One of my brothers and his wife are visiting for Christmas. It’s so much fun having them over. One of the things we (especially my kids) have been anticipating is his taking us flying. He is a flight instructor and he promised to fly us over the farm and the area. We were going to go out on Tuesday, and he took his check-flight and everything, but the plane he had reserved was broken (they found out when they were still on the ground). So we stayed safely down. Wednesday was rainy and not great for flying. SO, the plan to post a flying Skywatch was nixed.
SO, the backup picture is one my daughter took with her new Christmas camera. Just this morning. Over the farm. And the cows. And the not-lately-seen pond. I know you’ve been missing it dreadfully. The sky is perfectly clear today. Would be a great flying day, but we’ll be stuffing ourselves and enjoying family and opening presents. Hopefully the weather obliges us tomorrow so next week you can have a fly-sky-watch.
You can see other Christmas Sky pictures from around the world by visiting here. Maybe you can join too - so we can see YOUR sky!
Have you noticed how family gets involved in skywatch? We’re driving along, or eating a meal, and one of the kids says "Hey - look at that! It would be great for Skywatch, mom!" And they run get a camera. And hand it to Prince Farming. Isn’t that funny? And cute? Actually I like it. It’s like they’re taking interest in what I’m doing, like I take interest in what they’re doing. And they hand the camera to Farming because my hands shake. Like leaves. So he gets steadier shots. You all liked his pond shot a few weeks ago, so here’s a moon shot he took too. (You know about me and moons . . . the photographing of them, I mean!!)
Actually what the kids were WANTING you to see is that there was ice/snow on the trees. So that grayish hue isn’t fog - it’s ice. Not as spectacular as in real life, but we can pretend that the moon was the real focus, and that makes it okay.
I’ve promised to be brief in my posts (to you AND to myself). But I can’t resist this one (since I didn’t post yesterday). Part of the season’s busy-ness is due to school programs and the like. Here is a shot of the piano recital. Both kids played in it, but the camera only worked during our favorite child’s performance (that’s what I tell my son, anyway).
Poor boy - he’ll need therapy as badly as his mom does before he grows up . . .
Happy Skywatch Friday! You can see more skies from all over the world by visiting Skywatch Friday.
You know who you are. Your Christmas shopping is all done, and everything was wrapped and ready before December even hit. AND your Christmas cards are handmade and mailed with perfectly matching holiday postage stamps. Arggghhhh. My Christmas list isn’t even complete. I mean, I went shopping last week, and spent one month’s salary stipend in an alarmingly short period of time. And while I suffered some amount of "AAaahhhhhh" over the bill that will be coming, I felt some satisfaction in being pretty much done. A few online orders to place, and I thought I was SET. But as the days have gone by, I’ve realized this small detail:
My LIST isn’t even done
Meaning, I didn’t have a complete list, so my shopping is not complete.
Unfortunately, all the money I’ve set aside for Christmas is long spent. So, I’ll just have to THINK about the things I would want to give to the people who didn’t yet make it onto my list. Because it’s the thought that counts, right!? RIGHT?!
And you KNOW those people aren’t going to be getting any truffles!!
W A Y back in October my dear friend Louise blogged on a Very Vintage Halloween swap. She told about the fun package that she received, and about the very cool one she sent. So I decided to join in on the fun - except that Halloween was over and I don’t really get into Halloween at all. BUT the very organized Heidi over at Foxgloves, Fabric & Folly posted a new swap - all about Christmas. So I signed up, knowing I’d have PLENTY of time if I just started early. I’m very happy to report that my package WAS sent before the deadline. But not before my wonderful swap partner got hers to me. This post is about the wonderful box I got.
I’ve participated in various swaps in my life - mostly to do with stamping where I make xx identical cards, send them to a swap hostess and receive xx different cards back. This is done to grow a sample library - lots of cards to look at, copy, and share. So this Christmas swap was a departure for me. My swap partner was Yvonne of White Painted House. What I really loved about the experience was the fact that I got to know a little bit about someone I’d otherwise never have the opportunity to interact with. And I got to know her through the emails leading up to the swap, finding out about the things she enjoyed and did over the holidays. And I got to know her even more through her interpretation of what I told her about myself. The things she sent in the package are very clearly evident that she paid attention to my interests. A dimension of what she included shows a part of her personality in the whole thing. It was very fun.
Is there anything better than receiving a great big box with your name on it - something that you didn’t buy off eB*y or from some online catalog? YAY!!! The mail lady (does that sound weird to you too?) brought it just as I was heading out of the door. I’m not known for my patience or restraint - so I broke into it immediately. Of course I had to take pictures at each step, but the delay was WAY WORTH IT!!! Guess what I got!??
A whole bunch of packing peanuts!!! But poking through the peanuts was one of my all time favorite things. STAMPS!! Not only that, Yvonne found out about my absolute crazy addiction to anything CUTE and MINIATURE - and so the best thing of all was that the STAMPS were MINIATURE. I was already thrilled. But I didn’t let that amount of satisfaction stop me. I dug through the peanuts and found these distinct packages.
Don’t you just want to tear into this and see what the juicy stuff behind the lovely miniature stamps might be!? But no - you’ll have to wait. Because then there was this:
A beautiful box that definitely had SOMETHING in it. And, as if these two surprises weren’t enough, there was also this:
Can I just tell you how much I love packages inside packages? Looking back over my life, the gifts I’ve loved the most had gifts inside the gifts. This box just helped me to realize that "out loud." It was SO MUCH FUN. Like a whole adventure in a box.
In addition to those adorable and very useable tiny stamps, here’s what was inside the first package:
Very nice. I love notepads. And places to keep notes. And paper. Yvonne hit the nail on the head with this whole package. But then came item #2. The gorgeous (and suspiciously heavy) box. I couldn’t wait to open it. And here’s what I found:
and
AND . . . .
a perfect resource for people like me - those who LOVE to be creative, but who lack a certain - how shall I say - creative originality. This is a LOVELY book - one I’ve paged through and planned with . . . but have yet to actually follow up on. But wait - let me back up. Did you notice that ADORABLE stocking? Yvonne told me she really loves crafts . . . and on inspecting that stocking, I’d say she must do a fair amount because the craftsmanship on it is amazing. I actually looked for traces of a tag indicating it was bought, but NO - I’m certain she made it. And there are tiny bells on the ends of the green trim - too cute for words. I think she called it "wool felt applique" if I’m not mistaken. It’s a craft I have not delved into, but I wouldn’t consider it too far in my distant future!! And the cloths - the little hanky was peaking out of the top of the stocking - very cute. And the table runner is beautiful - and perfect for holiday decorating.
You would think that this would be the perfect finale for my wonderful package, but it was not. Inside that adorable little box, a clue on the contents was right on the lid - - - there were these TOO CUTE FOR WORDS ornaments.
Aren’t they sweet? But wait - you’re missing something. Each one has little stick arms. Check this out.
Isn’t that the cutest thing ever? And although I can’t figure it out, I could swear Yvonne made these too. I really need to broaden my horizons on the craft front. I’ve been pretty well stuck in paper for a very long time.
THANK YOU Yvonne!! I would swap with you ANY time of year!! Yvonne did a great job staying with the "vintage" theme of the swap. I feel like I strayed a bit . . . but that’s just my personality. Always the rebel, I guess. I took photos of the things I put together for Yvonne too - and I’ll share those in another post.
