Countdown to Christmas!

We are officially at less than a week before Christmas 2011!

Hope you have your Christmas shopping started if not finished.  If you need gifts for special people on your list, check out my Etsy store here StoneWingDesigns Etsy Shop and use the coupon code 20PERCENT for 20% off your total purchase.  I'll do my best to get it there before Christmas.  You can use Paypal.

I had to put my jewelry supplies away a week ago so I could make Christmas cards.  So instead of beads and findings, I have paper, stamps, ink and glue all over my workroom.

I finished about 30 cards on Saturday that I mailed off today.  The line at the post office was almost out the door, so I bought more stamps right next door at CVS instead of standing in line for an hour.  It's the little blessings that matter, right?

As for the rest of my cards, I'm done with the stamping and watercolor painting.  Now I just need to trim the pictures and get out the patterned paper stock and put the cards together.

I love painting each card with different color combinations and then matching the colors with patterned papers and stamped words to make each card unique.  I use all the colors of the rainbow, including purple, yellow, orange, blue and brown in addition to green and red.  In fact, the only way you'd know some of my cards are Christmas cards is by the pictures and the words.  Some of my favorite stamps are of snowmen and angels and I use them every year.  I don't keep track from year to year of which cards go where, so hopefully the same people don't get the same picture every year!

So I'll be spending a few more days with paper and glue while my favorite holiday CD's play in the background.  Keeping me company again this year are Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and my all-time fave Mercy Me which I love to play over and over again!  Then there's Amy Grant, piano music, and even a Hammered Dulcimer CD called "An Olde English Christmas". 

My favorite song?  "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" because it reminds me what all the fuss is about.

Merry Christmas to all!

Laurel

A Christmas Wish

I heard the angels sing last night, and their voices filled me with awe and wonder.  The songs still echo in my mind and heart:

    Peace on earth good will to men!

    What child is this?

   Joy to the world!

   Let heaven and nature sing!

This is the season for shopping and baking and mailing greeting cards and wrapping presents and planning dinners and going to parties and seeing relatives and running madly from one activity to the next.  There's so much to do and so little time left in which to do it that we push ourselves through the days and weeks hoping only to survive the holidays with a little sanity intact.

Sometimes we forget why there's a holiday in the first place.

So....

My wish for you is to hear the angels' voices that still sing praise and worship in honor of the babe whose birth we celebrate. 

This Christmas, may you be filled with the things that truly matter:

His peace and joy!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Yes, there's snow on the ground in White Bear Lake, Minnesota!  Not more than a couple of inches, so it's just enough to give a hint that Christmas is but THREE WEEKS AWAY!

Do you have your shopping done?  Or are you like me--waiting for inspiration to strike so you'll magically know what to get (and where to buy it) for each person on your list?  Not that it ever does.  I read something once about a woman who buys all kinds of things for gifts, and then she has to figure out to whom she can give them.  Unfortunately, I saw myself in that picture. 

There are some people for whom it's easy to buy.  Those people are not on my list.  Sometimes I think I should add them to my list just so I can buy the gift and cross it off my list.  Then at least there would be some progress being made!

In addition to NOT shopping for gifts, I have made NO Christmas cards yet.  Not that I'm in a panic.  Yet.

I HAVE been making more jewelry which I'll show off here in case you still need some gifts for the friends and family on YOUR list!  You can buy my wares on Etsy.  See the cool little interactive icon on the top right of my blog?  Click on my store name, StoneWingDesigns, and you can see my listings.  Or click on an item and you'll go to the Etsy page for that item. 

I'm offering Free Shipping for the month of December on Etsy. 

And for those who read my blog, I'm offering 20% off everything!  Just use coupon code 20PERCENT when you check out.

Happy Shopping!!

Laurel