Enjoying Christmas vacation...

I love days that we all get to hang out together and play.  There's been a lot of hide and seek, tag, walks, and painting with the new watercolor sets.  LOVE....  Emma's picture sums it up.

Merry Christmas

Since my Dutch family is with me, we have two Christmas days, and I am not late in wishing you all a Merry Christmas.  :-)  It's not boxing day here, but second Christmas day, and while the Midwest is usually white - we are having in exceptionally green one.  The winds however remind us, that despite the blue skies, fair temperatures, and green grass... baby it's cold outside.  Hope you're enjoying the people in your life who bring you joy as well.  Here's a few peeks into our Christmas memories - in the making.

Christmas canvas totes

I've been painting lots of canvas, and have been planning to make oversized tote bags for a while now.  Well, I've finally sat down with the sewing machine and made time to do it.  I also had the plan to fuse old plastic bags to use as pockets on the totes, inside and out.
Mission accomplished!

Here are the first two totes.   They are so much fun to make, and the results are better than I expected!  The best part is that I decided to make them crazy bags, which means, I just pieced them together without a pattern, and not all the lines are straight.  They're wonky and whimsical, and I was able to make them quickly.  Quick and Easy = My Favorite Kind of Sewing Project.

monkey love...

found in the Sundance catalog

this morning

Life has been wonderfully busy. I've had the privilege the last number of weeks to be a creative coach to Beth, who has been illustrating her first book.  She's become such a dear friend.  I've been able to do fun things like show her new tools to put in her creative tool belt, and video the process. I ended up getting a camcorder, and it's too much fun. I've also been exploring how to put the video and photo clips together in IMovie.   It's a whole new language I'm learning, but I'm having fun exploring.

This morning... I woke up with very rock star morning hair

The twins woke up, had a bath, and didn't want to get out of their towels to get dressed because it's soooo cold outside.

Now, we are all cozied up in blankets and taking it easy.  The Christmas tree and decorations are waiting in the kitchen for that moment when we're ready to put the blankets away, and set the scene for Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...