The tinsel tree.

I had spotted this great idea somewhere on the vast internet to drill a hole in a log to make a base for an artificial tree. I absolutely loved it and luckily enough, my uncle happened to have the perfect log for us. I love that it gives my great grandma's tiny tree some nice height. 

Most of the ornaments on our tree have some sort of sentimental value to me. I remember the times that I received them, or bought them, or they remind me of a particularly good Christmas from the past. Some of the ornaments have been around since before I was born, and some of them were just purchased on our honeymoon last year. 

This is the third year that I've set up this old tinsel tree and although I definitely miss the smell of the real deal in my living room, I love how sparkly this one is. 

(And yes, there's already a present under the tree! It feels very odd for me to have something wrapped up already since I normally do it much closer to Christmas, but one of Andrew's gifts came in the mail and I had no idea where to hide it.)

Let the festivities begin!

Saturday I did a little thrifting with my aunts and cousin to get Christmas presents. Our gift giving theme this year is "everything old is new again" so I picked up a lot of stuff that I'm going to repurpose into new gifts. I also found this box of vintage glass ornaments that I had to get. I just love the colors so much. Andrew and I set up our little aluminum tree last night and some of these made an appearance on it.

The Christmas Cactus is blooming.

These plants are named after the holidays because these times coincide with the time of year when they will bloom naturally in the Northern hemisphere. The Easter Cactus blooms in the spring and the Christmas cactus blooms in the winter.

The flowers produced are red, pink, peach, or white and can appear in massive numbers on a single plant. They open in daylight and then close in the evening.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_Cactus)

Moustached Bear for Moustache Sunday.

A friend of mine at work organized this event for next Sunday:

All procedes will benefit cancer awareness and you can learn more about it at http://www.movember.com/

I'm contributing this piece to the art raffle:

So if you're in the area and free next Sunday then I highly suggest coming out. Especially if you're tired of turkey and have a hankering for a tasty hot dog.

Days gone by...

...or at least the past few. Got my copy of the Holiday poster. Worked away on more granny squares for our quilt.  Also, drawing more cats. Lots of cats for A Very Standard Christmas Volume 3. I've been making my way through Northern Exposure while I work. It's just that time of year and aside from that, it's sort of like my own personal Seasonal Affective Disorder treatment.

Holiday Get Down.

Charlie and I collaborated on this holiday poster for Music Saves and Square Records. I drew the cats which are sort of the store mascots. Vinyl (black) can be found snuggling up to your favorite music at Music Saves in Cleveland, and Kali (calico) is from Square Records in Akron. Charlie will be silk screening these on French Poptone Orange Fizz paper. They will be limited to 50 copies.

It's getting darker earlier.

It's the one thing that makes me hate winter. 

(I jumped on the bandwagon and downloaded the Hipstamatic app for my iPhone. I've fallen in love with this combination of lens + film because it reminds me of the aurora borealis.)

Dearest Anthropologie,

I would be happy with just one of these. Please, thank you. 

Andy Ralph.

I don't have words for this. Just fantastic. 

Andy Ralph.

"...The party's crashing us now..."

- My brain is having a meltdown this week.
- I wish I could go back in time to the year that Of Montreal released The Sunlandic Twins and attend another one of those concerts so I could dance away the time until I was too tired to dance anymore. Or maybe I will just have to do that in my living room.
- I didn't realize how much I truly missed real conversation about creativity and art.
- I think the lack of sunlight is starting to get to me already. 
- Last night I decided that if I could only watch one movie for the rest of my life it might just have to be When Harry Met Sally. Which is surprising for me because Bill Murray isn't in it.
- It's also the time of year that I wish that Cicely, Alaska was a real place that I could move to.

I want crazy curly hair.

I blame Gene Wilder and my love of his movies.