These are a few of…

my new favorite things…
You see, my stocking swap package came, on Saturday. While i was busy saucing berries and roasting a turkey and a ham, my mail lady came do the door- package in hand.
I have loved EVERY SECOND of filling the stocking I’m sending. I do not have enough faith in my crafty abilities to make it’s contents, but have spent weeks selecting the most fitting little things. It had possibly been the highlight of my Christmas shopping… But then emails have been coming in, as women are receiving theirs. Many tears over gratitude and how loved and blessed these simple stockings made them feel. My heart began to feel more and more full as I heard about these gifts and how blessings were spewing out all over the place. It has been AWESOME! So awesome that my mind is reeling with possibilities for future swaps.
Anyway, back to my stocking… I LOVE it. SO MUCH… My swapper, (not sure if she would want me to link to her blog or not) is a gem. Not only does she have THE COOLEST stationary on the planet (please tell me where you got it???) but she is the craftiest, most clever girl I may know. With every item being unearthed I felt my spirit confirm that I have been blessed by a new friend.

This is my adorable stocking. I LOVE it, SO much!
{How cute is that sweet little bird??? And the
fur around the top is so soft…}

I have been seeing these little book page projects all over
the internet. I have thousands of pages in my craft stuff from a
book gutting project last year and I’ve been tempted to do something
like this, but would never have done as good a job! She’s so talented!
Isn’t it beautiful?

I go weak in the knees for old books. This one though, is my new favorite!

Yes that does say Standard Handbook for Secretaries, and let me tell you,
this book is FANTASTIC! So much so that I kind of forgot about my cranberry
sauce, which boiled over and made a big mess, because my nose was in this
wonderfully old book…

This adorable little framed Christmas decor melted my heart.
Christmas is a tough time, due to RAD, around our house. It used
to be my FAVORITE time of year, but the season is so hard that I’ve
developed a bitter taste for it. This frame magically restored something
for me… (and she even monogrammed it with my initials! So sweet!)

Adorable sachets of bath salts… SO cute!
{LOVE}

Amazing loose leaf tea… heaven.

and my new love: ruffled scarves. It’s a new thing and I’ll have to go
back and look but I didn’t thought I put that in the questionnaire. And yet, here in this box
was this ADORABLE ruffled scarf. Even Chw, who cares little for such things,
thought it was pretty cool… We have our dress up Christmas family date this
friday and I am TOTALLY wearing this scarf!

And finally, these adorable trees! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!
They are also made of old book pages, {Swoon… words. i heart words}
I think I should fly her here for a workshop. I need to learn.
And, of course, since we were having Christmas dinner, that evening,
we immediately placed them at the center of our table and they were
the talk of the table.

And here is where I ended up hanging my super sweet book-page
wreath. My ten year old niece was awed by how cool it was. {She’s a smart girl}

Such an amazing experience! Thank you, my AMAZING stocking filler! Thanks to the girls who swapped…

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Just a hair grateful…

I’m learning…

Or at least trying.
I find that it isn’t that I am ungrateful by nature as much as I am easily distracted.
And that I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. Well, wait… Let me rephrase that. I had a love/hate relationship with my hair.
I am blessed with naturally curly hair that i love to have straightened. There are curly days, when I’m grateful for my hair, but most of the time I love it when my hair is straightened. When the Brazilian Blowout made itself pretty popular here, it soared to the very top of my Christmas wishlist. However, when I heard about all of the negative effects, possibilities and stuff- I decided against it. While I was getting my roots touched up, I was told that a great alternative would be a compression perm. At the word perm, I shuddered but was immediately assured that it would be that kind of perm. Word in the shop had been that the procedure would unify my curls, make them a bit bigger/bouncier and my hair all around easier to manage.
I made the appointment for after we got back and went in completely excited. I slid around on icy roads to make it on time, the day of the appointment. Visions of body filler curls and glorious hair filled my imagined Christmas season.
That’s the end of the pretty part.
The entire procedure was nightmarish. I’ve never felt so much induced head pressure. To say that it through me into a massive migraine would be an understatement. That aside, however, I still found myself optimistic that- though I would NEVER go through it again- it would still be ok.
It wasn’t.
I have the dryest, most fried afro. My hair is coarse and kinky. It’s awful. HORRIBLE.
And then I was reminded that, had I only been grateful to begin with.
Because now? Now I miss my hair. I’ve cried so much, and I feel so shallow crying over my hair.
So yeah… Gratitude. Maybe a large portion of it is perspective based, but my goal is to try and be more there
Oh yeah, and if anyone ever tells you that it is not that kind of ______, run- because it’s probably worse…
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