pixiegenné

happy new year!
thank you for hanging out with me here. i look forward to another year of your bloggy friendship.
xoxo

merry merry

we just got home from a few days visiting my family in massachusetts which was fun but always makes me happy for my own home, my own town, my own stuff. i'm enjoying the last bits of christmas coziness mixed with a strong desire to get it all the hell out of my sight and not look at it again until next year. you're probably familiar with this feeling. maybe not, what do i know?

i do get ridiculously excited for the fresh start of the new year. even when i look back at my resolutions and see all that i haven't accomplished. it doesn't deter me one bit. i'll just tack the old ones on to some new ones...whatever. it's all good.

christmas was sweet, by the way. even though i had a monster of a cold. i'm happy that neither of our family's go overboard w/the presents or the expectations. it really did seem pretty manageable this year. and while i was incredibly lame in the handmade department this year (i barely made a thing), i did give and recieve lots of wonderful handmade goodies (you know, handmade by others).

o.k., this post is a little boring. just wanted to say hello and hope you are enjoying your holidays.

my nephews and i were all about the japanese game shows on you-tube this week. they make me laugh.

more soon.
xoxo

christmas nostalgia :: warm fuzzy memories of a creepy animatronic egg

the amount of internet sleuthing i did to find and steal this picture says a lot about how i manage my time. if at least one of you is yelling out in nostalgic glee right now, it will have made all my hard work worth while.

pictured above is eggbert, a large animatronic egg that resided for years in a barn in upstate new york. at christmas time, thousands of kids from all over the hudson valley would make the pilgrimage to devitt's farm to walk through a maze of gaudy christmas trees and weird animatronic animals to arrive at eggbert's throne and tell him their christmas wishes.

i'm not even kidding.

and with that i wish you a wonderful holiday. i'm taking a blogging break until next week sometime, but i'll probably be lurking around flickr, as always.
merry merry!
xoxo

it looks like some elves threw up around here...

i hope my kids' memories work the same way mine does. i don't remember specifics as much as generalities, especially when it comes to holidays and traditions. i'm sure my mom didn't bake all 12 different kinds of yummy cookies that i remember every year, and i'm sure there were years where other traditions just didn't come together or were missed or forgotten. i have five siblings, so how the hell they pulled any of it off is a mystery to me.

anyway, i try to remember this on years when we don't get around to taking a carriage ride downtown or get to the nutcracker or whatever it is my kids will hopefully remember fondly as something "we did". this year we haven't done either of those things, but we did make gingerbread (ok, graham cracker) houses together last night which i don't think we've ever done as a family before. it was fun!

wowzers that's a lot of sugar.
happy thursday!

braggartly (i mean, more than usual)

"braggartly" means one who brags a lot. i looked it up because i thought it was "braggerly" but i was wrong. i try to be careful about these things, except for last weekend when i mistakenly used "erroneously" to mean "unnecessarily" and got called out for it. (in my defense, i was drunk at the time)

anyway, i'm here today to brag about this book, which i am in (along with lots of other cool crafters). my pincushions were on the cover in an early mock-up, but this talented girl's work ended up on the final copy. i just got my copy yesterday and it is really pretty. i'm psyched. it's weird and cool and i'm trying to shrug off the ever-present feeling that i'm a crafting fraud and just enjoy the moment.

and it's funny, i never thought of my pincushions as being "cupcake-shaped". are they?

couldn't resist

i'm trying not to overdo it with the xmas decorations but i could not resist the lure of the fabric wreath. the fabric buttons i used here i made last spring and i have to say they are a complete and utter bitch to make. unless i am missing something and if so please let me know because i was bummed and swearing a lot when i made them. the wreath, however, is super easy-peasy. grab a foam wreath. cover w/fabric. embellish.

i'm unworthy!

it's been a banner mail week here. first came this pendant from kristen...

i really love it. she also sent me a great old book i'll be chopping up soon.

then, today, i received these from erin...

along with a matching hat! and one of her sweet bird ornaments. she really amazes me. and i'm wearing the fingerless gloves right now as i type because it is pretty freakin' cold today.

i've jumped on the baker's twine bandwagon in a big way this year. my goal is not to buy any new wrapping paper since i've got tons of old stuff - so i'm using twine to make it all pretty...

i made a christmas mix to give out to people who i think might like a christmas mix. here's the playlist, in case you might like to make one and are looking for some i-tunes inspiration (and you don't think my taste in music sucks)...

season's greetings/robbers on high street
i saw three ships/sufjan stevens
holly jolly christmas/the format
have yourself a merry little christmas/judy garland
christmas time is here (vocal version)/vince guaraldi trio
white christmas/bing crosby
silent night/joan osborne
baby, it's cold outside/gabe dixon & leigh nash
i'll be home for christmas/aimee mann
all that i want/the weepies
winter wonderland/perry como
happy xmas (war is over)/maroon 5*
god rest ye merry gentleman/we three kings/barenaked ladies
2000 miles/the pretenders
christmas day/dido
the christmas song/johnny mathis
hey guys! it's christmas time!/sufjan stevens

*i know what you're thinking on this one but i can't track down my cd and itunes wouldn't let me purchase the john lennon version w/out buying the whole album and this version is actually quite nice. you don't have to believe me, but it is.

happy monday!

i'm in fifth grade

i'm in fifth grade, because this snl skit is my all-time favorite.
i know that says a lot about me.

in other news, megan reported a shocking drop in her blogline subscribers the other day, which led me to check mine and find that (gasp!) - the same was true here. this just confirms my suspicions that people have a big problem with girls named meg. deep down, i always knew that was true.

i still have fun stuff to share, i just haven't been home long enough to take pretty pictures.
more on monday.
happy weekending!

pooped

i hit a wall in a big way today. just tired is all. i have fun stuff to post but i'm too cooked. here's some pics from my day...

this is part of the school where i work. i like the windows.

and here's another view out my window picking the kids up. i really need to start knitting again, as i see erin is always making the most of her carpool time. i have started the habit of leaving a book on my dashboard for these kind of moments, so i don't feel like the time is totally wasted.

we got quite the little snow storm this afternoon.
this song was in heavy rotation today.
it's a favorite.

thanks so much to all who came to our show last night. it was really busy! and fun!
and, like i said, i'm pooped.
good night, all.

for the local peeps

stop by and say hi if you're in the 'hood...