The Last Day of the Year

It's snowing. Not enough to prevent us from leaving the house. But enough that we don't want to. So we're staying cozy, making use of some of our Christmas gifts, and waiting for Ben Blair to get off work.

First, Maude made cupcakes. To line the cupcake trays, she used these unbleached, kraft colored papers I spied on the bottom shelf of the baking aisle at Stop & Shop. A nice discovery to happen upon.



Then, we topped the warm cupcakes with Magical Rhubarb Sauce from our neighbors — Liz and David Dibble — a couple we adore. Dave is a talented artist and animator at Blue Sky Studios (the company that made the Ice Age movies). Plus Ralph takes art lessons from him. Liz is working on a graduate degree in dance. She has promised to help me learn Beyoncé's Single Ladies moves.



The rhubarb sauce is delicious.



Next, we'll make a batch of hot cocoa with the goodies that Laura sent. Pretty little mugs in chocolate brown. Enough for the whole family. I love how the rings on the mugs sit low. So chic. She even included wood-handled peppermint spoons for stirring.

Throughout the day, I continue to mess around with my new camera.

Tonight we'll make party food, play with the wii — more World Tour, more Despereaux, more Backyard Football — and hang out with family. If the kids can manage to stay awake, we'll bang pots and pans on the porch to ring in 2009.

This is how the Blairs are spending the last day of 2008.

Thank you Notes

If I'm going to be writing really good thank you notes in 2009, I'll need to start with really good stationery. Like these sweet, simple Hello cards from Sarah Jane.

What's Next

Do you get as excited about goals and New Years Resolutions as my family does? Jordan is thinking about her list. Jared and Liz are thinking about their lists too. No doubt the rest of my non-blogging siblings also have goals on their minds.

I'm right there with them, working on my own list for 2009. I'm also looking at the calendar and thinking about what's coming whether I make a list or not. For example:

In January, the Stanley siblings and spouses are taking a trip to Mexico. 10 days. No kids. We are going to Tulum. There are no words to describe how much I'm looking forward to this trip. Coolest part — this trip is a treat from my brother Jared. May you all have little brothers as generous as mine.

In February, I'll be heading to Houston to speak at and participate in the Mom 2.0 Summit. Hopefully, you're coming too. Because I'd love to meet you.

In March, I'll be at SXSW. Partying with the kirtsy girls. Possibly even introducing our new book. Plus I'll be making a trip to Boulder for the very high-tech wedding of Gwen Bell.

Other things on my mind:
- I've started a long overdue site redesign for Design Mom. Thinking about this a lot. A lot. A lot.
- For Christmas, Ben Blair gave me my first real camera. A Canon 50D. I want to learn to use it well.
- Josh & Erin sent us the much-talked-about-book In Defense of Food. I hope it will be a starting point for better eating in our home.
- I'd like to start some kind of regular exercise program. I have no idea what this will be. But it's embarrassing how little exercise I currently get.
- For much of my adult life I wrote really good thank you notes. But then I stopped. Maybe 2009 will be my thank you note comeback.

What's on your mind for 2009?

Lovely calendar from Orange Beautiful. Spotted on Decor8's yummy and useful calendar roundup.

Between Christmas & New Years

Ben Blair is back at work today, but it still feels like it's vacation because the kids are out of school. We're mostly hanging out in our pjs and playing Guitar Hero (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Blair!). Ralph, Maude and Olive like to play base, while I play guitar. Oscar likes to hold either guitar, just because he looks so cool. We find ourselves humming Livin' on a Prayer and Beat It as we go about our chores.

I have been feeling that urge to do physical, non-computer work. So on Saturday, we ripped up the carpet on the stairs. A task which I've been wanting to do, but putting off, since the day we started renting this home 3 years ago. The carpet was old and gross and it should not make me this happy to see the bare wood on the steps, but it does. If I had accomplished nothing in 2008 except getting rid of that awful carpet, I would be good with that.

Today, I was still feeling the urge for more physical work, so I put Christmas away. Earlier than I had intended, but I'm still pleased. I'll leave the wreath and the outside lights up for awhile yet, but everything else is packed up and boxed. And now I'm looking toward what's next.

image here

Grandma Daisy

Ben Blair took the big kids to a movie (Bedtime Stories) and the little ones are asleep. Which means I have a quiet house all to myself (lovely) and I'm using the momentary silence to reflect on the life of my Grandma Daisy. She passed away a couple of days ago — on December 23rd. Technically, it was kidney failure. But mostly, it was old age.

Grandma Daisy was a wonderful woman. Tall. Regal. In my memories she's always wearing purple with long strands of gorgeous grey pearls. And glasses on a chain. Incredibly hard-working — she retired when she was 89. Italian. My family grew up eating her version of focaccia — we call it figasa and it's a staple in our family recipes.

Daisy had an unsentimental streak a mile wide. An example: she was insistent that no burial or funeral services be held on her behalf. Which means her children and grand-children are having to figure how and when to mourn her on their own terms. As you can imagine, there have been lots of emails and phonecalls and stories exchanged over the last couple of weeks.

A second example. When I found myself nearly engaged and pondering what I wanted my wedding ring to look like, I called Grandma and asked if I could please have a piece of jade from her rock collection, with the idea that I would take it to a jewelry designer and have something wonderful made. Both Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Daisy had collected and polished rocks as a hobby, and I knew she had some beautiful pieces of unpolished jade sitting in their workshop.

Daisy did send her prettiest piece of apple jade. And a gorgeous oval jade ring set in silver that she designed and made herself. Also. She sent her wedding ring. Because (remember that unsentimental streak) Grandpa Ralph had died a couple of years earlier and "the ring wasn't doing her any good anymore."

The ring is a small diamond (I have zero knowledge about carats or cuts or clarity or things like that — I never actually went shopping for a wedding ring and still know nothing about them) set in platinum with delicate cutwork in the metal. I loved it instantly and all plans for jade rings immediately went out the window as I adopted Daisy's wedding ring as my own. I couldn't believe how lucky I was.

My father died almost a dozen years ago. So I'm not mourning for his loss right now. But I am mourning for my uncle Mark's loss. His father died. His brother died — his only sibling. And now his mother. I remember the feeling of orphan-ness I felt at my father's death. And was completely surprised by. Because I was 22 and thought the whole orphan-concept should no longer apply. I'm betting Uncle Mark is feeling pretty orphaned right now. Even though he's been more caretaker, less child, for many years.

The thing I keep thinking about the most, is how hard it must have been to be Grandma Daisy, raising a stepchild during the 40's and 50's — when there were no books or support groups to offer advice. And when nobody really even talked about such things. The basic story: Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Rudi married young, had my father and divorced shortly afterward. Grandpa Ralph took custody of my father and then married Daisy and had another son, my uncle Mark. My father was raised by Daisy and Ralph with his brother Mark. But my father would spend the summers with his birth mother, Grandma Rudi — who lived a couple of towns away and also went on to re-marry and have more children.

Seriously, I can't imagine how awkward and painful that whole situation must have been. For my father, for sure. But also for Daisy — the new wife and step-mother — in particular. I'm so grateful to her for doing her best to do right by my father, even though it was hard. He grew to be a hard-working, capable man who raised 8 hardworking, capable children. So, yay for Daisy!

I still have that pretty piece of apple jade. Sometimes, I think I'm almost as unsentimental as Grandma Daisy, but maybe the time has come to make something lovely from it.

You can read Daisy's obituary here.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve activities are in full swing at the Blair house. Ham is slowing shredding on the stove. Snowball cookies are being rolled. Presents are being wrapped. Costumes for our Nativity Re-enactment are being gathered. I can hardly wait to see the kids faces tomorrow morning.

No doubt your home is just as busy and festive. And how wonderful is that? Merry Christmas to you and yours!

kisses, Gabrielle

image source

Nativity

In lieu of the usual live Nativity Pageant at my church Christmas party this year, our congregation tried something new. The kids put on the nativity one Sunday with no audience and with staging happening in rooms all over our church building. A few parents with good photography skills followed the kids around and took lots of stills. Then, the amazing Travis S. put the pics together into a video.

The video debuted during the Christmas party and it's just about the sweetest thing you've ever seen. Costumes, props and general direction are by the incomparable Jennifer Darger. Narration is by Travis's talented daughter Scout.

3-Gift-Guideline at Real Simple

Feel like you're giving your kids too much this year? Too little? You can read about the 3-Gift-Guideline I use in a post I wrote for Real Simple.

photo from Real Simple Photo Galleries

Tulle Tutorial

Many readers have asked for more concrete directions on how to make the no-sew tutu, so here's a more detailed post with photo directions.

Cut elastic to waist size and pin together with a safety pin or a few stitches. Cut lengths of tulle from a 6-inch-wide tulle ribbon roll. Fold the tulle piece in half and then thread the ends through itself around the elastic. To demonstrate, I'm using a spare piece of elastic and a spare piece of ribbon, but this is the exact same technique you would use with a strip of tulle.


Start with your band of elastic and piece of ribbon or tulle. Fold your piece of ribbon in half, place the loop end under the elastic.


Pick of the loose ends of the ribbon. Pull them over the elastic and through the loop end of the ribbon.


Pull the loose ends of the ribbon to tighten it around the elastic. And then repeat with additional pieces of ribbon and tulle until the tutu is as full as you'd like. Yay!

For the tutu pictured at the top, we used an entire roll of champagne colored shimmer tulle (25 yards). It provided 33 lengths (about 2 feet long each) to tie to the waist band. We also used 3 rolls of ribbon in peach, cream and sage green. They provided 11 lengths each and were attached between the tulle pieces for accents. The materials were under $5 total.

Another note about this project. You can make the tutu any length you like, by using longer or shorter pieces of tulle. Also. If I'd had another roll of the tulle, I would have used it and made the tutu twice as full.

More Homemade Christmas 2008

Olive has been working on gifts for her siblings over the weekend. She's especially happy with the headbands she made for Maude and Betty. We think the creamy-colored one will coordinate perfectly with the tutu Ralph made. I'm super happy with them too. And already have plans to borrow them.




Materials: we bought a 3-pack of black headbands at Target for about $3. We bought fake flowers, for $3 to $4 per stem, and coordinating ribbon for $1 per roll from Michaels. Each headband will use between 1 and 2 yards of ribbon. Total materials for 3 headbands was less than $20. Just for comparison, a similar headband, like this darling one at CrewCuts is $16.50.



To make: wrap the head band in ribbon using a hot glue gun to attach. We had the best luck keeping the ribbon smooth by starting it at each end of the headband and meeting where the flower would be placed. Once the headband is completely covered in ribbon, it's time to add the flower.



Pull the flower off of it's stem, and trim the remaining plastic so that the bottom of the flower is flat. In front of a mirror, put on the headband and move the flower around until you're happy with placement. Mark where your want to place the flower with a pencil (the pencil mark will be covered by the flower). Attach the flower with hot glue. Done.



This is an incredibly fast project. And the headbands turned out beautifully. The fake flowers we bought each came with a large bloom and a small bloom. We didn't want the small blooms to go to waste, so as an afterthought, we glued them to small barrettes. Cute.



For Ralph, Olive made chocolate-chip-cookies-in-a-jar. For Oscar, Olive is going to do something cool with pencils — I'll try to post pics soon. To see more gifts my kids made, you can go here.

Winner — Cirque du Soleil Wintuck Tickets

Wow. The countdown to Christmas is really here. We have a few more errands to run. A few more gifts to make. Lots of things to wrap. Wednesday we're going to the Train Show at the Botanical Gardens. This afternoon, Olive and I are spending the day window-shopping with a few friends and their daughters. We'll hit the holiday boutiques at Grand Central. Takashimaya. The Windows at Bergdorfs.

Promise not to laugh? We put up a second Christmas tree last night. Our first one was so sad and dead I kept getting depressed every time I walked by. So Ben Blair brought home a fresh one and we decorated it last night. It happens to have the crookedest trunk ever, and took some pruning and propping to get it upright, but it turned out wonderfully. And smells so good. Best decision ever.

But you're not reading this post to get a report on my weekend. You're reading this to find out who won the Wintuck Tickets. So let's get to it. A happy congratulations go to: Kage who said, "Design Mom, it's time for me to win. It is definitely time.

Hooray for Kage! Please email me and I'll put you in touch with the sponsor right away. Thank you all so much for participating. And a special thank you to Cirque du Soleil Wintuk for sponsoring the Giveaway.

Real Simple Blogathon

Since Thanksgiving, Real Simple has been hosting a fantastic Holiday Blogathon, featuring holiday tips and ideas from all over the interwebs. For those of you with holiday parties on your calendar, check out my Blogathon post with suggestions for true, last-minute hostess gifts.

Want even more of me? Check out my post on Cookie's Nesting blog about how to keep your houseplants nice and cozy.

Baby's Breath

Spotted on kirtsy. This blog post featuring photos of Baby's Breath is beautiful. So simple and so winter-y. I especially heart the bouquet.

Clothing Deals for Last-Minute Shoppers

At our house, each child receives something to read, something to play with and something to wear for Christmas. Santa is still working on the "something to wear" part. I think I'll send him to Peek...Aren't You Curious and Oeuf. Both are having terrific sales.



At Peek, I found things like great-looking sweatshirts, hoodies and jackets in the $20 range — marked down from $78. And lots of beautiful skirts on sale too! Find their selection for Baby, Girls and Boys on sale here.



Oeuf offers some of my very favorite items for babies and toddlers. Including all sorts of gorgeous knits — clothes and accessories with detail and personality. And everything is currently 30% off (through January 2nd) with coupon code: DCOEUF.



Shouldn't every child own a Hug Me Sweater with built-in mittens? In colors for girls and boys.

Wintuk Giveaway

One last pre-Christmas Giveaway! You can win 4 tickets to Cirque Du Soleil's Wintuk at Madison Square Garden.

I'm such a fan of Cirque. I remember the first time I attended a show, I started getting weepy because it was just so beautiful. The acrobatics and feats are amazing and daring and exciting. But mostly, I'm in awe that there are people in the world that can create something so pretty and interesting.



The 4 tickets are for December 28th at 2:00 — the perfect winter-break activity! The show is sure to psyche you up for a few more months of beautiful winter and get you craving snow. Guess what else? You can get 25% off ticket purchases through December 19th with the code: ONE2ONE. Tickets range from $52 to 105 — so be sure to take advantage of that generous discount!



If you'll be in New York on the 28th. Or know someone else who will be. You'll want to win these tickets. Happy Commenting. Happy Winter. Thank you, Wintuk!

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Guidelines:
-You have until Midnight PST on Sunday, December 21st to enter this giveaway.
-Just make a comment ON THIS POST to enter — any comment. One entry per person, please.
-The winner will be randomly picked and announced Monday, December 22nd.
-What are Random Giveaways? Read about them here.

12 Days of Christmas

For the first time this year, my family is delivering Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts to another family. The basic idea: consider a family that might need a little extra cheer this year. Then, starting on December 14th, for 12 days you anonymously deliver a small gift to that family, representing each day from the song. Then. On Christmas Day, you deliver the last gift in person — and if you're the caroling sort of family, you could sing the song as well.

My parents used to have my siblings do this when I was growing up, and I was reminded about it when I read my sister Rachel's post earlier this month. We loved it as children. And my kids are having a terrific time with it this year. There's something so magical about giving secret gifts.

Here's what we've given so far this year, and some alternate ideas as well from my sister and other sources. Note: I'm not too picky about how closely the gift ties in to the song. At the end of the day, it's fun to receive any small gift.

1st A partridge in a pear tree
We gave a small basket of beautiful pears. Pear flavored Jones soda would be cute as well.

2nd Two Turtle Doves
We gave two Dove chocolate bars, small bird ornaments would also work

3rd Three French Hens
We delivered a hot breakfast with 3 slices of French Toast. I also love the idea of 3 rolls of French wired ribbon or French milled soap.




4th Four Calling Birds
We took pics of yesterday's gift — we found some some small bird themed kitchen towels and a scrubber on sale at Target and paired them with pom pom birds from Martha's craft kit. Stationery (as in calling cards), or a bird call whistle would also be perfect.

5th Five Golden Rings
We're delivering this today — 5 round, gold, candles. Growing up, we always gave a can of pineapple rings. Five round ornaments — ball or snowflakes — would be good. Or even five gold bangles.

6th Six Geese a Laying
We're not sure what we're doing for this one. I like my sister's ideas for a breakfast cookbook and quiche. Or maybe we'll deliver a half dozen eggs. Another way to go is to pretend "laying" means sleeping and give a sleep mask or pillow or something rest related.

7th Seven Swans a Swimming
We're giving 7 bath fizzy balls.

8th Eight Maids a Milking
If we can find one, I'd like to deliver a bottle of fresh, local milk. Alternatively, I like the idea of hot cocoa and a mug.

9th Nine Ladies Dancing
We're thinking a DVD of the Nutcracker ballet.

10th Ten Lords a Leaping
The kids want to give an actual lordly looking Nutcracker for this one. Cozy socks or slippers is another good idea.

11th Eleven Pipers Piping
I found a snowglobe with 2 angels trumpeting. We plan to use that.

12th Twelve Drummers Drumming
A Christmas CD

Next year, to make things even easier, I'm thinking I'll buy a collection of 12 Days ornaments (like these gorgeous ones from Land of Nod that I linked to earlier) and deliver one each day.

One more note: when I take on something like this, I like to consider my strengths and weaknesses. I knew my biggest challenge would be having to load up all the kids each day to make the delivery. So to solve it, we chose to give to a widow down the street, so that my kids can make deliveries by foot.

Does your family do The Twelve Days of Christmas? What are your best 12-Days ideas?

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

Saturday night Ben Blair and I saw I've Loved You So Long. It was beautiful. And I keep thinking about it. You can see the trailer here.

Homemade Sibling Gifts 2008

This is the third year that my kids are making gifts for each other. It's turned into one of our best family traditions — requiring more thinking and time than is ideal, but my kids LOVE it. As I've mentioned in years past, I prefer the gifts to be usable and practical.

For 2 year old Betty, who has lately become obsessed with all things ballerina, Ralph made a tutu. My friend Jill gave me this idea and it is such a great project (thank you Jill)! It's virtually no-sew.

Cut elastic to waist size and stitch together — that's the only needle and thread required. Then cut lengths of tulle from a 6-inch-wide tulle ribbon roll. Fold the tulle piece in half and then thread the ends through itself around the elastic. And that's it. You just keep repeating till the elastic is covered.



We used an entire roll of champagne colored shimmer tulle (25 yards). It was on sale for $3 at Michaels and provided 33 lengths (about 2 feet long each) to tie to the waist band. We also used 3 rolls of ribbon in peach, cream and sage green. They were .50 cents, also from Michaels. They provided 11 lengths each and were attached between the tulle pieces for accents. We already had elastic, so the whole cost for the tutu was $4.50. And it turned out beautifully. I think Betty is going to be beside herself with joy when she opens this.

Another note about this great project. You can make the tutu any length you like, by using longer or shorter pieces of tulle. So this same idea could work for an older girl as well. Also. If I'd had another roll of the tulle, I would have used it and made the tutu twice as full. (I've posted more specific directions and photos here.)




For Oscar, Ralph decoupaged a bucket to corral his matchbox cars. We used a bucket we already had, plus modge podge and sponge brushes in our art supply stock. So the only cost on this one was .69 cents for a piece of car-themed scrapbook paper. I heart decoupaging. It breathes new life into all sorts of things.

A super simple project. We first cut wide strips of the paper the same height as the bucket. We put a layer of modge podge on the bucket, added the paper strips, and coated the tops with more modge podge. We did 3 top layers of modge podge, waiting between each for the last coat to mostly dry.

I have it on good authority that Santa is putting a pack of cars into Oscar's stocking, so he'll be excited to put this bucket to use immediately.




Ralph used fabric markers and stencils to customize knapsacks for Maude and Olive. They'll use the knapsacks to carry their shoes/clothes to dance class and gymnastics class. Very straightforward. Just place the template on the fabric, color in with fabric markers, and set with a hot iron. We had all the supplies for this project, so it was a freebie. Ralph was the most happy about and proud of this particular gift.



For her sibling gifts, Maude made tie-dye t-shirts. A project that doesn't take much time and provides really satisfying results. We adapted instructions from here and here with t-shirts found for about $5 each at Old Navy and Target.

Tie-dying is addictive. If we hadn't run out of dye, I think we would have started coloring boxers and undershirts next. Maude is so pleased with how the shirts turned out she can hardly stand to keep them a secret.

Olive will put together her gifts this weekend. We're not sure exactly what she's making, but some of the ideas on the list are: ribbon belts, embellished headbands, baseball caps with vintage scout patches found on ebay, decoupaged wood blocks, and homemade hair conditioner. She also likes the idea of taking a photo portrait of each sibling and then framing it to display on their nightstand.

You can see more of what we made this year here. You can see what we made in past years here and here and here and here. What do you like to do for sibling gifts?

Mini Cake Stand

I know it's sold out, but I'm still coveting this little Scallop Cupcake Stand from Whitney Smith Pottery. Dear Whitney, please make more. Thank you.

Found via Say Yes.

Party Dress

I have a couple of events this month that require an appropriate dress — something a little festive and a little sparkly. So I said to myself: why not try one from one of my terrific sponsors? Like the silk Delaney dress from Alleanza. I love the fabric — just enough shimmer. And the cut is so flattering.

Fa La La La Lots of Prizes

More good news! — kirtsy's latest contest was just posted. And it's HOT! Over $550 worth of goodies. From two of my favorite companies. Check it out:

First of all, Serena & Lily is offering up a $150 Gift Certificate to their gorgeous home goods shop. You probably know them for their baby bedding, but their line is so chic and sophisticated, that grown-ups everywhere begged and pleaded for them to expand their line. And they did. They now offer all sorts of gorgeous home items. And I covet the whole collection.

To sweeten the deal, check this out: for only the 2nd time in the entire history of the company, Serena & Lily is having a sale. Right now, you can get 30% off all their delicious bedding. And it truly is delicious. You'll want to eat it for breakfast. And sleep in it. All at the same time.

Second of all, All About Cute, an internet hotspot full of lovely items for you and your best friends, is offering up an Orla Kiely Bundle of treats retailing over $400.00! How deluxe is that?

The winner of this kirtsy Fa La La La Giveaway will receive an Orla Kiely Boulevard large zip wallet, an Orla Kiely Dreamsicle orange angora sweater (winner chooses her size, of course), and a $50.00 Gift Certificate to All About Cute, that she can spend as she pleases. I can picture it now. You'll be sporting your hot new sweater while pulling your hot new wallet out of your handbag, so that you can spend your hot little gift certificate.

And you can make that $50 feel like $100. Because from now through the end of the year, everything at the All About Cute site is 50% off. Just use the code: holiday.

It's super easy to enter. Just leave a comment on the kirtsy blog post, or over on kirtsy. Yay!

Modern Dollhouse

Some of the modern dollhouses out there are astronomically expensive. Here's an alternative. This pretty one at Petit Flaneur is adorable. And its price is much more reasonable.



Thanks for the link, Linda from Maine.