nurturing hope, creativity, family
Eight dozen lavender shortbread cookies rolled, baked, dipped, packaged and delivered. Phew! Six dozen more cookies made for a cookie exchange, which have also been packaged and delivered.
Miles to go, but progress nevertheless.
I hope you’re having a productive day!
Jennifer
…to smell the peppermint.
In spite of my sincere efforts I confess that Christmas Stress Syndrome (I just made that up) has weighed heavily on me this week. So, I’m making a list of all the things I’m worried about and then I’m going to go back and get a whiff of that wonderful peppermint smell sitting in my blue bowl. All my favorite colors in one place again; how could I not take a picture?
Here goes:
make Christmas cards mail Christmas cards finish gifts for neighbors and friends deliver gifts for neighbors and friends finish planning Christmas activities for children gather all supplies for above activities fold and put away the mountain of clean clothing in my laundry room wash the mountain of laundry my family produces in about 27 seconds get everything ready for the wedding I’m helping with this weekend get everything ready for my daughter’s birthday on Monday finish shopping for the random little things I somehow forgot early in the month wrap gifts pack a family of ten for a week long move trip figure out when to add a 2 hour trip to pick up items ordered months ago but which arrived late clean my house Do you think I can do all that in 8 hours?
Gratefully I have a little girl who can’t stop talking about the Grinch and how he “toodn’t top tristmas from toming” and I’m hoping that Christmas will feel wonderful regardless of what happens to this list.
So now I’m done. I just might make a cup of hot chocolate and add a spoonful of peppermint to enjoy while I read a Christmas story. Or not.
But it’s a nice thought. And it’s pretty peppermint. And I guess this, too, is Christmas.
So I’m going to smile today and try to enjoy it.
Jennifer
Last spring I picked up this rusted metal wreath for a song. It was the bow that got my attention, reminding me of something Dr. Seuss would have drawn, but here it was in three dimensional form. I’ve been waiting all year to use it for Christmas.
I took it with me to a favorite shop where the owner and I played with different ideas. I wanted to do something to dress it up, but I didn’t want to detract from the whimsical nature of the simple wreath. We settled on some simple white and clear acrylic sprays coming out of the bow, and I added a large (5 inch diameter) round Christmas ornament to the center of the bow.
When we held the ornament up to the wreath, we both laughed. It was so over the top that it was perfect. The scale was just right for the wreath as a whole, and the bling was just plain funny, especially on the simple rusted metal form.
I love the unexpectedness of the entire thing. And as usual, I love that it’s one of a kind, totally original.
It doesn’t hurt that we did it all in neutral colors, either. I don’t have to take it down in January. I think this wreath will live in my kitchen for a while, along with these lights . It adds to a simple but sparkly feel in the room which is just what I need to get through the gray winter.
Every time I walk through the room I look at this wreath and laugh. I love it.
HH shared here