Poinsettia... The Christmas Flower...

I love these flowers so much. I guess I love these plants so much since it's the leaves that make them colorful and amazing.
One year I decided to paint a poinsettia box and it's still one of my favorites. I wanted a Christmas poem to go along with it, but there was not one. So I wrote this:

Poinsettia

hail Christmas
the red star
flower of the holy night
and proclaim
"be of good cheer"
for he lives who alters
scarlet sin to whitest snow
for he lives who rose
the third day
for he lives creator of grace
in heaven and earth
... in crimson robes He comes again
while the red star waits and burns and shines
for to humble manger He first came
but in brightest glory will He reign.

Have you ever seen any other poinsettia poems? I also love the Tomie de Paola book. He has a really fun website.. see it here.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree...

It's very difficult to show you the whole of this tree. It's a pencil pine (fake). It goes in a small room though so it's perfect for that. If I back up and take a picture of the whole tree, then you'll see all the contractor off-white walls in this room that I don't really like. So when you look at the tree, imagine a bright lime wall behind it with pretty glossy white trim, which is what it's going to be someday.

Miss Vanessa...

Michelle, you wanted to see my lovely postcards from Miss Vanessa's shop. These are a deal! They are printed so prettily ... even the back is beautiful! Check out Miss Vanessa's Etsy Shop here where you can find very lovely holiday things.

Believe...

I made these blocks at homemaking night. I think maybe I will tie some bows around them or one or two and add some jingle bells. I love Santa. Little c's new thing is to go around asking everyone if they believe in Santa or not... you know our mantra around here is... "those who do not believe, do not recieve." I'm sure I believe. :)

Raising a Reader...

I started reading to c when she was 6 months old in hopes that one day she would be a reader, a real reader. I also have followed my friend Michelle's advice (she's a real reader) and had c listen to lots of books on tape, which I really believe is a great tool for every kind of reader, but really great for beginners.

Yesterday, when I could not get her to stop reading her book, "It's so good mom!" "Mom! It's not a good place to stop right here." "Mom, 10 more minutes!" Three and a half hours later..."I'm finished!" Yesterday, my little c finished a 537 page book. This morning when I went to get her tired little self up, I asked if she wasn't overly tired and maybe should have saved a few chapters for this afternoon (violent head shaking). She regrets nothing. I think maybe she's a real reader.

World Travel Box...

This box has not been varnished and waxed yet, but it's just about done.

Christmas Movies...

I love Christmas movies, but this one in this version is my favorite far above all the rest. It is the musical version of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney who plays the best Ebenezer Scrooge ever. I love the music.. "Thank you very much, thank you very much! That's the nicest thing that anyone's every done for me!" I love that number, but all of them are good. There is one really dumb sequence where Marley takes Scrooge and shows him his office in hell. The special effects are really poor there and it detracts from the rest of the film which is pretty perfect I think.

I think the story of The Christmas Carol really lends itself well to a musical format and the music is great, but I also love the ending and this is what really gets me. It's long enough that you feel very confident that Scrooge has changed his ways. You are really able to see how he's made everyone else happy. Movies, especially these days show 2 hours of horrid struggle and conflict and then they show a 30 second resolution and the whole thing is over (can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine?). This movies is different, it ends not just as you let the wind out of your lungs, it gives you a chance to take another breath.... breath in breath out, wipe your tears and smile...then it's over.

December Treats...

These are one of my favorite. We eat them around here like chocolates out of a box. Delish!

Holly Claus The Christmas Princess...

Little c is reading the novel The Legend of Holly Claus and really loving it. I think that she would also enjoy this picture book. I was shopping at BN the other day and looked through this book which confirmed my view that some of our best art is found in Children's Picture books. Jeffrey K. Bedrick is the illustator of this book, and the pictures he's created are so imaginative.. simply amazing.

Merry Christmas Ornament Box...

You've seen the pink ornament box posted below, this box is one that I made on the road to making the other box. I hardly ever get a new design just as I'm imagining it in the first try. But, I think this box still turned out pretty cute, (the glitter on the ornament didn't photograph well) and it's going in

THe LoVe BoXEs ShOP

this morning...

Wrapped and Shipped...

I like to wrap the boxes in this shred and then in tissue so that they arrive in perfect condition. Then, I take them all packaged cute to the post office. My post office has employed one or two guys that like to be funny. Last time I was at the post office, I told the postman that my package was fragile (I wanted him to put that orange sticker on it) and he asked me if I'd wrapped it properly. I told him that I thought so. He held that package above his head and asked me if I would be comfortable if he dropped it (I am not making this up). "Not really comfortable," I said. He told me I should probably re-pack it. Then he told me that my box would be stacked under other boxes up to weights of 70 pounds. It's a miracle they all don't arrive "schmooshed" (this ought to be a technical postal term). So, I told him that I was in a rush and I had to ship it now and I asked him if rather than a "fragile" sticker, I could get one that said, "place on top" and "only toss underhand". But, I'm putting more peanuts in the box next time for sure.

Monograms...

I've been finishing up some monograms recently. Here are two in pink and green (my favorite!) The top one seems to be for a little dancer. I put the ribbons to add a feeling of motion, they also make me think of point shoes, but I don't know if she's a ballerina or not.

I'm hoping to finish a world travel box this week and get my Christmas tree up... and the cards mailed out... and. and. What Christmas project are you doing today?

Ornaments...

There will be a few more Christmas ornament boxes in

THe LoVe BoXes SHoP

later today. They have a new quote inside however,

"Love was born at Christmas... Christina Rossetti"

Stephens Chocolate Mint Truffle...

This is another one of my favorite holiday treats made right here in Utah. It's the best! I love the Mint Truffle flavor the most of all. If it's not available at your local market, you can purchase some here.

Christmas Quotes..

Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.
~Ralph Stockman

Mexican Paper Flowers...

I like to decorate my tree with Mexican Paper Flowers, but every year I think maybe not this year. Paper flowers don't save well from year to year. You can save them. When I used to do a crepe-paper flower tree (which was just insanity) the flowers were good for about 3 years in a row. I just love the way it looks when it's finished I guess, because I can't stop myself even though making the flowers has ceased to be fun and I find myself in envy of people who get their decorations out of a box (what a great idea!). We tend to be a bit Christmas crazy around here. Well, I still need to make the orange flowers and when I get them up.. I'll show you.

Christmas Movies...

I love Charlie Brown.. The music from his Christmas special reminds me of the good kind of Christmas busyness. It makes me think of making cookies, going to concerts, wrapping pretty packages... all that stuff. We make sure to see it every year as well as several others that are part of our Christmas movie collection. What's your favorite? Actually C hates that kind of question so let me re-phrase... what's a favorite Christmas movie that you love to see this time of year?

Happy Thanksgiving...

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Address

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins; to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole of the American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
-President Abraham Lincoln16th president of the USA

New Christmas Box...

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

Hamilton Wright Mabie

The LoVe BoXes SHoP...

Prom...

I wanted to participate in Natasha's Prom, but I swear to you that I couldn't find a single High School photo of myself other than the ones in the year book (they're too small). I don't know what has happened to them all. I really looked and I just came across case after case of pictures of little c. Anyway, I did wear those sparkly earrings to several formal dances. They sure pinch, I've never pierced my ears and these particular clips are just mean. I didn't wear the necklace below to prom, but I wore it in High School all the time. I begged for this necklace and got it for my birthday one year I think. Cute huh? They are called parrot pearl, but I like to call them my pig pearls.. it's more fun to say. :) Happy Prom everyone!

Kisses...

I love Hershey's Kisses... I like the pretty silver foil and the pink foil in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month is very fetching, but I loved the Mint Green Kisses for Christmas best of all, but now they are Mint Truffle and I don't love them so much, they are just ok.. which is ok I suppose. I won't be putting on the Christmas 5lbs.. What's your favorite Christmas treat?

Charlotte's Web...

I loved Charlotte's Web. When the film came out, I loved it so much as well. This theme song written by David Stewart and Glen Ballard perfectly captures the amazing sweetness of E.B. White's story. I've heard this song now on the radio a million times and now it's on a TV commercial, but I don't get tired of it. I just don't. It is a little miracle in itself. I am so grateful for so many things today and if indeed as I recently read we create a "life soundtrack".. Today, I would want this song to be on it. I hope you have a week of miracles to be grateful for as well.

It’s not that unusual when everything is beautiful
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
The sky knows when its time to snow
You don’t need to teach a seed to grow
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
Life is like a gift they say
Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own
Isn’t it remarkable?
Like every time a raindrop falls
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
Birds in winter have their fling
And always make it home by spring
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
When you wake up everyday
Please don’t throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
Cause we are all a part
Of the ordinary miracle
Ordinary miracle
Do you want to see a miracle?
It seems so exceptional
Things just work out after all
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
The sun comes up and shines so bright
It disappears again at night
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
It’s just another ordinary miracle today
... Lyrics written by David Stewart and Glen Ballard

The Sugar Plum Fairy & The Toy Soldier...

Every year as a family tradition, we go to see The Nutcracker. We love to do this, even C who loves everything Christmas. It's funny though how each time we go it captures little c's imagination in a different way. I always ask her if she were in it, what part she would like to play and then she asks me (my answer never changes, I want to be the snowflake princess). Little c has always wanted the really big parts too. She wanted to be Clara and then She wanted to be The Sugar Plum Fairy. But this year, when I asked, I was amused to find that in her heart of hearts, she really wants this year to be the soldier "that gets to shoot the Mouse King". Little c has had a super-hero complex going for awhile now, so I guess this fits.

Heart Boxes..

These were added to..

THe LoVE BoXes SHoP

Rovalis Ristorante Italiano

Davis County is such a wonderful place to live. We have everything here except great restaurants. (You wouldn't dare put that we have a Wendy's in the comments:) Oh I shouldn't say there are none, but in Davis County without going into the city there are very few good restaurants that I know of. In the burbs you get chain restaurants and some are ok sometimes, but I never wake up with a hankering for Red Robin.

There are a few good resteraunts that are not the chain variety. Roosters and Corbins are very good. MacCools is good. There's Robintinos, but I understand from a few people that it's an acquired taste that you have when you grow up in "the county". Some time ago we got a family owned (this is important) Mexican Restaurant named Pepper Belly's. I was so excited when I went the first time. It's decorated so fun and you'll have a great experience there as long as you only order a soda. The place is generally (with one or two exceptions) know be awful in the worst way. I swear to you that they buy the chips in bulk from Sam's Club and everything, everything has Pace Picante on it. Now Pace Picante sauce has it's uses. I have a great recipe, believe it or not, for salsa that you make with a base of Pace Picante Sauce, but no self-respecting Mexican Food lover likes it alone and they will not believe my recipe either (until they try it).

I digress. Anyway, my friend Circe recommended a new Italian place in Layton, I can't remember the name of any place ever, so I forgot, but I think this was it. Rovalis! It was great! Mostly really great. C was a little bugged that his veggies had been the frozen/then steamed variety. But, I don't know if I want to knock off points for that because you really aren't supposed to review a restaurant after visiting there once. So, maybe the frozen veggies aren't regular fair. I hope not. However, the rest of the meal was just delicious. The place was light and bright, reasonably priced, and had a really decent kids menu. It is family owned. The service was great. They say that they make all of their desserts right there fresh, and they looked delish, but we were too full to sample them.

I hope they make a big success, but if you are dining in Layton, trade the chain Olive Garden and the like, for a real family owned real, and delicious restaurant. Help them make it a big success. Maybe I'll see you there, but don't sit too close because they have a special garlic dish I'm trying next!

The Big Boxes...

I am frquently asked if I can paint more of my boxes in the largest size. I guess I must like the medium size the best because I like to paint that size and I mostly have mediums, but these boxes are listed in the shop and they are the larger size for anyone who is interested you can see them over in...

ThE LoVe BoXeS SHoP

Hairspray...

Last night we went to see Hairspray at the dollar theater. All the kids seemed to really like it except for my nephew Chris who hated it so much that his ears were beet red when we came out of the theater. It was a little long for me, but what a talented cast. Some of the singing and dancing was amazing. It was difficult for me to get over John Travolta playing the mother, but even in a chubby suit, the man still has some pretty good moves. His makeup must have taken 10 hours. Queen Latifa sparkled like a Christmas ornament through the whole thing.

Martha Ornaments...

If you haven't been to K-mart recently, it sure is a fun place. I love all of these ornaments from Martha's Sugar Plum Dreams collection. I did wish that they were made a bit better. The painting on the wooden animals was just a light spray, easily chipped. I had the same opinion of the cars and planes (plus, I worried a bit about the lead paint/China thing). I only bought the blue amigurumi elephant. He's much cuter in real life, but also could have been better made. However, these ornaments were all selling for $2.24....