wreath making

Last week, before I left for the fabulously inspired evening event, my girlfriends and I celebrated the season with our annual wreath making morning.

As always, it was wonderful - good food, coffee with bailey's, and in the end, more festivity was created to celebrate the holidays.

I made four wreaths this year - two green bases that I will decorate this week and put on our front doors, one rose hip wreath thanks to the suggestion of my dear friend, and one holly wreath for the entry to the farm. The berries were plentiful this year and it looks beautiful hanging on the entry fence next to our Chestnut farm sign.

~this is our gracious friend who hosts the event in her studio ever year

I have a busy week ahead, with boys' activities, holiday celebrations, my last classe francaise this week, and this fabulous sale on Friday. I do hope if you are in the area that you can make it, as it would be lovely to share a glass of wine or some cider with you!

Bonne semaine mes amies~

xx

leaving, on a jet plane

Well my friends, I am heading out first thing tomorrow morning. First thing. As in, still dark, no one else in my house is awake early. I am driving myself to the airport.

Did I hear you gasp?

No? Seriously? Maybe you didn't hear me. I am driving myself to the airport.

Driving myself.

Moi.

Driving moi.

Okay, really, I need a gasp here. Because you see, I haven't done that before. Because usually my husband drives me, or our favorite driver drives me. But never do I drive me. Because when you drive yourself, who is there to give you a big send off? Where will the big hug goodbye come from?

Did you just shake your head at me? (and can you see the irony of posting the photo of a woman who flew across oceans, herself, at the top of this post...?)

Okay, look, I have been doing a lot of growing as of late. I am, at 39, finally starting to refer to myself as a woman, rather than a girl. (I do feel a bit more like a girl than a woman though, truth be told...) I am really starting to feel like I am finding a sense of purpose. My dreams are becoming more and more solid. I finally feel like I am no longer just tossing about on the waves in the middle of the sea, but instead rowing towards a specific destination. And I feel good. And strong. And capable. And able to drive myself to the airport!

So, you are probably dying to know where I am going, right? Not really? Well, I am going to tell you anyway. I am heading to the midwest - land of snow and cold wind and home of this fabulous event~

Hosted by this divine, inspiring girlie~

And spending the weekend with both of these fabulous lovelies, whom I am sure will get me into all sorts of trouble...

And home again on Sunday before anyone even has time to miss me.

Bon weekend mes amies!

xx

women helping women

~found

So I watched Oprah last night. I don't always. I don't usually. But yesterday, when I saw it was about the world-wide plight of women in developing nations, there was no way I was going to miss it. Thank goodness for Tivo.

~found

I love photography. This shouldn't surprise many of you. It is the one thing, aside from my family that I am passionate about. Passionate.

~found

The thing is, while I shoot a lot of pretty things, a lot of lovely things, a lot of esthetically pleasing things, they don't drive me. I dream of more. A lot more. Scary more.

~found

You see, the thing that drives me, the thing that makes me want to be daring, to do things that scare me is the idea of shooting people. Foreign people. Different people. But mostly women people. With my backpack and some seriously comfortable shoes, probably more dust and less showers that I am accustomed, and Ruby at my side. (I just realized I don't believe I have introduced you to Ruby since she came to live with me on my birthday...)

~found

Another thing that won't surprise many of you is that I too am a woman. I love women. I am proud of women. I truly deep down in my heart believe that women should support each other.

Now please don't misunderstand. While I love women, I love my husband. In a different way. Get it? Are we on the same page here? Boy, I really hope so...

~found

So, back to women, and to Oprah~

~found

I want to do something. Something big. And sometimes big starts small. So right now, small for me is using money I have made, as a woman, from my Etsy shop to provide microloans through Kiva. That seems to be my thing right now. Finding women around the world who want to stand up and do something for themselves and their families and simply need a little help. That is something I can do, for now. Until something bigger comes along.

~found

And you MUST watch this - The Girl Effect - it is two and a half minutes of your life that, I believe, is worth every second. (and it makes me cry every time I watch it)

And finally, I found this incredible fantastically inspiring photographer of people. I honestly could spend hours on his web site looking at the people he has met in the most extraordinary places around this magnificent plant of ours. And he lives in France. And you know how I feel about France... Toulouse to be exact. What is it about Toulouse these days...??

bises~

my fantastical four day weekend~

Weekends in general around here are pretty fabulous. Time spent hanging out with five of my very favorite people always holds some adventure or another. However, having four whole days together really is a treat, and something that I don't take for granted.

Not only did we begin the weekend with a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with incredible food and even better company (my aunties and Gram), but it just continued to get better from there!

#s 1 & 2 went with me on our annual Christmas Tree hunt and we had so much fun! (okay, maybe it was that I had so much fun and they humored me, but really, we all laughed a lot, and does it really matter that we were laughing at each other...?)

After a delay in getting off of the property - remedied by a handy husband and some jumper cables to *help* the truck start, we were off. We probably saw every tree at least three times and as it was #2's first time with us, he quickly tired of #1 and I finding flaws in every. tree. we found. Thankfully, #1 was very patient with #2 and explained to him that it didn't matter if the first tree we saw was the best tree - mom had to see every. single. tree on the farm before a decision could be made. Thus, just hush and keep looking. The problem was, so many of them had needles that were already dying and I refuse to cut down a tree that is already on its way out. Again, I was thankful when #1 informed us that "he sees dead trees" and could pretty much call them a good 20 feet out...

We did however find the PERFECT tree! Well, yes, as a matter of fact it does only stand about 4 feet tall. And yes, it does closely resemble the tree in "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

Well, maybe you haven't noticed, but little trees are all the rage this year! I have seen them all over the internet, and now, lucky for me, I can see one every single day - in our living room! As soon as she is completely decorated, I will take some photos of her as, quite honestly, she is absolutely adorable.

So, after we became a family with a tree, there were still TWO days left in the weekend! Talk about gleeful~ We pulled out clay and had fun making all sorts of crazy/wacky/holiday creations. We watched movies - well, okay, maybe the males watched movies while I worked on other things. I really did want to watch Up with them, but I happened to come in at the half-way point and you really can't start a movie in the middle! Trust me, it is on my "to do" list as they all seemed to have loved it.

On top of all of that, we ate really well. Honestly, between our Thanksgiving meal, our fabulous day-after left-overs, and homemade pasta I feel like we were a bit glutinous this weekend. That being said, it was absolutely delightful!

I hope you too had a wonderful weekend and that your week is filled with festive moments that have you excited about this wonderful holiday season!

xx

finding balance

At this time of year, with all of the festivities, and the planning and preparation that goes along with them, I tend to find myself with endless "to do" lists that seem to grow longer rather than shorter.

Please don't misunderstand - I really truly love this time of year. I love the feeling of excitement and anticipation, I love the twinkly lights, the afternoons when my counters are covered with flour and sprinkles and three different varieties of chocolate. I also love the fact that there are drinks for every part of the day - Bailey's and coffee at breakfast, champagne and orange juice at brunch, old-fashioned mix cocktails at 3 pm, and a wonderful glass of wine at dinner. Really, what more could a girl ask for?

I also think that, even though people are busier this time of year, they are quicker to smile at strangers, they have a spring in their step, and they are more generous with those in need. That just may be my very favorite part of this season.

Alas, with all of the wonderful aspects to this season, my growing "to do" lists is always there, poking at me when I sleep, staring at me while I work on a project or catch up with my correspondence. Not to mention there are endless things that never even make the list to begin with! I also try and make time for blogging, for taking photos as that is something that nourishes me creatively, spending time with my boys doing what they like rather than keeping to my own agenda, date night when we are lucky enough to make that happen, visiting with friends, baking, sewing, spending time on the property in the gardens, and the list goes on and on.

One thing that I want to put more thought into this year is how to find a healthy, positive, satisfying balance when it comes to incorporating all of these aspects into this season. I would like to work on projects, but not lose myself in them (I wish you could hear my laughing hysterically at that one...). I would love to make each gift that we offer each other something meaningful, possibly something homemade, a letter written, a photo taken. I aspire to do more meal planning, more slow cooking, more eating seasonally, shopping locally. I love the idea of spending more time around the dining table and talking about what the holidays mean to us as a family. I want to find something self-less to do as a family, whether it is serving a meal or two at a local soup kitchen or something else along those lines. I want my boys to really understand what the holidays are truly about. And finally, I wish I could make time each day to spend even a few moments making each one of my five wonderful boy/men feel like they are the most important person in the world to me.

Do I think that this is all going to happen? Probably not, but there is something about writing it down, putting it out there, and acknowledging that these are the things I aspire to. This is the world I want to create for these boys to grow up in. I want to take the commercial, consumeristic, more is more attitude that seems to surround us these days and instead offer them an alternate holiday season. I want them to look out into this amazing world that they live in and ask themselves, what can we do for someone else to make their season better?

{this is #3 on the evening news donating money to a local food drive}

So, on this Thanksgiving Eve, I am so very thankful for my boys - all five of them. I am thankful to have such a wonderful family, my dear sweet friends - near and far, and those of you whom although I have never met many of you, touch me with your kindness, your thoughtful words, your support and encouragement. You truly make this journey one of bliss and joy.

Thank you so very much for that.

bracelet {love}

Today there was a splendid surprise in the post box when I arrived home. Don't you just adore how sweet and shiny it is?

A few weeks ago one of my dearest friends somehow knew that I had been having a difficult time feeling a bit blue about something. She sent me a gift certificate to buy a personalized piece of joy as she had known how much I had wanted one with my sweet boys' names on it.

There is something about a friend doing something out of the blue and completely unexpected that sends me to tears~ Thank you once again miss lori!

xx