Quiet Time Gifted

We snuck a few minutes with the happy couple at the rehearsal to give them their quilt. (I'll do a separate wrap up post with more pictures of the quilt). We didn't have time to talk for long, but they seemed pleased with the quilt and I was happy to see it safely to them. ^_^

Family Time

One of the best parts of family weddings is the time we get to spend with family. I am lucky enough to have married into a family full of smart, funny, caring people and I always enjoy the time I spend with them. Our trip was full of catching up, nerding out, cooking meals, and sharing you tube videos. ♥

Another One Bites The Dust

We are back from a wonderful wedding weekend. We spent time with family, checked out an awe inspiring natural history museum, took silly pictures, got way too little sleep and generally had a brilliant time.

Most importantly, the happy couple is married! The wedding stress is over! And we have a new addition to the family!

I took lots of pictures, so I'll post about some of my favorite bits over the next week.

Punk Rawk Snowman

Last weekend, the hubby and I took advantage of the snow to get outside and build our first snowman ever.

White Christmas

I don't know that I have ever dreamt of a white Christmas, but one way or another, that's what we got this year. We woke up Christmas morning to soft flakes falling and the yard blanketed in white.

It afforded us an absolutely classic photo op though:

Twelve Days of Ornaments--Day Three

To get the full scoop on my family's traditions surrounding ornaments, see Day One

When I graduated high school, my mom and I joined a tour group touring through England and Wales. It was my first (and so far only) international experience and I was quite taken with all the lush greenery in the countryside and the dreamy accents everywhere. I don't remember where we saw these first, but my mom and I noticed these amazing ornaments at the historical sites (Shakespeare's birthplace and the like) and began collecting them.

Twelve Days of Ornaments--Day One

Every year, when I was growing up, my mom would have my brother and I each pick out an ornament. This was a very solemn decision with much angsting--it had to be just right. And each year my mom would dutifully label our ornaments with our names and the year. The promise was always that this way, when we were big and moved away, we would have a box of ornaments to start out tree with.

My second Christmas with Rob, I introduced him to the tradition and we went out to buy ornaments to hang onvthe tree we had bought for his apartment. An ornament each turned into quite a bit more than that and the tree was comfortably, if sparsely, ornamented.

The Christmas before Rob and I got married, my mother sat me down with a box and we sorted through the ornaments--big and small, marked and unlabeled. My mother (as she is wont to do) took the opportunity to clean out her ornament boxes, so in addition to my ornaments I also packed up ornaments made by family members and the old angel tree topper I had grown up with.

This year is the first year that we have a Christmas tree in our forever house--last year we skipped due to travel. Pulling all the ornaments out of their boxes this year made me nostalgic and happy, so for the next 12 days I'm going to take you on a mini tour--of the ornaments on the tree and why they are so precious to me.

Today's ornament is our newest addition--a sweet gingerbread man from Astrausa on Etsy. His worried expression and missing appendages are cute more than morbid and were a quick favorite with the hubby who decided to adopt him.

Of Wreaths and Berries

I came home from work earlier this week to find a Harry and David's box. From someone whose name I didn't recognize. Inside the box was this beautiful wreath and an note from my parents. : ) We had already picked up one for the front door at the Farmer's Market, so today we bought another wreath hanger and got this one hung up on the door to the sunroom.

Day 35/365--Company

My daily contiribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Today my husband's cousin came through town on his great journey westward. We're putting him up for the night so we went out to dinner and then for a stroll around the neighboorhood and then we sat around the kitchen and talked. My vision for the house is already starting to come true--the kitchen is undeniably the heart of the home where people gather and talk. Of course that may be in part because we have no chairs elsewhere...

The Schedule

Just a quick post to let you all know that I will be OUT OF TOWN this Friday through Monday. My mom's side of the family is having out first family reunion in 10 years in honor of my great aunt's 80th birthday. In addition, my baby brother (he's a good 9 inches taller than me, but hey, he'll NEVER catch up in age, mwahaha!) is turning 22 tomorrow, so we are bringing his presents!

I'm really looking forward to this whole trip--drawing and reading on the plane, hanging out with my brother and parents and seeing relatives I haven't seen in FOREVER! Yay! : )

The plan, as of right now, is to write up my blog carnival post for Etsy bloggers tomorrow at lunch (it's all written in my head, but I must get it into pixels!) and then post it tomorrow night among much packing!

After that, my blog will be quiet for a few days. I will NOT be posting a spotlight feature this weekend, but those will resume against next Sunday!

If you find yourself needing something to do, you can always chime in on this post over in the Etsy Forums:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5194431

and let me know what your opinion is on adding this pic to my listings. : )

Busy, busy, busy

This week is pretty busy for me. My dad came and visited us this past weekend (yay!) which was tons of fun, but also meant that I got pretty much zero crafting done. Whoops! : )

Despite being a wash on the crafty front, I did get some nice pictures. I think this one is my favorite:



I also promised an old professor of mine that I would proof the latest edition of a paper we worked on by Friday and I have a craft show on Thursday! Yipes! The good news is I have plenty of stock. The bad news is, I don't have photos of the stock so nothing new will be going up until next weekend. I will probably be relisting some things though. : )

This week's goal is to figure out a table setup for the craft show, package up promos and handouts and convince the skies not to open up on Thursday night.

I'm really looking forward to this show. I enjoy meeting people and talking with them and it's always great to be able to see people's reactions to your products. : )

While I was at work today (playing with clay, nonetheless!) my hubby found our two little furballs curled up in their bed and hugging. AW. Seriously, this may be the cutest picture of them yet.

Today, my husband and father-in-law came and picked me up for lunch. It was so nice to see him! I am very lucky in that I like and get along with my in-laws. Before lunch, he saw the house and met the kitties. After lunch, I took him on a brief tour of the office and then sent him and the hubby off to the Space Museum.

Unfortunately, my camera was in my purse in the office, but my father-in-law took some pics. I just have to wait for him to email them. ^_^

In other news, I listed a brand spankin' new dragonling in the shop today. Meet Sysial, never before seen on Etsy:



He likes salad, rain, and libraries. He especially likes spending rainy days inlibraries. He's not very fond of loud music, eggs, or my space. Which makes a lot of sense to me because My Space is littered with random LOUD musical interludes. Maybe he would like it better with his speakers off? : )

PS. Still no titles...Grrrrr

This week is very special--it's the first time that anyone from CA will be out here to visit--AND we get two such visits. As luck would have it both my dad and my husband's father have buisness trips to Birmingham this week! So my father-in-law will swing up tomorrow to hang out with my hubby. He will probably only stay for part of the day (and he's currently stuck in Chicago's airport due to the weather!), so I will see him at lunch, but mostly he and my hubby will check out the local Space Museum and drive around town. ^_^

Then, on Saturday morning my daddy will be driving up to spend the weekend with us. He'll stay Saturday and Sunday and long enough on Monday to come do lunch with me and meet my co-workers.

I'm so excited! They will both get to meet the kittens and hang out around town and see the house and...and...yay!

I really love where we live. I love the big green trees, the beautiful blue skies, and the summer thunderstorms. I can't wait to share that with the dads.



Looking forward to all the touring around we will be doing this week, I posted Veric back in the shop today. With his little walking stick, he's ready to tackle Huntsville. And maybe some fried chicken. ; )



(PS. My title option was working and then it stopped again. Arrrrgh!)