Happy Friday! I hope you all had a spectacular Christmas overflowing with lovely moments. Mine was almost perfect. A few days ago, I happened to be crowing to my mom and M that I hadn’t been sick much this year (well, I had my annual autumnal cough, but it was very minor), and boom, I caught a monster cold right after my proclamation, two days before Christmas. I wrapped presents in a feverish haze and though I’m feeling much better now, I will be careful about boasting about my health going forward.
K got everything she wanted: a karaoke machine, a remote control truck, art supplies and a pet frog. Actually, she got a promise note for a pet frog and we’ll be at the nearest Petco this weekend. She was also in seventh heaven since she got to spend the vast majority of Christmas with her beloved neighbor friends (we get together for brunch on Xmas day every year).
Despite our agreement not to get anything for each other, M and I of course didn’t keep our words. He presented me a generous gift card for one of my favorite stores, and I got him a bunch of bike accessories, the avid cyclist that he is.
And every year, I make a calendar for Ba-chan, and she particularly loved this year’s. I ordered this product from Artifact Uprising, and the quality is excellent. The little wooden clipboard is functional and stylish.
In the image above, I love the holiday card on the left from our friend Ann, and on the right is packaging for Anthro’s gift card. What’s interesting (only to me) is that a few years ago, I made cards that looked strikingly similar. Pie-in-the-sky goal for 2015: collaboration with Anthropologie.
So. Even though I was looking a little bleary and though I interspersed my sentences with sniffles and sneezes, it was one of the best Christmases ever. Family. Friends. Karaoke. What more can you ask for?
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Thank you for all the wonderful comments and emails for the Debt-Free Life series! I was blown away and re-read them all multiple times! I was incredibly inspired by the number of people who took action to harness their own financial situation, and also loved loved loved that women just starting out with their first credit cards found it to be a helpful cautionary tale. Being a living, breathing cautionary tale is sort of my specialty. It was just the ticket to shake me out of my blogging doldrums and I’m excited to try more new things in the coming months. I’ll be selecting winners and will email the recipients of the custom illustration this weekend – I’m still in holiday break mode and am trying to take things slowly.
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Just wanted to jot a quick note today to wish you all a merry post-Christmas weekend! I have some end-of-the-year posts in the works and will be back Monday.
I’m sorry, she said
I doubted your existence
Santa, please confirm*
*K left Santa the sweetest little letter thanking him for all he does for the kids in the world. The part that killed me went, “I’m sorry that I doubted your existence, but I want to know for sure…are you really real?” Santa dropped off a remote control yellow truck with this tag attached, and that, along with some youtube video a friend showed her validating his authenticity, sealed the deal.
So sorry to read that you were hit by illness – pretty crummy timing 🙁 (not that getting sick is ever convenient). Glad to hear, though, that overall your health has been better. I know that you work hard to stay healthy and it’s encouraging when you see good results.
A pet frog! What a great gift idea. My two girls have been asking about a pet turtle, which seems do-able for me, the pet-phobic mother. Was there a lot of gear set-up in terms of aquarium, etc?
I laughed when I clicked on the link for your mom’s calendar – I’ve been eyeing the exact same one and even had it in my shopping cart for a few days before deciding not to. It was the wooden clipboard especially that appealed to me – I even collected antique wooden clipboards for awhile and love their simple aesthetic. So glad your mom loved it!
And btw, Anthro would be lucky to have you on staff!!
My health is definitely leaps and bounds better compared to a couple of years ago, and though I’m still not 100%, I’m feeling much, much better :-). Oh Lucinda, I’m totally pet-phobic too. You should have seen my stricken face at the pet store. We ended getting K Fire-bellied toads and I didn’t know that their food preference is of the crickets variety. K was SO excited as I turned a very sickly shade of green. Did you know that crickets look like roaches? This city girl didn’t. And yes, there was a LOT of gear: glass case (can’t be filled with water), heating lamps, substrate for flooring, water dish, fake plants…oy.
The calendar, though, is absolutely awesome! We got a version for ourselves too and I LOVE wooden clipboards. What a good idea to collect them!
There’s been so much illness around! Glad you were mostly better for Christmas. I’d LOVE to see you somehow collaborate with Anthro! That’d be amazing.
Oh man, I’m still under the weather! There’s something about the end of the year that makes me keel over…hope you’ve been well, Kristin, and thank you for the vote of confidence about Anthro ;-)!
You’d be a perfect fit for Anthro but don’t rule out others. West Elm and Crate and Barrel are focusing on featuring local artists too, Good luck! Hope all these new ventures don’t take you away from blogging, we’d all miss out.
Best in 2015!
Barbara
Oh, thanks so much Barbara! I’d love to collaborate with West Elm and Crate and Barrel too! Haha, wishful thinking, right? 😉
You never know unless you try!