Wren's Nest

Craft Book Love

Hope everyone had the loveliest holiday and has enjoyed time with friends and family. I've taken a little break to just enjoy relaxing with John and the kids. Our Christmas was great we saw both our families and the kids had a great time. We also spent yesterday and part of today down at John's mom's house for a little vacation (she and her husband were not home), so we just hung out and our neice came and had a sleep over with Meg. All very nice. While in San Jose, we stopped at Kinokuniya - the wonderful Japanese book shop down that way. We forgot the key to John's mom's house and had some time to kill before his sister could meet us with a key, so we headed there. I ran into Pam there - so great to see her and meet her daughter Frankie.

I picked up 3 beautiful books - of course I need to start keeping track of what I already have (since I can't read the titles). There was a book there I wanted, but thought I might already have, so I was good and refrained. They had rearranged, which is really not good for those of us who don't actually speak Japanese, so I finally found the crafty area after much searching, but I did see some really amazing food and cooking magazines, which I may have to check out more next time, plus Sudoku books, which I have recently become addicted to!! Yikes! very fun! I had only one purpose (and with John and the kids in the car, very little time), so I found the craft books and scored these:

ISBN 07-250346-0
So pretty with really beautiful projects - pincushions, book covers and lots of little pretties - I have lots of wonderful Japanese florals from Lecien which would be so nice in some of these projects!

I love these pillows!

Cute placemat and coaster (or napkin)

Hot pads!! I could use these for practical reasons, but pretty is nice too!

ISBN 4-277-43071-6
All about journal covers - so adorable!!

ISBN 4-391-62286-6
Cotton Time Plus is the title - love the apron!

An adorable box with a teapot embroidered on it

My favorite - this little house!

So, I'll be spending New Year's Eve all curled up enjoying these magazines, my book and some old movies with John and the kids (though they won't be staying up until midnight). Happy New Year to everyone!!

More lovelies and Happy Holidays!

I had to get one more post in before having it be too crazy! John is out finishing shopping with Meg and the boys are outside playing basketball and I've started the baking. I just had to share a couple more things - first Raesha sent me these amazing pages from vintage books, which I just love - the colors are amazing - these are just a couple, there are many more, plus some rick-rack, playing cards and this beautiful ATC. Along with a great letter and a beautiful picture of her and her family. So sweet! Thanks Raesha!!

Also, I got these from Jenny at Everyday is a Holiday. Her blog and e-bay shop are fabulous! So talented! These are amazing and we put them on this little mantle shelf in our family room because we wanted them to really stand out and not be hidden on the tree. I LOVE them! I also made three soft trees from the pattern here. Really fun to make.

Last, but not least, here is the other gingerbread house decorated by Matt and Meg. I really love these and the kids had so much fun!

From our family to you and yours, may you have a lovely and blessed holiday and all the best wishes for a wonderful 2007!! See you next week sometime!!

Lovely Friends

Wow - I must say that in the 6 months I've been blogging, I have been overwhelmed by the complete generosity of fellow bloggers. I have met such lovely people over this time and I am so grateful for the support and friendship.

One of my very first bloggy friends is Jen, who e-mailed me when I first started out and was feeling discouraged by not getting many comments, to tell me everything was fine and not to worry and she has been wonderful ever since. Yesterday I received this amazing package from Jen in the mail and I about cried with the loveliness of it all and the kindness and thoughtfulness of such a nice friend (who I've never met, but hope to soon!). It was so unexpected and so perfect!! The bird ornament is happily hanging on my tree, the bird post it pad (how fabulous is that?) in in my dining, oh, I mean, sewing room (so no little children use it up) and the chocolate bar, well, it's pretty much gone (though I love the wrapper so much, I'm keeping that) and the cute card was made by Jen's sister over at Posy Press. Thanks Jen!!

I know the pictures aren't the best, but it's rainy and we are fogged in, which makes for a cozy day, but not great for pictures and not great for people waiting to get the foundation of their addition poured...

OK, another lovely lady who has been so supportive and wonderful these last few months (of me AND my pincushions) is my friend from across the pond - Cherry. She sent me this wonderful care package (which I got a week or so ago, but had taken my little bloggy break) from England!! Everything was wrapped and so pretty and I love all of it - again, I'm just amazed by the generosity of someone I have never met (I also hope to meet Cherry someday, someday when we go to England (sigh)). A lovely Wonderfully Warm t-shirt, a dried cranberry wreath (which hangs on the door in my entry way), this beautiful little pitcher (so sweet), some tea, a shell with great scented potpourri AND the December UK Country Living- which is fantastic!! Thank you Cherry!!

Thanks to all of you who stop by and visit - I really appreciate it! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Oh, one last thing - Collin went to his friend Jack's house yesterday to decorate gingerbread houses (Jack's mom makes them) and here is Collin's and here is the undecorated one Jack's mom sent home for Matt and Meg to decorate. Again with the generosity!! So that's what we'll be doing tonight (she included all the frosting and candy too!).

The Last Couple of Weeks...

Whew - we made it through all of the amazing events at the kids' school and have really been enjoying this week off. It was all I could do to get through the 15th. At my kids' elementary school the first graders all write a book that gets "published" (read sprial bound) - they write it, illustrate it, have a dedication and title page, etc.

They then have an "author week" where they are featured in their class (with a poster for their book) and they go read to another class and lots of stuff. Then, they have an actual "author's tea" where they, and 4 other first graders read their book on stage with an audience (of parents and all the first grade classes) then afterwards there is food and the other kids make them pictures saying what they liked about the book, etc. Very fun.
Collin had his on December 12th. It's nerve wracking to say the least (though he did not seem nervous)and I also volunteer at them, so I got to hear his book and then I ran over and helped at the art table where the kids draw their pictures for the authors. His author week was the week before - at the same time as his "country of origin" report was due. He did Ireland. It was a huge project (really a lot for first graders, which means it was my and John's report too!). Then this last Friday we had a Country of Origin Feast where each family brought a dish representing their country of origin. I'm a room mom in Collin's class, so I got to help organize the whole thing with my co-room-mom. Whew - that was a lot of work, but I'm glad to say EVERY family brought a dish!! They then played games from other countries (thank you Rebecca for all the ideas - our game was Sardines) and ended with a hilarious karaoke dance party. Nothing like the energy of first graders!!(Unfortunately, no camera...)

We also had the 4th grade Mission Fiesta that Thursday. I was in charge of the Mexican hot chocolate, which we made with Ibarra bars of chocolate that we grated and mixed with milk in a crock pot. Really good!! The kids helped with all the dishes - chile rellano, a chile/cornbread casserole and fried tortillas with sugar and cinnamon. YUM!! It was really fun and really yummy. (Again, no camera).

Anyway, this week we are really taking it easy and enjoying our time off - John has taken the time off work too, so it's very nice.

Here are a few more decorations - not the best lighting since it's sort of grey out today.

Here's the tree...the kids did all of the decorating, except the really high ones.

Two chalkware Santas - I just love these - they are so antique looking and wonderful.

and last...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Enjoy your week!!

Some Decorations

It's been a while, but I am finally posting a few decorations around the house. I still don't have my computer back, so it's been frustrating trying to get on the kid computer to post and deal with pictures and stuff. Also, it's been crazy busy around the kids' school - lots of big projects due and next week many school-related activites (fun, but really time consuming). So I'll probably be a pretty bad poster until after the holidays. Happily, John is taking some time off over the kids' Christmas break, so we'll probably take a couple of short trips. One to Meg's mission for her mission report (any of you who went to 4th grade in California probably did one of those...mine was Mission San Jose, hers is Mission San Antonio de Padua down near San Luis), so a trip there and a small stop at Susan Branch's store in that area would be lovely. Perhaps another little trek to Bear Valley too.

Anyway, here are some of our family room decorations. Next year this room will be the kitchen and eating area and we'll have a new family room, which will hopefully photograph better (it can't possibly be that I have no photography skills at all, could it??). I'll post our tree and living room fireplace when there is better light - it's raining today, so not a great time to take pictures. Have a lovely weekend!

This is what's on top of our server, mostly Nicol Sayre reproductions and other fun retro-looking stuff.

This is a little white feather tree with glitter star ornaments, a sweet Santa in a chair and a snowgirl on the fireplace

This is my Winter Girl - she sits in an antique child's wooden chair on the other side of the fireplace and I also took a picture of her purse because I think it's so cute! She's dressed in lovely clothes with a wool jacket - she's kind of funky, but I just love her!

Fun from Superbuzzy!

Whew, quite a weekend! Not much energy for posting. We still need to decorate the tree tonight. We got it today - always so fun! Then I worked on cleaning the garage (not so fun) and John and I went on a giant walk/hike. We're lucky to have open space with trails behind the kids' school, so we hiked back there (but took wrong turn and ended up doing twice the hike I had planned on!). Anyway, now we're cozy at home with beef stew simmering on the stove. A little mulled wine and a little tree decorating still to come!

Yesterday was full of meeting with the contractor, kitchen design ladies and then going and picking the appliances (Thank goodness they had a giant fish tank at the appliance store, so Meg and Collin spent the whole time watching the fish - very cool). HHHOOORRRAAAYYY!! I CANNOT wait until my kitchen is redone! I love the stuff we picked and it's going to be really great to have new appliances that actually WORK!! Of course it'll be quite a while since they're just pouring the foundation this week.

So, I'll have Christmas decoration pictures later this week, so for now I'll leave you with my fabulous Superbuzzy items. I love these magazines - so wonderful to look at and so inspiring! I also love my cute little stationary set AND the linen twill tape with the birds (naturally) - I'm thinking of using it as a little tag on the pincushions. I just love Superbuzzy - those ladies are so sweet and they just have the cutest stuff!! Stop on by their shop!

Happy Sunday! Have a lovely week!