Monogram Love Box...

I like pink & green so much!

Garden Rose...

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.

Dale Carnegie

This rose was blooming outside my window and I am trying to take this advice and enjoy it very much. :)

Daisies on Red...

lime & turquoise...

Love these colors together...

Alicia's Apartment Part 1

My sister Alicia has been decorating her apartment and I thought I would show you some of my favorite bits...

Alicia's Apartment Part 2

Nutcracker...

I have painted a very few of this Nutcracker box,

which was the Christmas Box from 2005.

see...

The LOve BoxeS ShoP

More bracelets...

I guess that I'm back into jewelry for awhile. :)

Apple Mug Shot...

Really officer... I haven't been anywhere near Newton.... remember an Apple a day...

Little c...

little c: Mom, do all Dads work in the basement?
me: No Sweetie, some Dads drive to an office everyday and some Moms drive to an office every day too.
little c: But our family works at home... I do hero work. You paint boxes and Dad makes money.
me. yep. :)

(little c is making a ginormous multi-page likeness of one of her cousins...)

Yellowstone...

Where I've been...

... seeing great sights...

Christmas Box December 2007..

I will honor Christmas in my heart & keep it all the year...

Charles Dickens

Christmas boxes are available right now in the

Hand Painted Love Boxes Shop...

THE Christmas Box...

I blogged & blogged yesterday because I won't be able to at all for a few days... I'm going to be busy. But, I am posting just once more for the week here and this is it. I've decided to introduce THE new Christmas Box with a giveaway contest. Comment just once on this post and I will draw a name for the giveaway on Saturday night.... winner posted Monday. Good luck!

Contest is now closed.... Marta is the Winner! Congratulations!!!

Brownies...

I love chocolate and if I ever suffer a heart attack... these brownies will be mostly to blame...
It's hard not to just schlurp up the batter when they are in this stage because they smell so good.
These are the secrets. The Semi-Sweet Baker's chocolate makes them a milk chocolate brownie... and almost anything worth baking deserves really good Mexican Vanilla... I like this kind pretty well and it's available around here, which is important. I consider this batter the background and sometimes I have them plain....
... and somtimes I add a ton of junk in... like this batch has walnuts and Guittard chocolate inside. Mint is also good. Mint frosting is good. Light frosting with a toasted almond on each tiny square makes them fancy for parties. This is an 8X8X2, but the recipes doubles easily for a 9X13. We forgot we were putting these on the blog and took some bites first before we took the picture. Ooooops.

The recipe...

1/2 cup butter

2 squares semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. good Mexican Vanilla

3/4 cup flour

Melt butter & chocolate over low heat. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour. Spread batter into greased 8X8X2 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. (the time is going to depend on your oven... don't over bake)

It's a simple recipe. Little c can pretty much make them herself after helping me make two big batches for a church social tonight.

Red Snowflake...

This is one of the boxes that I am most proud of.. (still not this years box).. The depth in this red took quite a bit of experimentation to get and all together there are about 8 layers of paint on this box.

I love the quote inside...

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

Anton Chekhov

I hope that I can make a couple of these for the shop this Christmas..

I still love toys...

I painted these and gave them to C for our 10th Anniversary... I guess that I wanted him to know that it was still going to be fun around here. These tops are great.. you can really get them spinning. I think that I will make some for the shop for Christmas.

Mums...

I love mums and daisies... usually they don't have a very lovely scent to them, but this one does. I love the soft purple color too.

Alicia's Amazing Art...

These paintings are some of my treasures. My sister Alicia painted them for me. She is so talented. I wish that I could water-color too! (the colors are much brighter and I guess I just couldn't get a great shot of them)

Cute!

My mom bought little c the cutest ever skirt from Boden. I just love it! It was on sale... see it here.