please help me...

Welcome the newest members of our family!

That's Goldy (even though he's purple. Oh and even though it's a boy beta Ruby chooses to call him a girl :) I could take photos of Stella's and Zoe's fish but they all look the same. Stella named hers Goldfish and Zoe's is Finz. Thanks Anthony and Jeanne for the Christmas dough...this is what they wanted!!!

Now for the latest:

• Disney On Ice - Water $4 each, Hot Dogs $6.50 each, Minny Mouse Stuffy $12 each, Cotton Candy (I don't know Grammy bought that but I'm sure it was as inexpensive as everything else ;), Parking $20, Tickets $32 each. The girls were into it to a point but then I think they just zoned out. I thought the show was as cheesy as they come and found myself laughing when I wasn't supposed to be. I don't think I can even write what I was thinking because I wouldn't want to offend. I'll just say that it's hard to believe there were grown men wearing some of those costumes :O
• I ate lemon cookies for breakfast, chocolate pudding for lunch and a pickle for snack. No, I'm not pregnant. Quite the opposite.
• I've been going to bed WAY too late and getting up WAY too late. I hate that.
• I'm putting the finishing touches on my resume and about to seriously go job hunting.
• My old GM from Mistral made me tear up this morning from a sweet email he sent me. Gates, you are one to admire.
• School starts back in six more days...but who's counting?
• I'm working on an order right now and hope to have some new designs in the shop by the end of the week.
• I'm predicting a Migraine in less than two hours. Yeah, yeah, I know...it's the sugar+hormones=pain
• I feel like the laziest person on earth when our schedule is interrupted by things like v.a.c.a.t.i.o.n. I need the constants in life.
• I'm making eggplant cutlet sandwiches for dinner with roasted red peppers, mozzarella, garlic & herb mayo on toasted rolls. Craig's favorite!
• I hate New Year's Eve.
• However, I am looking forward to a new year!
• OK. back to work.

xo

Only 363 days till Christmas...

We wait all year for Christmas to come...at least the kiddos do. I LOVE buying/making gifts for everyone and seeing family we don't often get to see. However, I can't help but feel like a weight has been lifted once the festivities die down. It's anti-climatic...at least for me. The anticipation of fun is what gets me excited and then once it's here, it's over in too short a time. You do hear what I'm suggesting don't you? Let's bring back the 12 days of Christmas!!! NOT!

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Today's the last day of Christmas in our house! We're expecting family any time now and then it will be officially done....till next year!

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Zoe's trying to bend down to fit next to Stella and little Miss Stella is copying her big Sis :)

This dog is HUGE and Stella loves it!

Ruby got a Nintendo DS and The Littlest Pet Shop Game to go in it.

Santa's cookies and milk.

Just finished playing 'Santa' and the room is ready for the girls in the morning.

I love this retro Rody...the color is yummy.

Notice part of the tree at the bottom is missing ornaments? They were there until our English Mastiff's tail kept knocking them down...I decided to forgo filling it in...what's the point?

more...

and more...

and one last shot.

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A flying heart I got...I love it!

I don't think it's possible to capture how awesome this piece is. I fell in love with it the day we all went shopping for our Christmas tree. It's made by a local artist and is over 3ft tall. Can you tell it's a tree made out of sea glass, broken bottles, shells, bottle caps, rocks? It's amazing! I can't wait for my husband to hang it in our Family Room...I'll see if I can capture a better shot of it in there. Now I just need something for our blank wall in the dining room.

Do you know what this is? Well, it's a clever gift certificate holder from Anthropolgie!!! I luvvvv this shop and can't wait to indulge :)

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Tomorrow we're off to Boston to see Disney on Ice! I'll be back on Monday with a post. I'm looking forward to turning my dining room back into my 'office' so I can get creating again. I'm finding I get very grumpy when not making stuff ;)

xo

tomorrow...

I promise!

It's been an exhausting couple of days with one more festive filled day to go. We have what we've dubbed the four days of Christmas in our house. I'll post pictures and such some time Saturday. In the mean time if you're looking for something to read you can go check out my other blog :)

xo

all in a day's work...

Can you believe it?

I'm wrapped!

What went from an overwhelming amount of gifts to wrap to having very little left to do...is amazing. See, I told you I thrived on adrenaline. I even had time to start another new blog! I just don't have time to sit around and hope to get onto the treasury so I started my own :) All you etsians out there will know what I'm talking about...I've never seen that treasury number drop below 500!

The girls are officially out of school and it's VACA time! This week is filled to the rim with family fun.

• Christmas Eve we head to Grammy Mammy's house...fun, fun, FUN!
• Christmas day we hunker down and enjoy just being home and together. Grammie Ding Dong will be here too which makes it extra special.
• Friday we'll head over to Nonno's house for some good Italian Family fun.
• Saturday, Ruby has a birthday party to attend in the morning. In the afternoon we are looking forward to a visit from Pop!
• Sunday we're heading into Boston to see Disney on Ice...we have THE BEST SEATS!!!!

I'm off to bake cookies for Santa with the girls! Have a great day (())

xo

I need...

Teacher Gifts...

had to be wrapped as tomorrow's the last day...

Finally wrapping family gifts...

there's way more, WAY.

A gift I made last night...

I love the swing :)

I'm going to make one of these for Zoe's room!

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to snap out of this funk I'm in.

This is usually a time of year I relish with such love. I'm finally saying it out loud...I'm just not in the spirit. My heart feels heavy and out of place. I'm just going through the motions and procrastinating like never before. Most know me to have everything organized down to the last detail. My menu is still not planned, gifts just beginning to be wrapped, my house is a mess (making my head a mess). The excitement just isn't there. Thankfully I have three beautiful girls whose cheer will be enough to inspire me.

xo

tick tock...

The countdown is on and I'm starting to flip!

Luckily Daddy got to stay home today due to the snow so while he took these guys out sledding I...

whipped up some sugar cookies to decorate later this afternoon,

wrapped 5 gifts (count that...that's five less than the hundreds left...yikes),

Finished one gift and I LOVE it!!!!

SO

SO MUCH!

Thankfully my Christmas cards arrived yesterday morning so I was able to get most of them sent out. Here it is for all my bloggy friends :) made on recycled paper :)

Off to do more since there's more to do!

xo

I'm feeling a little crazy today

• Christmas cards still have not arrived.
• My sewing machine has been acting up today with loads and loads of sewing waiting in the wings...this is not a good time Mr. Viking!
• Mr. Brown aka UPS arrived with just two out of the eight packages I'm expecting.
• I haven't even begun three important gifts I planned on making. I've got ideas and already dyed the fabric in...get this Starbucks coffee...just need to get around to the actual designing part.
• I still haven't wrapped a single gift.
• I made two batches of cookies this morning and the basic mix for several more...when the hoot am I going to have the time?
• We're expecting a ton of snow tomorrow, Sunday and Christmas Eve.

The bottom line is...and I do this to myself all the time. All the time. I put too much on my plate. At this point I'm convinced I do it on purpose. You know, for the thrill of it all. To see if I can actually accomplish everything I want to accomplish and still have a neat house. It's a little game I play...I know. Sicko.

please pray that I get my everything tomorrow...K?

xo

little houses...

It's a snow day!!!

Woke up and everything was white and my head was pounding. I logged onto the puter at 5:30am and found out school was delayed. Grateful to lay my head down for a bit longer I went back to sleep.

About 8:30am I find out school is now cancelled...joy broke out in the house and I started my daily ritual of making beds, emptying the dish washer and starting laundry. I finished everything I had to do and figured with Christmas just a week away I better start making those gifts I had planned on making!!!

The teachers will be getting hand towels and a few other things. When the gifts are totally done I'll post a pic :)

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• we still have not received the Christmas cards I ordered.
• I'm still waiting on at least 8 packages to arrive with gifts I've ordered.
• I've wrapped a total of zero gifts.
• Tomorrow I'll be starting the beef jerky process. HUH? For the past few years I've made my dear ol' Dad homemade beef jerky for Christmas. I just hate to think of him eating all those chemicals in the store bought brand and he luvs his beef jerky :)
• I'm sure I've forgotten someone or something I've been meaning to buy for...happens every year and I'm left scrambling.
• Currently I'm loving The Kings of Leon and can crank out a ton of work while listening to my men.

OK. To the sewing machine I go!

Have a happy hump day!

XO

Well, we've settled back in. It feels So good to be here...ahhh, home sweet home :) I had a couple of fun packages waiting for me...this is my favorite decoration I purchased for myself...as requested the artist used ivory silk ribbon in lieu of the pink. I hung it on our barn mirror in the family room. It looks great! Check out her shop if you want something vintage inspired and really cool :)

So, before we left on Friday I took this picture through the glass on our front door. The door was sealed shut with ice! My bittersweet looks like it's encrusted with a little bling...sorry about the glare.

Little Miss sleeping soundly in her birds nest at Grammy's house. Since the little darling has taken over Daddy's side of the bed he's requested we inherit this piece of furniture ;)

An order I made while at Grammy's...I just love the color purple with this fabric! I hope the buyer loves it too!


The Zoo

Stella was SO proud of herself for going on this ride solo.

Zoe's not too impressed with the leopard display...I'm just happy they were stuffed and not the real thing :)

Ahhh, my kind of Zoo :)

Back home and rightly sleeping in a party dress (who needs PJ's when there's a party dress hanging in your closet??) Someone call Social Services she's smothering her Bitty Baby.

Made this for an order but you'll be seeing it in the shop...I love the simplicity, the colors and shrooms are just magical.

Another order...a custom request and I LOVE the way it turned out. Another new addition for the shop for sure!

front

back


I'm just about caught up on my orders and about to dive into the many gifts I had planned on making homemade. Gosh, I cannot BELIEVE Christmas is just over a week away!!! Yikes!

xo

rumor has it...

We've got juice!

Electricity that is...phewwww!

We've been so lucky to have family only an hour away so we've been crashing at Grammy's house. We've actually had fun and I was able to keep up with 'plum' business. I'll be able to post pix when we got home. We're moments away from leaving and heading up North. (I can't WAIT to smell our kitchen...the dishes were piled high and gross...those of you that know me know I'm not one to leave a mess behind). I'm quite certain everything in the fridge will need to be tossed and what laundry was left in the washer is totally moldy by now. It's all good though...we'll be happy to have our sweet little house back :)

Last night we took the kids to the Stoneham Zoo. Every year they light it up for the holidays. It was cheesy cute and the lights were pretty. We were able to see a racoon, fox and deer (some Zoo, huh?). I have to admit...I am not a big fan of Zoo's. There is something inherently depressing and wrong about seeing a giraffe, elephant, crocodile, bear, monkey and other wild animals out of their intended habitat.

OK. Hubby has arrived to help in our departure. I'll talk to you lovelies later!

xo

ice storm...

We got hit Thursday night with an ice storm.

About 4:30 am, Ruby wakes up screaming. It was sooo dark in our house. We keep white lights up year round so it was almost eerie the darkness. I lit some candles and we got the fire roaring. Obviously the girls didn't have school so we had a rather relaxing morning playing games and thinking about what our next move would be.

After hearing the news of the destruction this little storm caused. We decided to pack the kids, the dog, my work, food and sleeping bags up and head down to MA for an impromptu visit at Mammy's house. They're still reporting that we may not have power until Monday! So, here we are. I've now taken over yet another dining room with my messy mess. I'm trying not to miss a beat with my orders but I admit it's been a challenge.

We hope to be back tomorrow (Sunday). Sorry, no pix today...I haven't got my camera hooked up to Grammy's computer :(

xo

Trying to get a quick little blog in here today!

Just finished up the Trunk Show orders and wrapped them for delivery. My fave is the little Asian girl...I just loooove her! Sorry the pic is a bit blurry!

I think I'm going to start including a little matching tag that can be used for gifting with each order. I normally make the tag as seen above but the back has my info on it and gifters may want to write their own little message. So from this point on each design will come with not one but two tags! You can see the little tags below (I used them to label whose packages were whose this time around :)

Had to keep the girls busy while working away. I knew before they began I was asking for trouble: glue + paint + sparkly things + glitter = A MESS!

Poor little Stella she's got an awful rash on her face...see? Oh and notice the glitter in the corner...full, right? NOT ANYMORE!

Holiday decorations are up and continuing to be tweaked.

Our tree :)

My little house collection...and Ruby's pig she made at school :)

Haven't done much here but will!

Our barn mirror...our walls in this room are actually a very rich brown...it looks gross in this pic.
And finally, this is what I'm making for dinner :)

xoxoxo