country christmas mantle

Welcome Christmas.

We are gearing up for a magical year here in the Meeker house. Our children are all believers. Their Christmas spirit is contagious.

Every year I design a new theme for our mantle. This year I was inspired by country life. I love old barns and natural fibers. I'm also loving all the mounted animal heads as long as they are fake. I find real animal heads to be disturbing. Taxidermy. Not for me.

Anyway, Ben humored me and constructed my pint sized barn door. I painted it with our initials.  I found the stag head at Target along with the small snowflake votives.  The mercury glass jugs are from World Market.  The larger porcelain votives are from Crate and Barrel.  The garland was made by ripping natural linen into strips.

You can't see it too well in the photo but there is a pair of antique ice tongs propped against the door that I found in an antique store.  I can't remember where I got the large bells.

Because the mantle isn't overtly Christmas, I think if I take away the bells I can leave it up through January.

Hopefully I will have time to share more of our Christmas this year! Remember that I can be found on Instagram almost everyday.

merry vinter

The snow has started to fall at my parent's house. There is Christmas music playing in the shops. As much as I can't believe it, the holidays are upon us. It's time to tackle one of the most difficult of all tasks: getting a good family photo for the Christmas cards.  Oy vey.

I've conjured up a little motovation to get us all going on our cards.

Introducing "Merry Vinter"!  I created this line of digital papers and ornaments for you to use to create your cards this year. As you can probably tell, I was strongly influenced by all things Swedish. I love scandanavian design in any form, but I am especially taken with Swedish kurbits and ornamentals.

The entire Merry Vinter set includes all the papers (6), the brushes (12) and the ornanaments (6).

The entire set is $18.00. You can also choose to purchase the kits indiviually for $7.00 each.

Purchase Here

whatever janet hill, it's not fair

Sometimes I get really pissed that some people have so much talent. I feel like Amelie when Henry gets something while she is at school and she comes home to discover him enjoying the spoils of the day. At first she just stands there sort of stunned. Then you can watch her little face as she goes through the emotions. Puzzled. Intrigued. Indignant. Pissed.

Janet Hill got a lion's share of talent and quite frankly I won't feel better about it until I can A) crawl inside her head and absorb some of her genius or B) own one of her originals.

You can buy her prints on her Etsy site.

woosh!

click here to download 

Well folks, say hello to the end of the year. Because you know that once Halloween is over the year flies by at astonishing speed.  It's just the way it's always been. There is nothing you can do to change it. Believe me. I've tried.

The best thing to do is just give in and embrace the madness.

I  made a free wallpaper for you to download to help you ease into November.

talk is cheap

Everybody knows a big talker. You know, the person who's always got the most fantastic plans that just never seem to happen.  They are going to start this new company, or they are really gunna let this person have what's coming to them, or they are going to be getting a new something any day now.

You know. Big talkers.

So yeah, talk is cheap.  Everyone talks big to some extent. We like to talk about our dreams. It feels good. It's as if talking about them makes them more tangible.  The problem is that research has shown that when we talk about our goals to other people we become less likely to achieve them because just the act of telling someone what we want to do tends to give us a sense that we have already done it.

So the moral is, keep your mouth shut. At least when it comes to goal setting.  I learned that from a TED talk.

Here's another thing I learned: good friends are cheap therapy. Sometimes you just need a good bout of verbal diarrhea to feel better.  I'm not sure why, but just talking about my day to day grievances with my best friends makes me feel so much more normal, even if their response is "That's weird."

In general, I feel like I talk too much.  Kids will do that to a person. You can't just say something once. Oh no. You have to say it three times to be heard.  It's exhausting. So I bought a megaphone.

Let me tell you, it's the best thing I've purchased as a parent next to the punching bag (Mother's Day 2010).  I don't have to say things three times. I don't even have to raise my voice to call my kids from upstairs.  Believe me, if you have kids, you need one.  

It was cheap. 

get yer art here!

A while back I created some art for Paper Coterie. You can now purchase these two works as either a 12X12 wrapped canvas or as a 16X6 poster.

Paper Coterie is meticulous about the work they send out so you can be sure it will look great on your wall.

Right now they are offering some really cute Halloween free printables. Check out their selection of cards and calendars too. I think they have some really great products.

casbah creative magic

I thought I'd ease back into this whole blogging thing with a simple slide show of our trip to Morocco.  This trip was a long time in the making and I'm happy to report that it far exceeded my expectations.  Everything about it was pure magic.

Casbah Creative from April Meeker on Vimeo.

If you are interested in participating in a trip similar to Casbah Creative in 2013, please send me an email and I'll add you to the interest list.

dispatch

rich girl

I have a friend who has taught me this truth lately. (Katy you know I'm talkin' bout you.)

Education would also fall into this category. I guess you could also buy stocks, and they could pay off and make you richer, but I'm talking about real riches here. 

Here's what I want you to do: take a minute and remember a trip you took with your family as a kid. Think about the actual travel part. Think about the destination, and the food you had, and the funny things that happened.

What is that memory worth to you?

We talked about just flying to our destination for our summer trip. But, you know, I think there is something to be said about road trippin' with your kids. The misery. The smell. The togetherness. It's a hellofa long haul eh? Memories people. Memories. 

We are road trippin' today. We are driving cross country in the family wagon. We are taking treats. We are taking movies. We are not taking the dog. Although that was, at one point, an irrational thought.

We have quite a few trips planned for the rest of the year. Big trips and little trips. Trips with kids and without.  

I am so excited to see where all of these journeys take us.  I feel rich.

**** If you are looking to enrich your own life, there is still room for you if you'd like to come to Morocco with Mindy and I in October.****

let's build a wall

I have a friend named Kimberly who lives on a farm. She has chickens and sheep and white farm furniture and a really great airstream trailer and, well, just go look.  She inspires me.

Anyway a week or so ago she sent me an email about a project her mother Barb is working on in Uganda.

Barb is building an orphanage. A home for children who's parents are gone.  A safe place for these babies. She made and sold banana bread to fund this project. She is an amazing person. The buildings of the orphanage compound are finished!

But the thing is, Barb has to have a security wall around the orphanage before children can live there safely. And so until the wall is built, the children remain homeless. My heart aches for these little people.

This wall is a big wall. It has to be. It is almost complete but there is still one side that needs to be finished.

Barb needs our help to pay to complete this wall.  My answer is yes. Yes! I will help. What an easy way to make a difference! What a great way to help the people of Uganda directly. Like I said before, my heart tells me that we must not remain blind to the struggles of these people. If you are going to put up emotional walls, they should be this type!

My mother likes to say~ what goes around comes around. And I believe it.  This wall will go around this orphanage compound. It will keep these children safe from those that might harm them. It will allow them to grow up and become good productive people.

What say you?  Will you chip in?  No amount is too small.

Add this button to your own site!

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