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.

Venetian Beads...

I love colored glass so much... especially paperweights. But I also love these blown Venetian beads. They are so lovely and would make a very lovely something.... See them here.

Little c & Me...

My favorite thing in the whole world is to make art with my daughter.
Sunday we made sculpy art. She made these St. Bernard puppies that look like her best stuffed dog named Pancake, who is a crazy guy. She even made them bowls with dog food and each a blue ball to play fetch with. Aren't they so cute?!?

Necklaces...

Our church women's organization is having a fun jewelry making class and we are learning to make these. The pendant on the left is a really pretty blue polished stone and it's called sodalite which makes me think of diet coke.

Tristan & Isolde...

You know, this film really surprised me; it was much better than I thought it would be. I mean the script was better than I thought (it had really weak spots in 2 or 3 places). The legend of Tristan and Isolde, which is the base of the Aurthurian legends has been fleshed (I can't help using that term as there was some gratuitous flesh) out a thousand different ways. This way was smart and quite interesting. The acting was very fine. The performance of Rufus Sewell as Marke was spot on in my opinion. Sewell is amazing, and he can play one of those intimidating angry people who have you watching the film from between your fingers. And then, there was the hair. The hair was so amazingly pretty that I'm buying rag rollers tomorrow. Seriously.

Singing Pumpkins...

This funny singing pumpkin couple are also in...

The Love Boxes Shop

today.

Snowman...

New in

The Love Boxes Etsy Shop

today...

Stranger Than Fiction...

Though attentive to the details of an ordinary life, this film supposes the possibility that ordinary lives do not really exist but that only extraordinary lives exist; sometimes shrouded in the mundane for a time.. they are heroic at last. It's so hopeful. And, in many cases, it's very true.

"Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. "

...from the script of Stranger Than Fiction

The Snowflake Boxes...

This is the 2006 Christmas Box...

I hope to have some in several colors for Christmas this year...

But this is not THE Christmas box yet...

Alexandra's New Book...

Alexandra's new book Happiness For Two will be out December 26th. I can't wait. The August Newsletter is also up today.

Shenandoah...

A movie about a man who lives in Virginia, but does not believe in the cause of the Confederacy during The Civil War and tries very hard to keep his family safe and protected during that terrible conflict. This is one of Jimmy Stewarts many really great performances and a great film as well.

Christmas Boxes...

This is a Christmas Box, but not THE Christmas Box. I designed this box for Christmas in 2005. However, this box is a favorite of mine and will be available today in

The Love Boxes Etsy Shop...

which, by the way, has a bit of a new look today.

Bling for the Love Boxes Shop....

I hope to have these in

THe Love Boxes Shop

Today...

It must be an obsession....

I love painted everything and everything painted...bright that is... Aren't these little owl clips cute? This store had some pretty great stuff. I've had a great time looking through the site this morning and getting a few ideas of my own.

Michael Yon...

How did I not know about this guy? C has been following his site for some time now.
Michael Yon and more of Michael Yon

The Glen Miller Story...

A very sweet film. Little c loved this one!

The Veggie Basket...

This can make a fun centerpiece for a table. I think that it was one of Martha's idea from long ago, but anyway it has been a popular idea in my family. This yellow basket is the largest that I have, it is almost 30 inches in diameter. I fill the bottom with heavy brown packing paper and then I use a few plactic groceries sacks from the grocery store to cover the paper. I then gather up a few different greens to make the vegetable bed. When I can get it, I love to use purple kale, but a variety makes it really pretty, sadly I could only get green this time. I think of it like a flower arrangement. Then I used whatever veggies will serve the crowd I'm making it for. My mom's family would like sweet pickles, baby corn, beets and other things like that. C's family likes their food without so much embellishment so these are veggies from the produce section, nothing from a jar. If you want it to look really amazing steam all the green things like the broccoli for just 5-10 seconds and they will be sooooo beautiful. I like to use the hollowed out purple cabbage for the dip, but you could use a green one if you like. I think this basket can easily handle a crowd of about 50-60 people as long as they aren't all health nuts, then you might need a second one. :)

Pumpkin Box...

These will appear in

THe Love Boxes Etsy Shop

Today...

Les Miserables... The Dream Cast...

This musical is still and may ever remain my favorite. If you missed this particular production when it appeared on PBS... get this in your Netflix que or find some way to enjoy it. It's better every time I see it. Beautiful.

Dangerous...

I saw this book on several of the blogs and thought I would look into it for my nephew's birthday. Well, this book is just fabulous and one for the family library. C and little c both want me to get one so they can both read it. Who isn't interested in "The Ages of Piracy" ? This is the perfect gift for any male person on your gift list and most girls would like it quite a bit too. It's tons of fun to look through.

Sweet Tour...

Little c and I had the best time yesterday. We visited the Sweet Candy Company's factory. I loved the smell inside... AAAaahhh Sugar! The bags of sugar they use weigh 2,000 pounds. They use 800 pounds of chocolate everyday. Everyday they ship out 7-12 semi-truck loads of candy to points all over the country. When the government has room on transports over-seas, they ship Sweet's sweets to our troops. Hooray!
It was a little Roald Dahl in the factory with large pipes piping chocolate all over the place and pipes taking sugar everywhere. The tour guide told us that when we had finished the tour, we had walked 1/2 mile. It seems like a kind of large rectangle in there. (Above is a picture of the old factory) They also told us that last year 10 million pounds of salt water taffy was shipped out of that factory. That's some serious taffy!
I love it when they pack it up like this. Don't you love these boxes?!?! We had too much fun in the Sweet Candy Company's Sweet Shop...
If you get a chance... don't miss this tour on a trip to Salt Lake City... I believe that they only run the tours during the summer when the factory is not running at full capacity... The address is on the door. :)