Notes from A Cottage Industry

It's time to drink champagne and dance on the table.

Add some glitz to your bubbly this new year's eve. (or anytime you want things festive for that matter.)

Oaky, I will admit that I have been overcome with the glitter bug this week. this being said, last night I ended up carrying it through to one last new year's eve item.

Mmm hmm, I was thinking, how about making the beverage of the night that much more festive? Or, for a new year's day brunch? For that matter, adding some gold glitter to any beverage bottle would also make quite a statement as a hostess gift as well.

Whether it's champagne or sparkling cider, or even wine for that matter, the process is the same...I got a bottle of sparkling cider that happened to have gold foil paper at the top. (Several champagnes are wrapped this way as well) Take a small jar of gold glitter (or you can use white, or silver glitter if you'd like....the possibilities are endess!) and some household glue..
Working over a piece of paper of some sort, rub an ample amount of glue on the bottm half of the foil and down onto the glass bottle itself...
Sprinkle the glitter over the glue. Stand the bottle up to dry, and use the paper as a funnel to put the over-spill glitter back in the jar.

It's that easy.
And sparkle-y.

And fun.

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Weekly words to live by...

Don't stop dreaming,

start doing.

What are you doin' New Year's Eve?

You know I love to bake.

And to make cutie patootie lil' tags and such.

But this year, time slip-slided away from me and Christmas baking didn't actually happen other than a double batch of snowball cookies.

Sad, I know.

Then, it occurred to me that there was still time before the official holiday season wraps up to do my baking and share it with friends and family. After all, there is still New Year's Eve coming up!

We will be bringing in twenty thriteen at a band gig, and I was thinking....What could be more fun than to surprise the other band-mates and thier sweeties with party bags, full of prezzies and treats?

I tell you, I got so excited about my idea that I was like a tornado running around the dollar store, and then whipping through my craft supplies, looking for my most perfect sparkly-glittery-it-must-be-new-years-eve stuff. (Seriously, I was able to get the party hats, gift bags, and horns all for under six bucks at the dollar store, and I have plenty of extras!)

I made quite a craft mess in the kitchen where I was working on things, but it was well worth it, and here's a peek at the the end results...

I think I've covered all my bases:

Party Bags. Check.

Party hats. Check.

Party horns. Check.

New Years Resolutions Cards.(with pens, no less.) Check.

Midnight snacks. Check.

All that's left to do is bake my cookies, and assemble all the goodies in the bags. If everyone has half as much fun opening these presents and using them on new years eve as I did making them, we're golden.

The living room takes on Christmas.

Yes, I know this post is over-due, and Christmas Day has come and gone.

Whatever.

So.

The living room.

At Christmas time.

I had originally wanted to do a ginormously tall, but slender noble pine Christmas tree in the living room this year, but, even though Thanksgiving came a little earlier in the month this year, we ran out of time.

(That seems to be a pattern with me these days, I've noticed.)

This year, the big tree found it's home in the corner of the dining room. Then, what we ended up going with in the living room was a fabulous on-loan-from-my-daughter thrifted small white artificial tree, which I placed on the trunk at one end of the sectional.
I love it!(Is that an incredible tree for two dollars at GoodWill, or what?!)
Splashes of red, grey and black added more Christmas-y color on the white sectional..(See my vintage red and white quilt? I adore it!)
....with snowy, glittery accents around the room...
along with lots of family Christmas photos.
The best part of all of this is the fact that I can keep the festive reds and greys going through winter, for Valentines Day, and then, when I am tired of it (and you know I will be) I can pull out my favorite-color-of-spring, Robin's egg blue, to change things up.

Happy day after Christmas, folks.

We spotted this unusually large number of Santa-wanna-be's as we were wrapping up our annual tradition of Christmas Tea at the Heathman Hotel a couple Sundays ago.

(Just one more reason I love Portland.)

Whether you're out shopping the giant day-after-Christmas sales, or back at work like me, I hope your holiday week is continuing to be fabulous.

Happy Christmas, twenty twelve.

God bless us, every one.

...and to all a good night.

Even our bedrom got some Chritsmas little touches this year. Little details like stockings hung on the footboard of the bed...
and a sprig of evergreen tied with a red satin ribbon on the headboard...
Keeping my main pieces neutral, in whites, creams and tans allows for lots of looks, by simply changing a few items. For the Christmas season, I traded out the white duvet for a red and white ticking one with matching shams. I then found some euro shams with red detail stitching and a felted red and white snowflake pillow for a holiday pop of color.
I think this colorway will be great through winter, Valentine's Day and all the way through until spring hits.

A tree with white twinkle lights rounded out the holly-jolly-and-a-little-romantic look, and adds a warm glow to the room. Little unexpected touches make it all so special.
Once New YEar's arrives, I will remove the all-out Christmas items and change them to something more geared towards winter and then Valentine's themed, but for now, I am just really enjoying the magic of the holiday season.

Weekly words to live by...

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Still wrapping?

...or, dare I ask...still shopping?

Join the club.

Not only am I still wrapping, (Who are we kidding here? I haven't started.) but I haven't yet addressed our Christmas cards. (The "holiday season" teachnically runs through January first, right?)

When I had the idea for the grand baby Christmas shoot, I hadn't thought about Christmas cards. In fact, truth be told, I haven't mailed out Christmas cards in a decade.

At least.

Oh, I've wanted to. I've bought cards, thought about making cards...and then run out of time.

Or steam.

Or whatever it takes to get-er-done.

Anyway,

The pictures were all just so adorable that I got the idea to use one of the mischevious boys and the sweetie-pie little princess shots as our card this year.

Yeah, that was prety much it. It was an idea.

Finally, last week I rallied myself into a card designing frenzy of sorts and decided to make them.
After three rounds of printing, I finally got the inside of the cards printed on the correct side of the paper (aaaurgh!) and right side up...voila'!
This year's Christmas miracle will be friends and family receiving a real honest-to-gosh Christmas card from me.

The warm glow of the holidays....in the dining room.

This year I think..I know...we are all hugging our loved ones a little tighter, and the blessings of family and home hold renewed meaning.

We're still decking the halls around here, a little bit more each night, and each day I look forward to enjoying the warm glow that candlelight casts in all the rooms when I arrive home from work.

One of the rooms I am most excited about is our new dining room.(Do you remember it before?) It was the family room, but we have reinvented it, and now the first room you see upon entering the house showcases our fabulous craigslist honey pine dining set, and trust me, it looks like it has always been a dining room.
The original dining room of the house is actually very, very small, and will now be re-invented into either a music room for my Rock n' Roll Buddy (my vote) or a home office space.(Currently my home office area shares the guest room, which is a little tight, but seems to be working.)

We will be installing a beyond beautiful thrifted old crystal and brass chandelier very soon, (and you know I will share pictures!) but for now, the glow of christmas lights on the tree, coupled with candle light and the floor lamp in the cormer create a very inviting look.
My usually all white stoneware collection has touches of reds and evergreens, and bits of shiny silver...
The tablescape carries my latest favorite color-way of grey, red, black and white in a winter and Christmas-y theme, showcasing my glittery snowmen and a couple of my Santa hats from the grand babes photo shoot.
I continued this color theme through out the house, and I will keep the colors this way through winter, only putting away the actual Christmas items...tomorrow, the living room, followed by  the oh-so-Christmas-y bedroom!

Cozy supper set up.

There is nothing cozier than a meal by candle light. It adds a warmth to any table setting, whether it's breakfast, or supper. Some tea lights set in rock salt in old canning jars creates a casual and wintery mini-centerpiece.
I'm going with a red, white grey and black color way for Christmas this year, and I am using a couple of super inexpensive scarves as runners.(One on the breakfast bar, and one on the dining table)
...Giant plastic snowflakes (two for a buck at the dollar store last year) make fabulous chargers, and eensy-weensy mittens with an evergreen sprig add the perfect finishing touch.
Pretty, and warm, and welcoming, don't you think?It makes any meal feel special.

Weekly words to live by...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Take a look at the five and ten, glistening once again, with candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

Just as I thought. It's all about how happy we are.

This time of year always inspires me to take stock of things, both what I have done this past year with my one and only life here, and what I plan to do with it in the coming year.

I am feeling extra-blessed these days, with six precious grand babes,and a happy, healthy family. Life is full, and good, and I am feeling  oh-so content, treasuring the little things, like hot cocoa, and sleeping late on Saturday mornings.

I have a challenging grown up girl job that I look forward to go to each work day, and since I spend a lot of time there, that is a silver lining in my life as well.

You know, there is a saying that I have shared here before, on one of my weekly words to live by Sundays that comes to my mind:

“The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love and something to hope for.” (Allan Chalmers)

I would have to agree, although I will admit when I first ever read the first part...something to do...I never really thought of the "do" as being my grown up girl job. I think I always pictured that part as in doing things around the house,like crafts or decorating, or doing things for those I love.

Anyway.

When I was thinking about all of this last night, I realized it is (or can be) about your grown up girl job. And I then stumbled upon an article that proved this, right here.

To further that point, I  was reading my most favorite work inspiring blogs, and I came across this recent post.

It's not rocket science.

It's about living.

Living every day of our lives.

Doing work we enjoy is part of the big picture of the life we should be living..

It really is as simple as that.

Weekly words to live by...

The first to aplogize is the bravest.

The first to forgive is the strongest.

The first to forget is the happiest.

Shameless Gramma brag post, 2012 holiday edition.

It's the happiest time of the year, as they say, and with six Grands under the age of four, you better believe I am in full agreement!

We gathered up the babes for a fun little photo shoot right before Thanksgiving when we had everyone together.
Number six was just two weeks old, and had gone home with his Mama and Daddy before we remembered to do the photo shoot, so he's got his own series of pictures...

Let me just say that attempting to photograph five little guys (er...four little guys and one little Princess) under the age of four in a semi-posed setting is rather like herding kittens....

I wonder how many Santa hats we are going to need next year...

Weekly words to live by...