Ring out the old, ring in the new

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
-   Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ring Out, Wild Bells

here is a little New Years Gift for you …a FREE DOWNLOAD for your personal use

this postcard was originally mailed in Columbus, Ohio by Phyllis on 30 December 1909 to Miss Elinor Reynolds in Gainesville, Ohio and it says: “How are you Elinor?             Phyllis”

heartfelt thanks to each of you for visiting my Magpie’s Nest in 2009!

for each ending there is a new beginning … here’s to a wonderful 2010

May this New Year hold all that you hope for and more!

Brightest of Blessings All Ways

oxoxo

Live…Laugh…Love…Leave

the free fan image from The Vintage Workshop got me going on these 31 December Journal pages

still some time left in the day, month, year … tick tick tick …  to create another December art journal spread

Winter … season of imagination

my digital camera is no longer speaking to our photo organizer/sizer/whatever it’s called, for no apparent reason today, so I tried scanning these recent journal pages instead of taking photos like I usually would … waiting for my technical support to come home to help me out

I have to laugh at myself just a little … part of the holdup on me learning new technology seems to be the lingo … that said … I have signed up for DJ Pettitt’s online Photoshop class, Memories and Manipulations (sign up ends 4 Jan 10)

I am very excited and hopeful … the only way for me to go with Photoshop is up

… bells are ringing

the sweet twins image from Art Creations Friday was part of the inspiration for these December Journal pages

music was the other … there is something about hearing young children sing that goes straight to the core of my heart …  some years ago  I went along with one of our son’s boy scout troops to visit an elder care home around Christmas … there was a slow and modest trickle of little ladies and gents, several came in wheelchairs ready for a break in their day… the sight of them and the sound of those rascally boys sweetly singing Christmas carols took me to the edge … I opened my mouth to sing along, but the words just would not come … it was all I could do to not break out in sobs (last time they invited me to come along hahaa)

the power of music is amazing … forget about singing

Auld Lang Syne sniff sniff

for a look at all of my December journal pages thus far you can visit my Flickr Photostream here

Holly and Ivy

I named these two Genteel Paper Whimsy ladies, Holly and Ivy, and  included them in my December Art Journal

*you can click for a closer look*

holiday music is a special feature of December and something I enjoy very much

Three Cups of Tea

on previous blog posts I’ve shown you my Twinkle … Sparkle and Nice mugs…

NAUGHTY is the fourth cup of the set

sipping decaf Irish Breakfast tea with a few cardamom pods umm

the Naughty cup seemed to fit the bill as I dropped everything to read this wonderful book from cover to cover… finally

with the new year right around the corner I hope to get my nose into many more books than I seemed to manage in 2009

the lovely beeswax crow painting is a canvas I got from the talented Karen Mowrey last year … I really like that it is hanging in our kitchen … a place where it is seen and enjoyed a lot

… here is a quote from our new 2010 wall calendar

“Even the simplest of things can be the basis of practice – a beautiful morning, a good meal, a shower.  Although there are many such fleeting ordinary moments in our days, we speed right past them.  We forget what joy they can bring.  So the first step is to stop, notice, and appreciate what is happening.  Even if this is all we do, it’s revolutionary.” ~Pema Chödrön

*thank you for the light Jean*

wishing each of you many rich and beautiful ordinary moments in the coming year … may your cups runneth over

Happy last T Tuesday of 2009

oxoxo

all is calm … all is bright

… once at a summer concert on the courthouse lawn of a small Virginia town … our then young son, Alex, made a special request of the performer that evening

John McCutcheon

to our delight he granted our wish and played “our” song under the twinkling stars that warm July night

if you can spare a few minutes … the story it has to tell is very special, oh so touching … and it’s true

there is a movie that came out in 2005 about this magic moment in history on that Christmas eve so long ago

*you may want to turn down your volume … the movie clip below is a lot louder than the music video above … don’t want you to get blasted*

May each of you be surrounded by Peace and Light along with the Love of all those you hold dear … may it fill your hearts to overflowing now and always

oxoxo

somewhere out there …

inspired by the words of Lord Byron (1788-1824)

“Oh! darkly, deeply, beautifully blue, As someone somewhere sings about the sky”

this is the third of my blue spreads for my December Art Journal … I had no idea when I began this journal on 1 December just how much I would enjoy and be driven to create it in … heartfelt thanks go out to Linda and Nathalie for inspiring me to begin

fourteen spreads completed with more pages to fill

the image on the left hand side is from a flyer that arrived in the mail advertising a ballet … white painted through a plastic doily makes her “halo” (thanks again Lynn) … Golden’s paints work so nicely on these simple lined journal pages (many thanks to Julie for making me much braver with a paintbrush) … the bit of glimmer at the bottom is also Golden’s … small Pearl Mica Flakes

the angel on the right is from a vintage Swedish postcard … it was a nice challenge mixing shades of blue to blend the postcard into the page … the snowflakes are from Martha Stewart … the white writing is a Sharpie Poster Paint marker

thank you to all who have followed my journal pages thus far and for your kind words and observations, especially in such a busy month as this …. I would like to share the Swedish Postcard with you … here is the FREE DOWNLOAD for your personal use

*ENJOY * ENJOY *

Hark …

shades of red paint for the background … a recycled angel greeting card

water soluble crayons for shading … bits of special gold paper to accent along with gold krylon pen and gold rickrack

the arch and JOY stamps were stamped onto tissue paper and glued on the painted pages of my December Art Journal … my offering for the Open Theme at Wednesday Stamper

Wishing each of you JOY and PEACE this holiday season  OOXOXO

Sparkle Tea Tuesday

today I am enjoying a cup of hazelnut coffee in my Sparkle mug … soy hazelnut creamer too … ummm Love hazelnut everything!

(the red Waechtersbach platter is from my friend Michelle … the snowman on the windowsill is made of wool by my friend Judy Post … the green foil wrapped goodie is a flimmersterne (two half rounds of foil wrapped chocolate around a wonderful golden frill … you can get a better look by clicking for the closeup…lots of gorgeous snow still outside the kitchen window too)

and what about those mice …  I wanted to share a special cookie recipe with you … a tradition in our family since the late 80′s when I first spotted the recipe in the pull out cookie section of a Woman’s Day Magazine (1986) … young and old seem to be delighted by these tasty Almond Cookie Mice … always a big hit in the children’s classrooms

cute with a cheese platter (here is a piece of  Mt Tam triple cream cheese topped with fruits, nuts and fig jam … ummm) the mouse cookies liven up any cookie tray assortment as well … they take a little extra time to make, but are so worth it

Recipe Note: I used to use currents for the eyes instead of cut up raisins … now I use mini chocolate bits (pointy side in)

Happy T Tuesday … do join Kimmie for a cuppa whatever you like

feel free to join in the fun … create a post on Tuesdays (no rules just right) … come and play … the more the merrier

fa la la la la … la la la laaaa

must share a footnote with you … the cookie mice in my photos are from last year (not for eating just for looks) …. I made a double batch last year and sometimes they are just too cute to eat … amazing that they still look as good as new tucked away in a tin all year, guess there is enough sugar in them to preserve them

	Almond Cookie Mice
	INGREDIENTS: 1 Cup Butter or Margarine, at room temperature 1 Cup Packed Light Brown Sugar 1 Large Egg 2 teaspoons Almond Extract 1 teaspoon Vanilla 3 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour Peanut Halves Coarsely Chopped Raisins Red Licorice Laces, cut in 3-inch lengths
	INSTRUCTIONS: Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Gradually beat in flour until blended. Dough will be stiff. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until well chilled. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Shape rounded tablespoonful of dough into 1 1/4-inch ball. Taper each ball at one end into a teardrop shape; press one side flat. Place flat sides down 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press in sides of balls to raise backs of mice . (They spread slightly as they bake.) With a wooden pick make a 1-inch deep hole at tail end (round end). Gently push 2 peanut halves in each for ears and 2 pieces of raisins for eyes. Bake 9 to 12 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to rack; insert licorice tails; cool completely “Not a mouse stirring” ~William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

May All of Your Xmas’ Be Bright

these pages began with the gold and tan greeting card from the Hartsfield’s in 1930 … mailed from Douglas, GA to Tryon, NC

gold gouache for the background and black felt tip marker for doodling and a flimmersterne as a centerpiece on the left with a lovely Paper Whimsy lady in the center

~Peace Angel~

being a little slow this year in feeling the holiday spirit … we saw some beautiful fresh table top trees at our local Whole Foods Market (wish I’d taken a photo of them all lined up looking so cute and inviting) … normally we do a BIG tree jam packed with ornaments … it felt over whelming this year

the snow blizzard came … time was right to get the table top tree set up … lights are the domain of Mr Magpie … we have a pretty star burst  for the top of the tree … BUT it would not light up for some reason … being snowed in … we could not run out and get something to replace it … the top of the tree goes on first and the rest of the tree lights follow

I looked over my shoulder at a fun wire shelf that has doll parts on it and blurted out …  “we could use Oma’s doll head for the tree topper” … Mr Magpie did not skip a beat he got busy lining up the lights behind the eye sockets … seemed the prudent thing to do

that is the story of HOW the doll head ended up being our tree top angel this year … oh and Elizabeth’s swan feathers were the crowning glory … lovely white wings for the angel our son does not like at all ... it really is true you can’t please everyone … for some reason Mr Magpie and I enjoy her looking down on us

the take down (which our son is never involved in) will be much easier … sad that it comes to that … but the words SIMPLIFY …  SIMPLIFY keep coming to mind

~ HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE ~

“Tradition is the illusion of permanence” ~Woody Allen

ACF: Challenge 54

this lovely image is the challenge at Art Creations Friday

here are my snowflake twins

if you’d like to see some “real” snowflakes you can visit me here and here … we had a whopper of a storm this weekend

“Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together” ~unknown

bundle of snow ho ho

“Snowpocalyse” is one of the names being used for our whooper of a storm just before the official start of winter here in the DC area

we are not accustomed to this much snow

especially in December!

pretty to look at … not a heavy wet snow

up to your knees

extra excitement just before Christmas

snow swirled and blew everywhere

our view from the kitchen window the last couple of days

and our back garden

this area will be talking about the “Capital Crippler” for awhile

it is definitely one for the record books!

Snow on Snow

those of you that have snow beginning in November and are on your 8th event … you may laugh at us here in the Washington, DC area …we actually have to laugh at ourselves

snow began falling at 9pm last night … just the beginning

news reports are calling our weather event “historical” …  “monumental” … “the storm of the winter” measuring in feet rather than inches

possibly the largest recorded snowfall for December in this area…definitely a shopping and travel stopper for the end of 2009

it IS a lot of lovely white stuff already… falling at the rate of one to two inches per hour today … a perfect day to put on some music … a pot of soup and do some baking and of course some art too

I Love snow and felt like a little kid getting up way earlier than usual to peek outside this morning

Caterina at La Dolce Vita has posted some gorgeous snow photos from Colorado

Ho Ho Ho … now they are calling it a Blizzard Blizzard

“One kind word can warm three winter months” ~Japanese Proverb

Christmas Postcards for You

wanted to share a few postcards from my collection

*FREE Downloads for your personal use*

double click for the largest image

“A Merry X’mas” 1908 sent to Master Edmund Sleeper from his Aunt and Uncle

“A Happy Christmas” 1908 sent to Miss Margaret Summers

sent to Master Henry Fogelsong (Birdsong) 1915

“Merry Christmas” sent to Miss Gladys Welsh 1913

1910 to a Mrs. Wootten in Florida

1907 silk postcard made in Germany… mailed in the US