***abbytryagain***

a year in review

It's hard to try and sum up a year of your life, so I won't really try.
Thanks for being here, thanks for reading.
Tomorrow-news!!
Yay!
Happy New Year!

holding out

Hello.
I feel as though I am keeping a secret from you all and I am about to spill the beans but only a few more days until New Year's Day, right?
I'm horrible at keeping secrets-just so you know. Well, my own secrets. I can keep other people's. Well, I can try anyway!
Okay-right. So, you and me-here on New Year's Day and I'll share some stuff with you-okay?

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In the meantime, I can always count on beautiful Japanese websites for distraction.

Like this one (the gallery is gorgeous!)

and this one.

Not that I need distraction, there's plenty of stuff I should be doing.

Okay-better go.

p.s. the top photo is a simple Christmas mobile I made from tiny ornaments and a very tiny embroidery hoop. There are some awesome mobiles here. And the bottom photo is a gift I gave to some one. The beautiful card tucked in it was made by Cori-can't get over her beautiful things :)

See you bright and early Thursday!

wonder

I love shooting film. Currently, I shoot 99% of my photos with film cameras. The one little problem with that is that it can create a lapse between what I'd like to write about and what photos I have developed to pair with the writing. Oh well.
I hoped to have these photos ready for Christmas Eve, but I didn't and that's okay. I can pretend I did. This is a lovely window display created by the talented Susan. I see it every day and am constantly in awe of it. I have a feeling it will be down within the next day or two, and I'll be sad to see it go...Thank you Susan, for giving me this daily dose of wonder!

thank you

I just wanted to thank all of you out there who read my blog, comment, email, offer encouragement, have bought my photos or even just hang around and lurk.  Each and every one of you mean so much to me and while I can't answer every question or comment-I do appreciate them.
This year has been hard and wonderful-so much goodness and a whole lot of growing and figuring out. Next year, I have a few projects already planned and I cannot wait to share more with you!
On January 1 I will share a bit of news about one of them in particular!!
Happy New Year!

(p.s. that's my super sweet boss in the photo, check out her blog here)

happy!

James got me Polaroid film and the rain has come to melt the snow away-had to run and shoot some pics!
Happy Holidays to all of you! Thanks for all the great comments and love this year! Peace!

eve of the eve

Well, we're snowed in. We've watched all of our netflix, done the dishes, read, played games...so I figured, why not post again?
Merry eve of eve to you!

time...

Well, the storm of the past two weeks put many of my holiday plans on hold.
Never got to the post office to buy stamps or mail packages, sorry.
No Christmas Ship Parade, and no Grotto visit.
But that's okay.
We'll have a White Christmas, good food and good company.
And Baking. The snow makes a lot of time for baking.
I think I'll make these.
Thanks for the kind words on yesterday's post...the knee will be better soon enough!

My Christmas Miracle...

I know you are sick of hearing about the snow.

It is a big deal here. The city (normal winters of 50 degrees and rain) was not prepared, we all are not prepared and it has been beautiful, but really exhausting trekking back and forth through knee high snow and ice for the past eight days. I know there are worse places in the world-I am done complaining...I just wanted to give you a back story because I wanted to share this with you today.

Exhausted and tired, I fell and hurt my knee on my way home today. I'll be honest, I sat in the snow and cried for a minute. I got up, and brushed myself off and found a clear path. Some one had shoveled two blocks of sidewalk. This truly felt like a Christmas miracle as almost no one owns snow shovels here and slogging through the two feet of snow with my hurt knee was not going to be fun. I got to the end of a path and found the little old man who had shoveled it still shoveling. I thanked him and gave him a hug and when we looked into each other's eyes, they were filled with tears. Thank you, you kind sir-thank you for making my day.

winter wonderland...

Today I:

-got sunburned

-went to work, twice- and ended up working a few hours

-took two rolls of film and several polaroids

-ate top ramen noodles for the first time in a long time

-ate three clementines

-saw the longest icicles I've ever seen

Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Want to see a little video I made? See it here.

random bits

-how to make a simple Christmas wreath

-a cinnamon roll recipe that seems amazing (by Molly of course)

-an archive of beautiful outfits (click on each one, they get detailed)

-a little place I'd really love to eat at

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The snow keeps coming here, today I'm taking my Holga camera with me in the hopes that I can get some snow shots. We shall see how work goes...

Happy Sunday and stay warm!

p.s.

see our "Christmas Stool" here and here