smile. Each one is unique with embellishments and is brimming with tree clippings from a local tree farm and my first Christmas tree with Billy. You see, the first tree we had was real and in a pot standing about 5' tall. After the New Year we planted it. 13 years later it is ginormous! Seriously, ginormous (Mailey's favorite word to use). We've had to stake it to the ground to keep it from falling over. So hopefully a little bit of this tree from our loving home will bring you luck during the coming year.

Be sure to stop by and say "Hello" if you make it to Braelinn or Serenbe this weekend! I'm packed and ready to go right now!

New Hats!

You know how sometimes you get an idea in your head and you just can't wait to make it and then show it off? Well, this is me in my new product that I am jumping up and down about!

I've lived here in the south my whole life. So fuzzy hat wearing days are usually pretty short in length. We have more opportunities to wear baseball hats in the heat than toboggans during our winter. I doubt that many southern women own a fur hat. This winter came quickly and furiously though. And wearing a hat, well it just makes a lot of sense when it's 30' and windy! And a fashionable hat is even more important to a southern gal like me. And although my husband is questioning this new fashion statement of mine, I think it will over great with my teenage friends! I've got 2 style hats, this is the traditional toboggan look, the other is a bit more french painter like. Any which one you wear is sure to draw an eye or two!

Okay....side note. I always spell check and the only word I misspelled this time was toboggan...does that tell you how unused a word that is in the south?

Legend of the Christmas Nest

I realize that these nests did not come from a real tree, but rather were made by my little fingers. But what an amazing treat for your Christmas Tree these little birds would make! So many of us have the artificial trees adorning our homes during the holidays, myself included. And although I can't promise these will bring you a year of prosperity, they will bring you joy, which can only help lead you to prosper in the coming year.