Who is Martha Stewart and why is she ruining my Christmas?

 

At what point did women sell their souls to Martha Stewart and her like? She's not known for being nice or for playing fair. She is not someone our mothers would be proud for us to emulate. We are strong, independent women living in a time when those qualities are admired and appreciated and yet, when Christmas rolls around we all want to be Martha. We have been bitten by the evil little Martha

bug. It's a horrible creature that drills itself into your brain boring ever deeper convincing you that you must be like Martha all the while knowing that it is an impossible task. In my quest for Marthadom I now have half of a two car garage filled with Christmas decorations. Trees for every room. Ornaments collected from around the world. Even a giant Santa chair. There is no vaccine for this bug only a series of painful shots after you have been bitten.

My New Year's Resolution is this - Martha Stewart will be gone from my Christmas season brain.  I will endure the painful anti-Martha shots, I won't even peek at a Martha magazine after July, and above all else, I vow that all future Christmases will be non-Martha like.


Join with me as I say farewell and good riddance to excessive Christmas stress caused by my need to be

like Martha. One tree, loads of ornaments, a wreath and a lot of guilt for not being Martha will become my Christmas of the future.

I had considered going so far as to merely post a Word document stating a simple "Merry Christmas" only later determining that even if Martha were to do it I couldn't.

History making White Christmas in Atlanta
First in 128 years



Garland ornaments purchased from Rafe on Etsy




Santa's giant chair, who needs an elf on the shelf
when you have this?




My favorite gift! I love unusual nativity sets.




My creations only tree





Martha made me do it!




A tree that decorates itself! This actually started as less
than a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I purchased it as an
orange stick potted in a VERY small pot that all fit inside a
twelve inch by three inch box in 2004.  I don't have a
green thumb.  I think it's one of those plants that thrives
on neglect. This has been its most productive season.



All of my Christmas decor should be put back in its non-seasonal home by March 1. I'm sure Martha has a rule about putting away decorations by a certain date but I don't have a staff to boss around with harsh criticism and lack of appreciation and as of January 1, 2011 Martha will be vanquished from my life.



To each of you I wish a very happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year and  easier Christmas decorting in the future! Thanks for being a part of my life!





























































 



  









A Most Amazing Discovery - Papercuts, sketches, and travel

The blog world is an amazing place for discovering spectacular creations of artists. Thanks to Becky at

                                                  http://www.hopewellcreek.blogspot.com/ 

I learned of yet another fantastic blog and project. Please take time to visit 

                                                  http://www.isabellasart.blogspot.com/

to see the Isabella's beautiful art and learn about a fascinating project. Isabella is participating in the Artists Journal project, a collection of almost 30,000 artists from more than 90 countries. When complete the collection will become a traveling exhibit throughout the U.S. with its final home being the Brooklyn Art Library. Isabella's journal would be worthy of an exhibition on its own, but thinking about an exhibition of so many talented artists, their thoughts and sketches in a traveling exhibit throughout the U.S. is mind boggling. I am so looking forward to visiting the exhibit!  Be sure to check out both of the above mentioned blogs for an amazing view into the lives of two wonderful artists.

Just a small example of the amazing entries in Isabella's journal.

A Few Keepers

Sometimes it's difficult selling certain ornaments that I know took days to make.  Those ornaments very often stay with me and are added to my "Poppy Tree" decorated with only ornaments made by me. This Santa is less than four inches tall! It's all tiny pieces of Fimo clay, no paint, and probably a lot of my fingerprints.  It is by far my favorite ornament of any I've every made.

And The Winner Is...

CONGRATULATIONS to Kim Sandberg, the winner of the Poppylovesaparty Giveaway. I'll be offering more giveaways in 2011. 
Thanks to all of you for your support in my new venture.

From the mouths of babes

I was recently introduced to rubber stamps from Inkadinkado inkadinkado.eksuccessbrands.com that would be perfect stocking stuffers for adults. It seemed the younger the author, the more insightful the quote. 

                                                                 This one is my favorite.

And so for all of us who still have orders to fill, gifts to buy, packages to wrap, or just thought that they would live "happily ever after"   Get up, get dressed, and go to work. That is, after you've gotten a chuckle from all the other kid quotes on rubber stamps.

We All Contribute

“Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.”

― Bertrand Russell

It has taken me years to accept that my career path did not follow that of my brother (a doctor) or my sister (a lawyer).  I'm a mom. Yes, just a mom, as I always described myself.  My daughters are adults now living the lives they chose, hopefully influenced by our family's belief system.  I am very proud of them.  They are both teachers, one in elementary school and one in high school. They are able to contribute to the happiness of students, faculty, parents, and administrators every day because they are good at what they do.  As my mom skills became less necessary I felt a sense of  loss.  I had actually lost my job.  Of course I'm available when called upon but adult children like mine need very little assistance.  There are no unemployment benefits for moms with adult children.

I determined that my happiness was dependent on making other people happy and so began "Poppy Loves A Party".  The excitement of an order, the completion of a new design, and a serendipitous connection to the buyer bring me great joy. I smile at people I don't know, I talk to the cashier as though I've known her for years, and I always say thank you.  That's what I'm good at and if that brings happiness to others then I contribute to the world's happiness in my own odd little way. I hope my creations bring happiness to some of you.

What are you good at?  Give yourself a pat on the back.  You contribute to someone's happiness.

More adorable felt

I forgot to include the blog address for Hopewell Creek Designs. Even more adorable items there!

Bugs for my tree

In yet another "it's a small world" moment I have discovered a wonderful new Etsy shop.  Hopewell Creek Designs is that Etsy shop. Becky makes amazing items with felt and imagination. Sorry, but I just purchased two adorable insects so there are no pics of those.  Just take it from me - they're spectacular!  Her precious little felt dolls are next on my list so my advice is to get to her shop quickly before I get paid and buy those also. I have included a link to the shop so that you can be equally amazed by Becky's talent. 



Thanksgiving, exhaustion, and a birthday party

I have never been so happy to see the end to a holiday.  I am exhausted.  For the first time a boyfriend was deemed important enough to be asked to Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  I don't know if our daughter doesn't trust us to behave or if she would rather the boyfriend just think she's an orphan.  Anyway, this one got invited.  So rather than the four of us having a lovely Thanksgiving meal without all the fancy china, good silver, and spooning food from the pans in which they were cooked we added one young man who, for some reason, I felt a need to impress the boyfriend with just how "classy" we are.  The first profanity was spoken when I realized that the entire meal was ready and I had forgotten to turn on the potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Whoops. We all had a wonderful time, loved the boyfriend, and looked forward to our next get together on the 28th.
I had procrastinated long enough and had to make the cake topper for my daughter's cake on the 27th.  Although she turned 31 she still gets to choose a theme. This year's theme - Cute Elephants. No, not just any elephant, CUTE elephants. I crawled into bed at 6 am on the 28th and was awake and working again 3 hours later.  If I do say so myself this is a really cute cake topper.  All clay, except for the cake.  It was red velvet.  She loved it all and the pink elephant now lives at her house.
Next year she wants cute ants.  I may finally just say NO!

I slept 12 hours today!  Two events down one to go.
Hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for my blog discoveries

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

- Melody Beattie

 

By now you all know just how much I love discovering wonderful new blogs.  Well, I am one happy camper today.  A link on the blog Yesterday on Tuesday led me to this great blog.  The quote above was the first thing I saw upon reaching the Sprick.blogspot.com blog.  It seemed especially perfect for this week.  And then....I discovered the FREEBIES!!!!! Oh my goodness. I do so love spectacular freebies and here they were right in front of me on the computer screen. Please check out this very creative blogger and enjoy her generosity!