Lovely Cruise

Christmas 2007

If, as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things; if we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have the time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi?  Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds?  Or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary?  For each one of us, there is a desert to travel.  A star to discover.  And a being within ourselves to bring to life. 

--Author Unknown

All I want for Christmas...

What did you get for Christmas, Sam?

A sled.

How did you break your arm, Sam?

I fell off my sled...

Other than that we had an amazingly wonderful Christmas.

jack and lola

No I didn't get a dog, although I want one...  These are my good friend Holly's brothers' dogs, Jack and Lola.  She asked me to do these and she's going to put them in frame ornaments.  I think they're kind cute.  Hopefully they resemble the real dogs a little bit!   

A couple things...

First, I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.  Ella and I are going to Target today to buy stocking stuffers, and then I will be officially done!  Woo Hoo!  That's a good feeling.  I'm done with my baking and now I just need to get my meals organized and grocery list made for the week of Christmas.  I have it all in my head, now I just need to get it down on paper. 

Second, I worked on my Baking with Sammy T. blog yesterday and you can find the first two cake recipes we made here.  Enjoy!  I have another cake to add and the recipes for the Christmas cookies we made this year.  Hopefully I'll get them added today. 

Third, the January IT kit is up!  Kelly is having a big sale, so if you've always wanted to try IT kit, now is the time!  Check it out:  IT Kit Studio.  Here are my January projects:

Fourth, I'm proud to say that I've now sold items from my etsy shop to someone in Hong Kong and London.  How cool is that?  Little ol' me? And here's a journal I painted: 

Fifth and finally, I'm off to Target... 

this little light of mine...

This is what my mama's house looked like tonight.  Beautiful!

hellooooooooo...

I'm still here.  Slowing recovering from a nasty round of bronchitis.  So after almost three weeks of being sick I'm finally feeling normal.  Once again I'm reminded that good health is a precious thing. 

Last Wednesday should have been a day of celebration around here.  My dear sweet brother had a birthday and my hardworking, well-deserving husband made partner at his law firm.  It was instead a very sad day here in Omaha.  I had planned for a week to go to the Westroads on Wednesday because Younkers was having a big sale and my friend told me Von Maur had the boots I've been wanting.  I've never been so happy to be sick.  Reading the paper today brought tears to my eyes once again.  It's still so unbelievable that crap like this happens in our world. 

On a happier note, I wanted to share some photos from Ella's birthday.  Besta gave her the hat and vest, which she loves very much.  The cake was Melted Ice Cream Cake.  Look for the recipe in my new blog "Baking with Sammy t." which is coming soon.  And please note, she insists on wearing Husker jerseys and put this one on herself.  She's quite a little character.

Whew...

I made it.  I did it.  I survived and I even sold a couple things.  The Hot Shops Open House was a great experience.  Saturday was a little slow due to an ice storm in the morning.  Things picked up in the afternoon though and Sunday it was packed.  I learned a lot and am so glad that I did it and so glad to be a part of the Omaha Craft Mafia.  It's an amazing group of artists.  I felt like we really bonded as a group. 

And now I'm on to Christmas.  I started my shopping today and actually crossed quite a few people on my list.  Tomorrow I'm going to get out the decorations and I think this weekend we'll get our tree.  Speaking of shopping, I'm doing as much as I can on Etsy.  Today I found several cool new to me shops. 

These are the coolest little books:

cassette tape book

I love these fabric magnets:

magnets

Great colors in this print:

art print

These pouches are sold out, but I'm hoping that she'll make more:

zippered pouch

I have all of my autumn and Thanksgiving items listed at half-price with free shipping.  Why not stock up for next year?  And I have lots of new stuff to put up, including four journals (two of them have acrylic paintings for the covers).