12.15
2010

Joyeux Noel Sharpie Pillows, More Christmas Decorating and SNOW!
Whew! It has been a pretty crazy forty-eight hours or so here! Lillie and I got to Logan at about 6:45 or so Sunday night to discover our 7:50 flight was delayed until 10:15 thanks to some nasty weather. We actually were a bit worried we might not get out at all as they had canceled the flight to Richmond. Fortunately, we were flying into Newport News and that one did make it out. Needless to say hanging out at the airport for hours while pregnant and with a toddler is not really high on my list of ways to spend a Sunday evening. However, I really can’t complain because Lillie picked the perfect time to be on her absolute best behavior! I seriously don’t think I have ever been so proud of her! She made friends with every child under the age of twelve that was anywhere in our vicinity and spent most of the time coloring and playing with them and even snuggling up to two girls who were watching Elf! Fortunately they were old enough to find it cute that she thought every scene was funny and didn’t find it annoying that she kept pointing and laughing and calling Will Ferrell, “Unka Jason”. I am so anti-social I am always amazed that she is my child – haha! We also discovered we were on the same flight as “Coach Ben” (one of the other assistants at William and Mary who had been up in Boston recruiting) and I think Lillie was pretty excited to see a familiar face because she is normally pretty shy around him – but not on Sunday! She was quite excited to see him and kept wanting to make sure he was nearby. 
We did finally make it home a between midnight and one and then it was back to the grind. I didn’t think we would sell much this week but instead it has been quite busy and so I have been desperately trying to keep up with convos, sales and e-mails and seeing how both of my girls who helped me package aren’t available this week (one with finals and the other with a new full-time job) I am trying to get everything packaged up and shipped on out too. I also normally have all of my Christmas presents bought and wrapped by now but this year am so far behind – as of this morning I could count on one hand the gifts we have bought so far and I don’t have a single thing wrapped – ahhhh! And on top of that I still am slowly trying to get my files transferred onto my new computer. 
So, because of all of that, I want to first let everyone that I owe an e-mail to, to please know that I haven’t forgotten you (both personal e-mails and Dear Lillie e-mails) I am just dreadfully and horribly behind but I promise I will respond! And second, we are going to be closing our shop tomorrow (Wednesday) night instead of Friday and won’t be reopening until the beginning of January. I had originally planned on keeping it open until Friday, but without any help I am already having trouble keeping up with orders and so if I close tomorrow night I will still be able to get everything ordered out by Friday and then will have the weekend to get my Christmas shopping finished and get things wrapped and mailed on out before we leave on Monday. Wow – I forgot how crazy this time of year is! (And of course we have basketball games to go to and a sonogram on Thursday to squeeze in where we should find out for sure what we are having – yay – I can’t wait or that!!!!!!)
So, anyway, that is the update on all of that. I didn’t mean to write such a novel but just wanted to explain why we were closing our shop early. I didn’t mean to ramble so much – sorry about that!
Here are some decorating pictures from New Hampshire. My sister, Jamie and her husband Josh are having a Christmas party at their new house on the 23rd so I helped her start decorating for it. We got her dining room completely done and made progress on her entry-way, kitchen and great room. 
One of the first things we did was make her some pillows like the Silent Nights ones I did for my living room. Just like last time I just used a good ol’ Sharpie, but this time freehanded the words Joyeux Noel onto two pieces of fabric and she sewed them up. I have decided I am going to make these to sell in our shop next year along with the Silent Night and Holy Night ones, however, I am going to screenprint them so they look a bit nicer. I will still freehand the words but will scan them in and then have them screenprinted because although we got requests for them this year I did not feel comfortable selling something that was just drawn with a sharpie!
When I get back up there for Christmas I will take pictures of this whole room but we didn’t finish it so I wanted to wait until it was done before showing you the rest of the room. For now, though, here are the two pillows. We did them in a SUPER hurry so pardon the fact that they are a bit lumpy and Jamie actually hadn’t quite finished sewing them when I took the pictures. 

The one room we did finish was the dining room. We went really simple in here. Everything  is fresh – either from Burdick’s or from  a trip out to the woods! 

I really can’t wait to show you her entry-way once it is completely done but here is the start we got to it. Jamie and Josh are staining the stairs a dark brown to match their floors this week and then on the other side of the entry Jamie just ordered a mirror that I am soooooooooooo incredibly jealous of! I will definitely be taking some pictures of that to show you all when I head back up there for Christmas!
 I changed the Silent Night to brown for her (you can download it in green from this post) and she put it in this frame. I will show you the rest of the entry-way pics once it is done.
  I can’t wait to show you some pictures of her kitchen, bedroom and the rest of the great room and entryway but that will have to wait until I am back up in New England next week!

Another project we worked on was my parent’s Christmas tree. They had it up and had started decorating it but hadn’t finished because they knew I hadn’t gotten to decorate a tree yet this year and figured I might enjoy getting to help (although I showed all of the other decorating we have done in our house this Christmas we STILL haven’t gotten our tree because it would have died while we were gone for that ten day stretch and seeing how we are leaving again on Monday I think we may not even bother at this point). I was really inspired by a tree I saw on the Old Painted Cottage Blog and wanted to do something that had a similar feel but didn’t want to go out and buy anything so we just used stuff my parents already had. 

My mom and Jamie ripped out pages from an old hymnal we had and rolled them and then tied them with extra fabric from the stockings my mom made for the mantle this year. I took pictures of those but they all came out horribly blurry. I will try again when I go back up there because they were really beautiful.
The drummer boys are only half done.  We just printed them on cardstock and stuck them on the tree so I could take pictures before I left. They still need to be distressed a little to look old and have holes punched in them and hung.

Oh and here are two quick shots to prove that we did have snow here in Williamsburg. We woke up yesterday morning to a nice little blanket of it! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week and are a bit further ahead than I am on buying and wrapped Christmas gifts! Off to write some convos and then start packaging up orders!
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A Trip to Burdick's and Homestead Farms
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22 thoughts on “Joyeux Noel Sharpie Pillows, More Christmas Decorating and SNOW!”

  4. I just love everything you do!!! You are a girl after my own heart!! 😉 And you free-handed those pillows with Sharpie's??? Amazing! You seriously can't tell. They are lovely!!
    Happy holidays!!
    ~michelle~

  5. It looks fabulous! Whenever I move into my next home (can you please come down and decorate for me? Ha ha! You always make everything look so lovely! Those pillows are gorgeous!

  10. ahhh hahaha munchkin looks so cute in this outfit, love it!

    what talented sisters i have, i LOVE the decorating, can't wait to see it in one week…good luck at the sonogram tomorrow, can't wait to know for sure what Lillie's getting for a sibling!!!

  12. I can't wait to buy the pillows next year. I love following your blog. Your sense of style is amazing.

  13. Beautiful decorating, and Miss Lillie is a little angel in white. Love her. Wish we lived closer. Lane is 2 years old today and they would have a blast together. My little bean is the social butterfly in our family too.
    Hugs and wishing you & your family a very Merry Christmas. xoxoxo

  14. Thanks, once again, Jenni, for sharing your artistic abilities with your family. Where would I be without your touch? Most likely weaving my way through Dad's handy dandy decorations that I discreetly move whenever he leaves the house…:) although I get first prize for worst Christmas tree decorating ever this year – until you came and resuscitated it back to life again! And a very happy birthday to Miss Laney today. I can't believe she's two! That seemed like it happened sooo quickly! A very Merry Christmas to you and your family too, Mande! Hugs, Heidi/Moosie

  16. I just love her home, it makes me want to repaint everything in my home. I love the darker colored walls with the white/cream furniture. So pretty and I can't wait to see the pic's when you go back for Christmas (;

  19. Oh how happy am I to have found your lovely blog….soooooooooo happy!!! Your photos are just what I needed today…all the best,Chrissy

  20. Sighing and swooning over here! I am completely bowled over that you free handed those pillows and with a sharpie! Oh my gosh they are so gorgeous. Love the marshmellow filled apothecary jar, and the absolutely stunning images of your sister's home. Oh.my.goodness. I LOVE it all! xo ~Lili

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