Our Christmas Card
Carry the Spirit of Christmas With You Through the Year!
The Dearest Christmas is the Christmas in the Heart.
May the Magic of Christmas fill Each Corner of Your Home and Heart!
So this Christmas, I decided that I wanted to make our cards. One reason for this is there was a list of people that we call trail angels, or trail hosts. These are beautiful people that invited us into their homes to rest along the trail, or did other beautiful things for us on our great pilgrimage! And I also wanted a nice personal card to send to friends and family. So I made this collage of some pictures from the trail this summer. I made it into a 5×7 format, and took it into Costco to be printed simply as a 5×7 print. Then I came home, and on the computer made up the 3 different holiday greetings above to print onto card stock I have. On the back I printed “Stacey and Bernie. A collection of photos from our thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail 2009″. I then glued the picture on the front of the card. A fun and unique Christmas Card! This is a great way to share with loved ones some of the fun and unique things that you do through the year through pictures. Many photo editing programs have a “collage maker”.
So this is my Christmas card to all my lovely online friends! I hope all of you have had a most beautiful holiday season!
A Christmas Filled With Beauty!
Well, I had a lovely Christmas with my beautiful family! We had a very relaxed and peaceful day. It was filled with beautiful moments shared together, and some really special gifts for each other! As you can see from the photo above, we rarely skimp during Christmas, although I truely feel that we are moving away from getting “stuff” as was sometimes the case in the past, and now are making an effort to make and get items that we know will mean something to each of us.
Now, I do have to say I wondered if perhaps we were getting a few too many presents under the tree when Angel was slowly getting pushed out of her bed. It looks as if she is holding her own, even though that red present looks as if it is planning a territory take over.
I got many fun presents today, little things that add to my hobbies. But I have to say there was a couple presents that I am quite excited about. The most meaningful present to me this Christmas was two pendants, one for Bernie, and one for me, from my parents. They had these custom made by an amazing local artist.
If you are not familure with the Sea Otter aspect of our lives, Bernie is a Wildlife Biologist, and before I met him had done several years of Sea Otter research. Two summers ago, we did a volunteer job together up in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska doing Sea Otter research (If you want to see some photos from our journey here are the entries from Bernie’s blog on that adventure! Visit here ). These are truely beautiful creatures, and I fell in love with them! So these pendants are a gift from my parents to remember our adventure with these beautiful animals!
This first pendant is mine, with a beautiful sentiment of love from my parents on the side.
The tallented lady that did this scrimshaw work is Tina White, and she lives here in Bellingham. If you would like to see some of her amazing work I would highly recomend visiting her website www.scrimworks.com . And if you have Facebook, I suggest looking her up by searching “scrimworks”. Her personal site has some beautiful photos of her scrimshaw jewelry.
My parents pulled out a couple of pieces of scrimshaw that they have collected over the years, and there is simply no comparison! Tina does such amazing detail! The other pieces simply look crude next to her work. My photos don’t do justice to these pieces of art, the detail is spectacular! We were looking at these through a jewlers ring, wow!
This beautiful pendant is Bernie’s. Tina really captured the essence of the Sea Otters. So much of the Sea Otter artwork that we have seen has simply lacked accuracy, and the inner essence of what these beautiful little souls are. It is amazing with all her artwork how she captures the essence of what ever she is carving into this fossilized Mammoth Ivory.
My other present I am excited about is this new Sansa clip+ 4GB MP3 player. I know that this is standard equipment for many now days, but I am a little behind. So this was a lovely gift from Bernie for me to be able to take music with me when we go hiking (yes, the Appalachian Trail is seriously calling to me….. I did not think I would be saying that so soon). The technology is truely amazing! I can’t believe how many things this little tiny piece of plastic can do. It also has an FM tuner for when I get bored with the music I put on it. It has beautiful sound!
Another very meaningful gift that my dad is making for Bernie and I, is a serving tray. He does beautiful wood work, and he is creating a beautiful Maple tray with an inlay of two hikers (us) with a mountain in the background. He was not happy with his first attempt at the inlay, so he is starting over (he loves to get his projects perfect). The parts he has done, and shared with us today are really beautiful, and such a loving gift! I look forward to sharing pictures of it when he gets it finished. He made mom an absolutely beautiful Walnut serving tray. It is not quite finished either, but close, and it is an amazing piece of wood!
I also got a few books, all of which I am excited about reading. They are all about our food system now.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by: Barbara Kingsolver
The Omnivore’s Dilema
by: Michael Pollan
The Wisdom of the Last Farmer
by: David Mas Masumoto
What a beautiful Christmas! It was filled not only with beautiful gifts, but wonderful time spent with my family, enjoying the amazing energy that is the Holidays! I hope everyone had a beautiful day with those that are near and dear to them!
Did you get any special gifts this year?
What did the Holidays mean to you this year?
Merry Christmas!
We Have had a most beautiful Christmas! We got a good bit more snow over night, so we are having a wonderful white Christmas! Its been an extremely relaxed day of opening presents, eating brunch, and going outside.
Bernie and I went out to do a bit of sledding. This is the new sled that we got as a present. We don’t have the biggest hill in the world, but its still pretty fun. We have a pretty good track going on it now, so the sled flies down at a decent speed.
I spent some time doing scenery shots when the sun came out, and Bernie headed over to the pond area with his camera to get some birds in the snow. I love this shot of our big Fir tree’s shadow stretching out accross the field in front of me. We have had feeders up since it started snowing, and we have quite the flock of birds coming to visit us and eat. The list of birds grows on a daily basis. Today the most exciting ones for me were the slate colored junco, fox sparrow, Oregon junco with no tail, mourning dove, and towhee. I love to sit by the window and watch them. Bernie will probably be posting some of his photos from today over the next couple of days, if you want to see what he has been up to visit:
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, and enjoying each beautiful moment! For those of you with snow, I hope you are unleashing your inner child and spending some time out playing in it! For those of you who didn’t happen to have snow this year, I hope you are enjoying your inner child in other grand ways! Merry Christmas!
For other peoples view of the sky visit:
Fluffy White Snow
This morning we awoke to snow falling. It made a good effort to come down all day long, and finally slowed down this afternoon just as the high winds started up once again. Today’s snow is much more beautiful than the other day, but now I wonder if it will all be blown off. We ended up getting around 4 inches of snow, maybe a bit more. Unfortunatly I didn’t get any good pictures of our place today, they just all look dark and dismal. But I did get this one of the birds trying to get some food in their little tummies. I feel bad for them out there having to make their living in this weather. We have a small pond in the yard, I tried to get a picture, but you really cant tell that there is supposed to be a pond under all that snow. We keep a stock tank heater in one end, that keeps a hole open for the fish that live in there, and the birds have access to water. So it works out really well, its nice to see them be able to get a drink in between snacks.
I went out to let the chickens out late this morning, and usually when I open the door they all rush out no matter what the weather is, but today they took one look at that snow and gave me a look of ‘do we look crazy?’. So the chickens spent the day inside.
Just before dark Bernie came out and played in the snow with me! We went sledding down one of the hills in our back pasture. I haven’t gone sledding in such a long time, and I thought it sounded fun. Unfortunately its rather dry snow (strange for here!) and we weren’t sliding all that well, but we still had fun! We don’t get tons of snow here usually, so I figured I better go play in it while I have the chance.
I really thought I was going to get all kinds of crafts done today, but it just didn’t happen. I am having a bit of a relaps into my cold, so I just felt like sitting on the couch and complaining (until I went out and frolicked in the snow). Maybe I will get something accomplished this evening while we watch TV. I am really wondering if I am going to be able to make it into the craft show on Friday to sell the crafts…. we have a long driveway, and the drifts make it hard to get out sometimes. So we will see what the rest of the week brings! I did get some of our gifts shipped off, so that is a good feeling.
If nothing else, this kind of weather is really good for spending time just relaxing and reflecting. Maybe I will do a little more of that this evening, reflecting on what I would like to accomplish this week, month, next year, in this life, so on and so forth.
I am off to eat some dinner and warm up in front of the woodstove!
The Art of Package Wrapping
Tonights project was wrapping presents. Moms friend Stephanie came over with her gifts for family members, and we wrapped them. Mom and I love wrapping, and she has taught me how to be extremely artistic with the process. She does a BEAUTIFUL job, and I am slowly learning. Its so much fun to make the outside of the package as much of a present as what is hidden within.
This weekend kept me busy with the craft show. Last night it decided to snow here. I really do enjoy snow when it is fluffy, no wind, and you don’t have anywhere to go. But last night we had high winds, so the snow didn’t really stay in one place too well, and then I had to drive into the show this morning. It really was not a pretty snowy day. It also really cut down on the traffic at the show, which makes it a little frustrating, its not really worth the vendors time to be there if no one is shopping. But I have started doing some trading with the other vendors for some of my presents, I hope to do some more next weekend, because I still have a decent amount of things I want to get.
I have also been playing around with my needle felting. I created this cute little guy the other day, and I really like how he turned out (its hard to see in this picture, but he has a dark green top hat). I am sending him off as a present, and hope to make another one or two to send to other people. I really cant believe how fast Christmas is coming this year, it seems like it should still be October or something…… But I do have to say that I am starting to really get into the Christmas spirit, even if I do feel behind on gift shopping. I am proud to say I am buying a lot of local gifts this year. I still will be visiting some of those dreaded mega stores and the mall for a couple of gifts that local people just aren’t making yet, but a good portion of the gifts I have gotten so far are from other local artisans.
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far. The whole process should be one of joy, and never dread. If you are anxious about any part of the holidays you aren’t doing it right. Slow down, relax, spend some time loving yourself and your family, and make it all one joyous process!
Holiday Season Initiation
Well I did it, I made it through the first show. It has made me nervous for this holiday season though. People weren’t buying nearly as much as last year. I really hope Pacific Arts does better for us. This was a good show to get back into the swing of craft shows.
Last holiday season was our first selling the photos seriously. We got a lot of kinks worked out of our display. My dad was kind enough to help me build a display and print racks to make our booth look professional. I am really pleased with our set up now, and I think it helps a lot.
Now I need to get my act together and revamp some of the framed prints. We need some fresh material in there to get people buying. I have just under two weeks to get our stock built up. Pacific arts is an expensive one to participate in, but they do a good job with advertising, so it draws a pretty good crowd. I have faith that we will sell lots this year.
My needle felted acorns did pretty well. They weren’t flying out the door, but I sold a good handful of them. So that was fun for me. I love having a new project that people actually like. The acorns are just too cute. At these shows its always the items under $5 or $10 that sell the best, so the more little pieces you have the better. Greeting cards are always our top seller.
The First Show
Well, I have fallen far behind on the blog thing, I was trying to somewhat keep up with a daily entry, and have failed on that front the last few days. I have been getting ready for my first craft show, and today was the day. We headed into town about 1:30, and started getting everything set up in the church that it is held in. It was just a partial day today, just from 5pm to 8pm. Kind of a warm up day I suppose, but the next couple of days should get going a bit better.
It was fun to pull out all the pictures again, most of them have been packed up since the last holiday season. Our set up has evolved, and it looks pretty nice now. I will have to remember to take a picture. We didn’t sell a whole lot today, but it was a very short day. I have high hopes for the next couple of days.
This evening after the show, my parents and I went shopping, and we got a garland with lights to decorate my display. I need to look more festive. I hope it catches more attention.
There was a booth at the show today for www.samaritanspurse.org . It’s a group that collects shoeboxes of toys and goods to send to kids all over the world. They are a Christian group, and while I am not personally a Christian, I love the idea of spreading joy through the world. Imagine how much joy a box of toys could bring to a child that has hardly anything in their lives. So I am thinking of putting together a box, and sending it off.
I love being at the craft shows, you get to see everyone’s creative endeavors. Some things are basic and cute, others unique, beautiful, and silly. Most people seem happy as they either sell their wares, or buy them. And is there a better way to shop than supporting locals? So if you have never been to a local holiday craft show, I highly recommend looking one up and trying it out. Some are small, with basic items, and others large with a big variety. I suggest starting out with a larger one to see the spectrum of what people are creating out in the world.
Welcome to the start of the holiday season everyone!
Crafting Season
I have entered into my crafting season. I am slowly getting ready for the craft shows coming up. I have quite a ways to go, but the process has started. A friend of Bernie’s sister has just ordered a print from us, matted and framed (pictured below), which is good motivation for me to go drag out my matting/framing stuff. Its currently all buried in the attic. It will be good to pull everything out to see what I already have, and what I need.
Then I have been working on my stained glass a little bit. I made 2 snowflakes so far. I need to get many more going, but it’s a start. One of them isn’t my favorite design, but the other one is cute. And one thing I have learned about selling items, everyone likes something different, so sometimes its good to have things that aren’t on the top of your list, because they will be spectacular to someone else.
I have been playing around with the needle felting, and got a little project almost finished, I just need some ribbon to get it done. Its felted acorns, with a felted oak leaf. I am going to attach it to ribbon so that it could be used on a package, or anything else you could dream up. In my quest to be inspired in needle felting I have been looking at other peoples sites, and there are some very creative people out there!
Alright, I am getting emotionally ready for the crafting season. It’s always a lot of work for me at first, but once I get into the flow of it, it’s pretty fun. And its always fun trying new things. The other aspect of crafting season is, I make most of my Christmas presents. So I need to start figuring out what to make for each person on my list. Its much easier if I start now on that stuff, than waiting until half way through December. Well if any of you are crafters, or getting ready for holiday shows, I wish you all the best of luck in that journey!
