a lot about this season is surrounded by stress, commercialization and straining obligations.  but typically for me, december is a time i look forward to all year.  this year in particular, it’s been the light at the end of a very long and strenuous tunnel even if it still doesn’t quite feel like the holidays yet.  finances are still unstable, personal stresses are still reeling their heads, a long road ahead with no end in sight… but these things can be forgotten for the few short weeks to focus on what is important.  we’ll be celebrating birthdays, christmas, everyone coming home to be together, the giving of gifts and many feasts.   tyler and i have spent a lot of time trying to find ways to put conservation and positivity into our lifestyle and habits.  so this year, as opposed to filling our advent calendar with little gifts and candies, we’ve opted to fill every drawer with alternating love notes.  something to look forward to every day and small reminders of what this time is for and what everyday is about.  a new tradition is born and i think they will be the best gifts we’ve given each other.

“as we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by december’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation and people to whom we are worth the same.” – donald westlake

the difficulty in seeing the stars is finding the strength to wait through the darkness.

it’s the time of year that we reflect on all aspects of life that we are grateful for.  filled with family, friends, lights, laughter, feasts and joy.  though this year has been a grueling and tumultuous one for me in many ways, it has also given me a clarified view of all things in my life that are worth celebrating.

first and foremost, i am grateful for my parents and that both of them (especially my mother) were at our dinner table.  it was a small thanksgiving for us this year, unlike others.  just the five of us, our favorite dishes put on the table by helping hands.  toasts were made, stories were shared, memories were created.

for tyler, i am grateful.  it’s been a hard year for both of us and it’s only brought us closer together – strengthening us as individuals and as a unit.  his support is there when i need it, whether i ask for it or not.   to be on this journey and have a partner like you is more than i can ask for and i love you.

i am thankful for his family and the effort they made to spend thanksgiving with us.  their acceptance and generosity is always refreshing.

and for our family of friends.  through thick and thin, good and bad, we’re there for each other.  new and old, for better or worse, we’re still a family.

for my shop, customers and the ability to chase my dreams.  for the food on our table, the roof over our head, and the abundance of people in our lives to love and love us in return…it’s good reason to give thanks.

despite our small getaway, the business aspects of my life have been on the constant go.  the mix of holiday shoppers, upcoming shows and breaking more and more into the realm of wholesale has been keeping me on my toes.  i recently did an interview with susan schwake – owner of a new shop i’m in, artstream.  it’s been posted and you can read it here!

my lamps in the front window of artstream!

i’ve finished a few more pieces to squeeze into the shop before the holidays and have started ordering supplies for projects in the new year.

la ville lumiere bracelet, $35

orchid hearts clock, $55

little village heirloom ring, $40

sadly, i also discovered this week that i will no longer be able to get my beloved vintage ring settings. everything now is limited to what i have in stock and i imagine it won’t last much longer than the holidays.  i’ll be playing around with new settings soon to see what will work best as a replacement line, but have yet to find anything i love quite as much.

in the next week or so, i’ll be sending out a black friday special to my newsletter subscribers!  if you haven’t already signed up for my newsletter, please email me to do so. :)

tyler and i took a much needed long weekend away from town and headed to colonial williamsburg to stay at this charming bed and breakfast and poke around town.

it’s funny…you never realize how burnt out or tired you are until you get away from home.  in the midst of all of our exploring, walking, shopping, eating around the town…we got a lot of rest.  i think 60% of our trip was spent sleeping.  though it was short lived, we both feel refreshed, rested and ready to tackle the holidays and all that’s happening the next few months.  and though i’m the professional photographer between the two of us and lugged my polaroid around all weekend, i somehow never managed to shoot much. this was pretty much the only photo i took.  tyler took more of the photos, always playing with his hipstamatic. i was a big ol’ snob about it at first, but have to admit…i like what he’s been doing with it!

one of our favorite parts was the food. holy cow, if you’ve never taken the time to eat at king’s arm tavern for dinner you are missing out!  peanut soup, duck sausage, hard cider, relishes, vanilla sweet potatoes and the best lightly fried chicken over salted ham i’ve ever had.

good food, great company and a lot of relaxation…a fantastic few days indeed. :)

lots of positive things happening around here.  great news in my family realm, finding time to carve out for friends, and still manage to have energy left to work on my own things.  so, little tidbits of news…

*last week, a few of my photos were featured in the fantastic webcomic girls with slingshots, written and illustrated by my dear friend danielle.  it’s always a pleasure working with other creative gurus, especially one so talented and established as miss corsetto.  the characters are lovable, jokes are pleasantly racy, and the storyline keeps you coming back for more. if you haven’t read girls with slingshots, i say you snuggle up with a cup of tea and sit back for a few hours…starting at the beginning, of course!

danielle came up with the brilliant idea of offering a special print pack in my shop to celebrate the show opening!  we worked together and came up with a wonderful package at a great price, and there are only 15 packs left that include a signed postcard from jamie herself! (jamie being that adorable girl in the purple dress of whom i am the ghost photographer.)

*i continue to break the promise i made to myself about not creating anything new.   so here are a few new things that have made it into the shop over the past few weeks…though i SWEAR for my sanity and pocketbook, i am not creating anything new until next year (and i’ll want your input!)

spring bouquet diptych ring, $45

glass polaroid earrings – “superheroes,” $35

ceramic polaroid clock – “love,” $55

spring garden heirloom bracelet in vintage silver, $60

*halloween was this weekend (of course) and though i spent most of it sick in bed, i did manage to sneak out friday night for a bit of costume-ing with the best of gangs!

the air is crisp now, all of the summer clothes are put away and warm winter coats with favorite scarves have been drawn out.  orders are starting to trickle in for the holidays, my birthday is a mere month and a half away, it all excites me so much!  it won’t be long before the holiday decorations get pulled out and the house is filled with warmth and light.  sigh :) i love this time of year.

last weekend at ballston was a BLAST! it was my most profitable show yet, not to mention seeing crafty pals and doing a trade or two. and! met up for delicious margaritas and goat cheese enchiladas with friends for a double date to wrap up the evening.  it really was great.  tyler is a fabulous helper and closed a few sales for me (mostly because they involved my superheroes photo, and he can totally get behind that.)

i’ve been working super hard since the show to get some wholesale/consignment orders filled and stocked up for the holidays.  somehow i still found the time to create, photograph and list some new items (what is WRONG with me?? i swore off new items until next year! but i can’t stop!)

so, i introduced a line of inspirational greeting cards. after a custom request from a boutique to make lockets with corresponding inspirational quotes inside, i found out that some went quite nicely with my images. so voila!

i also made new lamps and night lights, which are all still being listed…but here is a small sampling :)

i even worked on new jewelry. seriously. i am sick, or something, to be making promises to myself and not keeping them.

there are quite a few more pieces that will be coming to the shop…so keep your eyes peeled!  i will give you one sneak peek of a new ring that isn’t in the shop yet. hope you like it! it was inspired by a custom order someone placed :)  (i’ll update the link when it goes up.)

anyway, definitely been keeping busy.  with the chill in the air i’m finally starting to look forward to the holidays!  i absolutely love decorating the house, spending time with the ones i care about most, eating lots of great food and giving gifts.  some of my best friends are coming back from their far away places for a visit (new york, alabama, etc) as well, so all the more reason to celebrate.  the freezing cold is all made up for by coming home to a warm house with good people.  i have a feeling this year the holidays will be a little different :)

hello hello!  i can’t believe it’s been over a month already.  though it was definitely a busy september!  we put on a fantastic abstract show at work this past weekend, showcasing my boss’s newest piece “prismatic gathering” of the clustered spires of frederick, maryland (where the gallery is!)  personally, i love it. and it was a huge hit at the unveiling.

prismatic gathering by david mcguire

in other news, i finally had a chance to overhaul my website!  after adding the shop-able items, i was terribly unhappy with how disorganized and cluttered it looked.  i couldn’t be more thrilled with how the upgrade looks. do take a peek, please! and let me know what you think :)

i’ve also been working on some new lamps and night lights for the shop.  the night lights aren’t in a photographic state yet, but here’s a sneak peek at some new table lamps i’m putting up before the holidays:

autumn blossoms polaroid lamp - $45

prismatic abstraction polaroid lamp - $45 (coming soon to etsy, currently available in my online shop)

love polaroid lamp - $45 (coming soon to etsy, currently available in my online shop)

and also launched a new print i’ve been holding on to for a few months.  i love it so, the moment was absolute magic.

new york, i love you - $30

i have my final show in ballston, virginia this weekend. come say hello! enjoy the rest of your weeks :) i will try not to neglect this thing too much more!

i have some shop stuff to share that i’m stoked about.  first and foremost, i achieved my august goal of reaching 800 sales!  an enormous thanks to all of you who helped me get there…all but one package have been mailed out already and the other is setting as we speak.  but truly – this is monumental for me.  i’m ecstatic :)

and i know i said i wasn’t going to do any new stuff until after the holidays…but i’m a big fat liar.   i ran across these vintage bracelets and fell IN. LOVE. and had to pick some up immediately.  which i did, and pulled together some of my favorite warm autumnal photos for the piece…and voila! a fall harvest bracelet.  now, i am not a bracelet person at all. but seriously…i really like how this turned out.  i think before the holidays i will do one in cool colors also.  just need to wait for more supplies to arrive :)

and that’s about it!  we had our carpets cleaned today so i’m pretty much glued to my chair so i don’t have to dance around on the soggy squishy floor.  which is probably why this blog got some attention!

i’m a terrible blogger, i know…i neglect this thing from time to time.  to be honest, life has been moving so quickly (seriously…how is it september the day after tomorrow?!) and yet i feel there is just so little to talk about.  i haven’t had much time to shoot this summer, nor the inspiration really.  my focus has mainly been trying to get stuff at work situated, get my shop ready for the holidays and spend more time with friends and family.  so…i guess i’ll share what little snippets i can think of :)

my show at ballston was fun!  i didn’t come close to meeting my goal to make some of the money back i spent to get ready for the market (i’m about $4,000 in the hole right now…seriously, ouch) but everyone was so friendly, the weather was so nice and tyler and i had such a good time it really didn’t seem to matter!  plus a delicious indian dinner with good friends afterwards and having family show up to the market didn’t hurt either :)

as autumn is fast approaching (thank goodness) i was inspired by my adorable fall jackets i haven’t had the chance to wear in a while and thought “how cute would a big ol’ brooch be on this thing?”  voila!   in the past few weeks i’ve been listing my new line of heirloom brooches. all the favorite images set in antique gold and silver.  have a looksie!

anyone who knows me well (or hell, even follows me on twitter) knows that this has been the summer of wedding obsession.  so, i decided in all of my crazy babble about what i would want for my wedding, it would be a good idea to put that energy into a productive venue.  so i’ve introduced some bridesmaid/bridal sets in the heirloom collection. totally customized to whatever you want or need for a unique wedding gift idea.  i’ve had a few orders and even more inquiries so far and everyone seems to be thrilled!  which, of course, thrills me too :)  stay tuned after the holidays for a line of cufflinks – my first male-driven item ever!

in very current and sad news, i just found out last night that i will no longer be able to get these gorgeous vintage gold etched ring settings!  so all i have left in stock is all there is.  if you want them, i would suggest ordering now as i don’t have all that much left in stock and the holidays are fast approaching.  i am in the process of looking for a decent replacement but haven’t had much luck yet.  it breaks my heart, i love these settings so much!  but that’s how it goes with vintage…nothing that good ever lasts for long.

a small food adventure – we had a bunch of cucumbers sitting around, some that were gifts to us and some that came straight from our garden…and, quite frankly, we’ve had enough of cukes this summer.  my twitter pal jess had posted a blog about pickles she made using this recipe. i’m not a huge fan of pickles myself so was SURE the 3 week expiration date was going to come and go with a jar full of pickles in my fridge. i was SO wrong. these pickles turned out so deliciously that anyone who had one went back for a handful. they only lasted a few days!  the recipe was pretty easy, too. i will definitely be making these again.

in other news, i’ve put in an application to be an artist with wholesalecrafts.com if i can get accepted, that would be a HUGE step for me and my work.  i’m certainly keeping my fingers and toes crossed, but they are very very strict…so i’m not expecting anything.  although if i do get in, expect lots of drunken celebrating!

i guess that was more news than i expected!  until next time… :)