The New Year!

Here we are in the new year and it will be a strange one at that. I have decided I must enjoy living in the stress. The decisions I make seem to add more and not decrease them. I had a great holiday with little fan fare. My family got snowed in, at least they were at my house, and so Christmas went on as scheduled. There was laughter and quiet and cuddles. There was the first sled ride of my granddaughter and my first in a long time. Snowball fights and challenges on the wii. There was remembering a grandfather and a dad. Sweet memories in the midst of grief. There was tea and hot cocoa shared on web cam with my daughter and grandson. Thank goodness for technology! It was a wonderful visit. They were suppose to be here for the holidays, price of tickets and a miscarriage kept us apart. We celebrated the baby who is on the way any day now and we grieved the baby we will never know. We stomped in the snow, laughed at it, enjoyed it and cursed it. In the end it was the the Christmas I could never had planned for.I will keep it close as I make my way through the coming months with turning 52, my dads death, changes at work, remodeling my home, setting my own boundaries and nurturing my marriage, friendships, building my business, keeping myself healthy and all the challenges and celebrations that keeps us living.

To all my friends: thank you for being there

To all my etsy friends, here is to a great new year!

To you who I have yet to meet, I can not wait.

Sherrie

And the little naughty elves came upon us

Jingle all the way

What a holiday season! My season started out with a break in to my place of work. Quite alarming to say the least. I am a preschool teacher and am in wonder as to what was in these bad guys head.( the children in my class called them bad guys) they were very neat bad guys really not doing too much physical damage but a lot of mental anguish. What a head trip. They threw, very careful not to get any on the carpet, a gallon of blue paint, they threw it onto the easel and then dumped the rest in the sink. Not getting any on the counter. Thank goodness they left our computers and boom box alone but they did take our dozen eggs, which were to be used to make green eggs. I was not happy about that! In all as you can see we were very lucky in that there were gallons of paint they could have flung all over our building, and many blocks, puzzles, and a variety of small pieces that could have been destroyed. We are blessed it took only a short time and a little elbow grease to get the room back in order. What this did do is made us realize how vulnerable we can be. That it took an open window for these bad guys to enter our world. It took a moment. We will recover. We have already put some safety measures in place, talked and talked. I am on winter break and hope by the time we return the safety measures that need to be put in place will be. Though the experience jarred me it has not made me scared or concerned. It will be a while I am sure before my brain files it away as an experience to remember and not one that is still raw and processing.
My holiday season did end with joy and lots of laughter. I had all of my children and grandchildren with me this year. Yes I did a happy dance. I served diner to 21 people, mostly family and a few friends who had no family around this season. In all I am starting the New Year with lightness in my heart and ready for what this new year will bring.
Happy Holidays!

I am on a roll

I just finished a new design of my pop up Christmas tree card. I added a wire beaded tree topper on it. This card comes nicely packaged with a red envelope and a small gift tag.I sold out on these at my craft fair in Everett Wa. I am hoping they will do well on esty. I had a list of goals to complete today and I have completed all of it already. I am jumping up and down with joy. I have a day off all to myself and it is amazing what you can get accomplished. I am out of most of my candles so I poured tea lights with a new scent of Birthday cake. I am including these with my etsy sample bag of Birthday related cards and candles. I made two Christmas scents and poured two clear glass mugs with the scent of coffee with cream and sugar. It smells quite interesting in my house with all these scents swirling around. I have almost all of the items written up and pictures taken. I am going to put one or two on line starting tonight. I am not doing any more shows this year and so I am focusing on etsy. I say that and then I get discouraged but I am going to keep to my goal list. My grandson and daughter are arriving this week for 2 and half months and so I needed to get what I can done before the holiday rush and before I get distracted by my grandson.