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follow the adventures of the gift fairy herself
 giveaway!
 As I was working today on cleaning up the basement, I had an idea. I thought that I might do a little giveaway. A Blog Redesign Giveaway! Just for fun! Fixing up blogs isn't something I do on a regular basis but I thought it would be a nice way to spread a bit of cheer. If you're interested in getting a little help fixing up your blog or starting up a new one or just a fresh look or a new banner, just leave a comment here in the next day. Tomorrow evening, I'll put the names in a bowl and pick out a winner.
shiny new
 Here we are on the dawn of a shiny new year, sparkling with promise and brand-spanking newness! What happy surprises are in store for you this year? How will you grow? How will you face set backs and disappointments? Will you rejoice in the beauty all around you? Will you make time to see it and take part in it? Will you give thanks, even during the most trying times? Will you use your life to connect with others? Will you recognize the beauty that is in you, that is uniquely you? Will you embrace your own style and not be tempted to be a facsimile of someone else? Will you shine? The year begins fresh and new and so must you. Yesterday doesn't define you...it's the promise of tomorrow and the realness of today. I wish you all the very happiest of New Years! And most of all, I hope that 2008 is your sparkling year to dare to shine through, leaving a trail of twinkles behind you!
that was easy!
 Can you believe the mess on the left? Jeezy pete! What a disaster!
Oh, but what a nicely organized closet I have now, just an hour or so after the before picture! Can you believe it? Here I am fussing and throwing a little hissy about having to do something that turned out to be not a big deal at all. Are you wondering what sort of magic trick made all of the stuff on the left disappear? Well, all the scarves and hats and gloves are now in the red bins on the top. (the two left ones are filled to the brim while the one right one has a single pair of gloves and a scarf for sweet Rich who really likes to find his things quickly and easily without having to shuffle through pink fluff to get to it...especially when there's a sidewalk to be shovelled of snow!) I used all the same sort of nice sturdy wooden hangers that I gathered from all the closets in the house. Coats just need sturdy hangers, don't they?
Lots of stuff, namely the wreath that is shoved in on the right that is faded from the sun and in which a bird tried to make a nest last Spring, really just needed to be tossed. Other things, like a whole bunch of clothes that my 80-year-old friend who is all of 5 feet tall gives me everytime she sees me even though I'm 9 inches taller and gave up acid wash in the 80's along the rest of the world, are getting donated.
You'll be happy to hear that the American flag is more appropriately stored with lots more dignity than it appears in the before picture. I took the crates of the backissues of the magazine I used to work for down to the basement for storage. Is this something I need to keep forever, I wonder? Maybe so...but not in the coat closet, for Heaven's sake!
On the floor of the closet now I have a big basket of big purses and a small basket of smaller purses. I need to go through these and decide which I can part with but this is for another day. I don't have the heart for it now.
I'm going to rest for a bit longer and then I will tackle my desk and the office with as much zeal and zest as I can muster.
can't I just rest here awhile?
 Boy, am I ever tired! Between the rushing to get everything ready and the late nights and then the endless playing with nieces and nephews, I am exhausted. But, as they say, no rest for the weary. Today, I tackle the coat closet that I never did get to last week. And then the office. Tomorrow, it's me against the basement. And we'll finish up getting all the rooms this weekend. Our inspection for foster care is on January 2nd...which is right around the corner! We still have lots to do but I think we can make it. I got a new vacuum for Christmas from my brother-in-law, who'd picked my name. I'd asked for a maid but that was outside the budget. This nice vacuum was rated the best by Consumer Reports. I tested it last night and then in true Tom-Sawyer-style I said to Rich "Oh boy! You've got to try this new vacuum! It's so easy and fun and cool!" It worked like a charm and he vacuumed the rest of the house. I wonder if it'll work a second time... Hope lots of Christmas magic is still in the air for you. Did you get everything you wished for? Let me know if you're interested in seeing before and afters of the coat closet. It'll be embarrassing (hopefully just the befores part) but I'm here to serve you. Maybe it'll make you feel better about your own coat closet, which I'm sure is lovely and organized and spacious.
a very merry!
I wanted to take just a moment to wish you a very merry Christmas, my friends!
bizzzeeeee
 We're all busy, right? But procrastination has made me extra busy. Especially today. On the top of my list is that I need to paint a rocking chair for little Shelby. How in the world did I manage to put this off until now, I'll never know. It started with Seth. I made a red rocking chair for him when he was 2 with a puppy and his name across the top. Maggie got her chair when she was about 1 1/2. It was sage green with a humpty dumpty painted on the seat and her name across the top. I was going to wait until next year to make Shelby her chair but it seems she is ready now. She sits in Seth's chair and loves it so much. If Seth sits in his own chair, she tries to push him out. My mother was just telling me this morning how much Shelby is like a little teenager. She rolls her eyes when you tell her no. She scrunches up her nose when you give her food. And she goes around saying everything is "mine! mine! mine!" On top of painting the rocking chair, I need to prepare a feast for 50 middle-school-aged children for our church's Advent Party tonight. Yikes! I'm making little pigs in a blanket, vegetables and dip, a stack-your-own cracker platter, and cupcakes. I might add some sort of pizza bites or something like that. I have lots to show and tell. Maybe I'll catch my breath this weekend and give you an update. I'll definitely pop back in to say an official "Merry Christmas" to you. Wish me luck, will ya?
blog shower, part 2
 
         
1, 2, & 3. Pam made us a fabulous book designed to add mementos and journaling and photos to record special moments to come. She also gave us a copy of a book by an author who was her own children's favorite, Jan Brett.
4. Beth made a special fanciful pincushion especially for our little visitors. 5. Stephanie created this delightful assemblage for us. 6. Lisa sent us these really fabulous (and heavy!) wooden blocks for building. Great for any age! 7. Wendy gave us a collection of wall-art flashcards, a cd full of childhood favorites, and a deck of activity cards. What a bundle of fun! 8 & 9. Heidi sent us a copy of the New Testament and a G.I.Joe doll. Her husband was a foster child in the 60's and he remembers with fondness playing with a G.I.Joe doll while he was there. That story made me cry when I read it. 10, 11, & 12. Cindy sent us a copy of her granddaughter's favorite book, the one that landed her the fabulous nickname of "Lovey". She also made two wonderful dolls and the most fabulous tuffet for storytime seating! 13. My friend Debbie's son, one of my favorite people in this whole wide world, returned home from school last week overjoyed. She'd just shared with him the story about what Rich and I are doing. At school that day they'd had a book-share. This sweet little boy picked up an ancient copy of Huck Finn just for us to share with our little friends. What a very good boy he is! And that's what really astounds us about all of these gifts. You are all so sweet to help us prepare our lives and our homes for this great new adventure. The love pours out of every box we open, every card we unfold. Before I went to bed last night I read a little of a book by Mother Teresa. I wanted to share with you a passage of what I read:
To children and to the poor, to all those who suffer and are lonely, give
them always a happy smile; give them not only your care but also your heart. We
may not be able to give much, but we can always give the joy that springs from a
heart that is filled with love.
The love and joy you've shared with us in the gifts and stories and encouragement will transfer to these little ones, I promise. It is fortifying for us, preparing us for the work ahead. We will give these children, these little faces that have seen so much already, we will give them our hearts. We will give them joyful smiles. And patience. Lots of people have expressed worry about us...how will you be able to let them go after you've loved and cared for them. For certain it will be hard. But when I weigh it on an imaginary scale...our heartache at letting them go countered by the gift of love we will give them (that we hope will stay with them always)...well, the choice is ridiculously simple. God always asks us to do more than we think we can do. He knows best though that we can handle it. I'm putting it in His hands. We picked up the crib on Friday night (as well as the bookshelves Rich and I are gifting each other with for Christmas!). Here's an update of how the room is looking...     We worked all weekend preparing for the home inspection. I cleaned out all the of the kitchen cabinets and pantry, rearranging and tossing and cleaning. Rich put together the bookshelves and they are now flanking the television in the family room. I've almost filled them with books already. Rich will install the glass doors hopefully tonight and I'll snap a picture soon. Today I have a whole bunch of orders to go out (Thank you! Thank you!) and then I think I'll tackle the coat closet in the front hall. I'm going to try to tackle one major project per day. Maybe a coat closet doesn't sound major to you but you've obviously not seen our coat closet.
it's not too late!
new jewels...
a great card...
 Okay, so I know it's pretty late in the game...but just in case you plan to give some peeps on your list a bit o' cash or a gift card and are at a lost for how to present it...here's a great idea for you. This Santa Pop-Up Card allows you to slip either the folded-up bill or gift card under Santa's thumb so it appears he's taking it out of his pocket just for you. Very cute...and easy on your wallet at just $3 each.   And these little tags are just too darned cute. They'll add a bit of vintage charm to your gift packages. Click here to order. I'm all caught up with sending out orders. Folks in Washington State and California should allow about 5 business days for delivery. If you live close to me (Virginia) you'll get your order within 2 business days.
blog shower, part 1
The celebration has begun...what wonderful gifts are filling the little ones' room!
         1. From Diane, a stripey cat and The Story of Babar 2. From Heather, Guess How Much I Love You and You're All My Favorites 3. From Brooke, Poky Little Puppy, Baby Animals, and a great wooden puzzle 4. From Carol, A Groovy Doll, A crocheted princess doll, a soft book and a book on trains 5. From Corinne, Curious George's Big Book of Curiousity, Green Eggs and Ham, Put Me in the Zoo, Sleepytime Tales from the Little Golden Book Collection, Olivia, Baby Beluga, Gossie, Time for Bed, Wheels on the Bus, The Very Hungry Caterpillar 6. From Debbie, The Cow Jumped Over the Moon 7. From Janey, The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls 8. From Lorraine, a puffy soft snowman 9. From Maija, a gift certificate from Janie and Jack Thank you all so much for all this love!
sugarville update
 Just added! Click here to see all 8, including 3 music boxes!
ready or not...
 here they come! I decided to post a little sneak peek in case you want to pick yours out ahead of time...
the room, part three
I think I skipped a few steps in between, but here's how the room's coming together... Here's the view walking in...  This chest of drawers was Rich's growing up. I should say the third drawer down was his. He was one of 11 children so, well, one drawer was all he got. The best part about it? Open Rich's little drawer and you'll find the words "sweter" and "pants" and so on to designate the organization of his precious space. I tried to get a picture but it came out too dark. We painted this chest yellow years ago, before we were even married. I think I may jazz it up.
 This toy bin is from Target (online) for just about $30. The tall red bookcase behind it was a wedding gift from Crate and Barrel. I've had the rocking chair since freshman year of college. I bought it unfinished and unassembled the summer before I went off to college. It's been with me ever since, though lately it's been stashed and forgotten in a guest room....until now!
 This fun rug was an Ikea find. I'm going to get one for Seth too. I love it so much that I want to get down there on my hands and knees and play with it myself.
 And now, for the very best part (in my opinion)...the bed. I bought the bed from my very sweet friends at the cottage for a whopping $50! I've loved this bed for a very long time but when I saw that sale price, I knew it had to be mine. Linda just delivered it on Monday, after painting it for me (gee! what a great friend!)
The bed was missing its finials. A long, long time ago I spotted my dream crib in a magazine. You've probably seen it...it was an iron crib with little bunnies as finials all around. I've kept that idea in my head and knew I wanted to do something fun for finials for this bed. I found these little fat birds in the holiday section of Target. They were about $6 each. I primed them all white and they are awaiting a coat of paint to match the bed. When they get painted up pretty I'll give you a close-up.
 I've been getting lots of sweet packages this week so far from my blog shower friends. I believe today is the official day to be showered...oh happy day! I'll be sure to show you all of the wonderful things that arrive by post. In other news, I made a mistake with my friend mo's mo-made treasures. I was so won over by them I priced them a bit on the high side. Mo brought this to my attention this morning and I'll be fixing it right away. And if you are in the need for last minute gift ideas (it doesn't feel like last minute to me but I think I'm in denial) I'll have a whole host of great things on the site later this day. Including (I promise!) glitter houses. I also have a really fabulous money gift card to show you with a pop-out of Santa handing you the folded up bill! It's old fashioned and lovely and affordable...just you wait to see!
inspired village
 A couple of months ago, fabulous Deb asked me to be a guest designer. We worked together to come up with this fun project to share with you. Here's how you can make this glitter 2-D village yourself:  Start with these little blank houses from Deb's etsy store. Click here to get them. - Base paint the entire little house the color you'd like for the house to be.
- Once the paint is dry, paint the details like the roofline, chimney, doors, windows. If you're shaky, use tape to mask off areas where you don't want the paint. Add polka dots and stripes and more details like window sashes and doorknobs when that coat dries.
- Alternatively, you could cut out bits of paper for details like the shutters, doors, and windows and glue them into place.
- For the piece with an open doorway and windows, glue paper bits to the back of the piece.
- Add accents like tiny Christmas balls, millinery flowers, beads, pom-poms using hot glue. Have fun with this part and look at everyday things with fresh eyes. Let yourself play!
- Coat the entire front of the piece with craft glue using a broad paint brush. Be sure to dot glue over the bits and bobs too.
- With a piece of paper underneath to collect the run-off, pour a generous amount of clear glitter over the entire piece. Shake off the excess.
- Ta-dah! Glittery wonderment!
mo made this!
christmas traditions
 On Christmas morning, my sisters, brother and I would wake up just as early as we could. One of us (usually my oldest sister Jennifer) would go to my parents' bedside to ask if it was time to wake up. The answer was always "not yet...go back to bed!" Instead of doing as we were told, we'd all meet back up at the top of the steps. We were all so excited our eyes twinkled and our feet danced. There was no way we'd ever wind ourselves down enough to go to sleep. It was still very dark outside...maybe as early as 4 a.m.! Sitting there on the top of the stairs in our pajamas and with messy bedhair (and bad breath) we'd start singing all the Christmas carols we could remember. Before long we would sing them at top volume. "Ooooooh....wait. I think I hear them getting up." We'd hear our parents' feet hit the floor and after a while the toilet would flush. They're up!!! We were held at bay until the lights were turned on and things were checked out. "Did Santa come? Did he leave gifts for us? Is that a bicycle wheel I see?" Finally, my parents would say "Okay...Merry Christmas!" and we'd all run into the living room. All the gifts would be set up, unwrapped, unboxed and ready to play! There would be a little confusion as we sleepily found our way to our personal toy area. I'll never forget the year that my sister Jessica got a bicycle and a desk! She just stood there and cried and cried and cried. She cried just like the people do in the audience of Oprah's favorite things show. There's a special feeling on Christmas morning...an excitement that's palpable. All of our family still meets at my parents' house on Christmas morning. We're all held at bay until the living room lights are turned on and someone checks to make sure Santa did in fact come again this year. And still there are years when my sister Jessica sits there and cries and cries. Good times. Merry Christmas everybody! May you always see the day through the eyes of a child and may your heart be tender to the spirit of the season. Jill is hosting a Christmas Traditions celebration. Visit her blog to join the fun.
preview of things to come
 I hope it's not too late in the season to show you some wonderful gift ideas. Soon...very soon, I'll be adding lots of really wonderful things. Including this bracelet to the left and lots more cute and fun jewelry. Also, as promised, I'll have some twinkling Sugarville houses (8 to be exact...a cupcake house, a glittery eiffel tower, a few music boxes! just you wait!) I might even be able to finish them up and add them tomorrow. Maybe! And to top it all off, my friend famous mo jackson has been busy all year making her special mo-mades just for us. Are you ready for a sneak peek?        Hold your britches, these'll be in the shop verrrrry soon!
gift wrap alternatives
 I wanted to show you the simple gift I gave my friend Irene yesterday. I wrapped the packages in brown paper, added a scallop cut page from a book of music, and topped it all with a religious icon of the immaculate conception. I'm encouraged this year to find alternatives to traditional gift wrap. Here are a few I came up with - wrap the gift in recycled brown paper bags, using just a small piece of paper like sheet music as an accent
- look for printed gift boxes and containers that will be reused
- tuck small gifts in mittens or stockings
- does the item need to be wrapped? Maybe just a bow will do
- make the presentation part of the gift...a nest with a little treasure, a traincase full of goodies, a clamshell with a jewel inside, tied shut with a ribbon, an old metal lunchbox filled with goodies
- sew an envelope out of scrap fabric or felt
- be on the lookout for sturdy lidded boxes that might otherwise end up in the trash heap...shoe boxes, oatmeal boxes, jewelry boxes...instead of wrapping, decoupage them! (perhaps put a little note in the bottom of the box asking the recipient to reuse the box)
the a-list
fly a kite
 This is a corner of the little ones' room. I used to draw little characters like these when I was little. It was fun to revisit them and see how they've grown. Just like I used to do when I was a young artist, I drew the character on a sheet of paper and cut it out along the edges. I'd then place the little naked guys on another paper (it used to be construction paper, now it's fancier scrapbook paper) so that I could draw around it to make the clothes. This is how I used to make my own paper dolls too. I have lots of less fun work to do. The closet in this room is full of stacks and stacks of linens. I need to sort through them to decide what I need to keep and what I can live without. Also, our laundry room is on the second floor, just next to this room. It's a very small room, made even smaller by a door that opens inward. I'd love to get someone to come in and redo the door to open outwardly but Rich suspects this might cost us an arm and a leg. I'm going to clear out the room of all the crazy things I've stashed in there behind that door (for instance, a thingamajig that steam cleans the floors that I never ever use and that I don't think really works but I'm a sucker and will buy everything offered in an infomercial or on QVC if the dial lands there) We have a whole checklist of things we need to do to get ready for the home inspection. - Household chemicals, out of reach.
- Fire extinguisher in kitchen.
- Outlet plugs on all outlets.
- Redo electrical configurations to make sure an extension cord or surge protector is never plugged into another extension cord or surge protector (I think I'll just forget the Christmas tree this year...call me the grinch but have you ever in your life seen a Christmas tree that didn't have lights plugged into lights plugged into lights plugged into lights???! We've already been warned this would be a no-no)
- Safety ladder from a second floor window.
- Special latches on all second floor windows.
- Devise a fire escape plan and post somewhere.
- Stock up on first aid supplies.
- Get safety gates for the top and bottom of stairs and for the doorway to my studio.
There might be more...this was all just floating around in my head. And there definitely are more things I've personally deemed necessary....like the clearing out of the laundry room and the pantry and the general tossing of crazy things that I really don't need, haven't used, and forgotten about completely. Such as the clorox spray and mop thingamajig, the aforementioned hard floor cleaning steaming thingamabob, and the clothes steamer thingy (all found behind the door of the laundry room at this very moment, abandoned, forgotten, and sad).
love it!
The thing I love the most of the things I bought at Ikea on Saturday was this quilt cover set. Since you can hardly tell from Ikea's photo just how lovely a purchase this is, I took pictures of the darling details.         I just keep going in the room and looking at this quilt cover and loving it all over again. If I were to pick which of the characters I'd like to be, it's the mouse with the lamp in her car. I'll make Rich be the next one, in the racy car. Which one are you? Don't you wish this is what real life traffic looked like? The drawing style and humor reminds me of Richard Scarry. The designer is Silke Leffler. I'm considering buying another set just for the fabric, 'though I don't know what exactly I'd do with it. I'll have a picture of the room's progress soon...just finishing up a few things. I'm also working on glitter houses and will have them up on the site soon. (including, ummmm, cupcake houses!!!!) I also have a few Christmas-y things to add so look for a big update to the store. I'll let you know about it here.
all in a row
  Hello, friends. Hope you had a great weekend. It was a whirlwind of activity for us on Saturday. We did end up at Ikea and were able to pick up a few things. But the crib we were hoping to get was sold out so we'll have to go back next week. Here are some ornaments I just finished for an ornament swap. They were lots of fun to make. Now I need to package them up and send them off. I hope they like them. I used cupcake papers to make the skirts ala Jennifer Murphy (check the Martha Stewart site to see how she did them for the pom pom bunnies).
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