happy happy happy weekend!

this is our first real weekend to relax in a long, long time...AND we're taking the entire week off to celebrate the holiday. i hope your weekend and your thanksgiving is as full of joy as this sweet photo...

love,

biz

procrastination via christmas cards...

i'm s'posed to be working on my final paper and writing cover letters, but i took a break to work on our christmas postcards. here are the two finalists:




but we picked the second one. uuughhhh...i'm feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse.
oh well, at least we'll have cards to send since there's no way we'll have time to make chocolate bark. how are you keeping in touch with your nearest and dearest this holiday season?

btw, i don't know what the quality will be like, but PrintsMadeEasy gave us a GREAT deal (100 postcards for $20 and free shipping with code FREESHIP09) and says they'll be here by December 13th.

too early? nope.

i know it's not really Christmas/holiday season yet, but it's coming... and since boone and i are now an official family, we're going to send an official family christmas card!!! cards take about a week to print plus addressing and mailing takes forever... so we've got to get started!

next year we'll design our own (think tacky Christmas sweaters), but this year since we're a little harried by school we're probably going to stick with a ready-made design. here are some cooler, not cookie-cutter options i've found out there in case you're in the market, too!


since a card is all about the message, today I'm focusing on wishes for Joy and Peace (my fav holiday wish.) If this isn't right for you, stay tuned for other options!

1 from the happy envelope, 2 from westwillowdesigns, 3,4 and 5 from minted, 6 from minkcards

have you SEEN this??

via Mrs.O

comfort and joy!

so i'm headed to the land of dial up internet, so my posts will be more sporadic until mid-January.... keep checking in, and know that i'll be thinking of all of you and getting actual wedding plans made. keep your fingers crossed that i get back to atlanta with tons of ideas and other things settled.

also, i'll know by Monday where the wedding will be (i hope, i hope, i hope!) so i'll try to find some real internet and fill you in on the details. and...happy holidays and much peace, comfort and joy this season!

cheap, cheap, diy giftbags...

i should have been studying harder for my exams, but this weekend we made the packaging for the christmas presents for some of our co-workers and friends. it was so fun, that i wanted to share it.

the BEST part is that you don't need a gocco machine OR block print carving tools for this printing project....

ok, here's the idea: make holiday printed bags from a styrofoam meat tray (a la linoleum block printing)!

first, draw your design on your meat tray using a blunt pencil then scratch out/press in the parts you don't want to print.*

*i made the HUGE mistake of forgetting that the letters have to be carved backwards otherwise they print completely wrong... so, I had to cut out the letters from the meat tray and stick them onto a piece of card stock. It still worked, but it was a little more trouble. just remember, your letters should be backwards, but if you look at them in a mirror, you should be able to read them.



after you've got your print block "carved" slap on some acrylic paint and make your prints. then, when the paint is dry, just take your little gold paint pen and add a some jazzy decorations!



put your delish winter bark (recipe here) in the bags wrapped in some parchment paper and you're done! Christmas for everybody cheaply and stylishly!

it's never too early for peace and joy...

i've been thinking about holiday cards lately, since it's about that time of year. I really hate how commercialized Christmas is...so i REFUSE to send anything with reindeer, or santa, or christmas trees on them. BUT I also feel incredibly uneasy about sending greeting cards to my non-christian friends that celebrate the birth of "Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior," or things that communicate that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" or say "Merry Christmas" or really ANYthing with wisemen, or mangers, or angels. ick. (these images via google images)


The thing is, I'd be happy to get a card from friends during their major religious holidays celebrating the central beliefs behind the holidays... in fact, I'd be thankful and honored that you valued me enough to include me in the celebration.

But I know that Christmas is different.

It just feels wrong to force your beliefs on someone who doesn't share them, which may not be what people MEAN to do, but does have that effect in a culture where other religions are often marginalized and their faithful are evangelized by well-meaning (or maybe not) Christians.

My problem is this: Christmas has a very particular meaning to me, and I don't want to have to sanitize what exactly it IS that I'm celebrating no matter who my holiday card is going to.
The good news for me is this: Although i am celebrating the birth of Jesus, I am celebrating even more the MESSAGE of Jesus.... Peace, Hope, and Joy.

So... here are some cards I found on Etsy that offer just this message to all of my friends (yes, ALL of them. i mean, what religion, or person, for that matter doesn't want peace, hope, and joy?)



cards by: oldtomfoolery, yeehaw, isabelle's umbrella, paper dragonfly, dappling, everydaygrace, swallowfield

anglers of men?

i discovered the beautiful angle website completely by accident a year or so ago and only just remembered how much i loved it. as far as i can tell, beautiful angle is a coop of print-artists who spread thought provoking messages around tacoma, wa. sometimes their posters promote local events or just celebrate the city of tacoma, but often they prick the conscience with phrases about faith and community. not only do the posters have meaning but they are BEAUTIFUL in a very raw, natural way. each word, song, or poem has been carefully chosen and the linocuts that go with it are almost magical in their imperfection/perfection.

in short, they give me a whole lot of joy. apparently many of the ones posted around tacoma end up in cubicles and on bedroom walls... but for those of us not fortunate to live in wa, they offer prints for sale and give you fairly reasonable prices on this website.