Merry Christmas {de}Lights

No, this isn't my house.  But, it is on our annual Christmas lights drive!  (Actually, they do up a pretty spooktaculus Halloween themed display as well! :>)

The kidlets & I were late getting out on our eye spy adventure full of Christmas cheer this year.  Thankfully though, we did get to see many a twinkle & a glow.  And now...

I am sitting here in the quiet of my house

With only a clock ticking and oh my, I sure hope there's no mouse(!);

Handmade stockings are hung, above a gas fireplace with care,

In hopes that Kris Kringle will soon be there;

The children will be snuggled all quiet in their beds,

While images of a fat man & his reindeer flit in their heads;

And hubs sound asleep & me, here with you

Presents await pretty paper, tape, and tissue...

Oh me, oh my, there's still more to wrap?!

My goodness, what keeps me here,

May I ask that?!

Well, if I might answer my own question, the answer is YOU!  Thank you for visiting, reading, saying hello.  I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading your comments, connecting, & visiting so many of you!

To any & all who are celebrating, Merry Christmas!!  I do hope it is one of cheer, with a light or two, maybe some holly & mistletoe, and most of all, a smile.  And of course, if you're not singing carols, trimming a tree, or lighting a candle, I still wish you a most smile worthy day!

Teacher's Gifts with Etsy Love {Sunbasilgarden}

Took my boy to school this morning, for his last day there in 2010 and in hand we had his GF/CF Coconut Bliss chocolate 'ice cream' bar for him to eat at the class party and his teachers' gifts.

Often, I hand make their gifts, but I knew that time would run short this year. Thankfully, when I saw Sunbasilgarden's uber cute hand crafted soaps, I knew I had a great solution!

He has two great teachers, one received the Pink Sugar Cupcake Soap and the other the Fresh Pear Cupcake Soap.  Lauren, the woman behind Sunbasilgarden, also sells the four cupcakes as a cute set, packaged in a bakery tray.

His aide received an adorable, don't ya wish it was summer, Lime Water Ice Soap.  And again, Lauren sells an adorable gift set with all four flavors, er..um...I mean scents.

The cupcakes & ice water soaps all came with cute tags on them for me to write on, but since its for Christmas, I replaced them with these adorable retro tags I found online.  Print them on cardstock and simply cut them out or add glitter, Stickles, or use a spica glitter pen to add a little festive flair!

This Pomegranate Paradise Salt Soap is in my shower right now.

And while Lauren is closing up Sunbasilgarden for Christmas in a couple of days, doesn't this Winter Wonderland Soap with scents of peppermint and vanilla sound perfect for January?

Or how about some Hot Chocolate Whipped Soap?

And the bar version of Hot Chocolate Soap....aren't those marshmallows cute?!

Under the Christmas tree are a couple more cute Sunbasilgarden soaps all wrapped up.  Did you do any Etsy shopping this holiday season?

And I'm Tickled Pink, bringing all this cuteness to school today and because Holly has featured my art journal cover on her Tickled Pink post today!  I'm quite happy to link up again today...come play, so I can visit you too! :>

Inspiration Everywhere - Art Journal {Cover}

Jessica Sprague's Inspiration Everywhere has been a fantastic class! I just loved how many different creative sources & mediums the class assignments were pulled from.  In fact, it has drawn & pushed me to a variety of inspiration wells to drink from & materials to play with.

There has been a variety of assignments & I will be back to share more of them, but first I wanted to share an ongoing assignment in the class, our Art Journals.  And what do we start with first?  But, the cover, of course!

While Jessica Sprague embraces design & creativity through technology, her site also allows for the scissor & glue types as well.  And though I'm learning more & more techno/digi options each day (& there were digi options for these pages as well), I chose to pull out acrylic paints, sparkle glaze, Tim Holtz masks, & my favorite Spica glitter pens.

Ironically, Tim Holtz was demonstrating his masks (in reverse) on today's 12 Tags of Christmas tag  (talk about a fountain of inspiration!) and I will definitely have to remember to stamp with them next time!

I painted over the alpha letters 'a', 'R', and 't' first with a red, then orange, then yellow.  While the background bright pink was straight out of the bottle, I mixed the other three colors for the shades I wanted and added a sparkle glaze that I had on hand (it adds bits of glitter to the paint).  I also dry brushed on all three colors around the perimeter of the cover.

'Journal' and 'Inspiration Everywhere' are written in black & while it seems that I was not able to pick it up with the camera, they are traced over with a black spica glitter pen & do indeed sparkle.

I didn't paint the left edge, under the spiral, intentionally.  Initially, I was going to just tie color coordinated ribbons all over the spiral, but a wee different idea has sprung.....I'll share more with the next art journal post! ;>:>

What is lighting your creative fires these days?  Both Jessica Sprague & Tim Holtz have lit many creative sparks for me and I'd love to know what's working for you!

I'm linking up!

 

A Landslide of Lego Love

What toys whispered colorful stories to you in your childhood?

Here, Lego whispers many woven tales into inspired ears. If I listen closely, I might be able to share a tale or two told to a few in this house, but today, I am trying to bring some order so that those imaginations may continue to soar.

Our living room has become victim to a landslide o' Lego's!  Initially, Hubby was helping our son rebuild a pirate ship, but when they couldn't sift through the big overflowing tub o' Lego's to find particular parts (filled with thousands of Lego's comprised of remnants of Hubby's childhood collection & our sweet boy's), Hubby laid a white sheet in the middle of the living room floor & dumped that big tub onto said white sheet, so they could see the parts more clearly.

Then we had this really big pile o' Lego's to sift & dig through.  They've rebuilt most of the pirate ship now, but I thought it would be a good time to bring them back into my son's room in a much more organized fashion (to help him build his Lego creations and/or save my bare feet when I step on a rogue little itty bitty piece of hard, pointy plastic....yeeeouch!!).

I had recently read a great post on Lego organization, Lego love, and her boy, Simon's explanation of a Harry Potter Quidditch match via video (which my boy watched and thoroughly agreed with Simon's assessment) on Ali Edward's site.  And while the little drawers seemed too small to house my boy's Lego collection, I did really like the idea of the drawer units.  I picked up these two Sterilite 5 Drawer Storage units and we began sorting by colors, specialty parts, and mini figures & animals.

We've rallied the whole family in the process and sorted.  And sorted.  And sorted.  And as I write this, we're still sorting, but I can see the white of the sheet beginning to show through the pile we still have to finish. (I'm hoping for today, so that we can get the Christmas tubs into the Lego filled living room & light the lonely looking tree in the corner!)

A fun site to check out for some building inspiration with all those Lego's is Brickshelf.  Its galleries are full of pictures of quite a variety of creations that everyday Lego loving people (kidlets & the young at heart) have submitted.

What I have always thought is so cool about Lego, is not only that initial fun of building something new, but the imagination that comes in so many forms after that first building.  Whether it be the imaginary play with the mini figures and the scene, plane, ship, car, boat and surrounding creations or the imagination in building something new and original with all those fun, colorful Lego's, there is the opportunity for imagination itself, in whatever form suits the individual and the way their mind works.

Did you play with Lego's when you were growing up?  Do you have Lego's in your house today?  Are there any favorites? 

-----------------------------------------------

Disclosure:  The links to the Lego sets & Sterilite storage drawers are affiliate links and are items that we are putting to good use in our home.  If you choose to use the links, they might cover the nonfat milk in my coffee.  All other links are to sites that have no idea what I like in my java or who I am.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas

Creative inspiration wise, this is my favorite time of year!  And if you are a papercrafter, you probably know why.......that fabulously creative guy, Tim Holtz is back with his 12 Tags of Christmas, starting today!!!!  Ahhh...happy sighs.

But, wait!  Even if you do not paper craft, I would bet that you could & can find inspiration from Tim and highly recommend running clicking on over and checking his posts out.  He is one of my regular stops all year round.

And while I never need convincing to go check out what Tim is up to in his studio, I did absolutely love the little video he made for us in anticipation of this year's 12 Tags of Christmas.  Check it out...I've watched it..ahem...a few times now!  More happy sighs.

I really must run now, there is grunge paper, ink pads, paint, and a wee girl (who adores that man and his technique videos!) calling my name!  What creative calls do you hear this time of year?