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All is calm. All is bright.
Son of God. Love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face.
Joy to the World.
He rules the world with truth and grace.
Repeat the sounding joy.
And wonders of his love.
O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie! Above the deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the year. Still. Even though now it is completely different from the Christmas Eve's of my childhood. We would always go to my Grandma's house. Big dinner. Lots of family. Lots of presents. Back home to wait for Santa. I took it all for granted. I miss it so. Still, Christmas Eve is my favorite night of the year. It is a magical night. Still. I wrote down all my favorite lines from Christmas carols above. I don't go to church anymore, but still believe, yet with a wider belief in the reverence of all the religions and all believers. There are good people everywhere. Still.
Tonight Mike and I will spend Christmas Eve with my Mom and my brother. We are missing many people, but we will feel their spirits with us. Still. And always.
Merry Christmas to you and your families!
We had a blast today hanging out at Jane's house and stamping and sewing the day away. Our friend Liz was visiting from Florida and we always love to hang out with her. We have a blast just hanging around and stamping.
Ever since we took a class at Red Lead about making ornaments using vintage images, felt, organza, and embellishments we have been mad for them. Here are some snaps of the gals making ornaments. I stuck with making cards today.
Here are my Mom and I at the end of our very productive day. We are standing in front of some of Jane's stamps. She has the most excellent collection of stamps!
Here is a finished ornament made by Liz! As Jane says, "it is so cute, I could cry!"
My Mom made some ornaments for her friends! Lucky gals!!
Next up are the cards......The card above was made by Jane...so cute!
This is the favorite card I have made this year. I sent it to my Mom. The Merry Christmas is a vintage Christmas seal.
I must say that I love this card above. Love that stamp and love it with the blue paper and pink German scrap. It is a stamp by Hampton Arts in case you feel the need to track it down. 
At the beginning of every stamping session I play with vintage photos to "warm up." I have been loving changing all my vintage people into Christmas people!
I especially love using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol to color their clothes and then add a rub-on. Simple and perfect!
I made a birthday card today for someone who has a Christmas-time birthday. I just love this image from a vintage birthday card!
All in all, it was a fabulous day of hanging out with friends, eating hummus and pita bread, drinking root beer, laughing, crying, telling secrets, making some wonderful art, and just enjoying this time of year with some very special people!
Here is a special tip!!! If you don't know about this already, you have to go visit this website immediately. Tim Holtz (the guru of stamping techniques and products) has a blog! He also is celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas by highlighting new techniques, products, and his beautifully stamped tags every day!
To visit, click on this link - Tim Holtz's blog.
I check in every morning and have so much fun dreaming about how I would spend the day if I didn't have to go to work!!! Let me know what you think!
Also, THANK YOU for all the sweet comments about the cards my Mom and I made! That was so thoughtful of you all!
It is Friday night and I am too tired to say much of anything, except I want to keep my promise of another wonderful Christmas image....for all you cowgirl and cowboy fans, here is a Christmas card worthy of a great big Yahooo!!!!!!! See you tomorrow!
Beautiful Christmas ATC made by my friend Trish
The lovely, Nathalie at An Artist's Legacy has started a little bit of a new Christmas tradition, a Christmas blog tour. She was kind enough to list my blog as a stop on the tour. So since I am doing minimal home decorating this year, I will be sure to have a new vintage Christmas image on my blog almost every day leading up to Christmas. Please feel free to use any images you like in your art projects. Recently I have been lucky enough to come across some great vintage Christmas cards so I will start putting those up tomorrow.
I still have my head cold so I am going to bed early again tonight, but hopefully by tomorrow I shall be all recovered!
Christmas magic has already begun for me!!! Spent the evening with my Dad who is visiting from Bainbridge Island, Washington. We went to a used bookstore and he found a rare book he had been looking for. He bought me a beautiful two volume set of Bleak House by Charles Dickens which I am really looking forward to delving into. Then we went to a beautifully decorated restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we drove around, listened to great music and looked at Christmas lights. Yipee, it was fun!
Then I came home to an early Christmas present from my friends Kim and Julie! A lot of goodies along with a ticket to fly to Ohio to hang out with them for a weekend!! Think of all the fun we will have and all the art we can create! I am telling you it is like this every Christmas, magical things just happen!!!
I was trying to wait until December 1st to put up any Christmas images, but I could not resist! This is a card I recently made using a vintage Christmas card image. I am going ape over vintage cards from the 1920's to 1960's. If anyone has a stash of them and does not want them, let me know!!! My collection has been multiplying quickly on its own though....
I am looking forward to making some blog entries over the weekend, but right now I am saddled with a bad head cold. Boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So as soon as I feel better I will return to this site and start posting.
Thanks to everyone for all their kind comments about the Christmas banner. It is delightful isn't it??
I woke up this morning to see my new Christmas blog banner courtesy of Heather at Bluhm Studios! I just love it!!!!! Thank you Heather!
Grandpa Bates, Christmas 1967, 14422 Michigan Avenue, Riverdale, Illinois.Yup, that is my Grandpa. He was such a great man! Beloved by many, and you can see the evidence of that with all the Christmas cards on the walls of his home!!! Nowadays sending Christmas cards has become a lost art. I love receiving Christmas cards, but over the years the number I receive is dwindling fast!
So, on the way to work this morning I was thinking wouldn't it be fun to have a little Christmas card cheer program! Here is how it works, you sign up on the blog here and email me at duetabode@comcast.net (so I can get your home address). Then I will make a list of all who want to participate and send the addresses to each of you. The plan is to make handmade Christmas cards to send to others starting December 5th. So as not to overwhelm anyone, if more than 10 people sign up then I will have groups of ten or so.
It will be fun to anticipate some homemade Christmas cards coming to our mailboxes, right??? Hope everyone thinks this is fun!
Edited on 11/18/07: This project is now closed. It will be a nice little cozy card sending project as we only have a few people participating. But that is okay, less pressure for all of us! Participating will be: Jane, Donna, Jennifer, Karen, Lorie, Nancy, and me!!!
Okay, I don't want anyone to worry about me, but to tell this story correctly I have to tell you that yesterday was a day that I would not wish on anyone. Suffice it to say, I pulled a really stupid move and felt really bad about it. Bad enough to Boo-Hoo-Hoo, well, in swept my friend Jane and helped me to gain control over the situation. Then home to Mike for further help and hugs. So, everything is okay, but when I came to to work this morning Jane brought me this beautiful card and see over there, where my current book is listed, she brought me that book too!!! She knew I read about it on Lotus Reads' blog and she went and got it for me last night. I feel rescued and loved, and it is wonderful! So, thank you Jane for being sweet and such a good friend.
I am blessed to have friends like you all that visit me here!!! I am getting misty, but this is really a source of support, this blogging world! Now I am off to read my new book!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! As the end of the year draws near I would like to present my Best Books 2007 list!!!! This is highly anticipated information in certain circles! Hopefully, you will enjoy reading my list and PLEASE let me know some of your top reads for this year!
