Happy New Year!

To my dear bloggy friends,

Thank you all for being such good pals throughout the year,
for being such kind and dear souls,
for your support and encouragement,
for being so creative and inspiring,
for bringing smiles and wiping tears,
thank you!

Wishing you good health, good friends and much joy in 2011!

Playing catch up

My husbands busy supervising the moving of his mom today and I'm trying to catch up on things around here - hubby has been off for about a week and a half and has another week and a half of vacation yet. Things have been high stress with the holidays and now his mom's move, hopefully it will be relaxing from here on out.

We've had lots of yummy food and good company with friends and family, saw The Nutcracker and two movies; "The Illusionist" (a French animated film from the same man who did the divine "Triplets of Belleville" and based on a Jacques Tati screenplay) and "True Grit" (loved it! who'd have ever thunk that?! But then it's the Coen Brothers and I think I've loved everything they've done?!). We've yet to figure out what our New Year's Eve plans will be. WAH!

(little gingerbread peeps I made for T&L)

I'm glad to report that the USPS managed to deliver Twyla and Lindsey's package to them on Christmas Eve. WHEW! Thought for sure it had gone astray.

Doing the happy dance over here! Lucky me, I received the most darling package of Christmas card cuties from dear Elizabeth during one her giveaways and on Christmas Eve, so much fun! Thank you so much Elizabeth, they are indeed the most special and I will cherish them for always!

Looking forward to catching up with all of you and hearing about your holidays! Wishing you the most fun New Year's Eve and much happiness in 2011 if I don't get another chance to do so before hand.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas!

I'm so excited, I've always wanted to go see The Nutcracker Ballet at Christmastime and we're going today. Yippie yippie yippie!

Here's my funny tags I made to go with the gingerbread house bags - I found gingerbread men patterns online and I wrote "You can't catch me", signed GBM on them, then I printed out part of the Gingerbread Man story for a tag and then, I stamped a cute little Christmas house for the third tag and put glitter on the roof.

I am now officially pooped out. I was going to make gift card holders but I've given up. WAH! Hard to admit defeat but it was time to close down the holiday workshop teehee.

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and much joy in 2011!

My left eyebrow has been twitching ...

... for a week now! Um, a wee bit holiday stressed out over here, I guess. quivery quakey so much to get done and time is nearly up.

Does anyone know how long Priority Mail is taking currently from the West Coast to the Midwest???! I'm so sad - I sent those adorable Two Crazy Crafters a package last week - today is day eight - and it hasn't made it to them yet! WAH! Is that normal or has a postal employee absconded with it teehee?

Dear Mister or Ms Postal Carrier, if you have this in your hot little hands, please forward it post haste to darling Twyla and Lindsey in time for their Christmas surprise!

I jest, don't get your knickers in a twist, dear postal employees and relatives, thereof - I'm just so frustrated and sad for dear T&L - there's something scrumdillyumptious inside and I hope it survives taking the scenic Polar Route to their Home Sweet Home.

WAH!

I'm working over time in the Christmas Tag Design Department and Assembly Line over here - and the pay stinks bwhahahhahhahaha! I'm holiday silly and happy today, or perhaps I'm loopy from exhaustion?! (I got up at four thirty yesterday morning, after having woken up at 3:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. mumble mumble.)

First up, I found these darling snowman sponges at The Container Store and I made not one, not two, but three tags for them - I know, call me crazy and obsessive. I had these vellum envelopes and I found I had a snowman punch (to seal the flap on the back of the envelope) - don't let anyone ever tell you that you have too much crafty stuff - I find it always comes in handy and more often than not, serendipitously!

Now I'm working on some tags to go with these darling bags from The Container Store, aren't they the cutest?! Every year I get Christmas Dish Towels from Crate and Barrel for everyone and this year, they are going into these bags (which are really meant for holiday cookies - but I'm a free spirit and color outside the lines and there are no cookies being made this year and and and I had to have them!)


Of course, the printer pooped out last night and cried to be fed a yellow cartridge ... thrusting we (me, myself and I), the Elves of Sally, even further off our crafty course. boo hoo sniffle sniffle holiday jolly again!

The truly funny thing is that I actually have almost nothing to wrap, as my list is very tiny, whittled down over the years from all of us getting older - it's all about magically foofing up what little there is - smoke and mirrors teehee.

Merry Merry Crafty Christmas to all the Elves out there!

Jack and Jill 1968 Christmas Annual for VTT

(please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I don't know if there will be a Vintage Thingie Thursday post today or not but I'm over here driving myself insane, trying to finish up wrapping Christmas presents, etc. and I thought a break was called for before I am completely nutty.

So I thought I'd share some pages from the 1968 Christmas Annual issue of the children's magazine, Jack and Jill. Here are some fun kitschy retro crafts, darling illustrations, recipes, etc. for your enjoyment! (and a mental health break for me teehee!)

Well, it's begun to thunderstorm here, guess that's my cue to get back to the things I need to get done! Hope you enjoyed my little diversion. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry almost Christmas Rednesday

(please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)


Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and much joy in 2011!

I'm sharing some favorite Christmas book reds this Rednesday with you and a smattering of Christmas decor - we haven't got much done over here this year BOO HOO!

Slipping in a green one, did you notice? ;)

Does anyone else have this gorgeous book?
It was recommended years ago in Victoria Magazine.

Time to trim the feather tree, beginning with the most charming ornaments from Stephanie at Old World Primitives (here).

I'm like Pooh these days, a bear of very little brain. Silly me! I forgot I needed a tree skirt for my little feather tree but there was no stopping me - when I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go! A square of felt stands in for the one I will have to whip up lickety split for our Christmas to be complete. A mad dash in the rain to Jo-Ann's yesterday for supplies.

Oh no! ACK! The hubs wanted his Star Trek ornaments on my feather tree.
What was he thinking teehee?! The wifey said he could put them on top
of the curio cabinet - I'm a terrible wifey, aren't I?!

A little Christmas flourish of green with some Poinsettia's on top of my other curio cabinet.
(You can see some of my teddy bears, miniatures, etc.)

The mantel has not come together yet ARGH! I will show you a peek if I can make it presentable.

Happy Rednesday and Merry almost Christmas!

Three for the price of one

Wishing everyone a very happy Monday! Thank you all so much for your kind comments re my mom and brother, I appreciate them and you very much.

It's been raining in Los Angeles for what I think (???!) is several days (or does it just feel that way WHINE!) and they say it will probably rain through the Christmas weekend. You know us, we are used to living in a drought and haven't a clue what to do with ourselves in rain.

Deep breath. We gathered ourselves up and brave little soldiers are we, we donned our raincoats and drove across town to my husbands best friends annual Christmas party on Saturday night. The familiar faces are getting fewer as the years pass but they have been replaced by new smiling ones, so it's always a lovely time. One of my favorite attendees is a co-worker of my husbands BFF, who bakes cookies every year and brings them to the party. She has the magic touch, they are the best cookies I've ever had! She made her delivery and vanished into the crowd - next year I will attempt to find out what her secret is.

Sunday morning, we were going to go to the Long Beach Outdoor Antique Market but it was rained out BOO HOO!

But we had the most fun on Sunday afternoon - we went to a matinee of "Much Ado About Nothing", which on it's own would have been wonderful but guess what?!! Lyle Lovett was part of the cast! (WE LOVE HIM!) and also the brother and sister team of the group Nickle Creek. How cool is that?! Three great things for the price of one!

We've seen Lyle Lovett a few times in concert but it was so great to be in the fourth row and get to see him sing and play guitar (and also act, a little tiny bit). They had adapted the play to include songs (Lyle Lovett's along with another songwriters) and somewhere along the run of the play, Lyle Lovett joined the cast. The play began with Nickle Creek and two other musician's playing and singing songs - so much fun.

There were lots of recognizable actors in the cast - Helen Hunt, Tom Irwin, David Ogden Stiers, Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter). A very enjoyable afternoon!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

Dear Santa Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

My brother and my mother one long ago Christmas - somewhere before
I was born, I think perhaps about a year, maybe two, before I was born?

I find I've really got the "sads" this holiday season - I'm missing my brother and mother so very much this year and I found myself looking through a box of my brothers stuff today. My brother passed away in '95 and my mom in '96 and yet this year, many years later, I feel rocked by the loss so intensely.

I was so gladdened to find this old Christmas photo of the two of them. It holds so many childhood memories for me, even though I wasn't in the picture yet (literally and figuratively!).

I don't know if you can make out the Santa decoration over my brothers shoulder? It was already old when I arrived on the scene (it must be from the forties?) - Santa holds a glass candle, inside there was this red liquid that would bubble when it got warm/hot. It was one of my favorite things at Christmastime as a small child ... later on my mother would worry that it was no longer safe and a fire hazard and I would not see it again WAH! I'm hoping that I can find it at my dad's house.

I'm cracking up over the funny tree! Geez - look at the big gap in the middle, so funny. I just saw an old Martha Stewart Home episode and she said that a gap is called an Elf Shelf - wonder what MS would call this cavernous example?!

Above the light switch is an iron candle sconce in the Pennsylvania Dutch style, that I remember well. And the little child's table my mom and brother are sitting at is one that I sat at on our front lawn, selling lemonade to passers by.

I also found this darling letter to Santa written by my brother.

("stace" kit = space kit???)

Dear Santa
I want a Bike. and
a kick ball. and
some Superman
P.J. and some
Army men. and
a Stace Kit. and a
mister wisard
chemical set

And then these charming old Christmas cards my brother received ...

(from 1946 - for his first Christmas)

(from 1947)

(from 1949)

(from 1951)

Yoohoo! Calling those adorable TWO CRAZY CRAFTERS!

Dear Twyla and Lindsey,

A little Sugar Kissed Christmas Thank You has been sent your way
this morning via the good old USPS. Wishing you and
your dear ones a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Customs for Rednesday

(please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

We went to the really fun Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning. I found a couple vintage Christmas booklets and a children's magazine, I thought I'd share the two booklets today for Rednesday.

The first booklet I saw was this one, Christmas Customs Around The World. It is a promotional giveaway from a Lincoln Mercury Car Dealership. Sadly there's no date anywhere on it - it looks like the 60's or 70's? I picked it up for the darling illustrations and seeing that it included Scandinavia (my mom's dad was Swedish), that sealed the deal. (Too funny though - now that I sit down and actually read it, it doesn't mention Sweden at all.)












The second booklet I found was this charming one of Christmas Carols and traditions, a giveaway from Richfield Gasoline Station Franchises (Richfield became Atlantic Richfield, became ARCO). Sadly again, no date printed.