This isn't a decoration. It's my gift from my husband. I tried to make it a decoration because it was sooooo pretty, wrapped up not by my all thumbs husband but by my favorite gift shop. Don't you love the black and white paper? And the glittery ribbon and retro card!? I tried to hang on to it but the family forced me to open it.

Inside was a pretty new tea pot with matching creamer and sugar bowl. New tea set. The local tea room was closed. There was only one thing to do.

Set up my own tea party.

Isn't the green pattern pretty? And I've had this great little tea spoon for a long time, just sliding around at the bottom of the utensil drawer.

My new demitasse peppermint striped cup and saucers from Starbucks this year. They were on sale for $3 a cup. I didn't realize when I purchased them that they were so tiny. When I opened them up I figured they wouldn't be very useful but they'd still make great decorations. Surprisingly, they worked out just fine. You just have to pour twice as often, that's all.

I got to use my my ..... don't know what you call the little butterfly. It holds the little sponge under the spout and keeps drips from hitting the tablecloth. Not to mention, it's pretty too.

A tea cup full of starlight.

"This tea party thing is fun Papa!"

"And this tea cup is juuuuuust the right size for little ol' me. Slurrrrrp."

On second thought, it was worth opening the pretty boxes to find such a lovely afternoon stuffed inside.

And more holiday decorations.

I was going to drag my tomato cages out of the vegetable garden and use them upside down as trees, when I remembered these garden columns just hanging out forgotten behind a rose bush! I stuck them in and around pots on the front porch, added rusted tin garlands and lights, stuck some fake tree branches and botanical balls underneath (the branches were part of of an old tree and the thrift store gave me a whole box of them for free!) You can click on the photo to see the cute garlands better.

Here they are lit up at night.

I guess I did put a few teddies out this year. Here are two bears in a winter park scene atop the entertainment center hanging with a handmade "Waldorf" elf from my son Joe's childhood. The little red bird is a new addition I bought at the local nursery. He's so heavy, you could use him as a doorstopper! He'll stay out all year. My daughter-in-law commented at how real the green garlands looked. They are real, to make up for not having a real tree this year.

It's alway fun deciding what will hang from the dining room chandelier. Every year it's different. This year I went with an icy winter scene in hopes of luring some snowflakes out of the sky. The center colored decoration stays up all year, the icicles and stars were added. What you can't see, still need to get a decent photo of it, is there are snowflakes hanging in the window frame you see to the right.

My china cabinet was originally purchased to keep my fairy figurines and witch doll collections safe from cats. But it ended up in the dining room filled to the brim with all my tea cups, tea pots, and nicer breakable dishware. The only thing added are the peppermint stripe demitasse cups and the garland of glittery reproduction Santa images. My grandson Joshua was sitting at the table eating cereal one morning while he was visiting when he pointed the garland out to me and explaimed "Santa sure has a lot of brothers!"

I've shown you glimpses of the tree but here it is in it's entirety. I LOVE this ribbon. You can't see from this far away but it's a velvety red wired ribbon with gold glitter edges and tiny gold glitter polka dots all over it. It appears opaque during the day but at night it's just sheer enough for the lights to shine through and make it glow.

At Halloween I showed you this shelf covered in witches. For Yule it's sporting a collection of snowmen (and a couple of glittery Santas snuck in there as well.)

If you'd like to see photos of people instead of things, I have some family pictures up of the holidays over at Beach Treasure. Mostly grandkids, which I think are just as decorative and even more adorable than snowmen and teddy bears!

Just a teddy bear someone tucked in amongst the gifts under the tree. One of the grandkids was probably carrying it around. There was a time when my kids were younger when my home became FILLED with teddy bears in December. It all started innocently enough. We have a yours, mine, and ours collection of children. The "yours and mine" parts are a stairstep bunch that, when they were wee ones all had blonde hair and blue eyes and you couldn't tell they weren't all mine so I'd haul the wild crowd about town subjected to "doesn't that woman know anything about birth control!?" stares. The "ours" child (William) straggles in six years behind his closest sibling.

As the older clump of kids grew up they no longer wanted dolls and Legos and games for Christmas, instead asking for music CD's and clothing and some sort of bracket for their snowboard bindings. I missed putting toys under the tree. So I gathered up the residual teddy bears in the house. I had a couple from my childhood. Even teenagers keep a few stuffed animals in their rooms. And put them under the tree.

Around the same time, whether during the holidays or later that year I don't remember now, I stumbled across a teddy bear at the thrift store that had obviously been extremely well loved at one time but was now sitting sad, alone, and abandoned in a shop. I knew he would never be purchased. People would ignore him in favor of less worn, newer looking toys. Images of the velveteen rabbit, the brave little toaster, and the island of misfit toys bubbled up into my head and I couldn't leave him there to such an ignoble end.

After that I kept an eye out for abandoned bears. Within a few years there were so many bears they spread out from underneath the tree and covered the hearth. Eventually they filled bookshelves. Larger ones were "throw pillows" on the couches and beds. The tiniest ones were given a small tree of their own that they climbed and sat in until the branches were barely visible.

A Christmas long ago when William was still shorter than me. Look at all the bears! Look at all the gifts!!

There were an insane number of bears at the peek of the tradition. Mostly old bears, even a few "collectibles", but newer unique bears had found their way into the mix as well. You couldn't sit down without hugging a bear or having one topple onto your head or into your lap, but the family loved it. The bears quietly hibernated in big storage boxes all the rest of the year but they were not to be forgotten come the holidays, when their real life forest counterparts were settling in for their winter sleep.

Shrimpy sized William, lots of bears

A younger Sam being surrounded by a bear (and cat) posse

It was the cats that put an end to the bear's yearly visit. There was a point in our life when we had a very large and changing cat population. The reasons are multiple and I won't bother even starting, but what pet owners can tell you is when you add new pets to a home, there's a temporary territorial scuffle. With cats, you can get spraying behaviors. Since we were in a state of constant change for a while, the bears ended up in the cross fire and I decided to leave them safely packed away until things settled down. The kids grew up, moved out, and stopped asking about the bears, or only asked after the fact "hey, why didn't you put the bears out?" and the tradition died out except for the teensiest bears clinging to their bear tree. That's gone up every year except this one. Our cat population is now stable but still large (again, long story) and it's probably safe to bring out at least some of the teddies but with the family mostly grown, I've never gotten back into the habit.

I thought about rekindling the tradition this year but didn't have the time. I did drag a box of bears in after Christmas for my granddaughter Joli to play with one evening when she was fussing about being forced to stay baby gated in the living room. She had so much fun pulling them out of the box. Maybe next year the bears will return.

Joli attacking bears? Being attacked by bears? A draw?

Finally getting around to adding some more photos of my holiday decor.

Celebrating the return of the sun.

The top frame has rosemary and stars. I bought these at my favorite decorating shop in town, La Belle Maison. They were supposed to come with mirrors but were apparently shipped alone so they sold them "as is" for a great price. Originally I'd planned on putting photos inside them but they are deepset and it's more fun to add different seasonal items. This summer they had silk flowers and fairies perched in them. In autumn they were off the wall while I painted, but you get the idea, I could put dried leaves or old postcards or whatever piques my interest.

Ha ha, you can see some of my kitchen wall is still painted in camo style - I was trying out assorted green paints and haven't painted the kitchen yet, although I did decide on a green and finished up the dining room walls already. This display is up all year, I added the little snowman and the tin stockings for the holidays.

Now that all the gifts have been open I can show you a couple of things I made. I had plans for even more giftmaking but the unexpected early arrival of grandkids threw a wrench in that one. But I don't get to see them often enough and my sewing machine is in the studio every day, so, priorities. Anyway....

My son Sam has a new home and a sparse bachelor/sporty decor style. Still, his new place is a lot larger than his old, so when I found these old postcards I thought I'd make him a few things. He loves to spend summers out on his boat on the lake and the winters snowboarding. I didn't make it too fancy since he's a guy, y'know, but I did put a bit of glitter on the snow bunny's ruffed hood, sleeves and, though you can't see it well (maybe if you click on the photo to enlarge), her cleavage. His reaction at first was a bit "uhm, what ARE these!?" but then he rallied and said he'd put them in his pool room. I think they'll grow on him as people notice them. It was fun to make them.


All the adults got scarves. Except William, who at 16 isn't an adult but that's not why he didn't get a scarf, he didn't get one because he refuses to wear them. All the guys got the cool skull camo print which I really liked and maybe I'll make one for myself too eventually. Noel got the leopard print. I hadn't realized that her daughter Nonny had a cute faux leopard coat, so now they'll match. The pastel stripe is for Sam's pastel lovin' blonde girlfriend Kyla and the two rainbow design on black were for my daughter-in-law Lisa and myself.

Since we're finally getting snow (yah!), everyone will have a chance to wear them.

If I could give the world a gift this season....

I'm really loving my holiday mantel. If you want to see the details, click to open the photo.

I was going to re-hang the large mirror I had over the fireplace but took down so I could paint, before I decorated the mantel, but I forgot. I like how it ended up gold against gold with just a touch of red though. Although, it needed... something. I could see a banner of some sort. Too bad I can't wiggle my nose like Samantha and have instant art. I'm seeing a banner spelling out "Y-U-L-E" in reds and more gold. Unfortunately my nose seems to be out of order so I found this forgotten sign in the garage and the unexpected rustic blue seems to do the trick.

Although I don't have a nose wiggle, I did manage to come up with some new wiggle room in my photo storage, so - YAH! New photos possible. I'll take some more tomorrow daylight when the lighting is better.

Aren't these purple and gold flames a kick?! Very appropriate as they are the local school colors. Go Grizzlies!


I'm just popping in to wish you all a peaceful night on this Yule's Eve. I managed to squeeze a couple of new photos in on my memory card tonight of a little Yule altar I put up. I'll post them them over on Beach Treasure.

I wish I could have taken photos of the rest of the decorating I managed to finish up in the last two days. Between felines and family, they probably won't look quite so fine for long. People have a tendency to shove things back to set their purses or cell phones or what have you along the edges and the cats, well, they just plow through my decor as if it was a dirt bike track set up for their entertainment. Sigh. I'll try to find some digital memory somewhere tomorrow so I can show you any surviving vignettes.

I suspect I just wrung the last of my wakeful consciousness out of the four plus hours of sleep I managed to catch last night. So I"m afraid I won't be welcoming the Yule sunrise personally this year, instead I'll be slumbering warm and tight beneath the covers when the light returns. But I'm sure when the light hits the outside of my eyeballs, I'll snuggle in a bit deeper beneath the tangle of quilts and smile in my sleep. 'Night.

Miss me? I've been busy with holiday tasks and I temporarily ran out of photo capability. No fun to blog without photos. I had insane visions of endless time to create and decorate this month and I anticipated lots of posts filled with pretty vignettes showing off all my efforts. SNORT!!! Obviously THAT didn't happen!

But, I have a few more photos of my tree I missed sharing in the last post so I can put those up tonight.

Here's another butterfly. Anything "airy" goes up on top of the tree. I already showed a bunch of angels and butterflies. There's also a little witch and a goddess in the photo. And today I added a few fairies. Oh, birds too. And I can't forget to mention the pretty stained glass ornament my sister made me when she was ... in high school still? Or was she in college already? Well, a LONG time ago, regardless. Now she's a university professor herself.

Here's a closer photo of the preschool photo decoration I mentioned before. Fuzzy unfortunately. You can see the top of a fireplace decoration my mom bought for us the first year we were all together as a new blended family. It's hard to believe that was nineteen years ago! You can also see Hagrid hanging out there on the right.

I tried to put my traditional tree topper, a lacey metal star, on the top of this fake tree but, as you can see, that didn't work very well. It's nice that the branches are bendable, it makes it easier to secure decorations on them, but it has it's drawbacks as well. I tried everything - bending the top branch to give it more strength, using multiple branches, nesting the star down a bit lower than the tippy top - nothing worked. So a good motto - be flexible. Maybe not flexible in the same way as this tree top, but you know what I mean. I decided the metal star will look great used in the mantel display, which I need to finish creating tomorrow, and I found a lighter, clear shimmery, plastic star that managed to stay upright atop the tree. It's perched a bit precariously, but knock on wood, it's upright for now.

I've been adding more decorations and I found the most adorable ribbon at the nursery the other day. I coiled it on the tree but I really need another "strand" of it. I'll call to see if there's any more available. Hopefully I'll get a photo for you before the end of the season.


In the meantime, I have one more photo of a floppy holiday topper to share. I found this at the local Walgreens. Whadya think? Is it me? It's definitely Susanville. I guess Santa might want to stop and do a bit of hunting between chimney visits? Or maybe he's decided to be a bit more pro-active about not being seen these days? Camo Kringle!

Because of hubby's constantly changing but usually night shift job, and because of my general Night Owliness nature, every once in a while I somehow manage to get myself into a completely upside down schedule where I'm going to bed when everyone else is waking up and waking up when everyone else is already halfway through their day. This is one of those times.

It's not like I want to start getting up in time for that worm (ewwww!) or go to bed before the sky is dark and quiet and splashed with stars. I like being an Night Owl. But it's too inconvenient to run completely contrary to the rest of the world. I've yet found a teacher willing to schedule a parent teacher conference with me at midnight. (well, except some homeschool "teachers"). So I'm trying to push myself back into a more reasonable schedule. It's tough. Especially this time of year when there's not many daylight hours to find.

All this babbling is just me stumbling toward my main point which is, I don't have any new decorations up to show you or more gifts or crafts or cookies made to brag about. I don't even have photographs of my thrift treasures taken yet, like I'd promised. Sorry.

It's not like I don't have anything accomplished. I've managed to take care of a number of boring ordinary tasks like buying groceries and finding a lost but important paper and necessary phone calls and errands and I even made dinner and showered a few times since I last blogged. (I usually manage to shower but that making dinner part is pretty amazing!)

On the holiday front, lots is going on. I've managed to bring all the holiday boxes inside the house. Now my house looks like a warehouse for Chaos R Us. The cats helped out this morning by tipping over several boxes that had particularly small and roll-able items inside them. The last couple of years I've been downsizing and organizing my holiday boxes so when I found six boxes out in the wild uncharted wasteland that is our breezeway, I thought things were looking up. Six boxes. Wow. That's completely do-able. Especially since I knew that one box was completely holiday dishware, another was only tree trimmings, and a third was all my tree "village" (really, more of a tree forest, since I collect the trees and not the village - but there are three quilt store porcelain buildings in the mix, so I guess it's a forest on the edge of the village). But then all the empty boxes that were on the top of the mess slid away and at least another six holiday boxes appeared. Oh dear. Well, I've got my work cut out for me.

Oh! I did get the giant outside candy canes out of the garage. And I carried them outside at dusk (traditional) in the freezing cold (also traditional) and flung them up in the tree - this year I have two types of candy canes so I flung them into TWO trees - all just in time to provide entertainment and amusement for the wee bit of commuter traffic driving by our home at that time of evening. And, I badgered the guys until they went out and put lights up on the front eave of the house. They refused to do it the first day I asked, when it was cold but at least dry and sunny. So instead they finally went out the following day, in the RAIN. When I brought the boxes in, I found six more boxes of outdoor lights to put up too - mwahahahaha. Don't get too comfy boys! I'll take photos of the candy canes. Promise.

Uhm. But not today. I haven't even managed to get started on my day and I can see the prettiest sunset outside my window. I guess it's time for breakfast.

Some fun ways to waste time you should be spending more productively this holiday season.

Want to build your very own gingerbread house without all the expense and stickiness? Go here.

No snow in your front yard? Build yourself a snowman here. You can even call him Parson Brown.

You really don't want to miss a chance to Elf Yourself. Really. I was able to make William Elf DANCE with Mother Elf!!

Penguin bowling. Not as easy as it looks!

Not quite as peaceful as watching the white stuff falling outside your own window, but definitely a holiday online favorite. Make some snowflakes and share them with others.

Am I evil if this makes me laugh with holiday glee!?

An Advent Calendar for us eclectic folk who like to celebrate Everything (well, maybe not everything, but lots of things) and decorate Anything (that doesn't move?).

Look. Fabric.

And more fabric. And a snowflake. Just to give it a festive holiday look.

But that's all you can see for now. 'Cuz I'm making stuff. It's that time of year.

I made cookies. You can see those. I put photos on Beach Treasure. Now if you'll excuse me, my tea kettle is whistling. I'm off to get my tea, eat some cookies, and make more stuff.

I saw this wreath displayed in a local jewelry store. Isn't it gorgeous!

I had a very full day of holiday sights and sounds yesterday. Check out the photos on Beach Treasure.

There has been much shopping and even a bit of cleaning and organizing going on, but nothing much to show you. I haven't even made the first cut into all that fresh, new wrapping paper. But, I did stumble across a post I created and then forgot to upload. These photos were taken about six weeks ago, so of course now all that beautiful early fall foliage is crumbled and gone, but although that added to the pretty factor, that wasn't really what I was photographing.

This is the front of a house of a friend of my friend Shirley. I finally walked by it one day on my way to take photos of the cemetery. I took these photos on the way back. Unfortunately my battery conked out, so I only got a few shots.


Shirley keeps saying she has to introduce the two of us to each other because we have a lot in common. That hasn't happened yet, but I know that Shirley helped this woman change their ordinary cement retaining wall into a work of art. (If you click to open, you can see detail in the larger scenes better.)

Whenever I've driven by this house I've always thought about how similar our gardens are - all wild and overgrown. Mine is a bit more abandoned then this one is at the moment, but they share the same "bones".


The retaining wall runs from the middle of the walkway about..... fifteen or twenty feet on either side of the steps? I might be totally wrong. The entire width of the property in any case. Look at the parkway (the strip between the sidewalk and the road) - they have flowers and even a miniature apple tree growing there! No boring strip of unadorned lawn for them! That's my kind of people.

But here's what I was talking about, the retaining wall. The colors represent the flowing water of a stream. The rocks and ceramic fish are glued on. I don't know who made the fish, Shirley, who is a wonderful artist, or her friend.

They turned a bit of wear and tear to their advantage, filling in a broken corner with a gravel bed and a bit of vegetation for their stream.


Don't you love this trio, leaping out of the wall!

We have a similar retaining wall, same composition, same height, although almost twice as long because our house sits lengthwise on a long rectangular lot. It's actually in better shape than this wall, or at least it was in better shape, until a few years ago when tire tracks and a broken flower bed border one morning showed where someone, I'm assuming a drunk someone, had driven into a section of it in the middle of the night. Now it is cracked and slightly leaning at that spot. In hindsight I realize I should have notified our homeowner's insurance and had it repaired but, I didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, not the point here, which is, we could do something to make our wall more interesting.

Whereas the retaining wall in this photo has only a narrow few inches of dirt between it and the sidewalk, we have a very wide section of flower bed between our wall and our new we-didn't-ask-for-it-sidewalk. (although, I'm finally starting to get used to it - of course we haven't gone through our first winter of dealing with snow and shoveling the damn thing and where to park the cars off the street now and ..... this is so a ranty detour so I'll just stop now) So for part of the year, the wall is hidden behind a tangle of foliage and flowers, or at least, ahem, green weeds.

But maybe it could be improved with the application of a light whitewash, or some other color wash. A cement stain to make it a warmer color? I don't need a mountain stream running along the front of my wall, but I can picture some permanently painted flowers and fairies running or lounging along it? Or protective sigils? (like the ones you see on the sides of barns?) Or some cats? Although, at any given moment, we probably have plenty of real cats out in the yard.

So, another idea that flutters around in the back of my head. Maybe next summer will be THE summer I finally take back control of the jungle that is my front yard.

Check out my sidebar doll - she's redecorated for the holidays. She looks just like me, doncha think? The only unrealistic part is, look, she's already got her packages wrapped and under the tree. Now, THAT'S not believable!


I meant to tell you the Search for the Perfect Wrapping Paper story a few days ago but I've been busy shopping (for, among other things, duh, WRAPPING PAPER) and other seasonal activities (like talking on the phone and doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen and making soup) and then there was a series of bouts of whatever you call a headache/back ache/stomach ache combo. And of course there was that two hours watching White Christmas and addressing holiday cards and the half hour of watching the new holiday special, Shrek the Halls. (I SO want to make a toilet seat wreath for my front door! I won't. But I want to.) Anyway, so I haven't felt much like being on the computer.

One of the things I did was sort out the bags of gifts that have been piling up in the corner of the studio over the last few months. This isn't an official from-the-list pile, although there's a few list items already purchased. Mostly it's a pile of things I've stumbled across and thought "Oh, she'd love this" or "I HAVE to get one of those for him!" The real listmaking and gift collecting begins when I sort out this hodge podge and find out what I've already bought and what's missing and for who. I really really really don't want to repeat the holiday faux pas of a couple years ago where I somehow managed not to buy a single personal gift for my son Joe. Even though I overcompensated for it heavily the next year, he still won't let me forget that I forgot him and I'm betting he never will.

This year I decided the most important thing to do was to sort out the gifts that require mailing and tackle the whole buying/making, wrapping, and off-go-the-post-office process. It's a real priority for me this year as I put it off last year and ended up NEVER SENDING ANYTHING to my siblings or parents. Our family has a tradition of late gift sending, so I didn't worry about it. But time kept sliding forward and except for my mom's last year's birthday (Oct. 31) and Christmas gifts, which I finally mailed to her just a couple of months ago, now that the holidays are again upon us, I think we can safely say I've long since passed the fashionably late argument and have arrived solidly in the I TOTALLY FORGOT stage.

I wanted to wrap the few things I already had sorted into the "to mail" category, so I dug my wrapping paper box out of the holiday boxes and was beyond thrilled to discover it contained three small scraps of paper that each barely made it around a cardboard tube. YAH! A few years ago I'd bought a bunch of those huge 6,000 square feet rolls of wrapping paper and I've been using the same pattern for what seems like an eternity. I was sooooo ready to be done with it. This meant I could go buy NEW wrapping paper!

Last year my friend Jaye blogged about the very environmentally friendly idea to make and use fabric gift bags in lieu of paper. I was intrigued but at first I resisted the idea - I argued that I LIKED to use wrapping paper. You can read Jaye's original post and her response to my arguments here.

What Jaye didn't know when she was wrangling with my arguments was that, halfway through the last year's wrapping season, I came to the realization that I really only liked wrapping the first dozen gifts or so. With such a large family and my habit of getting people multiple small gifts instead of one large gift, the first dozen gifts is just a small dent in the mountain of packages I wrap each December.

I'd also argued that I would get tired of using the same gift bags year after year. Of course the reality was I wasn't using different wrapping paper year after year. I've been wrapping gifts in the same patterns for decades. Or at least it seems that way. But I also had been using a dozen sturdy decorative boxes for about as long, before they finally started falling apart and ended up as kindling a couple of years ago. I missed those boxes. People had enjoyed checking out all the old "To:/From:" stickers on the bottom, discovering which family members had been given that particular box in years past, remembering which boxes they'd received, which boxes they liked best. It also occurred to me that our family has a stash of about a dozen paper gift bags in assortd sizes that we have used and reused for every birthday, anniversary and graduation for the last half dozen years.

Clearly my arguments against the idea of using fabric gift bags were starting to crumble. And when I consider the rather large unused stash of holiday fabric hidden away in a box in the studio closet, the idea becomes more and more appealing. Jaye even sent me a gift bag she'd made so I could have an example to use as a template. I decided gift bag making was probably in my future.

HOWEVER, I'm at that point in the holiday season where I've had to start dropping projects from my fantasy schedule and making gift bags became one of the first to go. I don't have the time and I really wanted to use wrapping paper again this year in order to play with the box of vintage holiday ribbons my mother sent me this summer. (I just realized I could have used ribbons with gift bags as well but, hey, next year I'll have to experiment with that, assuming I manage to make gift bags by next December.)

I knew exactly what kind of wrapping paper I wanted to buy. I had this "LOOK" in my head. Some solid colors, small innocuous pattern so I could show off my ribbons against it and/or something botanical in deep, rich colors and/or something lacey and old fashioned and shabby chic. Excitedly, off I went to bring home something new and wonderful.

I'd forgotten about the fact that I live in a small town with limited shopping opportunities. I had about a half dozen potential shops - Walmart, Walgreens, a couple of supermarkets, and a couple of discount stores. NONE of them had anything remotely botanical or lacy or chic. Pout.

What they had was lots of paper displaying Disney princesses, Shrek, Spiderman, Dora, and Barbie. There were the to-be-expected Santas, snowmen, and trees. Last but not least, there was a lot of 50's style retro prints which I actually liked. Cute. It's just, retro wasn't what I had in mind.

Walmart had the most wrapping paper but they really didn't have a larger selection, they just had 2,000 rolls of each style. And because folks who work at minimum wage jobs sometimes don't have a huge supply of enthusiasm for their jobs, the display boxes were jammed in so that all of one pattern was twenty rows back, all of another pattern was midway to the front, and all the front row was another. In an effort to find choices I ended up pulling boxes off the shelves, knocking piles this way and that in true Jerry Lewis slapstick style. I was so frustrated and angry at having to wrestle those heavy display boxes just to get past the pawns of Disney paper I didn't even feel guity at the mess I left behind. The same sort of display problems existed at the drug store and I gave up rearranging their aisles after noticing they wanted me to pay twice as much for the same amount of wrapping paper. Safeway, which I had noticed had some nice paper just a few days earlier, was completely out of stock.

I finally gave up my dream of finding the perfect wrapping paper patterns and settled for some more predictable but nice rolls I found at Walgreens. Though even there, the task was challenging. Someone had the brilliant idea that they should stock their wrapping paper on the TOP shelf, barely in reach for someone like me who just barely stretches beyond five feet. They made up for it though by having a sale - $2.99 for one roll, get a second roll for a penny. I bought six rolls. (and no, not 6,000 square feet each)

The cashier rang up my purchases and then apologized that they weren't coming up for the sale price. We looked at the sale flyer together, trying to figure out the problem. The manager came over and he said the sale had been last week. At this point I just wanted to buy some paper and go home. I asked what the cost of the paper was so I could decided whether I wanted to buy one or two or maybe three rolls and leave the rest behind, depending on the cost.

The cashier said "$4.26"

"Per roll!" That seemed awfully expensive to me.

"No" she said, "that's your total."

"My total? You mean the cost of all six rolls is $4.26!?"

"All six rolls plus tax, yes."

The manager just shrugged and said "If that's what it came up at, then I guess that's your total."

I wrote my check out quickly, before they could figure out that couldn't possibly be correct.

The next day I found a few a few more rolls at the local grocery outlet. Now I've got enough to wrap all my gifts and of course the kids will all arrive with bags full of unwrapped gifts, asking "Where's the wrapping paper!? Don't look! Coming through!" and hurry off to a back room to use my paper to wrap their presents. But hopefully I won't have any, or at least not much left, when the year is over.

This morning my daughter-in-law, who knew about my paper search, called. "Have you been to Target!? They've got wrapping paper just exactly like you're looking for at Target!"

In the excitement of discovery, she'd forgotten a key fact - the closest Target to my home is a hundred miles away. I responded sarcastically "Oh yes, I was there just this morning."

She laughed at me!

"Bitch." And of course I mean that in only the most loving of ways.

Sorry I've been missing for most of a week. William was off school, hubby was off work, son Sam came home for a holiday visit, so I took Thanksgiving week off to spend some quality time with my family and kitchen.

Everyone is back at work or school now though, and I'm gearing up for more cleaning, a bit of gift making, another round of decorating, and other winter holiday activities. Since whatever I manage to make in the studio between now and the end of the year will have to be kept a surprise, I'll have to settle for sharing other crafty or creative activities with you.

Like this shop window hubby and I saw on a walk-off-some-of-the-turkey stroll uptown. It's an antiques and collectible shop I like to visit. I'd just been past the shop earlier in that week and hadn't seen anything holiday-ish but on this day the window display was filled with trees, each of them decorated with old or retro ornaments.

I wish I could have shown you a wide view of the window, it was lovely, but there was too much reflection. I didn't intend it but I kinda like how this photo came out with my shadow and the street and mountains caught in the glass. I think I still captured what I was aiming at - the paper cut out angel. I thought those would be fun to make.

When I went on my big shopping spree last week, I went to Macy's to visit their Holiday Tree Department. It's a tradition for me. I rarely shop at Macy's. Okay, I never shop at Macy's. But I do love how they do up all those trees and I try to go at least once each holiday season and buy an ornament or two. This year I noticed that the theme leaned heavily towards the "homemade" look. Almost all the ornament were meant to look hand done. Well, they were hand done I assume. By someone in a factory somewhere.

Don't get me wrong, they were really cute. But it was hard not to see the irony - today's shopper doesn't have the time to actually create homemade ornaments. So they go to an upscale department store to buy ornaments that look homemade.

I've noticed that phenomenon a lot in the last few years. The more expensive the items in a store or catalog, the more they have a hand crafted or "grandma's handiwork" look to them. It's a nostalgia for.... what? A time when people had less money but, maybe, more time?

Do we really have so little time nowadays? I don't think it's an easy thing to generalize about, every person's situation is unique. But it's certainly something to consider in our own life - do we balance our time well? Could we slow down, buy less and do more ourselves, and still be as happy? Maybe even happier? I know I have a lot more flexibility in my schedule than a lot of people do, and yet I still seem to find myself unorganized and overscheduled more often than not. So far I haven't even managed to organize or simplify my thinking about organizing and simplifying. Another irony - trying to simplify can end up to be such a complex process.

Enough of a philosophical sidetrack. Back to the shop window...

I thought this baby shoe decoration was really cute. Can you see the wheels beneath it? (open the photo to see them) It's been turned into a baby buggy. The key is a nice touch. And it's glittered. I've seen so many cute things done with baby shoes lately. Which is nice, since babies don't wear them for long it's nice for them to find a second life that doesn't include doing a Hans Solo number on them.

This little angel head brings back memories. We had several on our tree when I was growing up. I think my mom bought one for each of us three girls. I liked them but I also thought they were a little creepy. Uhm, where's the rest of the angel? Was she decapitated?

This particular tree was decorated in a kitchen theme, including all these old cookie cutters. I still have some of these same cookie cutters from my childhood. How clever to add a pretty ribbon and hang them on the tree. Beats all the work of making gingerbread cookies, decorating them, and trying to hang them on the tree!

I particularly liked this little angel with the added bling and wing.

I took this photo through the side window, hoping to get less glare. If you open the photo you can see the detail better. I liked all the old toys under the trees inside the shop. check out the dollhouse and buggy.

That's it for now. You can check out a wicked chess game over at Beach Treasure. And come back tomorrow when I tell you a tale about the search for the perfect wrapping paper.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful - Buddha

Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. - Alphonse Karr

We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. - Albert Schweitzer

If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want. - unknown

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. - Marcel Proust

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. - Meister Eckhardt


What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it--would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have. - Ralph Marston


We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder


It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast. ~W.J. Cameron



Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live. ~Jackie Windspear


When eating fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.--Vietnamese proverb


We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Author Unknown


Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. ~Author Unknown


Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.--W. T. Purkiser


Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~William Arthur Ward