Been MIA

But now I'm back!

And I'm spreadin' some 

LOVE.

Been busy with this and that, especially the last couple weeks.

We had Son No. 1's college grad party back in mid-January.  I went on our annual girl's weekend getaway last weekend at The Swiss Woods B&B in Lititz, PA.  

Sheesh . . . I can tell I'm gettin' older.  Seems it took me nearly most of last week to recover from the late nights of girl-talkin' into the wee hours of the morning, too many second helpings of the delicious home-cooked meals, and a bit too much cocktailing each and every evening . . . okay. . . darn near all day long!

The weekend started six years ago primarily as a scrapbooking weekend.  But it's turned into more of a relaxing getaway with some of us scrapbooking during our spare time, and some relaxing with a book or just hanging out in front of the fire.  I did manage to get some pages done in a new album I started devoted to me and Hubby's vacations together.  

Once I get the finishing touches on the pages, I'll share some of the layouts.  First I have to unpack my supplies.  I haven't even gotten to that yet!

Actually, I have a few things I want to share in upcoming posts.  But for now, I'm sharing some 

V Day love accents from around my house.  

I love these napkins!  

I ordered them several years back from Tracey Buxton at Notes From a Cottage Industry.  

I also want to share my small collection of vintage V Day postcards.  Why don't people send pretty postcards anymore?  

I like displaying all my vintage postcards on this mirror by the kitchen.  Not only V Day, but Christmas, Easter and Halloween.  I've purchased most of them on Ebay.

And I love the handwriting.  

Makes you wonder about the senders and the recipients.  

Oh, and we had our first somewhat substantial snow.  It started flurrying last night, and I thought we were getting just a dusting, but this morning we awoke to a pretty snowfall.  I'd say a couple inches or a bit more.  

Today will be spent getting my scrapbooking supplies unpacked and getting my craft room in some sort of order.  It's a mess! Also, trying to spend some time catching up on some of my favorite blogs.

Hope you all have a Happy Saturday!

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That's all she wrote . . .

All done.

Kaput.

Christmas is officially over here at our house.

I'm sure some of you are saying "well, it's about time!".

I don't like to totally de-Christmasfy until after the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day or Twelfth Night.  I subscribe to the old-fashion belief that the 12 days of Christmas start Christmas Day, and last until January 6th, signifying when the wise men finally ended their long journey to Bethlehem.

I really wish that the time in between Christmas Day and the Epiphany is when the masses actually celebrated Christmas.  I feel the month of December is great for preparing for the upcoming season, but that the true celebration should happen during the real twelve days of Christmas.  I think it's sad when I see and hear that people tear into and pack up Christmas the day after.  To me, that's when quiet refection about the meaning of the season should occur.

Soooo . . . anyway . . . that's how I've been spending most of my weekend.  Packing up.  Deep cleaning.  Sorting.  And finally reorganizing all the bins and boxes containing Christmas.

And in the process I created a few more wintry vignettes here and there while getting used to my new camera Santa brought me.  A Nikon Coolpix.  It's a nice, streamline little camera that has way better features than my old camera, not to mention way more megapixels.  But, like anything new, it's taking me a while to get used to it.

Over the next few days, I'll start incorporating V'day love around the house too.  The Christmas tree in the living room is going to be transformed into a big bushy love tree.  And I'll have a bit more mushy love stuff to place around the house.

Remember this?  I shared it a few posts back.

Easy change.  

Popped out the cardboard with NOEL and replaced it with a little love.  I'm already planning on popping it out again in the spring and put something Eastery in there, and so on . . .

It's nice to get the house back in order and everything back in it's regular place.  It is a little sad taking the trees down and packing it all away, but I'll admit it's time to move on to the next season/holiday.

I have a big celebration to work on in the next couple weeks.  We're having a grad party for Son No. 1.  I figure this will probably be his last young adult milestone celebration until, well, I guess he gets married.  And who knows when {or if!} that'll happen!

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What are you doing New Year's . . .

. . . New Year's Eve?

But before we start on New Year's, I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas.  I hope you all had wonderful time visiting with family and friends.  Our's was very nice.  Each year it gets more and more quiet and less bustle y.  Guess that's a result of the boys getting older.  

And maybe of me and Hubby getting older too!

One of my major regrets this past Christmas was I didn't take one photo.  Not a one!  No snaps taken during Hubby's family gathering here for the Christmas Eve Wigilia dinner.  No snaps taken Christmas morning opening gifts.  No snaps taken Christams evening when my family came for desert, cocktails and gifts.

What was wrong with me????  

What a bad mom . . . blogger . . . scrapbooker.  

And here's the kicker ~ I got a new camera for Christmas.  Maybe I was just downright tired.  There was a bit of rush this season to get it all done with Son No. 1's college graduation the weekend before Christmas.  But I am really seriously regretting not taking the time to grab the camera . . . any camera.

I've been in no rush this week to dismantle Christmas.  I like to use the week between Christmas and New Year as a time to relax and enjoy it all without any pressures of baking, shopping, wrapping, etc.  Heck, I'm still listening to Christmas music!

I did pack away my Santas and replaced them with a more wintery-type decor.  Some of my snowpeople can take center stage now for a while.

On to New Years Eve . . .

We'll be spending a very quiet, very low-key New Year's Eve with my brother and his wife at their new home a couple hours away in New Jersey.  They used to live right behind us.  Their daughter, my newly-engaged neice ~ Congrats Rachie!!! ~ still lives there.  She's pretty much taken over the house, so, although they've moved away, I'm quite sure we'll see them a lot!

My hopes for the New Year are pretty much the same as every other new year.  I wouldn't call them resolutions per se, but more like goals.

• Get my home more organized.
• Purge more unneeded stuff.
• Eat better.  Don't necessarily need work on the whole diet and exercise thing since I've done well with my weightloss from the spring, and exercise is always a priority.  But more of just trying to eat generally healthier.
• Spend more time being creative.
• Finish many of the unfinished projects looming overhead.
• Be a better mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and just a better person to all the people so important in my life.

I'm wishing a fun, safe and reflective New Year's Eve to all.  

Whatever your plans are for tonight, or goals for the New Year, I wish you well.  

See you all in 2012!

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