::2009::

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, eating, drinking & generally being merry.
I'll keep this short and wish you all a very Happy New Year & hope that 2009 is filled with many blessings! Thanks for visiting & see you in the new year for more blogging, rants and raves about life, the universe & of course art.

::just around the corner::

I'm beginning to feel quite excited about Christmas, bizarre as it may sound to some, I had not realised how fast it was approaching. It wasn't until Wednesday night at my work Christmas party when everyone was wishing each other a Happy Christmas that it clicked. The next day I sat down and looked at the calender, lo and behold there it was, Christmas day inching ever closer! I'm not very good at dates & times, I wish I was, numbers in any form are not my thing! Some people are like walking calenders & I am so envious of them, bit it's just not part of my make up. I believe this has something to do with those who are creative, I base my research solely on my Mum and myself who both possess the a fore mentioned traits. There's probably some research out there, gathering dust in a library, that proves my theory...or not as the case maybe!!

So back to the point....Christmas is just around the corner, 5 days to be exact (now I'm second guessing myself) My sister & nephew are arriving on Christmas Eve and staying with R & I for a few days, which is very exciting. Not only that but we are going over to our lovely friends Foy & Joanne for Christmas day, which is almost equally as exciting! There's going to be a big crowd, plenty of good food, wine & perhaps even a song or two! But before all that happens I need to get a bit of shopping done, mostly grocery but also clean up the house for 'The Visitors', but it will have to wait until Monday as I'm working all weekend. Then it's time to embrase the festivities with as much gusto as possible!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

From Erin

& Charlie

::a christmas moose::

The postman is working overtime at the moment running up & down to my post box, leaving little packages of goodness. This Moose arrived from Barcelona from Silvia who has her own blog here It has to be one of my favourites so far, but each of the ornaments I received so far are so unique that it's difficult to really say, my opinion seems to change everyday. I'll post more pictures over the next few days.
One of the reasons I like this swap so much is that it makes me feel all Christmasy & brings back the magic of Christmas that I used to have as a kid. There are times I wished I was at the age when I still believed in Santa. A time where the excitement was almost too much to bear come Christmas eve. I was enthralled by the whole thing. Doing the swap both this year and last has made me realise how much I love the build up to Christmas. The fact that there are people around the globe making little ornaments & sending them out to others they don't know warms the cockles of my heart!

::Dear Santa::

The time in my studio has come to an end all too soon. Myself & a friend of mine from college were subletting the studio for a short term let, until November. I have so many boxes of stuff that I cannot bear to throw out & we haven't as yet found a new studio, so our apartment is looking a little more crowded than normal! Although, I enjoyed having the studio, it used to take me about 40 mins to get to the there & often by the time I did I would feel slightly deflated after the London traffic. It can wear you down in an instant, particularly on crowded London buses!! So this time I'm hoping to find somewhere closer by, anything to ease the pace of life in London & of course as good value for money if not better...well I can hope!
My nephew asked me the other day what I was getting from Santa & had I sent my letter to him yet. He assured me that I could post it in any green postbox (at home they're green) it didn't have to be a special Santa postbox, but I better do it soon! I told him I was going to ask for a surprise, maybe I'll ask him for a new studio space instead. Although that could work out a little tricky sitting under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning!

::& here's one I made earlier::

Envelopes & Ornaments

This year I sent out world peace!

::the 1st to arrive::

So this is it...the first ornament to arrive from Karen who is from the UK....it has been hung proudly on the tree awaiting the others to join in & keep him company!
This year the swap worked slightly different than last, in that the people I sent ornaments to are not necessarily the same folk that will send them to me. It's a bit more like taking names out of a hat this time around. So I don't know who got my name...it's all one big surprise!