Lovely World

watercolors

I pulled my little watercolor box out of a drawer yesterday. I wanted to use the paints to make a card to enclose in a package I was sending. I haven't used these paints in a long time. My good friend D, an excellent painter himself, gave me the box of paints two years ago when I was being treated for breast cancer. It was such a thoughtful gift.

Now that I have made the card, I will make some little paintings. I struggle with drawing and painting, but I have decided not to let that stop me from doing it anyway.

Do you like my mechanical goat? It is from Oh My Cavalier. I think she has sold out of the animals, but she many other lovely things to see.

{Nicole, don't look too closely! I am so excited about this!}

festival of lights

We have had a busy time celebrating this Hanukkah week. We attended a potluck party at our synagogue on Friday evening, and last night we hosted our annual Hanukkah party. This is always fun. The adults indulge in good food and talk, and the large gang of kids have a great time sitting together to eat at the "children's table" and planning and putting on a play about the Hanukkah story. They take great liberties in their dramatic retelling, and the costuming was quite spectacular this year. The adults also engaged in some intense dreidel game playing after dinner. Much chocolate gelt was consumed.

in the mail

Here are the stones I received during Garden Mama's Artful Stone Swap. I posted about the stones I had covered for the swap a while back.

In order:

A rectangular stone painted with leaves from Andrea of Cider and Faun

A smooth black stone covered with green crochet from Kristin of kleas

A flat blue-gray stone painted with a delicate flower pattern from Nicole of Garden Mama

A small, palm-of-the-hand stone painted with a lovely blue egg in a nest by Angela of Peach Coglo

There was another member of our swap group, and I'm a bit worried that the stone may have gone missing in the post. I hope it will find its way here!

And speaking of lovely things finding their way to me through the mail, here is a package I received from Joanna of Little Minx (all the way from New Zealand!). I was a lucky winner of a give-away she put on. I love the little felt holly she made for the wrapping, and inside I found this sweet needlecase. You can visit her online shop as well. Thank you Joanna.