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Happy New Year Everyone! We just completed these hats so the boys can go out in style tonight! We are just going over a friends house to hang out for dinner with the kiddies! I think next year we are thinking of a tropical New Year's!
My oldest guy Hayden loves robots and he made a few really cool ones that he wants me to post later but here is his New Year's one he just finished to help celebrate!
So get out the bubbly and have some fun and I will see you in 2008!!!!
Ellen
Oh here is some of the aftermath of all that was given by Santa and Mom and Dad! The boys have been playing with all their goodies and mom, which is me has been nursing a cold.
This is little Pack's house which is the name my son Hayden gave to his new pet robot! We made it together on Christmas morning. Hayden also made him a dog bone out of fimo clay to go with the house! Soo cute. My poor little guy just loves animals and we cannot have any fur animals in the house because of my allergies so this is the closest he can get. My mom had given this to him for his Christmas present and he just loves it. We do not have much luck in the non-fur animal category either. The brand new catfish we got to replace the other fish that died has also hit the bucket as they say. I think our house is cursed, since we take special care of these animals but they never last long. The hermit crabs recently bit the dust too and we just do not know why!! soo sad to see them go. My son is still tormented from the leopard gecko we got him when he was 3 he did not last long either. I am beginning to think its the pet store we get them from.
Anyway the robot is a hit and hopefully he will last long!
This contraption Santa brought him took my husband up until yesterday to finish it! Allot of work but the boys like how the marbles go down the trap and around the fun plastic grooves. I am wondering how long it will last like this!
Some exciting news for me, I am going to have my craft snowman put into Better Homes and Garden's Holiday Crafts magazine! So I decided to send them a perfect one which is why my desk today is a mess!
This was all due to the lovely Jennifer Paganelli's blog!
Anyway I am going to have to finish this guy and get some lunch and try to get this cold out of me once and for all!!!
I am hoping to be fully better for the big game tomorrow!! Goooo Patriots!!! I hope they win to make history! Yeah!
Ellen
I think I am the luckiest girl in the world when I live next to a woman who can grow and make anything! Here is the famous carmel corn she just dropped off on her way to get to the airport. Yummm! We cannot wait to sink our teeth into this, glad I had my personal trainer yesterday to keep me in check! I am thankful for all the lovely gifts I get. I also got a wonderful box of chocolates from my fabric client Robert Kaufman! I had one already and was even afraid to eat it because it looks soo pretty! Tonight I am sure my husband and I will enjoy this gift from our great friend who works for Duckhorn vineyards by the fire.
This red wine is exceptional if you can get some! When we first moved back to Massachusetts in 97' my husband work for a big wine distributor here and we were blessed with some great freebees! now that he is in a different sales job the only way to get great freebees is from our friends who still work in the business. God bless those friends in high places! everyone needs one. I also have a friend who gets me 40% Victoria Secret and God Bless her!! she is an old college friend as well as her husband and we love to get together in the summer and hang out. He is an incredible cook so it is not a diet weekend when we go to their house.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years! and thanks to all the friends and family who help make every year special. I am looking forward to a relaxing Holiday and vacation week with lots of sledding, cooking making, hanging out and enjoying ones company! Take time out to appreciate those you love and slow down a bit and really remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.
Merry Christmas!
Ellen
I didn't get to show you the final result on the tree so here it is with all of it's glory. We decorated it last Thursay when we got that first big storm. Perfect day for that I would say.
Little hands putting up ornaments, and doing a great job I might add, better than mommy who dropped 2 of them and broke them!
Then there was the party where Santa came with all his glory, too bad not all of my friends and family could come, the weather just keep them away, but for those who dared you were well rewarded.
It is funny how my family room has the red theme going on, just perfect for the Holiday. I actually cannot wait until we add on and I get rid of this look. I am looking for a more Pottery Barn stream lined look next time around. I cannot have the french country look with kids, it just doesn't work. I was hoping to do construction this summer but it looks like I will have to wait another year or two! rats!!! So I hope everyone is getting ready for the big day. I feel soo bad but I still have not gotten out my cards or little gifts to clients, I am just way in over my head this year and I knew it when my brother said he was getting married on Dec 8th. I can not get my stuff together with all the events I had to get to and do myself. My little guy Colby missed his first school Xmas concert today because he has a fever. I felt soo bad and although he is glad not to go I really wished he could. He is resting up on the couch right now as we speak. Little monkey is all tired out. I hope he feels better by tomorrow. It is hard when you work at home and need to try and take care of little ones. I have to put him in daycare because there is no way I would get anything done. He is not content to sit around while I work so he is better off playing with other kids then here with me.
This summer I promised the boys I would take off the month of August and do mommy camp, since Colby will be starting a full day of Kindergarten next year and on the bus with big brother. I wanted to give them a proper fun summer send off before the work began. I am looking forward to just hanging at the beach and pool too. There is nothing like not working for a month to put you straight! I did it once after college and went to Europe to see friends and loved every minute of it. I think Europe has it right to take a 6 week vacation, good for the soul and family.
Well gotta try and get something done while he naps!! have a great day all!
Oh by the way you can check out my studio on this site, here I show photos and talk about where some pictures came from.
Ellen
Okay folks, it has been quite the winter around here in Massachusetts. Last Thursday we got hit with a big snow storm and our town got about 6inches. That is not much not but the way it came down was very fast and caused such a havoc on people trying to get home you cannot imagine. Thank God, I told my husband to just quit work that day around noon otherwise he would have sat in traffic for hours like the rest of the people around here. My mom works one building away from my youngest son's daycare and she said it took one of her coworkers 45 min to go 1/4 of a mile! Is that just insane, so we decided to pick up Colby later when the traffic had died down some. That was the night that we decorated our tree, and how fitting with all that snow coming down. That is when you love Christmas, the white snow and music along with decorating. The part we hate is the traffic, slush and constant clean up.
Friday came and I had promised my little guy that we would go sledding after pre-school. He was soo excited and so was I , since I love to sled. I have to tell you when I was about 12 years old my favorite sledding story is that I would go sledding down the back of my elementary school, which had an amazing hill, and have a blast going really fast down this steep hill. Although my fun was short-lived when I decided to go on the rough side and go over the jump! I went over allright, but then I went one way and the sled the other and then I landed on a big rock. That night while watching Brady Bunch!! I noticed my hip had enlarged the size of a basketball. My mom took me to the hospital where they took X-rays which was not pretty in my thermals! and said I had sprained my hip! So then I had crutches for a week. The worst part was trying to go to the bathroom, not fun. This is just one of the many other funny sledding stories I have and the others get better and better!
Anyway I would say it was fun that day but it was such a struggle to get the sled to go fast and carry a 45lb boy up a hill since he was little to climb up it. I came home wipped out and ready to go to bed, but had to go shopping for our Xmas party.
Ahh the party lots of work every year and every year I say "not next year" but then I do it all over again! I think I am a glutten for punishment. This year we were expecting lots of people so I made tons of food, but then there was that storm again!!! The patriots still played and we watched but we had half as many people expected and way tooo much food left over! My husband went to work with a whole half tray of sausage and pepper and pasta with Vodka sauce.
Well at least the Patriots won again and now there are only 2 games left to be undefeated!! Yahhh hooo!
We are looking forward this week to crafting with the kids, making goodies and just not running around. I am looking forward to sledding again with the boys and possibly some time at a resort where they pull you up tubbing so you do not have to walk up the hill! This illustration I did awhile ago and you can find cards created from it here
they do a whole custom program which is nice and easy and soon I will have some cards with their Ink 2 store so check back soon to see when that will happen!
Until then I am going to do some much needed relaxing and hanging with the family!!
Ellen
Well we finally got our tree last night, just before the storm hit!! We are expected to get about 10 inches today
and many schools have already closed. Here is a look at what is going on outside my back door. I took this just about 10 minutes or so and the snow is coming down about an inch an hour!
My husband is on his way home to get out the snowblower and make sure it is ready!! oh the kids are just going to go nuts sledding later. We have a little hill on our side yard that runs into the driveway so they can walk up it themselves and have loads of fun. I took this picture of one of the little arrangements that was on the bar at my brother's wedding. We have a few more large arragngements that I have to change out dead flowers on that I will use for our party.
Don't you just love how cute it is! A large christmas blub that is made out of glass! I have 2 of them and I think they are just great!
The boys did some crazy trees a week ago that is styrofoam and felt and mini decorations. They are kind of fun and bright!
My office even has a bit of Christmas color! This flower is from the Hybiscus that we took in from our deck so it will survive the winter. It just puts a smile on my face.
Well folks gotta get some work done before the munchkins get home and want to play in the snow. The quite will be over soon enough!
Ellen
Do you ever get the feeling like you are on a hamster wheel all the time? Well lately I do. Last weekend we went to Newport, RI for my older brother's wedding and it was non-stop partying until 1:30 a.m. and I am begining to feel it now. I came back to many emails full of work and not to mention the fact we still have not got our tree yet and our Open House Party is Sunday! I just barely got out the lights Sunday and we had a major amount of ice yesterday morning, so much so that many people got hurt falling, including one of my son's classmates. I think this winter is going to be a big one. So I did this illustration a couple of years ago because I thought it would be funny to think about what Santa does when he is not delivering presents! He must be on a coffee break I thought! I also had him cooking and taking a bath as well as many more. This was my way of trying to put some fun in good ol' Saint Nick.
So back to this business of too much to do. I am in the mist of 4 different projects this week and cannot seem to get my head on straight not to mention a few contracts to think about. I am trying to decided which direction to go in, in one of my products and it is reaking havoc on my life. I just am not ready to figure it all out yet.
I am sooo much looking forward to Christmas break and I will take full advantage of it, let me tell you! I cannot wait to try and get some snowboarding in as well as skiing! Let's just hope for some fresh snow, otherwise it's that man made stuff that is just pure ice!
So for now I am thinking about a coffee break, like Santa and hoping to get to do some fun creating this next week or so. Here's to you all crazed women like myself just trying to stay afloat during this busy season! Get some coffee!
Ellen
I just got these goodies in the mail yesterday! Just in time for Christmas, we will make good use of the kids thank you notes! You can find these here they also have some of my xmas wrap
and tissue here.
Sometimes it pays to create designs for products you know you could use, although my boys are wishing for my desings to go on toys, and frankly so am I.
I am a little frustrated that I still have not gotten a chance to begin our Christmas decorating. The weather here has been too cold to go outside and put up lights so I told my husband I will have to do it right after Thanksgiving next year. We have frozen pumpkins out front!! With my brother's wedding on Sat I have not had a chance to even think about decorating, and then we have our open house next weekend so I have to get it done before then!
Oh soo much to do soo little time, I wish I could borrow Santa's elves to help me!!
Ciao,
Ellen
Thanks to all who wrote in and left such lovely comments! I cannot tell you how much my ego has enflated with all of your wonderful praise. It is always nice to hear that people like your work. I sometimes never get to hear it since I work from home and I am pretty much secluded here. Usually the only people I get comments from are family and friends and of course my clients, but it is soo much better to hear from those who would actually purchase my designs. I cannot tell you how much fun this was and I will be sure to do it again soon, so check back in to see or just to say hello!
So without making you sweat any longer here are the winners chosen by my little 4 year old!!
Brenda H
Claudia F
Lisa
Joan Fowler
please send me an email with your address so I can send out as soon as possible!
I hope you enjoy your packages and thanks for all your wonderful comments.
Well folks thats it for today, thanks again for all your kind words, I have to finish an Easter design for a client, and then it is time to work on this children's book I have been working on plus get things ready for my brothers upcoming wedding this weekend.
happy blogging!
Ellen
