Twenty-five candles

We spent the long Thanksgiving weekend with my daughter in her little tiny town. It was everything a Thanksgiving weekend should be ... family and great food and time to sit and relax. And ponder. I took a drive one day into the mountains and soaked in the golden leaves and collected some pine cones and evergreen branches. And I did a little research on Advent. 

When I was growing up we did not talk about Advent. Or if we did, I missed it. Advent to me was opening up little cardboard calendars with chocolates inside ... it was nothing more than a countdown to Christmas.  

I decided that I wanted this year to be more simplified. More about the thought behind this season than the frantic pursuit of gifts and bringing down the boxes and boxes of ornaments. 

I decided I want it to be more about Advent. I read here about the way this family celebrates Advent.

via

I tried to find an wooden advent "wreath" like they used. But couldn't. So I decided to make my own. 

One candle for each day until Christmas. The tall candles are for the Sundays leading up to Christmas and one for Christmas Day. Each day I will light one candle, read a scripture and say a prayer. It is a way to stop and reflect; to focus on what is important to me. 

I read that the candles represent Hope, and Love, Joy and Peace. Can't we can all use more of those?

"Arise, shine;

  For your light has come!

  And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 

  For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

  And deep darkness the people;

  But the LORD will arise over you,

  And His glory will be seen upon you."

                  -Isaiah 60:1-2

Thank you

This year I want to be more conscious of what I have. We all have much to be thankful for ... and yet often, especially in this crazy design business I am in, we focus on what we don't have. Or what we wish we had. 

To experience real joy, I believe, begins with gratitude. Gratitude is what motivates my "thank-you" cards this year. 

Lisa Congdon - 365 days of Hand Lettering: Day 204

I purchased some Kate Spade notecards when I was buying my gold dotted paper for Christmas. I didn't have a plan for them ... but I decided they would make perfect thank you cards - the dots would go with my Christmas "dotted" theme.

I began to write the first note and I messed it up. I started to throw the ruined card away but then decided to save the top of it (with the dots) - it was too nice to throw away and so I cut the card in half. And it gave me an idea ...

What if I made a tag with the top half and wrote my notes on the bottom half - as two separate pieces.

I glued the dotted side of the card to the back of the quote. 

The "thank-you" tags were a free printable I found here.

My Christmas "thank-you" cards are done but I have one more "thank-you" to write ...

Thank YOU for coming along on this journey with me ... for reading my thoughts, looking at my work, and encouraging me with your comments, your emails and your Facebook messages. I am grateful for each one of you! Here's to a joy-filled year with a focus on gratitude! Happy 2014! xo Sherri

Christmas wrapped up

We had simple Christmas decorations this year. I took down all the Christmas boxes, looked at a few of them and put them right back up. I decided it was a good year to simplify things. 

I put a few lights on the tree, sprinkled some green balls around ... and added some antlers.

I also framed a couple of Christmas quotes. I framed this quote from Jolie's Etsy Shop in an inexpensive white frame that I spray painted gold.

I purchased "The Weary World Rejoices" print from Lindsay Letters. The frame is from Aaron Brothers.

I made a NOEL banner and brought in a new bar cart for a little fun. The bar cart is from Crate and Barrel.

Our thankful chain from Thanksgiving didn't make it on the tree, but I like it where it ended up.

My Christmas paper this year was primarily brown packing paper. I also purchased a few rolls of Kate Spade paper in black and white stripes. It was reversible with with gold dots on one side and I ended up using the dots instead of the stripes.

Kate Spade wrapping paper from Lifeguard Press

I had also purchased some French velvet ribbon in emerald green and blue I and mixed it all together. Everyone got a little of the pretty gold dotted paper or some velvet. But mostly there was a lot of brown paper. I loved mixing the simple with the more special.

I don't think I did it intentionally, but the dots seemed to inspire my tags ...

And once I came up with the tag design, I used it to make a simple banner.

To make the tags, I started with a Kate Spade iPhone case image:

Kate Spade iPhone case

I put the image in Picmonkey (the program I use to "photoshop") and blurred it a little and tweaked the color:

I also changed the color to green for a second tag choice:

And after I got the image the way I wanted, I added the initials:

I also used plain black card stock and a gold pen for some of my tags and even painted directly on the brown paper for a little fun...

My daughter who lives on a farm came into town today with her gifts all wrapped:

She used feed bags ... I LOVE IT!

So that's it ... we are all wrapped up here and ready to enjoy some quality time with family and friends these next few days while we reflect on the greatest gift - a baby who came down from heaven. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy. Joyeux Noel! 

Snippets of Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year .... and the craziest, right? I'm off to get one last gift ...
My goal was to finish last Sunday night. I didn't quite make it but that's okay.

I'll be back soon with more details. 

xo