merry & bright

Christmas was very merry this year.... so much to be grateful for.

"It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season—like all the other seasons—is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them." —Lemony Snicket (via A Cup Of Jo)

I love the seasonal rush in my Etsy shop — my heart gets full with every sweet note I get to write from a gifter to their recipient — but after a month of 12-hour days it also feels great to drop off my last bin of holiday orders at the post office, exhale and start my own holiday preparations! Just a few days before Christmas, I decorated our Holiday Houseplant and hung icicle lights on the exposed pipes in the main room (this is how holiday decorating works when you live in a 750 square feet apartment with no yard, I guess.) If we're being honest here, they'll probably stay up for the rest of the time we live in this place because... they are awesome.

This year we gave and got some really fun gifts... lots of wine, coffee, new winter jackets, a pizza from our favorite college restaurant, Etsy gift cards and even a surprise vacation next month! It snowed lightly all morning and was so pretty. Throughout the day, several of you sent me emails or shared Instagram shots of my artwork that you got or gave for Christmas... so awesome! I appreciate it so much... feels like I kept getting gifts all day. And now that Christmas is over, I'm excited to start work on a few paintings that have been waiting to be finished since... November! Wow. Time to give my studio a good cleaning and get my hands messy.

Thanks and happy holidays, friends.