November & December In Review.

Hello again Lovelies. I found some pictures from both November and December. I hope you like them.

This beautiful snow came shortly after we put the house on the market. Six inches of lovely white snow! The whole world seemed strange and exotic. Walking Charlie by the nature reserve at the end of our street we could hear the trees crack and groan as they were overtaken by the ice.

November was a particularly nerve wracking month. Our house went into escrow and my stomach went into knots. I thought that buying a home was a tumultuous experience but I now firmly believe that it is not half as bad as selling one. I took these photos while I stood waiting in the cold for a very thorough house inspector to complete his work.

On the 22nd of December our escrow closed and we left our first home for the big city. It was some-what bitter sweet. I know the house is in very good hands though, and that makes me feel better.

In November we also lost our beloved family car. It belonged to my great uncle, my grandparents, my step-mom, my aunt and finally my dad before he sold it to us. This is a picture of it moments before the donation company towed it away. We brought a new car into the family which has turned out to be the perfect city car. We named it Link. Charlie likes Link.

Everyday things became less mundane from the front seat of our new car. Isn't it interesting how that happens? How your perception is altered by the smallest changes in your environment.

In the last few weeks though, our entire environment has drastically changed. We love it and we are adjusting well. It has the strangest mixture of feeling completely like home while at the same time feeling completely foreign.

We celebrated New Years in the most mundane way though. We had a tennis championship on our Nintendo Wii. My mom (who was visiting) won by a land slide even though it was all completely new to her. She decided to leave her job to become a tennis pro and is now sponsored by Nike. True story.

This last group of photos are somewhat random. A quick project in our new space, a glimpse of our new kitchen and lastly the most beloved contents of our security deposit box. Hugs. xox=vv.

Life Seems To Move Forward.

Oh lovely people, how I adore you! I have missed you so. Life has been awfully hectic here as I am sure it has also been there. I am afraid I do not have a photographic December in review. I am not even sure we took any pictures in December. If I find some I will post them shortly.

In the meantime, may I share another scan with you? I found these letterpress calendar cards at Anthropologie. They were half price and at little over a dollar a piece I thought that it would be a great way to assemble some framed art for our new place.

We are currently living in an apartment on Capitol Hill, while we look for a condo. We really love the area and want to be as close as possible to our current location.

I am delighted to be back online. I have so much that I want to share with you. Hugs! xox=vv.

Thirteen Days.

Hello Lovelies. I know that there are more important things going on in our lives right now, but I thought I would share this with you anyway. Last Sunday, we excepted an offer on our home. The buyers have asked for a rush close, so in 13 days we may be moving to the city.

We are of course in the middle of escrow and hopefully everything will go smoothly. Currently, we have nowhere to go and home full of things we need to sell or otherwise get rid of.

If we get to the advanced stage of buying a new condo we are hoping for a 500 square feet studio downtown, which should be quite a change from our 2100 sqft home with a 500 sqft garage studio and 7400 sqft lot (most of which is backyard).

Hence, our moving cards (above) created by William Heath Robinson for his 1936 book How To Live In A Flat. "Washing Day" "The Garage" and "An Artistic Way of Hiding an Unsightly View" are my three favorites. Aren't they cute?

So, we will continue to be in a state of flux for a while. I am thinking of you all and miss you. I apologize for the delay in communications and please know that I am always extremely appreciative for all of your kind words, your sweet support and your overwhelming inspiration. Thank you a million times! Hugs! xox=vv.

My Grandmother.

Hello Lovely people! Have I mentioned how lovely and talented you all are lately? Very! Do you want to see someone close to my heart who would also fit into both of those categories perfectly?

This is my granmother, age five. Isn't she beautiful? She is a wonderful woman. She is a smart and talented artist and educator (among many other fabulous things).
 

Speaking of fabulous things, Hugs to you all! xox=vv.

Let It Snow.

Oooh hi there lovely and wonderful people! Did you know that we had six plus inches of snow this weekend and that it has stuck around for a few days now. We are expecting a bit more. It's crazy and early and delightful.

Of course, when you run out of milk before the snow comes, it is hard to wait for it to all melt before the siren song of Raisin Bran is to much to bear. So today, we finally left the house for milk and I took this polaroid to share with you. I hope you like it.

Also, "Shy Monsters Coloring Sets" are re-stocked at Mahar Drygoods just in time for Christmas! We also resolved our scanner issues and the paintings in the previous post are now up-to-date.

I am still working to catch up with you and I am thinking of you all! Hugs! xox=vv.

Getting Somewhere.

Hi Lovelies. How was your Thanksgiving? How are you all doing? Today I am looking forward to catching up with you all. I have finally had a chance to sit down at the computer and add these to the new Etsy. I am still working on a new banner and logo, so please excuse my dust.

My scanner has stopped working (one of those months I guess), so these are photos of my little paintings. The photos really do not do them any justice they are a bit more vivid than they look. The panels are a lovely white. Of course the bigger issue is if anyone will like them. I am not sure how they will do, so I am trying to be as brave as I can. xox=vv.

Update: The middle painting has sold to the lovely, talented and sweet Ashley & Drew! Thank you both a million times! I am so terribly pleased!

New Car Day.

Oooh lovelies, today spiraled out of control and ended with a new used car in our driveway. You can read about it here.

It is very well treated and looks brand new. It has a little bit of detailing that I am not fond of, but I am going to find a place to remove it. A Beetle was always going to be my first car and now I have to learn to drive! Hugs! xox=vv.

Update: Has any one tried replacing photos? I wanted to replace this original photo with a scan but I am having troubles. Until then this is a photo of the newest beetle from the vw site and not the actual photo of our silver 2000 glx turbo beetle. This photo may be replaced again in the future. Yes, I am going scanner crazy! Hugs!

Darn. Soon I Hope.

Hi Lovelies! This is a quick note to say that Etsy is still being perfected and I will wait until it is ready before showing you my few little goodies. In the meantime, I will have to do a little painting so that I have something to show you a little later (hopefully tonight). I am getting a new order ready for Mahar Drygoods and I am also working on several packages for lovely people who I desperately need to send things to!

Our car may not be repairable, so I am afraid you may hear a bit more about the outcome of that. I am feeling very disconnected, but still thinking of you all! Hugs! xox=vv.

Our Car Done Broke.

Oh hello Lovelies! Have I mentioned lately that you are ALL on my mind? Well, you are! It is nice to have you on my mind because otherwise I would have to think about our transmission pump problem that is affecting the carburetor, the rear bumper and umm ... the glove compartment!! (?) Those are all car words right? Yes, well I am sure that they are all some how affected by whatever done broke on our car! Now Charlie is constantly barking his big scary dog bark that gets on my nerves, because He is off getting a rental car and left the dogger at home with me! Fun!!

This absolutely beautiful card is from the beautiful Miss Dawbis. It arrived today and absolutely made my heart sing! Isn't it incredibly perfect in every way? I agree, it is!! Thank you miss. You made a downhill day pick up and fly off into the clouds, where I now sit upon #9. There is a small similarity to a card that I am working on for her which I will show you later, however this card is a million times better! A million times better!!

In other news Etsy is still down, so I will share a tiny amount of goodies with you tomorrow and put them up for sale. It has been a loooong time since I have had anything available at Etsy. Also, a few more Shy Monster Sets will be on their way to Mahar DryGoods very soon! Yay!

Did I mention that I am thinking of you? Oh I did? Good! Hugs! xox=vv.

New Phone Day.

Oh aren't you sweet to stop by! I am sorry that this post does not contain any juicy craft photos. Of course I am not really sure that I have any juicy craft photos. I think I will have to work on that! Note to self: Try to make craft photos not only well lit, but also juicy! There!

Yesterday was new phone day. We have to upgrade our cell phones once a year. Our phones do not ever make it through a whole year. This time my phone lasted oh .... four months. After that, it developed this delightful habit of shutting itself off whenever I answered a call. His Razr worked fine, mine was horrible. After a few unsuccesful encounters with Motorola, we decided to go a different route, Samsung. These may be returned within the week as we are not 100% sold on them. The salesman would NOT give us a minute to discuss our options by ourselves. He was nice, but constantly trying to close. Oh and the photos came from Letstalk.

On another note, Blogger has added a new feature called Labels. I may be doing a lot of reposting while I try to get things up-to-date. Please forgive this inconvenience Blogliners, I apologize. I believe that you can chose not to see updates if you look at the subscription options for my site. I would be very happy to help if you have any questions!

Etsy goes live again tomorrow and I am very excited! I love newness! You are pretty darn fabulous too! Hugs! xox=vv.