Artful Journey

Aine and Deet’s dining room is ready for Christmas. New windows, all new wainscoting crafted by Deets, walls primed and painted by Aine create a warm and welcoming room for my parents’ dining room set. So many wonderful memories and meals were enjoyed at this table. It’s nice to see it being used again, and new memories being created here.  Table lovingly refinished by my parents. Brunch on blue willow china Cheers with mimosas! Happy to start the Christmas festivities. More baking to come. Holiday greetings  Hopefully delivered on time! Warm holiday wishes For the new year.  

 This year our traditions are going to be a little different. We will do as much as we can, until the day we can celebrate to our hearts content.  We will bask in the comforts of home. We will enjoy our Christmas tree, with the many ornaments we have made and collected over the years.   Some of the ornaments gracing our tree.   A little help goes a long way. I love our tree! We picked up a miniature rosemary tree. We will plant it outside in the spring. All that hard work deserves some homemade cookies and a cuppa! Cheers and Merry Scriptmas!

 Holidays are the perfect occasion for flourishing.  Flourishing seems joyful. I love reindeers and  Navy and white combinations. I also love flowers, so we indulged with a trip to our favorite garden center. Color abounds on poinsettias  Inspiration for watercolors. Cute decorations  Inspiration for our Christmas projects.   Although we are used to being housebound with Covid protocols, we wanted to get in a socially distant excursion. Fun times are considered essential before the snow arrived...mission accomplished!  

 Of comfort and joy at the beach... Mild temperatures meant a beach day with some big waves Foggy and ethereal  Fueling up with coffee and the cozy issue of Bella Grace Joy..painting  ...inking And getting some mail ready To spread the joy And say happy holidays With flowers!

 The holidays offer a great opportunity to practice some flourishing. Dressed for the holidays  And of course, it’s always a good time for baking! Love these  Gingerbread cupcakes With Gingerbread sprinkles  On my holiday plate! The flourishing is inspired by Heather Held’s beautiful flourishing. The cupcake recipe is from one of my favorite sources for recipes, Sally’s Baking addiction. Everything from her site has been delicious! Gingerbread on the tree! Cute, but not to eat.... I love Gingerbread but especially at the holidays. Anytime, I can add molasses is a good thing, and serving up something delicious on one of our many Christmas dishes adds to the festivities. Happy baking holidays!

Thanksgiving morning usually starts with a road race. Due to Covid, this annual race was held virtually. Not as much fun as being in a big crowd, but we were able to schedule our run at a time that was convenient, which was really nice. No trip to Ireland this November means we are getting low on our Irish tea stash and no advent calendars filled with chocolate. This too was tweaked finding a great advent calendar with Maman jam, our favorite! What cute packaging of tiny little jams A great way to try different flavors! We never put up our tree this early, but this year definitely called for starting the holiday a little early. As the song goes, we need a little Christmas right this very minute. Putting our jam to good use With breakfast on Christmas china. Goodbye to fall excursions  And hello to illuminated nighttime walks  With my word of the year, I am choosing to tweak the traditions a bit and find joy wherever I can. Stay safe, stay well

So much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Creative pursuits on a small scale Cards for friends  Watercolor and die cuts Mail exchange With my favorite harvest postage stamps Pie- orities Southern Living chocolate pecan pie Cheers Cranberry and Prosecco Health and Happiness     

As Thanksgiving approaches, so much to be thankful for, including a vaccine on the horizon.   Cheers....apple cider and Prosecco A fun Autumn toast with my beautiful Onz! So grateful for all of the little things and the big things... the beauty of nature, good health, and the love of family and friends, near and far.  ...and Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you the blessing of friendship and little things to be grateful for that appreciate in abundance!

 In the sun. Warm temperatures today meant we were off to Cranes for a walk. It was 60 degrees and a little breezy. When we first got out of the car, I thought vests over our light cardigans were called for. We weren’t walking very long, before the vests and cardigans came off. A short sleeve, toes in the sand sort of day for sure. Can it really be November 21?   Exfoliating...nature’s pedicure! With this weather and Covid time warping, it’s easy to get confused. Rz sent me a note, with a rabbit saying gobble, which gave me a smile. I have had Jo’s happy harvest card on my mantle celebrating Autumn. Fun mail Here’s one of my watercolor rabbits from Heather Held’s Enchanted Meadow class. I gave this one some fall colors.    

 Temperatures have been all over, with an early blast of snow right before Halloween.       Surprising weather followed by even more unpredictable temperatures,a return to sun and 70 degrees. Perfect for more social distancing at the beach, and a 2nd trip for more apple picking. An email telling us that apple picking would be half price because of the cold damage to the apples affecting shelf life was all the encouragement we needed. Somehow, we had already managed to bake our way through 18 pounds of apples! Apple cinnamon scone and a cuppa. The weather was perfect, just like the company, and it was easy to social distance as we were the first two there and had the orchard to ourselves. Fun day, sun day. An early start gave us time to visit Walden Pond for a short walk. Fall colors and summer temperatures  A perfect morning,  then a trip to Cranes  A perfect sunset... What better way to end the day, a little watercolor and pointed pen practice Focusin...