Under the Tulip Tree

Goodbye 2010

As the holidays officially come to a close, and as I try to return order to our messy little home, I'm finding it difficult to wrap this year up neatly and tie it with a bow. And as I often find myself at the end of each calendar year, I am so happy it's over yet so sad to watch it go.

To know me is to know that I am overly nostalgic, often sentimental, and dripping with wistfulness. It's just who I am. Sometimes I'll still be in a moment when I'll find myself already longing for its return. Will I remember the way his eyes looked when he said that? Will I remember the way she twists her mouth like that? Will I remember exactly how it felt when I watched them do that?

If history serves as an indicator, I probably won't remember it all. And as someone who prides herself on retaining even the most mundane of details, it pains me that I won't be able to. I won't be able to add every last detail of our lives to my already full card catalog of memories. And that card catalog isn't even as big as it once was. Things are getting pushed out and disappearing completely. And that's a tragedy for the nostalgic heart. Some not-so-nostalgic hearts might think that's a good thing, that it's a good thing to clear out the memories—the less to be nostalgic about the better. I suppose some of that is true. I suppose it is both a curse and a blessing to forget things and I admit there are some memories that I wish would leave me forever. But all of those memories make me who I am, whether I remember them in detail or not.

What's funny is that as nostalgic as I am for the past, I love to start over, to start fresh, to start new. I'm always looking for an opportunity and a reason to reinvent myself. I'm always looking for a reason to not let the grass grow under my feet. And though I've never really been a fan of New Year's Eve in general, I absolutely love New Year's Day. It's a new beginning. Another chance to try harder, do better, love more, give more, be more. I guess that's true about every new day, actually, not just New Year's Day. Every new day gives us a second chance, an opportunity to do it over and to be more than we were the day before. So that's what I'm going to keep trying. Every day. Be more than I was the day before.

Be well, friends. I wish you much peace, love, and prosperity in the coming new year.

ANY

Happiest Season of All

Christmas Eve spent with family, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, being with the people we love.

Stomaches filled to the brim with homemade ravioli, having flourless chocolate cake anyway.

A cozy, overcast Christmas morning, everything quiet outside.

Two excited little ones, one who still believes and one who wishes she still could.

A little stack of packages, opened with abandon.

A breakfast of eggnog pancakes and bacon, more frothy eggnog on the side.

Playing new games, loving new toys, being together, being content, exactly where we are.

ANY

Holiday Ornament Making

Some crafts are tailor made for kids. Like this gumdrop ball, for instance. It was inspired by this gumdrop wreath and the wreath making party Alicia had at her shop a few years ago. I had some extra Styrofoam balls left over in my craft closet and I thought the kids would have fun poking the gumdrops into the balls with toothpicks. They really did love it. And, other than my trimming the toothpicks and attaching the ribbon, the kids made them completely on their own. Each ball ended up being pretty heavy so we ran a wire through the center of each one (looping it at the top and bottom so the wire wouldn't pull through the Styrofoam) and made sure to hang them from sturdy branches.

The peppermint candy ornaments (also a Martha idea) did not go as smoothly. The candies were supposed to stick together with royal icing and maybe it was my royal icing but I could not get the things to stick. I tried helping them stay together with glue but that was a disaster, too. When I finally thought I had it down, I hung six or seven of the finished ornaments from the tree and forgot about them. A few hours later, when it was dark and quiet and the kids were in bed, they started falling from the tree and crashing to the floor and I thought someone was opening fire and I nearly had a heart attack. They'll have to just live on in my memory, I suppose.

When I saw Kellen's lovely tree, I remembered seeing these button ornaments in a back issue of Martha Stewart Kids and it made me glad once again to be hoarding my old magazines for all these years. (MSL Kids was hands down my favorite magazine when it existed.) I thought the button ornaments would be a sure hit with the kiddos but they weren't so much. The kids loved how they turned out but were not interested in helping me make them at all (maybe it was because I stopped crafting with candy). Unlike the peppermint candy ornaments, these came together quite easily.

I loved making all of these ornaments with the kids and I hope that we carry the tradition on to next year. I hope that you're making wonderful holiday memories, too, and I hope that you have many more of them to come. Sending you heartfelt wishes for a very merry Christmas and I thank you very much for visiting me here, it makes me so happy that you do. xox

ANY

While Daddy Was Away

The Mister came home last night after a trip back to Chicago to see his family. We sure did miss him. We stayed very busy, though, baking and making and finishing each of our own holiday projects. I must say that I was more prepared for his trip than usual, meaning that I went to the grocery store and ran all of my errands before he left so I didn't have to schlep the kids around town with me every day (none of us like that very much).

Arden had her annual Gingerbread Sleepover at the Paulson's so on Friday night it was just me and Mr. P. I wanted to make the night all about him so I told him we could do anything he wanted to do. His requests were simple and mostly entailed some coloring and ornament making and the two of us on the couch watching old Christmas specials. I love having uninterrupted time with my little guy, even if it's just for a little while.

The next day the three of us made cookies for the neighbors. We made just one kind of cookie—the Snickerdoodle—and made a bunch of them. The kids were patient and only ate a few so there were enough to package up nicely and take to the neighbors' houses. It was a cold, dark, and rainy day so our little house felt unbelievably warm (and still smelled like vanilla) when we got back inside. The rest of the afternoon we wrapped presents and drew pictures and made even more ornaments for the tree.

The next morning, well rested after driving around and looking at Christmas lights the night before, we made the "Frosty Mugs" cupcakes from the book What's New Cupcake. Arden loves this kind of stuff and asks to make crazy cupcakes a lot. We used our own cake and frosting recipes for the snowmen and did our best to make them look like the ones in the book but Arden only gave them a 7 out of 10 for looks. She gave them a 10 out of 10 for taste, though…

Soon enough, the time came to pick up Daddy from the airport. Perry gets very talkative and inquisitive when we drive somewhere at night. It's very exciting to him and it always has been. This time, he told us about the dinosaurs and why the earth is round and he asked why people were ever born and he wondered how people ever thought the world was flat. Square he could understand but he couldn't understand why they thought it was flat. When we pulled up to the curb at the airport, the kids searched the faces of all the weary travelers and I smiled as the people hugged and patted each others backs as they found their families and friends. Inside the car, the kids knelt on their seats with their noses pressed against the glass and shouted and pointed and hoped each person coming down the escalator was him. When they finally saw him, they both yelled and screamed and jumped up and down and waved their arms. Michael said that seeing the kids through the window like that was one of the cutest things he'd ever seen.

Welcome home, babe.

ANY

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your leaves are faithful ever!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your leaves are faithful ever!
Not only green when summer glows
But in the winter when it snows.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your leaves are faithful ever!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You are the tree most loved.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You are the tree most loved.
How oft you've given me delight
When Christmas fires were burning bright!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
You are the tree most loved.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your faithful leaves will teach me.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your faithful leaves will teach me
That hope and love and constancy
Give joy and peace eternally.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Your faithful leaves will teach me.

ANY

Scenes from Merrywood Farm

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There was a short break in the rain this weekend (which we weren't sure would even happen) so we quickly loaded up the car with our boots and coats and drove to our beloved Merrywood Farm. Though the kids seemed much bigger to me this year and the farm had a new pony, Katie, the place was exactly as I'd remembered it—lush and green and warm and welcoming.

Coming here feels a little like coming home.

ANY

Dining Room Redo

I kinda sorta maybe just slightly redecorated our studio (dining room). Again. This room had been looking a lot more cluttered since the last time I posted about it and the color was bugging me more and more so it was just a matter of time before this redo happened. Redos happen a lot in this room because we are in it so much and our needs for it change almost daily. Maybe that explains it.

My (our) studio (office) needs to be in our dining room. The whole house is only about 1300 square feet so most rooms serve dual purposes. One day last week, I was sitting in this room and I noticed a wooden box of receipts up on the shelf. And then I noticed a big canvas bin labeled "Portfolio Pieces" and another bin labeled "Tape Recorders" and another bin labeled "Scrapbook Projects" and it occurred to me that I hadn't looked in those bins in over a year. And then it occurred to me that those bins made sense at one time, but now they were just cluttering up the dining room. I wondered where else they could go. And then it occurred to me that there were things in the cabinet (which we call the "art cabinet") that had been hanging around since Arden was a toddler so in about two nanoseconds, I had my paint swatch book out and I started pulling stuff out of the cabinet.

I wanted to make this room more welcoming and feel more spacious so I put this little seating area together. We used to have a large shelving unit here but once I got rid of the stuff on it, we didn't need it anymore (funny how that works). When the previous owners lived here, there was a wood stove that sat on the brick here and that was super cute but also super old and super not up to code so our insurance agent made us take it out before we moved in. We'd been wanting to make this space into a little cuddly reading nook for a while now and with this last redo, we finally did it.

To make the seat cushion, I had a piece of 3" foam cut to size then sewed a cotton canvas cover for it. And, umm, I've never made anything like it before and it was not fun at all. The first seam I sewed was backwards (don't ask me how because I almost did it again) and then I had to take the whole thing apart and then we ripped the stupid thing when we tried to get the foam inside. It's a little bit shanty town but there is no way I'm making another one.

My idea was to make this whole wall be the entire office and have it contain all of the art and office supplies—that way the rest of the room could look and function more like a dining room instead of looking like our old basement. I think the hardest part was (and has always been) integrating two computer screens into the same room where we eat all of our meals. I think this is about as integrated as it's going to get.

Here was my original sketch before IKEA made it all happen:

Pretty close!

I was so happy to empty the shelves of all of the old craft supplies. Since this is more of the dining area now, I'm using this unit as sort of a low-brow version of a china cabinet. I had some old pottery in the garage and I had some other pieces scattered around the house so I just grouped them all together here. Right now, I'm liking these shelves sparse and open and I hope to keep them that way.

Lastly, I painted the walls Benjamin Moore OC-14 Natural Cream which is just about the most boring name for a paint color I've ever heard. I almost didn't use it because of that name and though it's hard to tell in these pictures, it's actually more of a light putty color rather than a cream or beige. Picking a color for this room wasn't easy. The living room that it's connected to is a pale, creamy bluish-greenish-gray so anything more saturated than OC-14 looked ridiculous next to it. I like that the new color tones down the yellow in the wood and it also helps blend all of the colors together.

I never expected that this room (previously my least favorite room in the house) would be my favorite room now. It ended up being softer and subtler and more monochromatic than I anticipated but that was a welcomed surprise. Sometimes redoing a room is worth the time and energy. I think most of the time it is.

ANY