Wrapped in Love ~ Merry Christmas at My Door!

I came home from walking in the lovely fall rain to find a package tucked neatly behind the pumpkin display.

And what to my wondering eyes (and fingers) should appear at the ripping apart of the paper but a contribution for our Wrapped in Love Christmas project.

Ten beautiful, cozy, colorful scarves burst out, tempting me to try on and touch. These 10 cozies began at our girls' weekend at the beginning of the month. I also have several other gorgeous scarves that were completed during our eating/talking/movie watching marathon. Thanks, girls! You rock!

I am feeling a little bit better about my stash of scarves, shoulder shawls, and lap robes. 94+ is a lot of cozies!

For, you see, Christmas is coming and our Wrapped in Love project for the nursing home will soon take place. You can read more about Wrapped in Love by clicking the link.

On Christmas Day, a group of us will load our packages, boxes, and bags, and go over the river and through the woods (or at least over the roads and through the neighborhoods) to Landmark. While there we hope to dispense Christmas cheer, a good bit of fellowship, a Christmas treat, and a choice of one of the warm Wrapped in Love creations to all of the residents.


Anyone not busy on Christmas Day? You are welcome to join us. If you can't make it, feel free to dig out that knitting, crocheting, or sewing and whip up a few items to add to our pile. Thank you!

And a very, merry, early Christmas!

Fun Friday

Hey, all. It's Friday!

Regardless of work schedules, deadlines, piles of laundry, dirty dishes, abundant garden produce that needs attending, I have decided to make it Fun Friday.

Even if I only have a small amount of space in my schedule, I choose to do something fun today.

Our paper birch trees in the front yard provide plenty of peeling paper. I've been experimenting (I shall have to change my middle name to Experimenting). The super thin - paper thin - bark is perfect for stamping! I am so excited to find a use for these sheets of beautiful white.

Sneaking in a little stamping today for my Fun Friday. How about you?

Here is a new way to dry cards if you are short on counter (and kitty-free) space. This works very well.


What to do with all those cards you make (talking to myself here, I have a stash going)?

bundle and give as gifts
send as actual greeting cards - people love real mail
give a set to your child's teacher as a welcome-back-to-school gift
donate a bunch for a charity auction
build a collection for your husband to use in his work
send to neighbors, friends, and family as notes of encouragement or invitation
trade a few with another stamping buddy to build variety
pin favorites to Pinterest (mine are all on a Rubber Stamping board under Angie Quantrell)
make new friends by swapping technique ideas and visiting stamping stores
mail cards to missionaries, family, and friends who are living overseas
display favorites as little works of art
if your coffers overflow (mine have not made it there yet - I enjoy giving them away too much I guess) rent a table at a bazaar and sell a few
sell cards at a charity event and give the proceeds towards a special project

Yes, I do love hobbies with a purpose. Happy Fun Friday!


You are welcome to share this blog post and ideas. Thanks for sharing!

The Piano

Donavyn, the youngest of my babies (until June), explores the piano. He is going to be musical, this handsome boy!

The piano has been in our family for quite a long time.

My children banged and played on it. Neighborhood kids were drawn to the much-loved instrument like flies to a picnic. My preschoolers, at church and at school-school, spent many happy hours pounding the sort of ivory keys. Every child that has entered a room where the piano rests has been magnetically pulled to the piano and has immediately started playing.

Now that the prized instrument sits in my living room, my grands go like moths to a flame. Pound, jingle, bang, and play. They sing. They experiment. They observe. They make up songs. There is no resistance in children to experiencing this piano. Much to the noise tolerance levels of adults in attendance.

But it is my piano. And my babies. And my living room.

Play, babies, play. Get that rhythm going. Listen to those songs and tap that beat. Make up silly words, or no words at all. Sing. Clap. Bang. Pound.

Create. Imagine. Explore.

Do you have any toys of this intrinsic and sentimental value?

Creative Mess

How do you create?

For me, creativity comes with a price.

Chaos. Mess. Huge use of space. Disaster (that would be the cat diving across the table into all of the projects).

On the positive side, 99 cards, full use of brain, listening to a complete book on CD (the neighbor did it, the cats helped discover secret things), great meals and use of quinoa, Chinese soup dumplings, chocolate ice cream with hot fudge sauce (sorry Dr. P.), visiting, sharing tools and supplies, idea swapping...

I'd say the positives outweigh the sort of negatives. Not that I mind mess, chaos, used space, or the occasional disaster.

You should see my office.

Storming of the Brain

Storming of the brain, otherwise known as brainstorming, is a lovely exercise in dreaming up all sorts of solutions or actions to a problem or idea. I adore brainstorming.

This BS (conducted on sticky notes, which were then torn in half when I organized) was sorted onto a huge art board. Perfect for rearranging my ideas and keeping them in one place.

Because I can really go crazy. Anything goes in brainstorming. From now on, brainstorming will be called BS (not to be confused with other colorful metaphors popular in society).

BS is wild! I always write too many words, so BS is perfect for letting me use all the words I want. The ideas can be good, bad, zany, wayyyyyy out there, scary, boring, impossible - but that's the fun of BS.

Brainstorming is a vacation for the brain. No longer have to stay inside the box. Any box. Maybe the TARDIS. See? I just jumped into BS mode.

Just for fun, try a little BS of your own. Go ahead. Take that idea you've been toying with, put it to paper. Let everything else go out the window and scribble down as many ideas that relate to that idea as you can. Feel free to include mini lists (I also love making lists) for things like questions, supplies, locations, and so on.

The universe is the limit when one is BS. When your brain is pleasantly blank, stow the BS papers somewhere safe and go your way. BS ideas have to simmer for a bit. Pull out the BS list later and take a look. Then you can choose your favorite and get organizing.

Speaking of which, organizing ideas, after BS, may be a bit scary. I've been known to BS on everything - napkins, paper, notepads, sticky notes, receipts, magazine covers...any piece of paper is fair game. Organizing is a tad more interesting using those types of BS notes.

So get to storming of the brain!

PS Yes. That is my ironing board. Due to some rearranging of the office, I am in the market for a good side table to keep my sources at hand. For now. It's the ironing board.