A couple of days ago
Emily had a fun contest on her blog to see who could come up with the most fun name. As she put it, the contest was completely subjective and the winner was simply her favorite. However, there were over 400 entries and I enjoyed reading through quite a few of them. My entry was Rhiannon Nullig, which is an Irish name.
I love Irish names. Rhiannon means little king and Nullig is the Irish word for Noel, so I meant it to be... The Little King of Christmas. Lovely.
Some people want to give their children really unusual and interesting names,like the one above. However, I always think that you should consider the fact that your child may grow up and want to be a Supreme Court Justice and so they should be named appropriately.
However, having anything that is really fun about your name is pretty great. I have a some friends named White and they live in a white house. That is kind of fun. I have some friends named Valentine and some friends named Hartley, now that would be super handy about now. If that were me, I would leave my Valentine decorations up all year! My dad once had a secretary named Holly and when she married, she married a guy named Jolley. If I were her, I would have Holly bushes all around my house and I would use Christmas dishes with holly on them and serve egg nog at every party I hosted.
I love fun names. I always think of what kind of books people should write when they have a great name. I know a great guy named Sam Winchester. He should definitely grow up to write Westerns. I knew a guy in college named Austin Gray and I thought he should write romantic novels about wind swept moors and distraught women who pine for Heathcliff, but that guy went into elder care or something noble like that instead, which is all fine and good, but couldn't he have written novels on the side?
Anyway, I cannot help myself. I have to copy Emily a little. My contest will go through Teusday and it will be completely subjective, just like Emily's. I will simply pick my favorite name. The winner will be the person who thinks up the most fun pen name and posts it in the comments below. I will buy the name from the winner for the price of a Valentines package from Hand Painted Love Boxes... I am expecting quite a few less than 400 entries, so family members are eligible. Have fun! :)
The fairies have been popular and I was about out, so I painted a new batch this weekend and I am really please with them because I got the most amazing new paint brush and it makes great eyelashes. When you are painting fairies, the eyelashes are crucial. Available here.
I put up this ribbon clotheslines this weekend to showcase some little pretty things and artwork that I really like by Charb. Shelese, that is your wedding cake, if it looks familiar. I just loved those flowers in those colors. Anyway, the ribbon is Azalea Pink in 1/16 and the little bitty clothespins were at the craft store and cost about $2.
We finally signed up for Netflix. What took us so long? I love it! Anyway, I have always wanted to see this movie and never had the chance and so this was one of the first movies that I rented. It is rated G, but not for kids. I guess I'm a prude, but I think some of the inuendo that used to fly over the heads of children no longer does. That said, I loved this movie. Mostly I loved it because of the costumes designed by the famous Edith Head. Every bit of this clothing is right back in style. If you are able to find it as beatifully tailored is another question. Jane Fonda's character is just wierd in this show, but her hair, costumes and makeup are really lovely. And, Robert Redford.... he is just always cute.
This lovely little dolly was made by my good friend Michelle and will be appearing in the Love Boxes Ebay shop at 9 A.M. PST... Isn't she a cutie???
Shelese asked how I store my boxes. This is my answer. Because I keep the best example of almost every design that I paint, I have over 100 Love Boxes in my personal collection, therefore, they are everywhere. These are two of my favorite ways to display parts of my collection. Also, because Love Boxes are waxed, they clean up well from sticky fingers. They do not clean up well after being dropped on tile, or bitten, which I have sadly seen, but sticky can be removed. 
)
These Lampwork beads are too large for me to figure how to make jewelry out of them. However, I would love to tie the wedding cake and flowers from a cellophane gift bag. See them here.
I adore Sharpies and I have the rainbow pack of the fine point. These new micros look fun too. I love Sharpie for making hot pink, turquoise and lime! Fun!
New Kokeshi dolls... Available here... 
The inside of the lid reads... 
Michelle may make some of her designs available soon...
For years I heard Martha Stewart talking about using a wonderful and inexpensive seam binding in place of ribbon. However, all the seam binding I ever saw came in those small cellophane wrapped packages in the notions section. It was not really inexpensive purchased that way. Last week, I came across the Hug Snug product on Ebay and I ordered four rolls. Each roll is 100 yards. The colors are beautiful and the rolls sell for $6.95 each. This stuff must be what Martha is talking about. Seam binding is very thin and fine and so it ties a beautiful bow and the stuff is washable so that you can easily make a craft that requires some kind of vintage application. I had a great experience with Zipperstop, the Ebay vendor that I purchased from. This is one of my new favorite things.
It was a beautiful day yesterday. My neice had a lovely wedding and a beautiful reception. It looked like a garden under the stars.
This book is so cute and remains one of my favorite Valentines. Now there is a small gift edition available. See here.
I made a sketch of the feel that I wanted for the pink Easter bunnies that I had in mind to paint. This is how it's going... I hope they produce like little bunnies... I need about 50.
