the twelfth day of christmas

I never take down the Christmas stuff until tomorrow - epiphany.  I wish we could leave the outdoor lights on through the dark days of winter.  It's so fun to see the neighborhood glowing.  I suppose there needs to be a special-ness of having them only lit at Christmas....I will miss them.  Tomorrow I will carefully wrap and pack our special things.  I leave the nativity scene for the end....it's the last to go....also the first to come out each year.

How about these lovely ornaments from Crate and Barrel?  They make me so happy.  I might leave them out until Valentine's Day.

I did work in my Ruby Tuesday journal today....just didn't get it finished or photographed.  I'll show you soon.  I'm thinking I will keep up the weekly exercise.  I enjoyed maintaining my sanity by allowing a morning of self indulgence each week.  If you are having a hard time getting back into your art you should come over and play on the Street Team.  This month the prompt is also an assignment....sometimes I think having an assignment takes the Thinking out and leaves room for Doing.  Come Brave the Elements with us.

Comments

[Chris]

I cut my tools tonight. but getting to sleep early again...
We are keeping our lighted village and snow out all winter. We love it and have it lighted every night. I agree, the lights can make such a difference.

[Anna]

We also take our ornaments down tomorrow, but I always say the same thing about lights in the winter. Especially around here where the cold weather (usually) is just getting started as we take them down. Love your bowl of ornaments, very cheery!

[Jennifer White]

You should most definitely leave those red lovelies out until V-Day... they're perfect. I'm going to leave one strand of lights up in my living room around my mirror, over my fireplace (follow all of that?) since I enjoy the lights so much. Our street is already going dim as people take down the decorations .. I couldn't agree with you more that even if we'd leave everything lit up until the end of February, Winter may not be so dreary. xo

[iHanna]

Love the new crusade, will join as soon as I have time to schedule for a play date! :-)

Happy 2010!

[Maryanne]

Hi Michelle,
Carrie's mom here. I was so excited to see your red ornaments. I found a set of aqua ones just like yours in my stocking Christmas morning and I did the same thing with mine that you did, put them in a cut glass candy dish! I love those ornaments. Mine came from Anthropologie.
I enjoy reading your blog. I'm a fiber/bead person and only a dabbler in paper arts, but your work and your blog is so beautiful.
Maryanne

[Julie]

They're eating great big King cakes at pre-school today.... Sister Adrienne schooled me because I forgot about this holiday. :(

[Maj Carita]

You know, coming from a tiny, and in winter a very dark country - Denmark, I tend to leave the outdoor christmas lights on for a month or two after Christmas... a great many danes do so. Light is what we are hungry for. And I like to leave just a single little christmas piggy, or a silver star hanging somewhere in the house, I am a sucker for Christmas!
Thank you for your lovely card!
xoxo

[inge]

Hello Michelle,

the tradition is here the same: all christmas decorations go away on epiphany, BUT my winterdecorations stays ( lights, anything that's blue and white and wintery, snow,...). So, it's just a rearrangement from my christmasdecoration... just until Valentine or the sun shows up a bit more...
I have a blogpost about my "Christmas/winterdecoration" on my website...

I'm going to hop over to the crusade and read what the "instructions" are :)
I' m surely going to post soon about the painttechnique you showed earlier. I've done several backgrounds already with this technique and they are quick ,easy , fun to do and great results !

Although easy... I showed this technique to our local round robin group and the biggest problem was for them to let go, not to work in stripes, but very randomly !

greetings from belgium
Inge

[Kathryn - Collage Diva]

I love red accents for holiday decorating. It is so dark and dismal without the house lights. I'm happy to be distracted by so many creative projects and this will get me through this cold and dark season. Stay warm!

xoxo k