Busy Weekend

Elinor is part of a singing group at her elementary school and this past week and the next couple of weeks marks the "busy season" for her. They've had their Concert on The Square last week and yesterday went to the Governor's mansion and sang for Sonny Perdue and guests at the lighting of the Christmas tree on the mansion property. (I'll be scanning the newspaper for photos, as she said there were several journalist taking pictures.)

We made a family outing-type evening of the Concert on The Square, going early to eat pizza and window-shop in all the stores that had holiday expanded hours. We had a blast and took oodles of pictures, of which I've shared the 2 shown above.

LOVE

These make me smile! There's like 50 million spacers in those tins, dontcha think? Well, not really - it's more like 150 (yep, I counted). Don't they remind you of candy?

Christmas Cookies

Swedish Wedding Cookies

Ribbon Cookies

Dark Chocolate-Dipped Spritz Cookies

Here's a few quick pictures of the cookies the girls and I made for Christmas this year. They were all yummy!

Harder Than I Thought

Seriously. When I set the goal of blogging every day for 30 days in a row, I had no idea how difficult it would be to come up with something to say on those days when nothing much is going on. While I suppose I should be happy to have no major upheavals to deal with, I can't help but feel like I owe you all something new and interesting to read.

Instead, I will offer you my favorite picture from Christmas 2008. This is my cousin, Brian, standing in the kitchen and... Well, you'll see...




I love Christmas!!

Switching Gears

Aside from a few small orders that I still have to finish up, I'm pretty much done with making Christmas beads and will be marking them back up to regular price in the next few days. I do have ideas for 1 or 2 more sets of a holiday flavor that I'll make before moving on to new and different beads. I guess what I'm saying is if you need any holiday beads and want them mailed so that you actually have time to design with them, it's time to "get while the gettin's good"!

Speaking of different (but not exactly new because I've made animal print beads before), I made some awesome large lentil beads with the idea of having them be mix and match in whatever combination makes your little heart go pitty-pat. I've got more designs coming, some are animal print and some are coordinating, but they will be available for purchase a la carte. I'm also trying something new with the pricing. The normal price will be in the $12 per bead neighborhood, but I've decided to offer them for the first week at $10 each. Sorta an "introductory offer" type thing, ya know? Could be goofy, might sound hokey - - who knows - I just wanted to try something different! *grin*

I've Been a Baaaaad Girl!

I bought two, count 'em TWO, tutorials over the weekend. Did I need them? Not really, but I wanted them! Plus, I'm considering that purchase and a small re-stock on certain glass colors my Christmas this year.

Which ones did I get? I got Andrea Guarino's Mothwing bead tutorial. I've always wondered how they were made (and there is the fact that I've taken a class with her before and just think she's a stand-up kinda lady!), so I jumped at the chance at learning for myself.


The other tutorial I purchased was Amy's (Forever Grateful Beads) Rainbow Bead tutorial. Yeah, I already knew how to make that style of bead and have included them in several sets before, but I like learning other bead artist's techniques in the hopes of learning something new and different. Guess what?! I learned something new and different!

That Christmas Feeling

My Mom was off from work yesterday and we spent most of the day together shopping and running errands. Everywhere we went: from Kroger to BJ's (checking it out - free trial membership!), and from Kohl's to Pier 1, Christmas decorations and music were out in full force.

Now normally, I'm a bit of a Scrooge and I like to experience my holidays in the right order; Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas. So... when retailers hit me with the Muzak version of "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" while I'm busy shopping for cranberries and dressing, I get irritated.
Yesterday? Not so much. After being aromatically assaulted by the scent of cinnamon pine cones for the third store in a row, I realized that I was actually enjoying myself!

Maybe it's unwinding from the stress of the Presidential Elections or just plain exhaustion over worrying about things beyond my control, but I found myself tapping my toes and singing along as I wandered the aisles yesterday.

So...for the next week or so, I've decided to mark the Christmas/Holiday beads on sale. Who knows? Maybe they'll lift your spirits the way yesterday's cinnamon pine cones lifted mine!