Christmas in the air

(hummingbird photo by my mom, Patricia J. Stark)

I couldn't believe my eyes today when i looked outside my window and saw a little Christmas magic right in front of me.

A December day in New York City

illegal photograph i took after the show was over (shhhhh!) they were doing a fund raiser for "Broadway Kids" and they were auctioning off the shirts they wore in the show. each shirt sold for $4500 each, plus they were autographed and the buyers got to go backstage, meet Jack and Daniel and have photos taken! the show was amazing and the acting superb! we were in awe at the drama that 2 actors and 2 chairs could make in 90 minutes. the show ends on Sunday.

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we couldn't get a cab at the end of the day, so ended up taking a rickshaw cart from 57th to 34th! it was fun though! this was our cute driver.

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awesome windows at Barney's
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not sure of the building here, but loved the snowflake that looked like it was just dangling freely in the sky!
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dillon thought this might be Trump Towers
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as seen in Henri Bendel's
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Dillon and Alana in "Candyland" at Toys-R-Us
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NYC/Times Square street scene!
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the ferris wheel at Toy-R-Us
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Rockefeller Center. See the tree over to the left?

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Dillon, me and his friend, Alana went into NYC today to see the broadway play "Steady Rain" with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. it was really good. we had a great time. Dillon was quite shocked that Alana had never been to the Toys-r-us store in Times Square, so we put that on our list to do today. We also took her to Rockefeller Center to check out the tree. Since tonight was the tree lighting, we couldn't get too far into the tree area as it was all blocked off, but we could see it from where we were standing. we were there around 4pm and the ceremony wasn't until 8pm and we just didn't have it in us to stand there for 4 hours! we did some window shopping, saw some amazing window displays and beautiful NY city holiday decorations. it was a wonderful day!

if you've missed my previous posts about my blog giveaway, you can enter here.

black friday continued!

Today was black friday open house at Summerhouse. it was a fun day. lots of festive wares to look at, yummy red velvet cupcakes, hot apple cider and more. weather wise, the day started off pretty nice. then later, it turned a bitter cold with a nasty wind whipping through the town. Brrrrrr! But Santa stopped by for the tree lighting ceremony, we saw elves and fairies, a beautiful horse pulling a lighted buggy and lots of participants wearing Santa hats. My girlfriend Jane, her daughter Claudia and sister stopped by for a hello and some shopping. Also my friend, Marlene, came in, good to see her again. Thanks for the support ladies!



I want to dress like this manikin.
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Jane, Claudia and I
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Marlene and I
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Joanna, Kathe and I
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button bracelets
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snowman bottles and one of my collages
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glass tiles necklaces
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more button bracelets
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in other news, if you missed the post about my blog giveaway, you can read about it here.

black friday!

i'll be leaving early in the morning and heading over to Summerhouse for black friday. just wanted to post these pictures of my soldered holiday ornaments that i made using vintage images off of holiday cards found at the flea market this year. there's one i really love, so might not be able to sell it! hope you had a lovely day and looking forward to hearing what you did (if anything) on black friday!

my friend, Z, got her Christmas present today. I was going to make her put it under the tree, but she sounded so excited that i told her to go ahead and open it. this is what i made for her. i think she was quite happy!

holiday photos, Christmas '08

thanks for all the nice compliments on our photo. someone asked me who took the picture - well i did! i set up my tripod, set a little scene in front of the chair, got everyone postion, viewed the shot and hit the timer - viola! then i'd check the pic to see how the positioning of the camera was; make any changes and take some more! i've been doing it this way for years. oh, but the last shot here with tuck on my lap, i had dillon's friend, Adrianne snap some shots after i got it all ready for her (she takes lots of pictures, so she got my vote of confidence!)

vinette by the front door

here's a little vinette i created and it is really easy to do, so if you feel inspired to create your own, it took me about 15 minutes. of course, i have the resources in my own backyard to go cut holly, berries, pinecones and evergreens. we took the dogs and made a little trip to the back field and snip these items, collected pine cones, yelled at Gracie for running off, oh and looked for birds nests. we found one which jeff wrangled out of some sticker burrs and then i took all the findings and starting laying them out around this old farm table (bought for $5 years ago!). the wreath you see in the back of the picture, we got at the flea market this morning and the same with the rusty old truck (which had been in a fire). i fell i love with the truck the second i saw it. it reminded me of jeff telling me how when he was little, he use to bury his toys in his backyard. so i told him, we are going to tell people that you buried this truck when you were little and we recently dug it up! in the first picture, you can see the darling little bird nest in the cab of the truck. in the second picture, i decided to add some vintage ornaments also purchased at the flea market this morning.

don't have these kind of items? well, let's get creative and see what else you have to substitute!

here's a picture of sweet Kirby on our walk today. she was very helpful.

My friend, Abbie, created my new avatar, featuring one of my icons. isn't it great? i just love having a handy computer friends!