all is bright

While no one in my neighborhood has more than a string of lights, the house around the corner has more than enough to make up for it. It is brighter than the street lights. It makes me smile thinking of how much enthusiasm must have motivated such a display. I hope the family never loses their holiday spirit, not that it looks like there is any danger of that.

my crafty christmas

This holiday season I have given into my inner Martha. Usually, I only do one of the holiday activities that I dream of in my head, but this year I have done almost all of them. This year I made teacup candles:

I don't know why, but I am so proud of them. Every since my friend Libby's tea party, I've been visiting thrift stores and antique shops and collecting pretty teacups, it was fun to do something with them. I gave each teacup candle to my blue rose girl friends (which is why they are blue candles).

And (for those of you that get my newsletter know), I also made Christmas cookies with special labels for the tin. Here is the label:

and here are the COOKIES:

This year I used Martha Stewart's honey gingerbread recipe which was quite good but more of a milder, sweet taste. Next year I think I will do more of a spicy gingerbread, have to do some experimenting.

The other culinary activity, which was a first, was the creation was truffles and fudge:

I put candied ginger in the truffles. The cookies and truffles I gave(as well as books) to friends and family...not really out of generosity but more out of self-preservation. If left to my own devices I would have eaten everything and given myself an extra 5 pounds for Christmas.

product

My younger sister Ki-Ki is visiting to help me at the RISD sale tommorrow. We've done this sale for many years, and I'm starting to do it more for kicks than for profit. Time, however, is having the opposite effect on Ki-Ki and she now wants some profit.


Which is why she is now making product. And what product? She's making MER-BUNNIES!


Tell me these are not the cutest things you have ever seen! My photos are not doing justice to them. But they are based on the idea that everyone, deep down, harbors a secret desire to be a mermaid (I wanted be a unicorn...maybe next year). The tail comes off, by the way. She's making them from old sweaters, discarded fabric from the recycling center and fabric samples I had bought as reference material. So lots of green, good earth mojo too.

Please come to the RISD sale and buy one (and my books too):

RISD Alumni Holiday Art Sale
Saturday, December 13
10am to 5pm
Rhode Island Convention Center
1 Sabin St, Providence, RI
Booth #310

Or if you'd to order one, e-mail her at alice@ki-ki.net (she's also a really good website designer, she did mine). They are $25.-$35.!


In the meantime, instead of making cookies or writing a new novel as I had planned, I am now a worker in Ki-Ki's Mer-bunnie sweat shop. I think I get paid in product.

fortune cookie friday

"Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time."
-Chinese Proverb

early gifts

I had tea with fellow author and neighbor Ann Downer, who gave me the wonderful gift of her son's discarded Ruth Chew books!

I LOVED these books when I was a child. They are all about witches and magic in a fun and exciting but not scary way. I wonder why they didn't make a comeback with the Harry Potter craze? I wish they would. They are all out of print, which is what makes this little bunch of books pretty priceless. Except now I want to get all of them and am spending hours on eBay trying to track them down.

oh, christmas tree

While my cousin Austin put up a rather modest Christmas tree,
I decided on something a little more elaborate.
But it is still humble in its own way. Having a slight dearth in Christmas ornaments and a reluctance to buy any, I decided on origami ornaments. In a way it's tribute to my Lissy's Friends book--an opportunity to re-use those folding skills!

Though I have to admit, during the painting of Lissy's Friends the only shape I really mastered was the crane. So it was with great pride that I finally managed the origami lily,

pig,
butterfly,
and goldfish.

Now I just need something for the top of the tree. Maybe I should make the Lissy doll an angel outfit!

last day

Today's the last day of my Bookplate Promotion! Get your request in, bookplates will begin to get mailed on Monday.

fortune cookie friday

"You can't help plants grow by pulling them up higher."
-Chinese Proverb

discipline

So the holiday season has arrived and I've found it hard to stay focus on work. This is the time of year that I love and hate being a freelancer. I love it because I can make my own schedule--I can dedicate a day to make the cookies and crafts that I am dreaming of--and I hate it for the same reason. It is hard to make myself do "real work" (meaning something that I will get paid for!) when there are so many other things I'd rather be doing.

This is something even more evident as I've embraced the writing side of my career. Becoming an author has been more a result of persistence than calling. I rarely have characters whispering in my ear or find myself in a dream-like reverie of mystical creation. My writing is usually just me, unromantically pegging away.

In the past, I used to wonder if this sort of non-magical creative method was somehow a reflection of my work. If the trumpets did not blare while I wrote, was what I wrote unworthy? However, as time passed, I slowly accepted that this plodding process was just my way, for better or worse.

And right now,unfortunately, it is for worse. It is hard to face trudging through writing when I'd rather decorate cookies. I've gotten so self-indulgent that I've decided to try Linda Sue Park's method of writing two pages a day, without excuse. We'll see if it works. If not, I'll have to ask for some discipline for Christmas.

December Newsletter

I just sent out my December Newsletter, which included a free, downloadable cookie tin label and the reminder that my bookplate promotion ends DECEMBER 7th.

Please sign up for my newsletter HERE.