Giveaway!!!

I must have been tired, lazy or talking on the phone when I made this box because it just didn't turn out how I like them to turn out. I eyeballed it all wrong. On top of that, this particular red paint does not forgive anything, once you make a slight error, you are just married to it forever.
You can see my mistake. One of my snow flurries is all bunched up and one is all strung out! DAng! This box is just not up to the standard that I insist upon for the shop. So, I've thought about it and rather than offer it at a discount, I'm going to give it away if whoever wins will promise to display it on the pretty side. :)
I'm also giving away this pretty red heart, which turned out perfectly.
So this is how it works... Make just one comment in the comments below and you are signed up. I will choose two winners on Friday. You must have a blog where I can contact you or leave an e-mail. Winner number #1 will get to choose which box they like best and winner #2 will get the other one. Good luck!

There are many more Valentines in...

ThE LOve BoXes SHoP

And the Winners are:

#1 Stephenson Family

#2 pinkjagxj

Congratulations!

Nicholas Nickleby...

Next to A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities, this has been my favorite Dickens novel. I painted a lot of boxes listening to the unabridged version of this book on tape, but what fun! I just loved it. If you get a reader who can do all the voices and accents, this book just comes alive.

I have so much admiration for Dickens, his characters become so real. I've decided to go back to my college days studying literature this year and teach myself a class in a favorite author or two, but I think I could study Dickens all year and not make it through to the end of his work. I would really like to read Great Expectations again this year and Hard Times for the first time.

It's such a privilege to read these books. They changed the world. Dickens was a very effective social reformer. The Victorians did not have 60 Minutes to take them visually inside schools, orphanages, poor areas of town, prisons and the like. But Dickens, with his incredibly visual language, showed his countrymen and ours as well the things they would never have noticed without him.

I read once that most of Dickens work has never been out of print. Part of the reason for that is he can still show our generation a few things and not just about characterization and great writing, but even more about the responsibilities of being a human being and the courage required to be a good one.

Be Mine...

I love holidays so much and none more that Christmas. So when we spend Twelfth Night (last night) taking down the tree and burning the house's twinkle lights one last time, I finish it off by putting up the Valentines. It keeps me from being sad. I like New Year's resolutions too. It's kind of dark around here in the winter time and sometimes the inversion (which we haven't had much of thank heavens!) can bee a real downer. So, I like to make lots of plans and have fun things in my head to look forward too. And, I have to send C fishing and get him out in the sun for a bit, that's all it takes to keep him happy. He's pretty easy to please; I'm lucky that way.

New Year Brings Change to the old Bloggity Blog...

Since I am so lucky to be visted here by a few fun girls from other nations and a few non-political friends as well. I will no longer air my political rants on this blog... I'm going to save it all for my politics only blog Sunlight & Stars (It's an election year people and I must vent somewhere!). This way only those of you who like to get mad with me or at me can choose to read (both sets of folks are welcome... be fair warned if you don't agree with me I will argue with you, but I'll still love ya even if you happen to be way wrong and completely insane!!! :)

And, after some consideration, I have decided to list on EBAY in a sort of by appointment only fashion. If you can't, won't or don't want to go over to ETSY with me, I am willing to list on a "buy it now" basis on EBAY for those prefer to work with them. If you have a Paypal acccount already however, it takes two seconds to register on ETSY and there are really fabulous artisans over there besides myself who purvey marvelous stuff, so my advice is not to miss out on that. EBAY just takes too large of a cut and I frankly can't afford it, so when I do list on EBAY I will be adding their listing fee to my regular prices.

A Guest Worker Program...

Today, Utah State Representative Julie Fisher sent around a 2008 Legislative Survey. The ideas that she has listed as solutions to Illegal Immigration are very distressing to me unless we have a Guest Worker Program in place first. If you live in the same legislative district and recieved this...Please write in Guest Worker Program under the #1 "Your suggestion" and the #9 "suggestions". This is a nation of immigrants, lets find a way to treat all the members of our society in a humane way.

A Willa Cather Valentine...

This is the medium size version of this box. Instead of reading, "Hearts & Flowers" inside, it reads, "Where there is great love, there are always miracles... Willa Cather" these boxes will appear today in

ThE LOvE BoXEs SHoP

Just a few happy things...

Visions of Misletoe still in my head...
flowers abloom in pink & redlinens on a freshly made bed...
appetites for Christmas not yet fed...
A Happy Twefth Night to you and it's all said.

The Founders on Religion...

My brother gave me the marvelous book for Christmas. While the founders of the United States wanted a there to be a separation of church and state, they framed this goverment for a religious and moral people. This is a subject that interests me and I have written about before here.

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

"No Man has a more perfect Reliance on the alwise, and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being that I have nor think his aid more necessary." George Washington

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Thomas Jefferson

This is a book to buy for your library.

Rickenbacker's Bistro...

If you ever happen to be in Ogden, Utah. Don't miss this place... YUM!

This Year I Will...

I'm a person who likes to make goals and I do that all the time, but this year I'm planning to make some resolutions as well. And, I'm reading this book, (I'm about 30 pages in and it's really great so far), to help me make some plans that will help me achieve the things I want to. I also want to continue some goals we made last summer in our family that have been going well, but you know how things can slip if you're not careful.

I was listening to the TV while doing some housework the other day and they were interviewing people about their resolutions and I thought some of them were pretty great and thought about how fun it would be to do their resolutions in my own way. One guy said that he would like to perform an act of kindness everyday. I don't think that he meant holding a door for someone and that sort of thing, I think he meant something really intentional and thought out. That would be really fun I think.

Some of the goals I have are just not as fun to contemplate... like losing 15 pounds for my sister's wedding. I don't want to hate the photos for the rest of my life. Talking kinder to myself and others would cause a lot less stress in my life. I hate saying the wrong thing. And, I hate how I always say lately, "fer" and "yeah" instead of, "for" and "yes". I want to be the kind of person who accomplishes more and worries less. I need to find a way to put those things and a few others into concrete goals that can be measured for progress.. (see I'm being optimistic already). Still, I'm contemplating these goals because they are the things that are making me the most unhappy. I'm actually a pretty happy person, but I think it makes sense to get rid of the things that make you the most unhappy first.

It's a bright shining new day in a bright and hopeful new year. My Christmas Paperwhites are soaking up the brilliant sunshine in the window this morning and almost anything seems possible.

Happy New Year!!!

We rung in the new year like this. Well, we meaning little c. We, C and I stood by in a sleep-deprived, Grinch-like fashion and wished we were home in our bed. We actually made it until midnight, which never has happens. We had Chinese food, delicious, and watched the ball drop in Times Square, very anticlimatic. Shouldn't someone sing The Star Spangled Banner or Auld Lang Syne or something?? ... the ball drops and we sit there and watch two guys talking baseball... I didn't need to stay up to see that! Do I sound down on the New Year? I'm not.

This is going to be a great year! I'm going to get a nap sometime today and then it's going to be great! I have lots of plans for this year and I just can't wait to get started.

What did you do to celebrate?

The Jane Austen Action Figure...

I recieved this for Christmas. I love it! On the back it says her weapon of choice is a pen, or language or something and it has a lot of fun Jane quotes. I wish I didn't throw the box away now. Fun!

The Ultimate Gift...

This is a great film to watch with your children. Little c really enjoyed it and I like films that lead to a good family discussion and this is a good one for that.

C is fishing and I'm making stuff...

The Reading Room...

This is a great film about a widower whose wife wished for him to build a reading room in the tough neighborhood where he grew up. I thought this was a valuable film to watch with little c. It did have some very sad violence in it (there is a scene where they show a girl who has been beaten by her drunken father) and so I would not let very young children watch it and I think that older children should watch with their parents. The film is full of good messages and interesting observations and will prompt some good discussion. The acting is very well done by the principal actors and the script is pretty tight with only a few awkward spots.

Christmas is still in full swing around the house but...

...the Shop has to be a holiday ahead.

A few Christmas Favorites! & Twelfth Night...

Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight...
Hooray it snowed!!! Little c in 3 sweaters 3 scarves a vest and 3 pairs of gloves... watching her talk on the phone to her cousins for an hour while she wrote "Merry Christmas" with her snowboots all over the front lawn so that Santa could see.
The moment when everything was wrapped and ready.
The gift wrap that turned out the prettiest...
New slippers.. Good morning everyone! I hope that you had a really wonderful Christmas... and don't forget to celebrate for 12 days you know the song... :) (although the poor person in that song gets an awful lot of birds.. 7 swans, 6 geese, 4 calling birds, 3 french hens, 2 turtle doves and a partridge.) Anywho.. I we celebrate for 12 days. The decor stays up, the lights stay on, the Christmas books are out and read, the Christmas music and movies are listened to and watched. On Twelfth Night (January 6th) we have another candlelight dinner and talk about our favorite Christmas memories.

Merry Christmas!

May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas to Me...

I have another book by Joan Walsh Anglund about Christmas called A Christmas Sampler. It's darling. I love her books and have collected a few. They don't stay in print long, which is something I really don't understand. Little c still loves them like I do. This one isn't in print either, but there was a used copy for $2.98 on Amazon. I love their used books, they just save the day.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little...

This is an AWESOME book that little c recieved for her birthday from Aunt Jenni, Uncle Rob and the RI cousins. She loved it! How do I know. "Mom! MOM! You have to hear this part!" ... about a hundred times. It's very cute! Little c is taking this book to school to see if her teacher will read it to the whole class.