A day filled with joy

"Night goes with silent steps

round house and cottage

o'er earth that sun forgot

dark shadows linger:

Then on our threshold stands

white clad, in candlelight

Santa Lucia"

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

The sun is shining brilliantly today, belying this being the Winter Solstice; but we are truly reveling in the light and warmth

The moon last night and this morning was so beautiful, so ethereal:

it was so big and luminous I felt like I could just reach out and touch it.

It made me think about early peoples who saw these same sights, only they were surprises -

joy and fear experienced simultaneously - what could this mean? 

Sometimes when I read how afraid and anxious people of today are, I wonder what happened to make us that way - where is our sense of adventure, our feelings of self-reliance and hope, our belief in something higher? Today I am so filled with a deep happiness and peaceful spirit - I am blessed in so many ways and I am so grateful for all of these blessings.

A few random photos and thoughts -

the buds on my cactus plants are like timed photography - each time I look at them today,

the blossoms are opening a bit more

I baked some Mexican wedding cookies this morning (used the recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Book - she recommends that you wait until the cookies are cool before you roll them in the powdered sugar - I have to agree with her). YUM!

a basket of cards and tags on my coffee table

and a mix of old and new decorations -

I was given the Mr and Mrs Santa and the candy cane man (there are 2 more that you cannot see in this photo) when I was a little girl

and

my son gave me the wonderful Pottery Barn woodland stick reindeer last year for Christmas - I think the reindeer looks like something out of a fantasy novel, don't you?

I got a special little surprise today - the local library called me this morning and they had been able to get 2 books for me through interlibrary loan. I had read about these books on a blog from the UK and was really intrigued but knew that our library didn't have them. The librarian told me that she could find only one copy of one of the books in a participating library in the US and that she was very pleased that they would send it here. I am super excited to get the book - it is Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons and was written in 1937. I had read Cold Comfort Farm many years ago (actually I have read it several times and seen the movie with Kate Beckinsale) but had never seen any other books by Gibbons. What a lovely surprise!

The other book is the Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green and was originally published in 1878, nine years before the debut of Sherlock Holmes. It was one of the first examples of detective fiction and actually was one of the best-selling novels of the nineteenth century - and just think, it was written by a woman!

Well, I have rambled on quite a bit today - thanks for staying with me and I hope you have a lovely evening. We are having pork chops, sweet potatoes, and some leftover stuffing for dinner along with a bottle of some special wine. I set the table with extra candles (by the way, did I  ever mention that we always eat by candlelight in the winter months - that means when the a/c is off - usually Oct 15 - May 1) and put out holiday napkins and funky snowflake napkin rings. I got a beautiful white poinsettia for the table for the holidays.

JOY TO THE WORLD

and ttfn

Chris

Just 2 weeks until Christmas

I painted these portraits of Julie T-W's daughter Brookie a month or so ago but didn't want to show them - I gave one of them to Julie and she showed it on her blog so I can now reveal them. Above is sweet little Brookie in her Belle Halloween outfit.

In the photo for this one, her teeshirt had lots of printing on it but I was simplifying the picture a bit. I really enjoyed the portraiture class that I took this fall - I have to admit that I would never have attempted portraits before it but now find them a good challenge and lots of fun.

Today has been a super day with lovely warm and sunny weather. I worked at the gift shop this morning but this afternoon I have made fudge, mixed up batter for cut-out cookies (dough is in the fridge - they will get cut out tomorrow), watched Barefoot in London on FoodTV, and finished my seasonal wall piece. It is hard to get the textural feel in photos and also the gelatin sequins don't shine in the photo like they do in real life.

I hung the piece on the wall behind my tree of birds.

I have been making some plans (intentions) for 2011 - it will be the Year of Living Abundantly - a year where I appreciate and use what I already have and where I spend very little. I have found a couple of sketch book challenge blogs that I plan to follow, and I have been making notes about crafts/projects on which I want to focus. I am putting together some kits for myself - rediscovering things in boxes and bins in my studio - I guess you could call them FOUND OBJECTS - a sketching kit, a fabric work kit, paper kits, paint kits. I plan to paint even more next year and return to some of my previous loves - fabric creations (including quilting), beading, and knitting; but you will also see plenty of scrapbooking pages and altered projects. It's going to be a fun and creative year!!!!!!!

And now it's time for me to start the Chicken and Leek pot pie for dinner - I am adapting a recipe that I saw on Jamie Oliver's Holiday program that was on one night this past week. I love Jamie Oliver's style and put one of his cookbooks on my Christmas list. We'll see............

Speaking of cookbooks, what's your favorite and are there any ones you want? I love the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and although I don't own any, I get them from the library from time to time. Another favorite is Mark Bittman's (he writes the Minimalist cooking column for the New York Times) How To Cook Everything; and I love Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros (I have a couple more of hers on my list - it's a long list as I like to give Dan and Brian lots of choices - LOL!). The photos just make me drool! I have been thinking about adding a book list in the sidebar - maybe cookbooks, craft books, favorite novels, what I'm reading right now - what do you think?

Hope your day is as great as mine is, and thanks for reading!
ttfn
Chris