NOW You May Pass Go and Collect Your Holiday Cheer

In my one woman crusade against being rushed, I am now pronouncing that you can OFFICIALLY begin to think about Christmas with my full blessing.

The last few pieces of pumpkin pie are lingering in the refrigerator, and the turkey is being transformed into pot pie and tetrazzini, so now, and only now, is it appropriate to look forward to Christmas.

So it is said, and so it shall be written. Here endeth the lesson.

Yesterday was Small Business Saturday and I did it up right. We went to Renegade Craft Fair and bought Christmas presents from local artists. And perhaps a few things for ourselves. Then on to Blue Genie - which is also a craft fair, but the artists are not at the booths - it's set up more like a store - very relaxed, fun, no-pressure event. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable to walk past an artist without buying anything, so this event takes that discomfort out of the equation.

Then we had lunch at Salt and Time, a local restaurant, the owner of which we met at a Renegade Craft fair a few years ago while he was trying to build up his business. Now he has a beautiful brick and mortar butcher shop and deli and it was really incredible. Highly recommend if you are in Austin any time soon.


Last stop of the day was at Austin's completely amazeballs independent bookstore - Book People.

I have a present for nearly everyone, and nearly all of them are handmade, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Now for the enabler alerts.

My favorite find of yesterday was this STUNNING laser cut felt peacock purse from Keeper Goods.

LOVED these floral illustrations by Ginably.

Gorgeous terrariums by Urban Anonymous.

And in the non-local, non-handmade great deals category - via Kristina Werner - a great deal on a nice little sewing machine!

Whew. That was a lot of shopping!

Time for a little handmade of my own.

This is for today's Challenge Chick's December challenge - which I'm hosting!

The challenge is to shed those winter layers and make a one layer card.

I got all tricksy and used the INSIDE of my card too, thanks to my oval framelits. Heh. Booya!

I used the Northern Lights technique AND the glowing lights technique on a masked portion of the inside of my card. Then I stamped the little deer from The Cat's Pajamas in black. Hard to see here, but I sprayed the masked "snow" portion with glitter spray so it's all sparkly.

I cut the oval in the card front with my oval framelits. Then I stamped the greeting from O Holy Night in black on the front. Simple!

This is our last challenge for 2013 - come play along - use keyword CHXDEC13 on Splitcoast!

And with that official pronouncement behind us, feel free to begin your merrymaking.

Loveyameanitbye.