anytime now...


10 days till christmas and it's 43 degrees and partly sunny outside.
Hello, this is Minnesota, we could use a little snow now.

In a an attempt to get in the holiday spirit, we finally got the house decorated.

Last year we put up the little fake tree so Z wouldn't mess with it. And Q and I had no asthma issues (the year previous, we had a real tree and it was a rough go there for a bit.)

Finally decided it was time to buy a faux tree. I spent some time looking for the right one. I prefer my fake stuff to look as real as possible. I found a great one at Michael's, of all places. The description of it is identical to this one but for nearly 1/3 the price. It took no time to set up and our lungs have been quite happy.
I let the kids do all the decorating. I love the ornaments all clumped together and to see how far they can reach. They are getting so tall now.


The stockings are hung and the santa hats are being worn... The Christmas cards are at the printers, I need to finish a few gifts and I think we are ready.

And now some random holiday shots...

Trapped...

and that might not be all bad. They started tearing up our street this morning. Would have been nice for a heads up, could have moved the car to Main Street but oh well. Don't really need to go anywhere and we can walk, if we really need to get out.
Lots of seriously big equipment out front...


After a bit, kids got bored. Z is playing with the potato heads and the big kids are playing house and I am playing with fabric. Life is pretty good (plus my internet is back...)

Snow day...

We got walloped by a huge storm on Sunday night into Monday. Somewhere between 8-11 inches fell. Super heavy wet stuff. It took out our power along with most of the western suburbs. Without power, I did what any good Scandinavian would do in a snow storm, I went to IKEA. Just for a look and some lunch, we spent the rest of the day at my mom's. Last night we got another 5", it's crazy. Here's the view from my window today...

I have been using the time inside to work on another photo purse, fabric transparencies (just wait, so cool!) cuddling with the kids and an art doll for an upcoming show.

More photos later, Q will be home soon.

A room with a view of...


BLAH!
Do not attempt to adjust your color monitor. It is EXACTLY this color outside my studio right now. Can you see now, why I am craving color in my various projects. All I really want to do is curl up under the duvet and nap...