From Me to You

New Year's Eve 2008 ...a time to reflect on the past year,

and celebrate the birth of a brand new year. 2008 has

been a mixed bag of happenings for a lot of us. The good

and the bad, with unfortunately a lot of the bad happening

towards the end of 2008.

My wish for everyone is that 2009 will bring peace, understanding, love and stability to a world that is feeling rather battered. May all of us be able to enjoy the small moments of magic that life offers us.

Peace and Love,

sue

Gifts From the Heart

Every year, our eldest daughter Nicole (an artist in her own

right), creates a wonderful seasonal themed gift for me. This year's special gift is "Christmas Dreams" shadowbox. Last year she painted and costumed a blank nutcracker in an opulent olde world style and the year before was a fabulous old parlour Christmas setting in a shadow box. These (shown

above) are just from the last three years and I wanted to share them. The rest of Nicole's gifts, from gorgeous hand crafted

jewelry to knit scarves and paintings are eagerly looked forward

to each year.

Our other daughter, Keara, is not as artistically creative, however

she is thoughtfully inventive when it comes to the gifts she gives

her Dad and I. We always look so forward to what quirky, wonderful thing she has thought up too.

These are truly gifts from the heart and we are so blessed to

have such fantastic daughters.

500 Pieces of Inspiration

I have wanted this ever since it came out and this year, hubby
gave it to me for Christmas. I've already studied every piece
twice, so much inspiration and talent!

Joyeous Holiday

My sincere wish that everyone has a wonderful, joyeous - and

safe Holiday! Relax, enjoy family and friends and rejoice in

all the wonders that life offers us.

Now, THIS Is A Tree!

From my favorite vintage photo site, Shorpy.com comes this

fabulous image of an incredibly large Christmas tree, circa 1920. Please click to view it in larger size, as the ornaments are a delight to behold!

If you go here on the Shorpy site, you can see an even larger version of this

tree and closeup detail of the wonderful toys and ornaments.

Enjoy!