Tuesday, December 28, 2010

19 Years and counting...

Yes, it is true. 
Today is my 19 year wedding anniversary!
As I stood in my shower this morning contemplating, "19 years...Really?"  I looked around and realized, this is exactly where I want to be.  In our home that we have created, with our son sleeping soundly next to his daddy in our big comfy bed, loving every minute of it!  The little memories we have made scattered through out the house...I wouldn't want it, and can't imagine it, any other way!
I love you Fowler boy!
You are my Knight in Shining Armor!
Forever....and a day. 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Christmas Fowler Style

The first sign when you enter the house!  After Santa has been here, he flips the little hanging sign over to let us know he's been here. 


 We collect our Christmas mail in the little tin mailbox I've had for years.  It gets stuffed every year!  After resting a bit on our chair full of Joy and St. Nicks, you can pass by my other reading chair and sit for a cute Christmas story from any one of the books.  Or perhaps your more in line to take a quick wintery shot in one of our Peppermint shot glasses tucked in amongst our rolling bar.  Don't get frost bite from the snowballs as you are looking!

 After your warm Peppermint winter shot, you can figure out which day we are on and choose the "Word of the Day" from our newest advent calendar.  Didn't know what else to fill those darling little envelopes with, so if one us is having a conversation during the month of December with you, and all of a sudden a random word or phrase pops up, don't be alarmed and think we are crazy, it's probably just "Word of the Day."

Yikes!  
It looks like today's word may have been hot!  Poor Frosty melted right into his hat!



 The fire place area includes our Native American Creche and Santa holding ALL of our stockings waiting to be filled (although, Justin's is not up in this picture due to him needing a new one this year and I am in the midst of making it...).

 
 The mantle is the perfect spot to highlight all of Justin's letters from Santa and Marcus, Justin's elfman.  The awesome 3-D glasses are when we drive through Vasona Park for Fantasy of Lights and watch the twinkling lights turn into twinkling snowmen and stars.  Super cool!

Around the corner from it all, is our advent calendar corner.  It's loaded with Justin's advent calendars we've collected through the years.  The Playmobil set hanging on the right wall, makes the cutest Christmas scene in the paper house display!  It changes every year as Justin decorates the scene himself. 


 The last room to get a little Christmas spirit, is the water closet. 

 Love my bubbling glittery Santa nightlight!


 The Musical Bears were given to us last year, and they have filled our house with Holiday songs.  If you don't want to hear an instrument, take the bear off the main stage and move him to the lower platform, you'll no longer hear that instrument.  When he's ready to come back, he'll jump in like he never left!
 

 This beautiful vintage Christmas scene, came from my mother and is the perfect little hiding cloth for my vintage bowls to stay warm behind.  On top of this cabinet (above pictures) are my vintage chocolate molds and little mini cookie presses.  I love this corner of the house!

 Even the collection of baseballs are touched with cheer!  They are highlighted by the most beautiful glass block ever!  Nanny and Poppy, you rocked these!  My parents made these amazing Holiday glass blocks by drilling a hole in the back, filling it with white lights, and printing vintage images onto shiny card stock which they ran through a sticker maker and stuck to the front of the blocks.  I have two, and love them both!  
 

I hope you had a good visit.  Come back soon as we still need to wrap up our Christmas tree!

On a side note, and to shamelessly promote myself, I've been working on posting items in my Etsy shop.  I read a tip that one of the best ways to stay out in the public's eye, is to post daily.  At .20 cents per item, you really can't go wrong!  So go on, check it out. I may have just that right gift you were looking for.  : )  

~nic

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The Pretend Boutique

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had on Saturday!  My sister-in-law, Robin and her two friends, Kelly and Christina, one fun filled night recently, decided that they needed to get over their artist fear and host a Holiday Boutique.  What a grand idea!  They schemed up their plan and thought, how bad could it be to host a boutique for a couple of hours on a Saturday?  Nothing too dangerous as going to a full fledged craft fair or anything.  So they decided, let's do it.  Last Monday is when I came into play.  Robin emailed me and asked if I wanted to join.  Of course I did.  If anything else, she said, it'll be fun just to hang out and eat and drink.  It so was!  

Everyone worked hard during the week and got our wears together.  I even pulled an all nighter on Friday to finish up some last  minute items.  Saturday morning, I woke up and got it all together, Robin came to pick me up and we headed over to Kelly's house in a darling little neighborhood of ours in Willow Glen.  Super Cute house, and Super Cute items she makes! You can find her here. When we walked into her house and saw how darling everything was displayed, we knew it was going to be a fun day!  We set up our stuff, made our little plates of goodies, poured ourselves some coffee or tea, and waited for that first customer to arrive.  We were giddy with nerves and excitement!  Who would be the first customer and what would they buy?  One of Robins beautiful framed photos?  Or perhaps it was going to be the Sugarplum Joy banner that Kelly made.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'd get an order for my quiet book. 

We talked, we filled our plates again, heated up some spinach dip, made some delicious rum spiced cider, and waited.  Hmm...we thought.  Perhaps no one can see our sign.  Well, we'll just go outside and fix ol' Santa here with a sign that welcomes the troves of people inside!  Yes, that will help! We moved Santa, although I didn't want him too close to the street in case the mob came and decided to swipe Santa, and placed our newly crafted signage right near him.  Yes, that will do it.  They will come now. 

After acting like crazy, slightly drunken, loons out front, we came inside and waited on pins and needles, again.  Oh my gosh!  It's working!  A truck is pulling up RIGHT in front of the house, right in front of Santa and the sign! Robin blurted out, "Act natural!"  Our "security" girl, Christina, jumped up to pretend like she was a customer already browsing.  Yes...the girl is out of the truck!  She's...she's...crossing the street to another house.  Didn't even give a second look our way.  Blocked ol' Santa and didn't care.  We fell over in laughter!  

Our beautifully set Holiday Boutique, didn't get one customer.  Not one.  I didn't care, I had so much fun hanging out with Robin and her friends.  We even came up with a better marketing plan for our Spring boutique.  While outside moving Santa around, Kelly made the comment that her neighbors were probably thinking, oh look at her pretending she has a shop. We died laughing but thought, what a great idea for our boutique name, The Pretend Boutique.  Intriguing right?  What could they be selling at the Pretend Boutique?  Makes you want to come find out.  Well, you missed out on this one, but you are more then welcome to come to our Spring event.  I'll keep you posted on the details.  (okay, so even now, I'm "pretending" that I'm talking to a lot readers right now...I'm really good at this!)   I can't wait to do it again!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Going a little nutty!

So this morning I quickly logged into my Etsy account, to humor myself that I had received more orders. 
I saw that I had a conversation waiting to be replied to. 
I thought, oh, my book must have made it to it's new owner. 
No, it wasn't that at all. 
It was an email from the Etsy group showing that I had been featured in a treasury find!  I was so excited!  I'm so new to Etsy I just really couldn't believe it!  I feel so honored to be choosen in this wonderful assortment of handmade goods! 
Here is the link:

Talk about another big boost to help me along.  I am truly an Etsy believer!

~nic