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follow the adventures of the gift fairy herself
 whew!
 That month long gift-a-day marathon nearly did me in! There were days when I woke up and seriously didn't know what that day's gift would be. Now that the month long event is over, I'll still add new things regularly, and at times, daily. One thing I am working on making more of are the little village houses. I've gotten so many emails about them and they sold so quickly. Another thing I'm working on is a collaboration with my friend Mo Jackson. She's been making things for weeks and weeks, all by hand. She sent a batch of them earlier this week and they are all so wonderful. I can't wait for you to see. She's so talented. I'm off to bed. Boy, oh boy am I ever tired. My friend said that her grandmother used to say after a long hard day "that dark feels good on my eyes". Tonight, I know what she means. I'm going to sleep well. Hey, do you ever crave that feeling of being tucked in? It's something you can't really do for yourself and don't you feel so loved afterwards? Fresh sheets, high thread count, tucked in tight with the cool side of the pillow against your face.
today's gift...
 Is there a princess on your list? Are YOU a princess?
Click here to order.
wednesday's gift...
 My friend Yvonne made these pretty button pins for us. Click here to order.
tuesday's gift...
 This sweetest little cupcake necklace will be like icing on the cake! Cupcake pendant (approximately .5" tall), handmade by me, on a 19.5" fine gauge sterling silver chain, spendidly packaged and ready to stuff a stocking with style. Limited edition.
Click here to order.
monday's gift...
 These make such a great gift, whether it's a full name or an initial...or perhaps an inspiring word. Customized to your preferences! Click here to order.
friday's gift...
 Learn how to make these wonderful bon bon ornaments! This is a fun, fast and easy craft that would be a terrific afternoon project with children. There are enough supplies to make 10 bon bon ornaments. Click here to order.
happy thanksgiving...
A very happy thanksgiving to all of you. Gratitude is the soul's food. As you are enjoying the bounty of food around you this Thanksgiving day, remember the abundance of good around you. Be thankful, truly and deeply, for it all. Today I am thankful for my husband, my true love. I don't know how I found him, or him me. He makes me want to be a better person. I'm thankful too for my wonderful family. We're missing one person this year...Rich's brother Tommy. We'll feel his absence as anyone who loses a loved one surely does through the holidays. But he is here with us in spirit. I know it. I'm so grateful for my business and for all of my readers. Maya Angelou says that when your spirit and your personality are working together, that's when you can do great things. I'm coming to trust being myself, completely and wholly, with all of my quirks. And that in being authentically me, I can offer more than I ever could otherwise. Thank you for helping me along this journey. I'm grateful for this breath I take, and this one, and this one. Air so abundant and so freely given that breaths are taken one after another without notation. I'm thankful that when Rich fell from the roof that he didn't break more than his heel. It could have surely happened. My neighbor across the street, the one who lost her husband and the father to her small children in a tragic car accident this time last year, cautioned Rich just a little while before the fall, telling him to be careful. I'm thankful for this sweet life with all of its regularities and rhythms and cycles. And for the continuation of this life, seamless and normal. I'm thankful for all of the delights that I enjoy. Thank You for giving me the eyes to see the smallest of wonders and for seeing You in them. Thank you for all of the children in our life. For all of our nieces and nephews and littlest friends. I know that our time will come, soon I hope. Thank you for keeping our hearts soft and ready. For all of this and more, I am truly thankful.
happy birthday, Seth!
 Today is Seth's fifth birthday. I can hardly believe that it's been five years since the day I met and fell in love with this sweet little boy. He loves the Slurpee machine (it's hard to put together but if you do every step just right, there are no problems. It works fine) and I'm sure that we'll be making more tomorrow if we can find any elbow room in the kitchen. We might have to get all of our supplies and go under a table somewhere to make it. You think I'm joking but my family knows that I'm probably not. Happy Birthday, Seth! I love you.
wednesday's gift...
 My friend Ann Vaughan made us some more scarves...and oh my! These are terrific. Click here to order.
tuesday's gift...
 Oh my word, but is this the cutest thing ever?! Made for us by the ever so talented Betz White. Click here to claim yours.
thanksgiving
 Last year this time I was thick in the planning of a Thanksgiving feast. We hosted it for Rich's entire family. This is no small feat since he's one of eleven children and almost all of his brothers and sisters have little families of their own. I think there were 25 people...maybe more. The very best thing I did was to brine the turkey. It was a lot of work, especially since the bird was so huge (27 lbs). I awoke at 4 am because I was so afraid I wouldn't get everything done. I'm very good at cooking for the two of us but, when you're cooking for a crowd, everything changes. Rich's mother still cooks almost every meal as if it were feeding a crowd. She makes so much mashed potatoes that it looks like a joke. In fact, she was worried last year at Thanksgiving that I would have trouble peeling all the potatoes so she stayed over the night before. This year we're having Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. Both my mother and my father cook equal amounts for Thanksgiving and every meal. My mother follows recipes to a t while my father tends to improvise. I'm definitely more in the camp with my father. When I was little I thought all parents cooked together. There's a nice yin-yang about it. And every meal is cooked with love. After we ate, we always said "I enjoyed my dinner. May I please be excused?" And doesn't every cook want to know that you enjoyed your dinner? In detail? I know I do. My family's Thanksgiving standards are: Turkey with gravy and dressing made into patties Baked Ham Potatoes Au Gratin Broccoli Casserole Sweet Potato Pudding Green Beans Corn Pudding Homemade Rolls Cranberry Sauce Pecan Pie Pumpkin Pie Maybe I'm forgetting something. Boy, I'm getting hungry just thinking of it. Just a couple of days away...
monday's gift...
 I fixed up some Christmas village houses with new paint, sparkly glass glitter, and pedestals. 9 designs...only one of each! Click here to order yours. p.s. Sorry to keep you waiting so long today. It's just one of those days...
friday's gift...
 Winter NeSts are here! Click here to order. p.s. This is the only batch of Holiday NeSts Deb will be able to make for the holidays.
thursday's gift...
 Isn't this the sweetest stocking stuffer idea? It also makes a terrific teacher's gift! Click here to order.
advent calendar...
 Did you see this wonderful advent calendar that Teresa McFayden made?!! I am just nuts for it. She gives instructions at her blog. It looks like such a fun project. I think it would be a fun thing to do after you're full of turkey next Thursday with the family.   I also love this advent gingerbread house from Sur La Table. Look at all of the little doors and windows to open! Oh such fun!
wednesday's gift....
 Limited Edition Holiday Lucky Charm Bracelets! Click here to claim yours! Quick!
sweet tooth ache
My free copy of Kraft's Food & Family arrived by post today and just look at the wonderful surprises inside...       The last two pictured are a part of an article called "Box-to-Beautiful Desserts" which has as its description "Work smart, not hard. We're here to prove that gorgeous desserts can start with a chocolate cake mix. Repeat after us: 'No one needs to know.'" I love it! Get your own free copy of Kraft's Food & Family here.
tara road?
When I saw the preview for the upcoming movie "The Holiday", I got a little excited. It sounded exactly like Maeve Binchy's Tara Road, one of my very favorite books.  But, even though the premise is exactly the same, Maeve Binchy isn't given any writing credits. After doing a little bit of research I found out that there actually was a movie made of Tara Road with the same name released last year starring Andie MacDowell! How in the world did I miss that?  And isn't it crazy/interesting/weird that Hollywood is releasing two movies that seem to be exactly the same movie in such close proximity of each other? I will rent Tara Road soon. It will be like visiting old friends to see that wonderful book come to life on screen, even if it is my small screen. I think, too, I will see The Holiday in the theatre. I'm a sucker for movie theatre popcorn and movies like this on a chilly autumn night.
tuesday's gift...
 Need an idea for a quick and easy, ready-to-give present? This beautiful beaded snowflake, handmade by Rita Pace, is your answer. Unique? pretty? nicely packaged? and affordable? Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Click here to order. Special thanks to my friend Deb for the great idea to package these snowflakes in cd cases!
monday's gift...
 Add style and a bit of ease to your gift packaging this holiday season. Click here to order your own personalized folded gift tags. 
6-eleven
 Seth's birthday is coming up soon. When I was talking with him on the phone the other day, he asked me if I had already gotten a gift for him. I haven't. He said that he would look through the "toy magazine" and find something for me to get him. After much wooing and ahhhing, and ruling out some very expensive or very inappropriate options, he found the one.  He said he wanted a Slurpee machine because he wants to open his own 6-Eleven.
the quick brown fox...
I do not have pretty handwriting. If I'm very careful in forming my letters, I can manage to write something that can be deciphered by others (with the help of the Rosetta Stone). Still, I'm thinking of doing this...  With Fontifier.com, you can turn your handwriting into a font. It costs $9. All you do is download a template and then fill it out like this:
 You then scan the filled-out template in and send that file back to them. They convert your letters into characters. Here are some examples of others results:      I have to get busy putting your orders together. I'll meet you back here this afternoon for today's gift. Oh, and expect some really wonderful things this week...things I know you love and that always go in a flash. Do you need a better hint?
friday's gift
 Charming boxes like these were sold at five-and-dimes and filled with candy and surprises. About the size of an index card, you'll have to think small when pondering a gift to include inside. Click here to order.
thursday's gift...
 You'll have fun coming up with tons of creative uses for these fun ballerinas. To grab yours, click here
wednesday's gift...
 I think the comfort and rhythm of special family traditions is very important for a child's development. And the very best family traditions come with a whole host of accoutrements, don't they? This special day plate will easily become one of your family's tradition. It can be used for birthdays, for sure. But how about a good grade on a report card? Or getting the lead in the school play? Or kicking the winning goal in a soccer match? A potty training success? You'll find all sorts of reasons for taking this plate down for a special dinner. Perhaps even a job promotion? One can never be too old to have a special day. This makes the most wonderful gift to give a family. Click here to order.
head variety
 This Edward Hopper painting reminds me so much of my hometown's downtown street that I almost find myself looking for the names of the stores.  Whenever we had a chunk of change burning a hole in our pockets, my sisters and I would venture downtown (just a few short blocks from our house). Even though this was the '70s there were still stores in our small town which were called the five and dimes or, I guess due to inflation, dime stores. Head Variety, especially, had the most wonderful display of candy. I spent half my childhood in front of it fingering the quarter and 2 nickels in my pocket trying to decide. I loved Boston Baked Beans in their bricked box, Rainblow Gum, Spree in its silvery paper, Hubba Bubba, Candy Cigarettes, Milk Duds, Cowtails, Wax bottles with juice inside! Good golly, but did I know that store by heart! It sold wigs and plastic flowers, a great assortment of combs and pocket mirrors, Coty lipsticks and compacts, dusting powders, and perfumes. There was a deodorant there called "Tussy" which smelled like cinnamon. Whenever there was an occasion to buy a gift with my pocket of hard-earned change, this is where I would go. I would consider items on every aisle and never with a cynical eye. I thought the plastic flowers in the hottest pink and luminescent yellow were just about the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. The place smelled like popcorn and bubblegum and rubber. There was a parrot who mostly perched in his ring stand by the checkout counter but who would occassionally fly across the store with great drama squawking "Stop thief!" Head Variety is long gone. So are most of the stores I grew up knowing along that street. I'm feeling nostalgic this morning thinking of the innocence of my childhood sheltered by the safety of that small town. Most of my family is still there, my parents in the very same house I grew up in and my sister and brother raising their little families there. And that downtown area very much resembles that Edward Hopper painting, tinged now with solitude and change. Edward Hopper once said "To me the most important thing is the sense of going on. You know how beautiful things are when you're travelling."
tuesday's gift...
 Today's gift is all about presentation. In lieu of tying a bow, why not cinch it with a gift buckle. It's a particularly stunning way to bundle a stack of gifts. Best of all, the buckle is a gift in itself. Click here to view this product.
monday's gift...
 My friend Ann designed and made these fabulous scarves for me to share with you. They are very limited in quantity but if you like them she may be able to make more. I do hope you like them. I have a special fondness for chenille bedspreads. I remember summer afternoon naps taken on top of a made-bed and awaking with the traces of the chenille on my face as evidence. It turns out that those same chenille bedspreads make the most delightful, soft and warm scarves! Available in 4 styles. Click here to pick one up for yourself.
the giving tree
 I am so smitten with this idea. Jennifer of The Felt Mouse occasionally fills a carob tree in her neighborhood with miscellaneous delightful treasures in hopes that someone will discover and take. Just imagine what fodder for her imagination finding a little sparkly thing in a tree would be for the little child who spots it. And if she found a little sparkly thing once in a tree, wouldn't she look for others elsewhere? It reminds me of how once I found a peso in the bottom of my Easter basket, underneath the plastic grass and toys and gifts. It was worth more to me than any other little gift the basket offered. The funny thing about it is that no one knows how the peso found its way into my basket. Every year following, the first thing I did with my Easter basket, to my parents' horror, was to dump it all out and scrounge around the plastic grass looking for another hidden treasure. What I like too about this idea of a giving tree is that it moves me not only to look for treasures everywhere but also to leave a trail of them for others. We never really know how the bits and pieces of good and happiness that we leave in our wake might effect another. What treasures will you find today? And what will you leave for others?
a tour of an artist's home
Last night, I went to my friend Amy Walton's open house/art showing at her home. Before everyone arrived, I shot these photos so that I could share with you the beauty of her home.   Look at this beautiful mural in her powder room:  The following photos are of Amy's studio space located above her detached garage. It is such a wonderful space. She bought the worktable from my friends at the cottage. The tabletop is made from old bleacher seats.  Note the floors, which are made from plyboard cut into wide planks. The wood was first painted chocolate brown and then robin's egg blue. This was Amy's low-cost alternative to the wide-planked antique flooring throughout her home.
friday's gift
 I'm so excited to share this with you. It's a brand-new fragrance exclusive to Inspire Company called Birthday Girl. As you might know from previous discussions, I love birthdays. This fragrance is all about the happiness of the day and all of the sweetness that goes along with it. Imagine cotton candy, pink cake frosting, and sprinkles. Layers and layers of sweetness, the kind of sweet that tickles the back of your throat. When Rich first smelled it on me he wondered if I'd just frosted a cake. Another time when I wore it a friend exclaimed "She even SMELLS sweet!" Click here to order Birthday Girl Perfume.
thursday's gift...
 I'm so excited to share this idea with you...Ribbons wound around antique spools! Just think of how lovely these will be on display in your craft room. And the ribbon dresses up even the most plain brown papered packages transforming them into something marvelous. Think too of these ribbons on spools as gifts for your favorite crafter! How nice would it be to open up a box with these nestled in! Click here to see them all and to order your own.
nesting
I want to say thank you to my friend Marjorie for sending me the nicest little gift...  I added it to this wall especially for nests and birds and other bits and special things.      Thanks everyone for scooping up the charm bracelets and for helping me kick off the gift a day section. Look for something really fun this afternoon...
oopsie!
There was a problem with the shopping cart. Fixed now and all bracelets are currently available. Sorry for the problem! Try again now...
wednesday's gift
 The first gift-a-day offering is these fabulous charm bracelets. Hurry and grab yours...they are sure to sell out quickly! For no extra charge, I'll giftwrap them so that they'll be ready to give. Click here to see them all and to order yours.
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