our Easter

We had a great visit with Steve's family over Easter weekend.  We also got to see some of my family, some old friends, and a very full chipmunk. 

 

The chipmunk was cracking everyone up.  It's how serious he manages to look that really gets me. 

 

 

Steve's mom cooked a big Easter dinner, complete with asparagus.  Easter always signals the beginning of asparagus season to me and I was so excited that she'd gotten some. 

This was one of the coldest Easters in my recent memory.  Remember how we used to play croquet on Easter?   This year found me wearing two long sleeve shirts, double socks, and a down vest.  Now I understand why Steve giggled at me when I asked if I should pack short sleeves. 

We took the scenic route again and, after a missed connection, it ended up being a bit more scenic than we'd bargained for.  By the time we got home, I was ready to give up on car trips for good and just fly everywhere.  And I don't even really like flying. 

Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be at home all day today.  I've got the crock pot and the oven going and am about to divide the laundry into manageable piles.  Here's to a productive day of housework!

choose love

One of the most valuable life lessons that I have learned and am still learning is to focus my energy on things that I can change, as opposed to things that are out of my control.  I think that this lesson is especially pertinent on Valentine's day. 

 

I can't make anyone love me, but I sure can spend the day showing love to others.  And it's almost impossible to have a bad day when you spend all your time thinking about how you can make the people around you smile.  Just try it- I bet you'll love it too. 

Steve and I cooked a special breakfast together yesterday morning.  He was in charge of making mochas and I made the eggs. 

Then I dropped him off at the train station and set out to run a bunch of errands and drop off treats and surprises along the way.  I was, of course, wearing red. 

During my few minutes at home, I set up a table by the fireplace in preparation for dinner.  The daffodils are from our yard- they just bloom earlier every year!

After a lovely afternoon that included more friends and raspberry almond bar deliveries, I picked up dinner and my sweetheart and we headed home.  We feasted on fancy cheese, blue cheese meatballs, cajun sweet potato wedges and lots of other treats from Whole Foods while we sat by the fire in our pajamas. 

The best thing about the evening was being unhurried.  We lingered over each course and caught up with each other and drank lots of sparkling water and tangerine soda. 

It was a great day and it ended with a canoli.  We didn't even get into the fancy chocolate that I bought, so it looks like we have a fun weekend ahead as well. 

 

In between chocolate, we're painting (ick!), running errands, and Steve will be getting a much-needed haircut.  Luckily, Monday is President's Day, so we have an extra day off to get everything done.  I'll meet you back here on Tuesday, hopefully with a successful painting story!  Hope your weekend is full of opportunities to share love (and chocolate)!

wreath making

As I mentioned last week, one of our favorite holiday activities this year turned out to be wreath making.  We almost didn't even do it because it was so late in the month (December 22nd!), but I am so glad we went ahead with the project anyway! 

 

The first thing you need, obviously, is lots of greenery.  There are many inexpensive ways to get fresh greens.  In fact, all of ours were free!  We clipped cedar and holly from our yard and picked up a whole trunk load of Douglas and Frasier fir cuttings from Lowe's.  We get cuttings from Lowe's almost every year- just go to the tree cutting area and ask someone for the branches that are leftover when they trim up the trees.  The people at our Lowe's are always happy to help and even give us large sheets of plastic to put down in the trunk of the car. 

We bought two 12" metal wreath forms from Joann Fabrics.  We used 50% off coupons and got them for $1.25 each.  We also bought one roll of thin green floral wire, also with a coupon, for $1.00. 

 

For each wreath, we chose two types of greens to use.  I used Douglas fir and cedar and Steve used mostly Frasier fir with some holly thrown in.  The first thing you want to do is to make little bouquets with your greens.  I used 4-5 pieces for each one and twisted some wire around the bottom to hold them together. 

Once you feel like you have enough little packets to fill a whole wreath (I probably used about 20 on mine), you can start wiring them on.  We found that the easiest way to do it is to pick a spot to start and then move around the wreath wiring each new packet so that it covers the end of the previous one. 

We didn't do anything fancy with the wire to attach the greens- just wrapped it around the base of each packet and through the wreath form 3 or 4 times. 

Sometimes, we'd think we were finished, but then step back and see bald spots that needed to be filled.  When the wreaths were finally full enough, I took the clippers to them and shaped them up a bit, so there were no super crazy long branches sticking out and so that they each had a nice opening in the center. 

Steve hung his wreath on the bird feeder.  We can see it from our kitchen and it adds a nice bit of cheer to the backyard.  Also, the birds love to nestle in it.  Super cute. 

My wreath is hanging above the fireplace and still looks great, even after a week of being warm inside the house.  I'm leaving it up indefinitely, that's how much I like it. 

 

So, next year, we plan to make like a million more.  The whole project took about 2 hours, but we really gained momentum once we figured out the best way to do it.  It was awesome being bundled up outside in the cool air and doing something productive. 

 

Today is gray and wet and I'm trying to catch up on work and laundry and life in general.  Steve and I had a lovely talk last night, by the light of the fire and the Christmas tree, about our hopes and dreams for this year.  I'm so thankful to start out the year feeling healthy and ready to tackle anything. 

gingerbread and sugarplums

One of our Christmas day activities was a gingerbread house/train decorating contest.  We waited too long to buy gingerbread house kits and almost every store was sold out, so we supplemented with trains.  It was all very official, with randomly drawn teams and a strict 30 minute time limit. 

The lone house was built by Team America, if you couldn't tell by the roof design. 

Some teams used more icing than others, but everyone had a great time. 

 

My sister and I literally spent the entire day on Christmas Eve preparing food.  It was rainy and cold and I loved having her company in the warm kitchen.  Our hard work paid off too because we had plenty to eat while everyone was here and then Steve and I enjoyed the leftovers for the rest of the week. 

 

On Christmas night, we toasted the year with Almdudler, Steve's favorite Austrian soft drink.  Our sweet friend, Kayla, brought us some all the way from Germany a few weeks ago.  It tastes a little like ginger ale and a little like carbonated fruit juice.  And, there are yodelers on the label. 

 

Looking back over all the pictures, it's hard for me to believe that we fit so much fun into a few short days!  We played cards and watched movies and roasted chestnuts and threw the football.  There was even a mini jam session one morning with Steve on his new mandolin and Brenna on the electric guitar. 

 

Today, on the last day of the year, Steve and I are cozily working from home together.  I'm excited to be catching up on some sewing and ordering supplies and shipping out orders.  We haven't quite decided how we'll celebrate this evening, but I'm sure it will involve pajamas and being at home and that sounds plenty celebratory to me.  Hope your year ends on a happy note!

post Christmas

Hi friends!  Was your Christmas magical?  Ours was pretty great and I can't wait to tell you all about it and show pictures next week.  Right now, I am listening to Steve play "Jingle Bells" on his new mandolin.  My sister is upstairs and the rest of our family is on their way home.   Tonight is looking like Chinese food for dinner and an early bedtime- we've been staying up way too late! 

Steve and I made fresh wreaths last Sunday and it was one of our favorite things we did to get ready for the holidays.  I'll share a full tutorial soon!  We're enjoying one above the fireplace and one on the bird feeder and I plan to leave them up well into the new year. 

Hope your week so far has been full of Christmas cheer!

merrymaking

 

Good morning, friends!  Do you have big plans for the few hours of daylight we'll get today? 

 

I have already been photographing products and plan to start on the laundry and mopping soon.  I'm saving my cooking chores for later this afternoon when it's darker and the kitchen seems extra cozy. 

 



If you're still looking for Christmas breakfast ideas, don't forget about my family's traditional coffee cake.  I'll be making one with my sister on Monday, along with lots of other goodies!  We're expecting lots of guests throughout the next week and I have a long list of what I want to feed them while they're here. 

For those of you who may still be Christmas shopping, did you know that Etsy sells giftcards now?  They can be used at any of the thousands of cool Etsy shops!  You can either print them at home or email them straight to the recipient, which makes them the perfect last-minute-but-still-online gift. 

We still have gifts to wrap and some Christmas movies we haven't watched yet this year, so I'm looking forward to a festive weekend.  We may even crack into the chestnuts!

I'll be relaxing and spending time with family next week, but I may stop in to share a few glimpses of the festivities around here.  I hope that your Christmas is merry!

with us

I feel like one of Santa's elves, and it's not just because I live in a festive, cozy house with another small person.  It's more about all the gift-making and shipping we've been doing this month.

This is what the front porch looks like, every day except Sunday. 

I like to pretend that our mail carrier likes to make multiple trips from my front porch to her truck.  (But secretly I fear that she will just give up and stop coming...)

 

Today there is an extra large pile of boxes, because I am shipping out Christmas packages to our families in addition to all the orders that came in over the weekend.  Our house is getting emptier by the minute and I love it! 

 

Oh, and did I tell you about the wrapping paper challenge I gave myself this year?  I had one roll of red paper left over from last year and I decided not to buy any more wrapping supplies.  Instead, I am cutting up grocery bags (thanks Trader Joe's!), shopping bags, and fabric scraps to complete my gift wrapping.  I've got lots of little ribbon scraps saved up and I'm making gift tags out of colored paper.  So far, it's been a lot of fun and I am thrilled to be using up all these craft items that we've been storing!

 

I can hardly believe that Christmas Eve is a week away.  Today I am working on our Christmas menu and looking forward to a quieter week ahead.  My heart has been heavy this month, for so many friends and hard situations and sometimes the holiday bustle becomes too much.  I'm thankful for some time to step back from it all and remember what I read just last week:

 

     "We knew that the promise has never been safety, or that bad things would not happen if we were good and virtuous.  The promise is only that God is in it with us, no matter what it is."  -L'Engle

 

What better time than this to celebrate Emmanuel- God with us?

drinking life through a fire hose

Good morning, friends!  As usual, we had a weekend that was full to bursting! 

On Friday, we spent the day running Christmas-y errands and got so much accomplished.  We even squeezed in a Panera lunch date by the fireplace (I think all restaurants should have fireplaces), which was a great break in the midst of a busy day. 

Then, we spent the rest of the weekend running from the Vintage Charlotte Holiday Market to a very special first birthday party to a leisurely lunch with friends to a Christmas concert. 

In between all that, we got to deliver meals and ice cream and holiday cheer to several friends who need things like meals and holiday cheer right now.  It is such a blessing to be able to be able to show love to these friends, all of whom have helped us out during times when we were barely holding it together. 

On Saturday night, we were able to relax at home for a bit and start decorating the tree.  We rescued some ornaments from my mom's garage that I have loved since I was a child and it was so much fun to hang them on our own tree this year.  I told Steve about how my very favorite one was always those two people sleeping snug in a nutshell. 

And my second favorite, of course, was these two people, sleeping in a cradle.  Is it any wonder that my favorite thing to do in the winter is cuddle up with Steve under a blanket?  I've always been a cuddler at heart. 

So today is gray and windy and I've got every light in the house on to cheer me while I work.  The washer and dryer are both running and I've got big plans for soup making later on.  I'm also feeling excited because I woke up to a happy surprise today- some of my items are being featured on one of my favorite blogs!  Mara and her husband, Danny, write at A Blog About Love and it is one of the most encouraging things to read.  I just love their story and their desire to help others find joy.  Be sure to click over to Mara's blog and check it out!

it's beginning to look a little like Christmas

 Well, we finally let the tree come inside.  The other night we made a party of it and had Rudolph playing on TV while we set up the tree and got out the rest of the decorations.  Yesterday, I finished emptying the boxes from the attic and put away the last of the pumpkins.  I miss them already. 

Incidentally, we had so much fun getting our Christmas tree last year that we decided to make it a tradition.  Here is Steve, standing in a vacant lot, pretending he cut down this tree.  People were literally craning their necks to see what we were doing as we made our way home. 

Last year, Steve's mom gave us these ceramic stars and I've been plotting all year about the best place to display them.  I was able to loop them around our dining room chandelier so that we can eat under the stars all month!  (Also, I'll probably leave them up way past Christmas.)

Today, Steve has the day off and we are planning to work on lots of gifts, like little elves.  And maybe we'll watch "Elf", to top it all off.  We've got a full weekend of holiday fun ahead of us and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be cold enough to wear a scarf!

we gave it our best shot

Well, we celebrated Thanksgiving in full-on party mode.  There was turkey.  There was pie.  There was blood orange sparkling soda in the middle of the day.  And we were all properly thankful. 

 

The theme of this year's Thanksgiving was supposed to be relaxation.  I give us a 7 out of 10.  Sometimes we have trouble relaxing.  Sometimes we think that work is relaxing.  Sometimes we find ourselves running an online business that doesn't take holiday breaks. 

 

I completed a couple of major sewing projects last week and was so excited to get some pictures of them.  Thankfully, the weather was pretty great and we spent lots of time outside and then taking pictures seemed less like work and more like fun. 

 

One new item in the shop is a lunch box that was designed specifically with Steve in mind.  In fact, I made him one first, then made another because I liked it so much.  It has a large, flat bottom and can hold enough food for two regular people, or one very hungry man. 

 

We were even able to multi-task on a few chores (does that count as relaxing?) and I took pictures of Steve modeling some new scarves while he hung the Christmas lights.  Festive, right? 

 

I've been saving up things to share with you over the long weekend, so stop back in tomorrow for some more fun stuff!

 

P.S. - It's Cyber Monday!  Treat yourself to 10% off your entire Plumfield Shop order with the coupon code "FALL2012"