a little of this and a bit of that

the photo above was taken weeks ago... that splash of orange is gone now. the bones of the trees are all showing, and there is a feeling of winter in the air.

i made a new snowflake stamp to add to my winter collection. the little snowflake stamp is from last year. i learned a lesson with that one over the summer when i let the kids use whatever ink colors they wanted on whatever stamps they wanted. now, if i use the little snowflake over and over the white starts to get a bit of a pink tinge.... hmmm.... lesson learned.

a monkey in my bed

my current reading list... the latest issue of taproot magazine (i have so much love for this magazine... independent, ad free, full of art, craft, food, farm, and family.... love love love), "the snow child" (i haven't actually started it yet but i am so excited to read it after hearing such great reviews from amanda), and "hands free mama" (which i had high hopes for but just can't seem to get into... i LOVE the authors blog.... i cry almost every time i read one of her posts... but alas... her book is just not doing anything for me)

the big kids love trekking out into the woods with matt. they ride their motor bikes, ride their mountain bikes, or work hard building new trails (well, he does most of the work... while they explore a bit of nature).

the christmas calendars arrived and i am so happy with them. this is my seventh or eighth christmas making photo calendars. i made a few for our parents when layla was a baby... and it has developed into a wonderful tradition. now our loved ones get to see our faces every day instead of every other month or so. here are a couple of my favorite pages.

the company that i ordered the calendars from is mixbook, and this is the template i used for ours. it was very easy to use and i love that you can make as many changes to a page as you want... from the amount, size, and shape of photos... to the various decorative page elements, colors, and what they say. i left many of the pages as is, and just changed the photo sizes and layouts a bit... but there were a few that i just didn't like and changed a lot... it felt so great to have that freedom.

the day after thanksgiving the kids went christmas crazy and had me drag out every singe decoration. the house looked like it had been hit by a christmas tornado... but i wouldn't have it any other way. i was pretty surprised when i got out our giant stack of christmas books. i had a list of five more books that i wanted to add to our collection this year, but after i took the photo above i decided i better keep it to two. last year i bought two patricia polacco christmas books and they are wonderful... the only problem is that i can't make it through without sobbing. every few pages i have to stop and take a few deep breaths because i'm so choked up i can't even continue reading. the new ones i decided on for this year are "the night tree" and "christmas day in the morning"... we already got "the night tree" and we love it.

i love watching them get so excited about those little stuffed reindeer. we had the same ones when i was a kid, and i loved them. i knew that i wanted some for my kids because our reindeer were always my favorite christmas "decoration." i also knew that i couldn't ask my mom for hers... she still has lots of grandkid play ahead with those. so, i went on a search (two years ago now)... it's kind of amazing how you can find almost anything on ebay... especially in this sense... where else would i find the same reindeer i had as a kid (they don't make them the same anymore) in excellent condition?? just sayin'... it's pretty great.

i realize this post was ridiculously random and all over the place... but that is kind of how my mind has been feeling lately (crazy, random, and all over the place)... and it has been so long since my last post i had a lot of random things to share. i hope you were able to take away something enjoyable from it and i hope to see you again soon friends. 

happy holidays.