Yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Claus.

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.

We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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"Is There a Santa Claus?" reprinted from the September 21, 1897, number of The New York Sun.
(text emphasized by me) :)

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Kitty Porcupine!

He loves the cats at his grandma’s house so much! Here he is with his costume inspiration:

Ha! Aren’t they cute?
He had an awesome time trick-or-treating for the first time :) (on his second Halloween!)

(He was all about the Dum-Dum suckers!)
Happy Halloween!

Happy Mother’s Day!

My first Mother’s Day was a pretty happy occasion. :)

We had lots of fun with family.

I thought it’d be fun to take a picture of the grandmas that was similar to some we took when we told them we were having a boy, so we did.

One of the best parts of being this boy’s mom is knowing he’s loved by so many people. :)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy New Year!

We are ready to ring in 2014! Happy New Year!

Christmastime Updates

Between pregnancy and bathroom, I haven’t (updated this blog) really put up any Christmas decorations…but we’ve still got tons of holiday spirit!

So here are a random bunch of life updates, which hopefully I will be able to better organize as “real” blog posts later :) but hey, for now, I’m no pro, so this is what you get :)

Here’s a belly shot! I blame pregnancy for everything and it’s great :) No blog posts: pregnancy. Can’t lift heavy things: pregnancy. Get tired easily: pregnancy. No Christmas tree: pregnancy. Eating lots of delicious things: pregnancy. It’s fantastic.

I don’t know what the rest of pregnancy will be like, but this part is pretty great. I’m not too big that I’m too uncomfortable and can’t move around, eating is pretty normal and fun and “necessary”, and my tummy is supposed to be hanging out, which makes eating and getting dressed way better than before. :)  Also, I can feel this little guy having a dance party in my belly all the time, and can see it a lot from the outside, too – which is all wildly entertaining to me.  This part I am definitely loving.

Our bathroom (which is on a bit of a holiday hiatus) is nearly done! We’re kind of down to some finishing touches…well, and finishing the shower…all of which will hopefully become in-progress posts at some time…but just to skip ahead to some almost done pictures:

The floor, vanities, and toilet are installed. The shower is tiled (but not cleaned or caulked).  So we have to finish the shower and trim work – and then it’s a fully functioning bathroom! I will still be making/buying some cabinetry (in between the vanities for a more seamless look and under one of the windows for storage) but it’s nothing that will stop us from moving into and using this bathroom so we can start working on my little main floor laundry nook and baby’s room!

And we’ve started celebrating Christmas. I’ve done mostly online shopping, so this definitely happened in our kitchen for a minute:

And we started the first of many family celebrations:

All the little kids know that there’s a baby in my belly which is super cute :)

My cousins are getting married January 4th, so we used family get-together as an opportunity to try on the flower girls dresses I’ve been making.

I’m so excited about how cute the dresses are! They’re a little big, but nothing moving a few buttons won’t fix. I’m so excited to continue celebrating with our family even when Christmas is over!

So whew! That’s an overview of what’s been going on since Thanksgiving…and coming up in the new year is this family wedding, more work on the house, a baby shower…and a baby! Whew indeed!

Has your December seemed as insane as mine? Isn’t time flying? What are your holiday plans?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I feel like I say this every year, but I just love that we Americans get a national holiday devoted to being grateful, regardless of race, creed, religion, or country of origin. I’m glad we can all join forces to eat and be merry!!

We’ve been making a ton of progress on the bathroom – it’s starting to look like something other than a workzone…and I am thankful for that. I’m also thankful for the little growing baby I’ve got…that I will hopefully take a picture of soon! (Well, at least my belly, that is) :)

And I’m thankful for all my friends starting the celebration of Hanukkah today! I’m grateful that someone created this menurkey – for all of our enjoyment :)

Here’s the story of the kid who created the menurkey!

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131005-9-year-old-boy-created-the-menurkey-with-3d-printer-to-celebrate-thanksgivukkah.html

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I know it was yesterday, but I thought I’d share a few pictures from our little Mother’s Day get-together.

I attempted cake decorating :)

My mom and me:

My mom-in-law and her kids:

And then my life was pretty much complete when this happened:

Happy Mother’s Day to mothers near and far! :)

Happy Easter!

Spring seems to finally have sprung and I hope it sticks!

Here’s wishing you a day full of candy, food, and love!

Happy Easter!! And Happy Passover, too!

 

Image from Dover Publications. Get their spring samples here! And sign up for free image samples each week to your email :)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A little bit of love for and from one of my new favorite artists, Katie Daisy.

Let’s all spread some love and teach some love! Today and every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Blogiversary!

I have been looking forward to this day for a bit, but then the holidays came and preparations for holiday parties and I nearly forgot! Today is my first blogiversary!

I’m pretty excited because I have definitely attempted blogging before, several times, but it’s never lasted very long. I know I’m not the world’s best blogger by any means, but I’m happy to have made it through a full year of blogging!

So to celebrate, here are some pictures of my party-decorated house. It’s twinkle lights galore in here. I put them up yesterday for my work’s holiday party and I’m leaving them up for/until our New Year’s party.

It’s like living in Pinterest and I love it!

Happy Blogiversary and Happy (ongoing) Holidays!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

I love Christmas and I’m enjoying every minute of it! I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season as well.

Our Christmas morning tradition is opening presents at Brian’s parents’ house with all of his sisters.  Our twist this year is that everyone will have to answer a trivia question from the movies Elf  and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original cartoon version) in order to open a present. I’m pretty excited! All the cheesy stuff in Elf always tears me up. “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” I’m sure I’ll be doing plenty of that! :)

What are your Christmas traditions and have you put a new spin on them?

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas Eve!

I decorated my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

I love what some battery operated LED lights and little plastic ornaments can do! Charlie Brown and Linus always remind me of the true meaning of Christmas.

Spending time with family and friends over the past few days and days to come will be happy and wonderful.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Happy Hanukkah!

When Lowes sent me this email yesterday (a little late, by the way, Lowes…since I decorated my mantel already) :), I realized that all week I’ve been meaning to post a big Happy Hanukkah!! to all my Jewish friends. Better late than never, right? Good thing Hanukkah lasts eight days. ;)

Happy Hanukkah!

Maligayang Pasko

I am so proud of myself for actually seeing a project through, start to finish, in a day. :)

“Maligayang Pasko” is how you say “Merry Christmas” in the Philippines!

When I saw these posts on House of Hepworths, I was totally inspired. I knew I could do something similar for Christmas.

 

First, I went to my Gypsy (for Cricut) and designed a “Maligayang Pasko” using mostly the Calligraphy Collection font but a little of Gypsy Font. (The “li” were in the Gypsy font, just so I could get the cursive layout how I wanted it.)

Since we’ve taken our fence down, we’ve got this pile of fence panels in the back yard. So I figured they would be perfect for this project.

I set my Gypsy/Cricut design for the largest cutting mat, 12”x24”, so I knew I wanted my sign to be bigger than that. I measured the boards of the fence panel and decided I needed about 9 (which was about 32”), so I took about 11 off the panel (just to be safe since some were cracking).  (I decided to make two signs, one for myself and one for someone special who has to wait till Christmas to get it!)

I decided to use the greenish, weathered sign, since it looked like it could be festive. :)

I cut each one of my boards to about 19.5” (a random measurement that looked good to me!).  I cheated by just cutting the boards around the sections with the nails in them (that were previously holding the fence together). (The nail-y scrap pieces went straight into the garbage/burn pile.) 

I found another scrap board in the back yard that I to cut to the width of my sign as a backer for all the fence pieces. I used 5/8” 18ga nails in the nail gun to attach the planks to the back boards. (I should have also used some glue. Oh well.) I put those little nails in the front and back of the wooden sign.  Once it was all together, I gave everything a quick sanding with some old 100 grit paper.

Then I collected some paint and stuff.

I cut the first “Maligayang Pasko” (on the Cricut) out of freezer paper (shiny side down). (I think posterboard or something would have been ideal, but I didn’t have a piece around that was big enough or a new cutting mat that was sticky enough.)  I sprayed some adhesive on the back of the cutout, then placed it onto my first set of boards. It was really sticky, which was good for my rough boards.  Then I sprayed the whole thing with several light coats of red spray paint.

When I peeled off the stencil, I was so happy with the results!

But, as cool as this green looks in the picture, in real life, it wasn’t quite what I wanted yet, so I decided to brighten up the lettering with some white paint. I took a small artists brush and some oil-based white paint diluted with mineral spirits (so it would be a little thinner and slightly runny) to keep everything looking weathered and rustic. (Latex paint probably wouldn’t have stuck to the spray paint/rough boards as well.)

For fun and added interest, I splattered a bit of white paint around, and spread some white paint on the edges with a  bunched up paper towel.

I was finally in love with the sign. I added to the weathered old look by running the sander with some old 100 grit paper lightly over the whole thing. Then I sprayed it all with some clear coat to seal everything in.  Doesn’t it look great?

Here it is again on the mantel!

I made two signs, start to finish, in a day, and both were done completely with stuff I already had around the house. Woohoo for a completed and free project!

What do you think? Will you be trying a decorative sign made of old boards? :)

Christmas Mantel

I haven’t done too much holiday decorating, but after our stint downtown Chicago, I was totally inspired to start. I even made a Christmas craft!

Here’s my Christmas mantel!

I made the “Maligayang Pasko” sign/décor the other night, and tomorrow I’ll show you how I did it!

“Maligayang Pasko” is how you say “Merry Christmas” in the Philippines!

I’ve got a very multicultural mantel (well, at least two cultures). :) Next to my Maligayang Pasko sign are two Swedish Santas that I embroidered and sewed together a few years ago.

They’re from a Husqvarna Viking embroidery disk.

I made a spot for Katie Daisy’s “Peace on Earth” print (next to some Barbie ornaments).

And no mantel would be complete without stockings, in our case a hodge-podge of 99-cent clearance stockings from Old Navy, which I embroidered with our names, and some removable-picture pet stockings that will hopefully last for many pets. :)

Before all this, I had just begun playing around, styling the mantel with my Spring in the Dunes print.  I was using various empty frames (well, filled with whatever the store had in them) and objects for height and scale.

But I’m pretty happy to leave that project until after the new year and enjoy this for now.

Now onto cleaning and decorating the rest of the house!