My Christmas card

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Red Lead Giveaway!

Leave a comment on Red Lead's Blog and win a boxful of Christmas Red Lead style!  Their giveaways are always fantastic - not that I've won yet but I'll try again today! - so go on over and take a chance for some fabulous stuff!

Christmas trees!

Last year we started a tradition of going to our farm in NC to cut Christmas trees and bring them back to FL for us and our friends and we continued that tradition this year.  We left Sarasota on Thursday, Dec. 9 and arrived around noon on Friday.  Our friends from Charlotte, Ron and Terri, arrived late Friday afternoon.  Last year we had a winter wonderland on the day we cut the trees but we didn't expect snow for Saturday, Dec. 11, when we would be cutting this year.  And - no snow on Saturday but we had fun choosing and cutting our trees.  Then we woke up on Sunday morning to about 5-6 inches of snow!  It was beautiful!  But we couldn't get down our driveway to the paved road to get home!  We had planned on leaving Sunday morning for home at 9 a.m. but didn't get out until 2 p.m. and arrived home at 1 a.m.  Tiring trip - but well worth it! 

Here are a few pictures from last year:

Putting the trees through the baler.

All baled up and ready to go!

Don't we look cold?

Christmas trees for sale!  

Now here are the pictures from this weekend:

Snow in the mountains

Snow-covered Christmas trees

Birds are  hungry!

Ron and Terri bringing Christmas trees home to Charlotte

Yes, it was cold!

We had a wonderful time and I would not have minded if we were unable to leave on Sunday.  We had plenty of food, lots of wine, good friends and a fire.  What more could we have wanted?

A photo of the perfect North Carolina Frasier Fir to come!

Eclectic Paper Artists

Several of my crafty friends and I started a little swap group called "Eclectic Paper Artists."  Every month the hostess decides what we are to use to create a little project.  This month I sent everyone a 5 x 3 jewelry-type box to make a Christmas/holiday collage to send to each member.  I love making these little dioramas!  I originally got the idea from Chris and Sharon at Red Lead.  Take a look at their blog for some great seasonal ideas!  I'm posting a photo of the one I am keeping but want the others to be a surprise!

Annual Christmas Countdown

Every year Lisa Vollrath publishes images on her website, Ten Two Studios, every day during December that can be downloaded for free.  Take a look!

Getting ready for Christmas. . .

My very favorite online group and store, Red Lead, is having a great swap, Good Wishes Holiday Garland Art Swap.  Wow, the art these gals are making is just adorable!  Not to brag, but one of my creations is featured on the home page of the Yahoo group this week!    If you are interested in joining some really fun swaps with some very creative people, consider joining the group.  And the store is full of fantastic supplies and some very cool stamps that cannot be found anywhere else.  The store is in St. Louis - road trip anyone??

Here are the three chipboard garland pieces that I made.  I can't wait to see what I'll get!

Fall is here!

And has been here in Western North Carolina for a couple weeks.  The leaves are beautiful this year and the weather has been great!  Here's a little look:

I've been very busy this last month putting together and addressing all the Save-the-Dates for Matt and Jen's wedding.  It was time consuming, but Matt really did all the work designing and printing.  I think they look great and they went into the mail last evening except for about 12 that I made mistakes on and now I need some more envelopes that will be delivered next week after we're back home in Sarasota.  I should have known that would happen!  Extra envelopes are always a plus!

Here's a link to their wedding website which is a work in progress:  Jen and Matt.