all's well that ends well

the majority of yesterday sucked wretchedness, but i'm happy to report that the day ended with one or two animated forest creatures lurking about me as i hummed christmas songs.
as with the foulness, nothing specific happened to account for the pleasant mood. i'm just happy to be relaxed, & cheery again.

the planned nature theme for the tree went out the window, when thehobbit asked if he could pick all the decorations. it is so hard to push aside my desire to have a magazine-worthy tree, & let him have at it. now i know why my mil always had two trees: a gorgeous one in the bigroom, & a smaller one in her kitchen, covered in kid decor. here's a closeup of our little tree:


sorry if it is very blurry. my camera thinks that photos taken within 4 feet are the devil's work. can you see the pinecone lights? they are just too precious. the barn red garland is the closest i can get to what dottieangel created; as i can only do the one crochet stitch. the silver garland is from thehobbit's stash of treasures.

countdown, day 5: today we will paint pictures for our holiday cards!
review: the menfolk voted to use markers instead. painty poopers. it was a lovely, quiet way to end the day. my plan is to have the three pics scanned, shrunk, then put together to make one card. i know i'm not explaining that well. i'll post a photo once they're complete.

i'm still poking along in bizzieland. yesterday i made 8 more needlebooks; which means i'm officially out of fulled sweaters! time to scour thrift shops for more. i also completed the last of my kiddie market bags.
a rainstorm is headed our way, & may mean a postponement of the winter faire. i have mixed feelings about that - 1) i would enjoy the extra week to prepare, & b) i want it done. done! i'm aching to craft holiday prezzies.

here is the beginning of the dragonfly artisans banner. i didn't like the dragonflies that manlyman drew, so he spent the remainder of yestereve drawing more. his natural style is enlongated, with sharper edges. his work is always gorgeous, but we want our dragonflies more wispy, & flowing. there is time yet. if he gets the banner drawn today, then i can paint in the morning. so here's the background, lovingly held by thehobbit:

i hope soap & paper like it. you're seeing it before they! shhhhhhh. it hangs on a beautiful wooden dowel that has a knob at either end. there is no 'v' on the banner by the way, that's just thehobbit poking his head into the backside.

the dec/jan issue of homeschoolla.org is up, & with the cutest of patooties on the cover! the every cloud article is a repub of an article i wrote for last year's dec/jan issue. i hope you like it.

thehobbit wants me to watch how the grinch stole christmas with him. how can i resist an invitation from a handsome prince? reader... go watch a movie!

~peace.