kismet art

December Joys, Day Two: Lights

I LOVE tiny, white  lights.  I love to see them up in trees on a city street.  I love them at weddings. And I love them most at Christmas time.

We haven't had our outside lights up for over two years (we remodeled in 2006, had a newborn in 2007) and I hadn't realized how much I missed them.  Dave hung them up this past Saturday and they click on right when the sun is setting.  I could sit and watch them for hours.  Little white lights.  One of my favorite December joys.

December Joys, Day One: Advent Calendars

A little behind on the posting, how did it get to be December 3 already?  Time truly does fly faster which is why I'm happy to be documenting our holiday experiences on a daily basis this year.

 Here is a look at the beginning of my journal:

I took photos of the advent calendar I made from a class I took in November:

Here's a look at a couple of our advent calendars:

Here are some of my favorite advent calendars:

1.  My friend Emily taught a class at a Come Play http://comeplayeugene.blogspot.com/ :  event in Eugene- this is the advent calendar that I made- each number has a photo of your family from the past year on the back of it and you can add photos each year.  This is a new favorite decoration in our home.

I used a piece of white foam core, covered it with cream wool felt- the numbers are 3" by 4".

2.  My friend Liz made this beautiful advent wreath:  http://lizness.typepad.com/a_little_life/2008/11/advent-wreath.html

3.  Lego   http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7724 of course, makes a fun set (but why oh why do they have to make a new one every year???)

4.  I also love Ali's box advent seen here: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2007/11/christmas-proje.html

5.  And if you are in the market for a traditional chocolate advent Trader Joe's has belgian chocolate

http://www.traderjoes.com/flyers/OR.pdf  and because it's December 3rd you can eat 3 pieces today!

December Joys-2008

Happy December Everyone!  I wanted to share the cover of my Ali inspired December Daily journal  http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/december-daily-album-2008.html  which I am calling our "December Joys- 2008" .  I had a lot of fun putting this together over the past couple of weeks and look forward to filling it and sharing it over the course of this month.  

I started with 2 8x8 book boards from 7gyspsies, painted 4 coats of "Christmas Red" acrylic paint, 3 coats of Mod Podge, the tree is made of buttons sewn onto a piece of antique mattress ticking, felt letters from Making Memories Fa-la-la collection, and glittered Tuxedo thickers from American Crafts.

I feel like this project is a gift that I am giving to myself and my family.  During this busy time of year it is nice to have a little reminder to stop and live in the moment and this year I'll have a daily record of all the little joys that make this season magical.