Christmastime

The fall has flown by and I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts.  I rented an office downtown this fall, so after I'd drop off the kids at preschool I'd walk down the pedestrian mall instead of driving home.  Then I'd have several hours of focused time to work, which resulted in a bumper crop of jewelry to sell at the shop.  Bliss!  The kids were happy, mama was happy, and Steve got to work at home in peace and quiet, too.

Once the rush was over for work I got to think about other things, like Christmas for us.  By this time I don't have a whole lot of creative energy left, so I'm happy to support other artisans for that.  New this year is a hand painted ceramic nativity set from Etsy.

And a vintage Putz village.

And this darling Tyrolean-style coat which I got at a thrift store years ago and is finally the right size.

Birthday cupcakes and the Christmas program at school before break.

Last-minute teacher gifts

And then it was the week of Christmas...

Sunday morning

Playdates

Dominoes, a Hussey family tradition

And then finally I got a creative impulse, so I painted this tree on Olivia's wall while she had a sleepover at Grandma's house...

Note: I sketched it on the wall with chalk, then used a 1" flat artist's brush to paint the trunk and branches with latex wall paint.  Then I cut out a piece of craft foam into a leaf shape (about 1" long) and glued that to a wooden block to make a stamp to do all those leaves. You can do this!

...and worked on the quilt for her bed.  

...and we made handprint ornaments.

On Christmas Eve we got our first snow of the season!

After the Christmas Eve service

Then the kids were nestled all snug in their beds. Olivia doesn't really know much about Santa, which probably helped her fall asleep.  That and the sugar crash.