Holidays

I have an excited little three year old that doesn’t fail to ask me everyday if it’s Christmas yet… I’m looking forward to the morning when I can say yes and set him loose on his Christmas gifts! With the bit of free time I’ve had over the past few days, I’ve tried to capture the wonder of my two little boys as they gaze upon our Christmas tree :)

This is just a little note to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year! I don’t have many New Year’s resolutions but one thing I want to work on next year is to write and illustrate my own children’s book. I have the idea in my head… I just need to get it down on paper :) I know time is limited with two kiddos at home, so I want to keep my goal simple, but I think this one is achievable!

Happy Holidays everyone!

This will be my last post for 2010! Wow, the year flew by.. but it’s been a great one. I swear time goes by twice as fast when you have kids :) I’m looking forward to all the wonderful things that next year holds, including the birth of our beautiful son sometime in March or April! I’m not really one to set specific new year’s goals. I always have goals in my head and always desire to move forward in every area of my life. I prefer to set more general goals such as continuing to develop as a mom and wife, always striving to move ahead with my illustration career, and to continue to grow personally.

This week’s Illustration Friday theme is ‘winter’. Well we are definitely in the thick of it! It’s freezing outside, there is snow everywhere, and the fire is often on in our home :) This week’s submission is actually a stamp design I created for Paperworks Co. If you’re interested, you can buy it (or the full winter/Christmas collection) over at the Paperworks Co store.

I want to thank everyone for following my blog and supporting my work! It’s been an awesome year :) Happy New Year to you all!!

‘Mail’ is the theme for this week’s Illustration Friday. My schedule has cleared up a bit just in time for the holidays so I thought I’d have some fun and do a new drawing for this week :) These cute little forest creatures are working together to get their letter to Santa just in time for Christmas!

Christmas shopping is ALMOST done and we are relaxing and enjoying this festive time of year. As much as I’m trying to teach Isaac the real meaning of Christmas, he thinks Christmas means PRESENTS! We cheated and gave him his big gift early because we wanted him to enjoy it separately from the many other gifts for him! If you remember my post a couple months ago, we got him the Plan Toys Chalet. He loves it! He’s a very creative thinker and loves to make up stories and play with characters. This chalet is right up his alley!

If I don’t post again before Christmas, I want to wish you all a relaxing, meaningful, and happy day spent with family and friends! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

A friend of mine was browsing the Sevi Christmas catalog when she came across this adorable nativity set. She immediately thought of me and emailed me the link. I fell in love! I’ve seen Sevi toys around and they are so well made and beautifully designed but I hadn’t come across this set. I’m a sucker for good design and this is the perfect way to teach Isaac about Christmas! I searched the internet to find this for Isaac. Thankfully after being disappointed with most stores being sold out, a local kid’s consignment store came to my rescue!

My plan is to incorporate this nativity into our advent activity. We have advent boxes hanging on the window in the playroom. I wanted to avoid the chocolate advent calendars as Isaac is only 2 years old, but more importantly, has a dairy sensitivity and can’t consume too much chocolate. I wanted to place something significant but fun in each box. I’ve decided to place each character from the nativity in each individual box so that slowly over the month, we will assemble the entire nativity. With each item we add to the scene, I will give him a brief story… keeping it fun and simple. Baby Jesus will be saved for the 25th box. The actual nativity doesn’t have 25 pieces so a few of the days will have a surprise candy to make up for it :)

I love to find inspiration from everywhere and everything. Even when I buy the simplest item, I will only buy it if I like the design. Just recently I couldn’t make myself buy a pair of scissors because I didn’t like the colour of the handle. Ok, this sounds extreme and you’ll likely think I’m crazy but I observe everything and care that my environment is well designed!

I find inspiration in the design of things like kids backpacks, stuffed toys, Christmas decor, and so much more! Lately I’ve been excited about decorating and preparing for Christmas. I wanted to do an advent calendar with Isaac this year to start teaching him the real meaning of Christmas. In my search for the perfect advent calendar, I found some really cute and inspiring designs that I wanted to share with you. These are my top picks for advent calendars this year. We decided to go ahead with the one from Stampin’ Up (#4) because it has the most storage room for hiding little toys, treats, and messages. My plan is to tuck in a Bible verse, holiday activity, and little treat or toy into each box :)

Are you doing advent with your kids this year? I’d love to hear about your traditions or unique advent calendar ideas.

The Advent calendars pictured above are as follows:
1. Martha Stewart
2. JulieMarie’s Etsy Store
3. Pottery Barn Kids
4. Stampin’ Up
5. The Land of Nod