Merry Christmas!

Usually I'm on top of the game with my Christmas cards, getting them out the first week in December. I'm not sure what happened this year. Lack of motivation combined with global warming and the phases of the moon?

I've been making my own Christmas cards for about ten years now. I'm starting to get a little burnt out on it and envy those people who do boxed cards or photo cards. I know I'll have some disappointed people on my mailing list when I discontinue the handmade cards, but one must consider one's own sanity!

Here it is Christmas Eve and I finally got the last of my cards out.

They'll never arrive in time for Christmas, but so be it!

At least they're done!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

More Sparkles

A continuation of my previous post...here is my favorite light fixture, no. 2 of 3.
This chandelier was in my Grandmother's living room and I always admired it. When she died and we sold her house I knew I had to have this chandelier!
I have no idea how old it really is...maybe 1960's(??), but it reminds me of the layered fringe designs of the flapper dresses from the 1920's.

Now it hangs in my studio, which is quite appropriate since my Grandmother was one of my biggest fans and very supportive of my art. She would be proud of me that I'm selling my work all over the world!

Sparkles On My Ceiling

I finally got my lantern hung in the foyer! It's only been two years that it has been sitting in a box in the attic. I just love the patterns the lantern and water glass cast on the walls and ceiling.
When I bought this brass lantern in an antique store, it wasn't wired for electricity and had no glass, but I fell in love with it nonetheless! Lucky for me I have a hubby who was able to wire it up. We had an old chandelier we were replacing so we took the electric candles out and put them in this lantern. I cut the glass myself and managed to avoid serious injury (this is quite noteworthy as I am the world's biggest clutz).
Here it is with the lights off so you can see the detail. It's one of three of my favorite light fixtures. I'll show you the other two in another post!

O Tannenbaum

Finally I have taken the long-promised pictures of my Christmas tree.
I did a blue and white theme this year, which kind of morphed into a bird/peacock theme. Can you find the peacock hidden in the tree?
I had to get out the tripod to get these pictures. There just wasn't enough light in the room since my chandelier is temporarily out of commission. We're in the process of replacing it but the wire wasn't long enough on the new one, so hubby has to go get a longer wire.

Here is the peacock, in the center of the tree at the bottom of the picture. You might be able to see him better in the picture right above this one.

I'd love to see pictures of your Christmas tree! If you'd like to share, please leave me a comment with the link to your pictures.

Blue and Brown

The EtsyBloggers Team is featuring a blog carnival with the theme "favorite color combination: what do you make using those colors?"

One of my favorite color combinations is blue and brown. Ironically those are not my personal favorite colors, but I do like the way they look together. (Obviously, given the number of designs I have created using blue and brown!)

Etsy Blogger of the Month

Is CalKat! I just love this piece of jewelry from Kathy and Carrie's shop, it's so unusual!

Braces? At my age!

**Please note: my article was "borrowed" by get-a-celebrity-smile.com and appears without my permission on their website, advertising some teeth whitening pens. I DO NOT endorse them, especialy since they used my article without my permission and I cannot find any way to contact them to have it removed!!

I just got Invisalign braces this week for a rouge front tooth that decided after 20 years to revert back to it's former position. (I wore metal braces twice before as a child--blah!).

I am miserable. Of course it would be worse if I had those horrible metal brackets tearing up my cheeks, but my whole face hurts. The tray, as they call it--it snaps over your teeth, has rough spots on it along the gum line that are driving me up the wall. I've already attacked it with a nail file a couple of times.

Brace Face by GottaLotta

And on top of that I've got a sore throat and nausea. At first I thought I was coming down with something, but thought perhaps I would check the intenet for reported side effects of Invisalign. Lo and behold, I found many other people reporting the same thing! I've concluded it's either an allergic reaction to the plastic or caused by a severely dry mouth (another side effect of having Invisalign).

I reported these symptoms to my orthodontist, who is one of those good ole southern boys, and he said he'd never heard of such a thing. Maybe it was anxiety. (WTF??!!!)

So I have taken it upon myself to educate him by emailing him all the links from my afternoon of research on the internet. I'm kind of locked into treatment with him since I've already paid for over half of it, so changing orthos would be a bit of a hassle. Besides, the histrionic female accusation, he's a nice guy otherwise.

I'm definitely going to lose weight too, due to the hassle of taking the durn tray in and out every time I eat. Then I have to brush before putting it back in, otherwise the food will be trapped in the tray and I'll get cavities. Unfortunately, aside from a couple of inches around my belly to get back into my "skinny" jeans, I really don't need to lose weight. So I'll end up looking like a skeleton before this self-imposed ordeal is over.

I've been sipping on water the last few hours and the nausea has gotten better, so maybe it is related to dry mouth. The good news is my treatment will only be 12 weeks long. I put up with morning sickness during my pregnacy with my son longer than that, so I guess I can hang in there!

Wordless Wednesday

Photograph taken by me yesterday at the library.

Friday Favorites

1 Burlap Romance... by AlicesLookingGlass
2 Vintage French Book Paper Wreath by SimpleJoysPaperie
3 Elegant True Love Memory Box by FunWallArt
4 Rosa ornament gift set by cardinalhouse

Dishwasher Woes

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday! (for those readers in the US). My holiday was nice, spent with family, and now I am recovering from having a house full of guests.

Today I got a lot done--laundry, putting things back in their places, and dishes--yes, dishes. My dishwasher broke last night. I'm not happy about that. It's a 2 yr old Kenmore provided by the builder of my new home.

Kitchen Scrubbie by Laksaware
I may just need to get this if my dishwasher doesn't get fixed soon!!

Part of me wants to fix it since there will be lots of expenses with the holidays coming up and I don't really want to shell out the money for a new one, but the other part of me wants to replace it. I've never really liked it as it doesn't do a very good job, is extremely noisy, and bowl #4 always comes out dirty. I have bent the tine so many times trying to tweak the position of it I'm afraid it'll pop off if I bend it again!

Crocheted Dish Cloth by Laksaware

I miss my Maytag I bought for my last house. I wish I could have brought it with me! Yes, I'm spoiled, but I didn't always have a dishwasher so I figure I've paid my dues. My parents had one when I was growing up, but it was never hooked up. Isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard??--and it's still not hooked up. It's just a vintage kitchen decoration at this point.

Hmmm...I hope mine is not destined to become a vintage kitchen decoration.