THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas and to all and to all a good night!

I hope you all are having a wonderful night! We had an amazing Christmas and I wish the same for you and your families.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Love, Jan :)

3 more sleeps

The girls are so excited and antsy about Christmas. Lara asked for a bag of bows tonight at the store and I really and truly believe that it was a ruse...to get to take out all the presents and spot the ones that had her name on them. :) A good one, though.

Christmas always brings back memories of my own childhood. Memories of 5 a.m. breakfasts of eggs and bacon and strong coffee. My strongest memories are of seeing my daddy in his PJs, waiting for all of us to finally roll out of bed. And I remember getting presents from Santa long after I stopped believing. But there is something magical in those packages addressed to you from a fictional jolly man written in your father's handwriting. I was always surprised and I believe that is the heart of my Christmas. When you take away all the commercialism, the simple joy of witnessing happiness manifested in those you love...that is the joy of the holiday season for me. This is always bittersweet for me...recalling these memories. After all these years, we've grown somewhat accustomed to the lonely holidays simple festivities. But what I wouldn't give to be down in southeast Texas, with my whole family, celebrating family and rejoicing in each other's company.

To all my friends and loved ones, know that I love you and miss you. Things just aren't the same without you here.

From one of my favorite Snow Patrol songs:

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My finger's in creases of distant dark places

If I don't post again before Christmas, know that you are in my heart and I hope you are happy and joyous this holiday season.

freezy spider pops

I'm hoping the temperature doesn't drop today just so I can look at these webs all day. I think they're beautiful. And they were so unexpected while making my morning coffee. :)

midnight with noodle

As I sit here, perusing Itunes and finding all kinds of nonsensical nonsense to fill my brain with, Noodle cannot sleep. So she is here with me in all her chubby glory. Do you KNOW what it takes to keep a Noodle happy at midnight? Well, I'll tell ya. It takes pretzel goldfish, cheese stars, wheat this, milk, water, plenty of books, a blankie, an attentive and smoochy mama, and LOTS of attention. She is also rapidly mooing, meowing, and blowing kisses for me. If this is Noodle at midnight, how can one resist? :)

She is blowing kisses like there is no tomorrow and this has been the best midnight in a while. :) I hope everyone is well and rested...because I am SURE to be feeling the effects of a late night tomorrow. And I have to chaperon a disco! More on that later! hee hee :)

a bit of whimsy...

Been playing around with my kits. Trying to give them a bit of a fresh look..and hopefully a little bit more appeal.

Like I said...just a bit pf play. :) If you'd like to see more of these kits, you can do that HERE.

stop eating my ipod!

I love the random things I have to say to Noodle. She's a firecracker, that one.

Quick update: The freebies (Totally Tags & Such a Flake!) from Sunday night are now on sale. Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who stopped by and got to download it for free. (almost 1,000 downloads each!) I really appreciate all the sweet comments and I hope you have a great time using them! (And hopefully the tags will make your life easier!) We could ALL use a bit of that right now! :) I really like the idea of offering my stuff for free for a limited time...it makes me happy. But the only way to find out about it is here on my blog. I won't be advertising new products on the rest of the web til after they are on sale. So, be sure to check back often! ;)

It's almost 10 am and the frost is still pretty heavy on the ground and my little sun room is NOT warming up, even with the space heater on HI. So, I think I may call it quits today as far as work goes...maybe I'll get some chores done in a much warmer part of the house.

OH! I almost forgot...the kiddos had their Christmas play yesterday! Here are some horribly dark and fuzzy photos....it was pitch black in there! :)

The smile on my face was ridiculous...I was grinning and beaming like a total fool! Lara was so focused on her song and her little "sheepy head nods" while Mia looked like she had never heard the song before in her life! HA!

I'm off to hang out in the window and watch the backyard doves with Noodle. After that, I'm gonna get started on a new collection idea I hatched last night.....yummy things to come, for certain! Ciao, all! Happy Wednesday! :)

well well well....

Seems I've been sitting on a secret for a while...but now I am finally ready and the cat is officially out of the bag! While still creating the occasional freebie just because I adore doing it, I will also have quite a few goodies on sale at Oscraps.com! I am super excited about this new venture and I am looking forward to creating lots of lots of fun goodies for you! Right now, I have 2 holiday-related gifts for you as well as a slew of new things! So, lemme stop flapping my jaw and let's get to the good stuff!

First, the new items that are on sale now!

You can purchase the Istanbul paper pack HERE.

You can purchase the Pear Tree paper pack HERE.

You can purchase the "Rosa" paper pack HERE.

And, here are a couple of delightfully fun little goodies for all my loyal blog readers. Thank you so much for your continued support! They will only be free for the first 2 days...so run along and get a head start before they go on sale! :) Edited to add: Such a Flake! and Totally Tags are now on sale. You can purchase them HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by!

You can download "Totally Tags" HERE .

You can download 'Such a Flake!" HERE.

There are still more goodies on the way...I just don't want to flood the galleries all at once! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Ciao! :)

good morning, christmas feeling

We went on the tree hunt last night and found our new family member. He's in charge of a very precious cargo...many, many handmade, hand blown, hand painted baubles from all over Europe hang from his skinny little arms. But he seems to be holding up just fine. The girls all helped hang the stars and snowflakes and globes. I just loooooove our tree. It makes me happy! And it makes it feel like Christmas is really here.

As and I was sitting here typing this up and editing photos, Lara brought me my house socks and said she wanted to put them on my feet. :) What service! :) She's such a sweetheart.

I'm hoping to have a couple of treats for you to download this weekend! So I guess I should get back to work! Ciao :)

holiday cheer!

Ok, it has seriously been way too long since I've blogged. Sorry about that! But I've been a busy busy bee lately. Hunched over my sewing machine, cranking out gifts for my chubby little princesses and ordering things from all corners of the world for Christmas gifts for loved ones. Making quite a few dents in Etsy.com....I simply adore that place! CRAZY busy. Decorating the house, baking cookies, finding new music, battling a seemingly endless cold, making Christmas cards for the kiddos at school and for teachers....waiting impatiently for my snowflake cookie cutter to arrive in the mail...really wanting that box to arrive! LOL! :)

The kiddos will be in a school play on Tuesday, so we're gearing up for that...I've heard the darn songs so much, I'm sure I'll be sing sing singin' along during the performance. My only consolation is that all the other mums and dads will be doing it, too. :) Lara is going to be a sheep and Mia is going to be a cat. Can't wait! Speaking of singing, Norah is slowly starting to get the words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". It comes out roughly as "tinko tinko....... how why......up up UP!" :) Then, of course, lots of clapping and shouting and exclamations of "YAY!!" Here she is singing it for me...

Besides that, been busy on backstage digi....many, many things going on. First of all, the December Songbird Avenue kit is up and it is PHENOMENAL!! We had the honor of working with Michelle Coleman and the kit is just scrumptious! And we're already hard at work on January's kit...time sure is flying! :)

You can pick it up HERE. Remember, the kits are only available for one month! :) Come and help us support the Make a Wish foundation of Utah and maybe pick up a gift certificate for a buddy while you're there! :) Don't forget to keep up with all the events over at the Songbird blog. Michelle always has something fun for you! :) When you stop by the blog, you can see the receipt that Meredith posted from the Toys for Tots website. We managed to raise $1,814.05 last month! You guys are amazing! Thank you SO MUCH for your donations!!

Also, we were mentioned in Ali Edwards' latest newsletter....kinda mind-boggling and gloriously exciting at the same time. It's SO COOL to think that we inspired her the way she inspires us. When I think of "do-gooders" Ali is pretty darn high on the list...so to have her give us a shout-out is such an honor! Thank you, Ali!

A fab new collaboration kit is up at Oscraps! Check out Jolly-O! It's loads of fun!

I'm also working on some holiday stuff...hopefully I will have it ready in a couple of days. I know there are tons of yummy kits out there, but I think I'll throw my hat in the ring as well! That reminds me...I've have simply GOT to get started on my Christmas cards...I don't even have a photo yet! :( Last year's beautiful photo was pure luck...not so sure about what's going to happen this year. It's a nightmare trying to get all 3 girls to smile at the same time and have their eyes open and all be looking at me. I'd probably have better luck if I told them all to pick their noses.....hmmmm....methinks I have the new holiday card theme! ;)

Ciao, all and take care! See ya soon! :)