Notes from A Cottage Industry

Wishing everyone a happy, and safe ending to 2016...

Thursday night booth re-fluffing.

 

Thursday night is the new night of the week to go down and fluff up our booth spaces at Camas Antiques. The Christmas season has been busy, and therefore I'm pretty low on merchandise currently, but that will all change next Thursday when I plan to do a full makeover to my booth.

This week I brought down my vintage grocery scale. I adore it, and hate to part with it, but I just do not have any place I can put it in my cottage, and neither do either of my daughters. It's an incredible statement piece, and it is a showstopper when used on a big party buffet display.

That's a peek at my booth this week. Stay tuned to see what new looks will be appearing next week!

Download and Print a New Year's Eve Banner from my Etsy Shop just in time for New Year's Eve!

I printed mine on white cardstock, but you could also print it on cream, or any pastel color you like, as well as on old book pages.

This is the perfect touch for a mantel, a hutch top, or over a window...

...and it can be used year after year. I'm using mine this year for a New Year's Day brunch, over the table, along with my vintage clock collection. You can get it in my etsy shop, by clicking here. 

Brunch pictures to come later!

It turns out that you CAN buy (a plan for) happiness.

True.

I've got the planner to prove it.

It's awesome, and, it's part of what makes me happy. It was a birthday present to me from my bestie at my grown up girl j-o-b, and I am loving it.

So, the happiness planner is a way-too-cool-for-just-about-anyone 100 day guide book for finding your happy spot and helping it grow.

(I'm a nut for self help books, planners, newsletters, podcasts...you name it. What can I say?)

This handy-dandy notebook slash planner book helps you to find your sweet spot, and plan your weeks with genuine purpose. I've been filling out the front of the book (It's full of thought provoking questions to ponder.) with my friend at work. (She got herself one too!)

....and next week (as 2017 begins) I'm going to start using the weekly charting portion.

Twenty seventeen, I am so ready for you. (If you want to get a Happiness Planner, you can order one here: http://thehappinessplanne.refr.cc/brigidv )

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Better a little late than never....New Year's Eve party hats, horns, and flags hit my booth at Camas Antiques!

One of my resolutions for 2017 is to get ahead of the curve in crafting items for my booth space.

It was a resolution for 2016 as well, but that ship clearly sailed.

Anyway, I spend a portion of my day yesterday creating some hats, horns, and flags.

(One of my favorite ways to spend my time!)

I get so carried away that I always lose track of time, and before I knew it, I had used up my afternoon, where I had planned to take down the Christmas decorations.

In the end, I did manage to get the tree undecorated, and we schlepped it out to the yard for the boy scouts in a couple of weeks. The fireplace mantel will now take on a New Year's theme, with my vintage clock collection and chalkboard art.

Let the countdown to the new year begin!

And just like that, Christmas 2016 is over.

Maybe it's because I have been so busy, or because I am a little...ehem...older, but the days leading up to this Christmas (and Thanksgiving, for that matter.) flew right on by. We're enjoying the lights twinkling on the incredibly dried out Douglas fir tree in the corner of the living room, and I am debating whether or not to take down all of my Christmas decorations today (as I usually do...) or leave it all decked out through New Years.

One of my best gal-pals is coming up next weekend to ring in the new year with us, and I always feel like my cottage looks so bare when I put away the Christmas decorations, you know? Still, I am leaning that way. Otherwise I will risk being one of those folks with their Christmas stuff still up at the end of January, because I will be back at work.

I think I just talked myself into putting things away today.

On the plus side, if I do take down the decorations today, I can deck my mantle out for New Year's Eve. And, truth be told, at this point, the tree isn't the only Christmas decoration looking dried up and tired. The little live tree in my kitchen has been sitting on a stool right near the heat vent, and I am now wondering if it will survive when I try to put it outside, or if it will go into complete shock. (I moved it to the garage tonight as an ease-into-going-back-outside to live transitional move.)

I had this crazy idea of having a little live tree in the kitchen each year, and then planting it, one after another, in the back yard along the fence, with little markers stating the year. (We'll see how this plays out.)

Anyway.

When do you do your holiday tear down? Right after Christmas? (Are you too busy today hitting the After-Christmas sales?) After New Years? In February? Am I the only one that rushes to put it all away after the holly-day is passed?

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Happy Christmas, twenty sixteen.

Merry Christmas eve, my friends.

The night before the night before Christmas.

The band of brothers came over for a sleep-over last night, while their Mommy and Daddy went to a grown up holiday event. The evening was spent playing cards (Go Fish, and a new fun game they taught me called Kings in Corners) eating Otter-Pops, and reading Christmas stores at bedtime.

We had quite a discussion surrounding who had the bed and who got the camp cots in the guest room, with the blue sleeping bag's fluffiness being a wildly popular comodity.

This morning we will have breakfast, (cereal, and surprise fruit smoothies!) and then they will help me finish decorating the Christmas tree, which has managed to go all season half decorated with lights, bows and icicles only.

All of these babies are growing too fast!

Quick and easy-peasy ways to make a gift bag (or box) look aah-mazing.

We went to a party last weekend with some dear friends, and it included a secret Santa portion to the party. I had to bring two ten dollar items for a woman, and Ralph had to bring two for a guy.

We bought items we both would love to bring back home; Goodwill gift cards from me, and state lottery scratch-offs from him. The dilemma then became how to wrap them, and with the party less than an hour away, I tossed each item in a gift bag, and the last gift card went into a brown box.

I printed tags to designate whether it was a girl or a guy gift, and with a few snips of ribbon, tissue and netting, I was pretty much done.

I have a vintage laundry basket on wheels in my craft room that holds all of my snippets of ribbon from past projects. I also keep a basket of Walmart ornaments, (They work great for lots of party themes, and most of them are only a dollar or two!) along with dollar store mittens in every color, ("coz they're a dollar!) just for decorating packages and baskets. I added an ornament and a sprig of fake greenery to the boxed gift, and a pair of dollar store mittens to the girl's gift bag.

Done, and done, all within fifteen minutes.

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I'm getting (my booth) ready for New Year's Eve. Who's with me?

I love the entire concept of New Year's Eve celebrations surrounding reminiscing over the old year as it ends, and looking forward to the new year with all of it's infinite possibilities and opportunity that it holds. I don't think all that many folks share my sentimental feelings about this holiday, and I am not sure why. 

I know, I know. We don't have to wait for New Year's Eve to make a resolution. We've all heard the quote from L.M. Montgomery's Anne in Anne of Green Gables say “Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” and I heard Oprah once say you can make a resolution any time and any day, and yes, she is right. Still, to me, there is something so magical about the ending of one year and a new one beginning, and I always feel so filled with hope when I think of it.

One of my dearest friends is flying in to welcome in 2017 with us, and so I'm even more excited this year.

My booth space at Camas Antiques has a nice collection of New Year's goodies. I've added banners and flags, and  a few cool little treasures to help celebrate the holiday.

It was hard for me to part with those huge mugs, as I can envision us sipping some cocoa out of them on New Year's morning, but....I'm really out of room in my cupboards to store them.

How about you? Are you a die-hard romantic who loves New Year's Eve? I'd love to hear!

The annual grand-babes-in-bed-with-Santa-hats photo shoot. (Another one of those shameless Gramma brag posts.)

We took advantage of the cousin time together while we were on my fabulous milestone birthday Disneyland trip, and did the annual Santa-hats-in-bed photo shoot.

As usual, it was like herding kittens, and a lot of laughing going on, and we added a special pink Disney Santa hat for sweet Isabelle in the big group shots. By the way, did you notice all of the kiddos are in Mickey (or Minnie!) themed jammies?

Speaking of Isabelle, she wanted to take a picture with just herself and little Kacher.....

....and that lead to two more cousins wanting a photo, although they seemed to have trouble sitting still...

Oh, such fun!!!! Time flies, and I cannot believe the two oldest grands are turning eight this month (on Christmas eve!) and in January. We will surely be showing these pictures at their weddings some day....

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Weekly words to live by.

When you turn sixty, they take you to the happiest place on earth.

 

If you're blessed with an awesome family, that is! (Grown kids, and grands, and Ralph, oh! My!)

Our bags are packed, and we're off to brave the icy roads here to get to the airport, and fly on down to southern California for a long weekend of crazy fun. (If you're wondering about my photo up there, I whipped up some surprise treat and game bags for the grand's flights back home at the end of the trip.....)

Eeeeee! I can't wait to get my ears!

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So, this is sixty.

 


I never thought a milestone birthday was going to mean anything more than a number and another slice of birthday cake for me. It turns out sixty was a thing for me.

It didn't start out like that. In late spring, family members and close friends began mentioning to me (as if I didn't know it myself) that "The big six-oh" was coming up this year, and they were wondering what was I planning to do. Not necessarily an absurd question to be asking me, as I am known as the person most likely to plan an over-the-top-full-tilt-boogie event to celebrate anything from engagements-to-new-babies-to-painting-the-picket-fence.

And, as I said, at first it didn't bother me in the least. Birthday-shmirthday. Another opportunity to gather family and eat cake. (or cupcakes.)

But then September came.

And suddenly I became acutely aware of time, and how fast it goes.

How your choices define the path your life takes. How, over the last ten years (ten years) I had made decisions on the fly more often than not, partially because I had never really made big decisions like finances and job layoffs solo, and partially because I was in survival mode, working hard to not lose all of my marbles. I would constantly regularly occasionally throw caution to the wind and wing it, and now, when I looked back, all I could see were my wrong turns and hiccups, and oh-my-what-the-holy-moly-were-you-thinking-when-you-did-that moments, all playing in my head like a really bad lifetime-television movie that just magnified my seemingly endless list of apparent poor life choices.

(Did I mention I have an over-active drama gene?)

Anyway.

Why did I call out ten years as a marker in time?

Because, September 30th of this year marked an anniversary of sorts for me. You see, I became suddenly single exactly ten years ago on that day. (I first shared it here.) Time is a funny thing, you know? Like, I can remember that moment I discovered I was suddenly single with laser-like clarity, as if it were yesterday afternoon. Truth be told, when I think of that precise single moment, it still takes my breath and I feel an oddly weird sensation in my heart, just for half of a nano-second. Not a feeling of love lost anymore, but still a vivid memory of the feeling of sudden realization that I was truly-alone, and this was really happening..to me....and oh-my-Gawd-I-surely-will-die-because-I-am-a-couple-girl-and-I-thought-we-were-going-to-be-together-for-forever-and-ever-and-I-don't-know-how-to-do-anything-but-that.

Yeah, I remember that moment clear as day.

Even though my life is pretty danged sweet now, for some odd reason, realizing it had been a decade kind of paralyzed me. All of the less than stellar wing-it-life-choices and on-the-fly decision moments, and days, months, and now years, seemed to close in on me, with each one more magnified and multiplied in an incredibly harsh light.

I was acutely aware that I couldn't have a do-over.(There's that drama gene again.)

I gave it a half-hearted try, (okay, I didn't) and I couldn't see anything remotely resembling a successful moment for myself in those ten years. (After all,I was knee-deep in a poor-poor-pitiful-me party by this point.) The best I could see was a that-choice-was-not-as-bad-as-that-other-choice-I-made view of things. Now, a new decade was fast approaching.

I felt like I was going to cry when I thought about it for more than a minute. (Okay, I did cry.)

The calendar turned from September to October, then November, and quicker than you can say drama-queen, December was here. I spent the first six days of December talking to God (mostly during my alone time in the shower and in my car on the way to and from work....do you do that?) about how much I felt I had messed up in the last ten years, and how, oh, how...how...was I going to fix it? I continued to fret about it and talk to God.

...

Yesterday was my sixtieth birthday.

I woke up with a new attitude, which I am quite positive was not from within me, but a birthday present from God. I felt happy, with a renewed excitement to see what awaits me in this next decade. I understand now that there is no need to keep looking back, except to see how far I've come, and I see, once again, that I am right where I am supposed to be.

#60isnotforsissies #lifeisgood #livelifeforward #Godisgreat

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Weekly words to live by.