fresh picked whimsy

Our beloved Christmas traditions...

We took the kids out on our annual Christmas lights drive a few days before Christmas.  We make cocoa in travel mugs and enjoy the sights...

There's a local farm equipment store that has an amazing free light display.  It's a holiday tradition for a lot of families in Indy.  

 

The whole family meets for the early children's Christmas Eve mass and then go back to our own homes to await Santa's arrival.  We always have a candlelight dinner in the Dining Room, just the five of us.  It's the ONLY day of the year that we eat in there!  We eat on the good china, drink milk out of the crystal wine glasses and wear our pajamas.  The kids love it.  Then the kids exchange gifts with each other at the table and we snuggle up on the couch and watch It's a Wonderful Life by the light of the tree.  It's a snuggly Christmas tradition. 

 
Mark's parents come over early on Christmas morning for breakfast and presents...xbox, ipod touch, snuggies and Legos; oh my! 

 
Around 2:00 that afternoon, my whole family comes over for Christmas day...it's totally chaotic with 9 adults, 8 kids and 3 dogs, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  We eat all day long...homemade Christmas cookies, eggnog, chips & dips and an Italian antipasta tray. 

 The infamous zhu zhu pets made an appearance under the tree this year for my niece and nephew and they were a HUGE hit.  My parents spent ALL year gathering all of the little accessory pieces for them in their travels and the result was big smiles and 2 very well occupied kids on Christmas day. 

We kept teasing my folks about how much money my sisters were going to make when they sold them all on ebay. 

A rare moment when the kids had all left the family room and were playing in the playroom...

My mom enjoys wrapping all of their presents very extravagantly...with the most gorgeous bows and ribbons.  They traditionally end up on everyone's heads throughout the day.  I'm laughing so hard, that none of my pics came out clear, but you get the picture...

Dinner is my mom's homemade lasagna.  It's 4 days later and i'm still full!  The only requisite on Christmas day is that everyone must arrive in their jammies.  We stay in our jammies ALL DAY long.  Here's my Poppop scratching off some of the lottery tickets that we got him.  He has always LOVED playing the lottery, Publisher's Clearing House and back in the day; the race track.

It was almost midnight before everyone left.  Such a fun day.  Christmas continued the day after, with Christmas at Mark's parent's house.  Mark and the kids and I meet his brother over there and we have Christmas with the McD's.  More presents, more delicious food and fun playing board games.  This year, we played Taboo and laughed so hard, i'm surprised i was able to get an in-focus photo.  It was a blast.

Our Christmas Eiffel Tower tree really grew this year, with so many lovely photo cards from all of our favorite people.  We enjoyed seeing all of the smiling faces and marveled at how much everyone has grown! 

 I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, too!

on why i haven't blogged for a while...

Hello, my sweet friends!  Here i am.  i'm still here.  i've missed you.  December has been a blur.  I am just now coming up for air.  I've had a wonderful Christmas weekend with my family.  The kids and hubby still have another week home and we are loving every minute of it.  I'll post highlights from our festivities tomorrow, but thought i would show you some of the homemade goodies that i made for clients and family this month. 

 
I have lost count of how many of these family portraits i painted this month...here's a small sampling:

 

Some custom pet portraits, a custom child portrait, and this darling memorial angel portrait...

several Christmas plates for Jill's clients...

a handful of these fun door knob signs...

a new Christmas village custom made for Dee, my client from Texas who has ordered a village for every single holiday of the year...

 

 

and finally, several custom collage illustrations inspired by my original Lake Lovers illustration.  This first one was for a client who sent me photos of her family's farm to create this for her family...

and these for my parents, Mark's parents and Mark's brother, inspired by them!...

 

 
 See, i have been a busy little elf, not ignoring you!  I promise!  i have to say that it was quite a thrill to think about all of the people {around the world...gasp!} who opened my art as a gift on Christmas morning!  I am so very blessed.  Thank you, one and all who bought my art this year. 

Christmas highlights tomorrow, friends. xo

busy much?

quick snapshots of life lately...

 

 

ok, time to get back to work!  Happy Friday, friends! xo
  

BOWS {Buds of whimsy studios}

Looking to cross off a few more names on your shopping list with some creative and unique gift ideas?  Look no further.  I have some of the most creative and talented friends.  I urge you all to shop handmade and local as much as you can.  Allow me to brag, won't you?

My cousin Jeannine makes these phenomenal custom letter plaques.  Created from architectural photographs she personally took in her travels, each picture represents a letter of the alphabet.  She has inspirational words ready to go, or give her your name and she'll make a custom one just for you!  She will even throw in the gift wrap and tag and drop ship them anywhere in the US!  Shop her etsy shop here. 

 

My friend Erincan't keep them in stock in her etsy shop.  These Freakin' to do list notepads are selling like hotcakes.  Don't forget to pick up the Pain in the Groceries to Buy List and the cutest Santa Recipe Cards, too.  You're going to be able to stuff a lot of stockings here! 

If you're in the Indy area, you owe it to yourself to swing by the Harrison Center in Indianapolis to see my friend, Jenny Elkins' alphabet series.  Or stop by the Legend Cafe in Irvington for more Jenny Elkins originals.  If you're not local, you can email Jenny here and she will be happy to post any of the A-Z work on her blog for you to see, if you want to purchase it through her etsy store.

Shopping is in the bag with my friend, Perrin.  I'm crazy about these key fobs (fit perfectly in a stocking) and zippered wallet sets.  A girl can never have too many bags!  Shop from the comfort of your home in your jammies here at Pink Evita!  

How about giving the gift of a couture handbag to the fashionista in your life?  A one of a kind, made just for that special someone by a couture trained dressmaker?  My friend, Jenn Myers will do just that!  From idea to sketch to finished bag, give the gift of couture this season.  Kicky Couture!

Again, for my local readers, my friend Jill is the one to see for all of your paper needs this Christmas!  Westwood Paper Co., a lovely brick and mortar store, specializes in invitations, announcements, weddings, and personal stationery.  The store is filled with so many lovely personalized gift ideas.  Don't walk; run to Westwood Paper Co. in Carmel! 

 
 

Finally, my sweet friend Anne White and her business partner, Holly Kirsch, also known as AH Collection have the most amazing boutiques located in Clay Terrace in Carmel and Keystone at the Crossing in Indy this holiday season.  Totally unique on trend and affordable fashion, accessories, make-up and jewelry.  They were just recently featured in the December issue of atCarmel.  They've got the bling, baby, for you to shine this holiday!  Stop by today and no worries if you are not local...visit their store online here!

Still on cloud 9

Wow!  The Open Studio was a huge success!  Beyond my wildest expectations.  At 10:05 a.m. on Friday morning, my sister Kim and I sat at the table in the studio and said "what if nobody comes?" and then at 10:15, the floodgates opened.  We were elbow to elbow the whole time.  It was crazy cool.  I did take photos of the studio before, but we were so busy during, that i didn't have much time to grab my camera at all.  I'm bummed about that.  But, it's a good bummed.  Take a look...

 

 

 
 
 My mom made cake and my sister and K made cookies.  We had coffee in the morning.

My sweet friend, Jane (a.k.a. Fun with Frannie) made these darling reindeer hats for the kids that came. 

She also made little goodie bags for the kids, too.  They were a huge hit! 

My fun friend, Beth brought me this bottle of vino...because i'm the middle sister!  Isn't that cool?!  If you have a friend or sister that's also a middle sister, you must get this for her.  The back label is hysterical!  She found it at Target.

This was the best...my talented friend Tamara took one of my pieces and put it on a coffee mug! I'm on a mug!  I don't know why that is so thrilling for me, but it is!!!  Even if i'm the only one who has it.  It's like official or something.  I know I'm weird, but i'm totally over the moon about it.  She has a catalog business that caters to hot air ballooning enthusiasts.  We're going to get together at the beginning of the year and collaborate somehow.  So excited about that. 

  
 
Look at how they dressed up the Fat Tire box for the holidays!  Isn't that sweet? I love it. 

The wine and beer was flowing in the evening and lovely friends came and stayed late to visit and toast this wonderful day.  It was just perfect.  Thank you, all who came, who wanted to come but couldn't and those who were here in their hearts.  Once again, i am feeling the love.  ♥

almost ready...

 
Feeling leery about putting my address out there, so if you're local and want to stop by, just email me and I will email you back with directions.  I will post pics of the festivities on Saturday.  The studio looks so pretty.  I should have taken a before picture...it looked like a glitter, paint and paper tornado had hit it.  :P 

We've got spirit, yes we do, we've got spirit, how 'bout you!

 
So, what gets you into the holiday spirit?  Is it wrapping presents, shopping, holiday music, Christmas lights?  Perhaps, it's giving back in some way.  I made the illustration above for the latest issue of atCarmel.  The cover story is about how Carmel residents and businesses get into the Christmas spirit.  I also wrote an article for the issue about our family hobby, letterboxing.  The link to my article is here.  I've blogged about it before here and here.  That could be a fun thing for you and your family to do over Christmas break.  Barring heavy snow, there's no reason not to get outside and find some letterboxes!

Another new Christmas inspired print is in the shop today.  I have had Pandora blasting in the studio for a week tuned to the Michael Buble holiday station...fabulous vintage and new Christmas music.  I'm loving every minute of it and am very inspired by it.  Fa la la la la!