Merry Christmas Card Love

I love Christmas cards. I buy them. I collect them. I'm a sucker for vintage, for pretty, for classic... I guess I'm a sucker for them all really. Just look at the cute kittens in the ice skates... or the cute Robins on the branch... Unfortunately I hardly ever get around sending any cards though. I know, it is a shame isn't it? I want to change that. This year I sent just a few. I also just received a few. Maybe technology, e-cards and text messages are taking over but receiving a pretty, handwritten and signed Christmas card in heavy weight paper is the best feeling ever. The fact that someone has made the effort to choose a Christmas card for me, write in it and then walk to the post office to mail it to me - that makes me feel so loved and special. Therefor I have made myself a promise to put Christmas cards on the top of my Christmas-To-Do-List for next year. Nothing feels better than making someone happy. And what use do all these cards make if just chucked into a box? No, they need to bring a smile on someone's face (part from me once a year when I flick through them...)

So with a glimpse of my precious Christmas card favorites, me and the kids are on a jet plane to Stockholm, Sweden. We are looking forward to a big adventure and will see you again in the new year. A big thank you for all sweet comments, for hanging around, for engaging and supporting me in my blogging. Thank you for shopping my patterns, encouraging me to keep on designing and I'm so grateful to be a part of this community we have. Happy Holidays my lovelies. See you again soon.

Kärlek
Annette

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Packing, prepping, sweating, fixing...

Travel fever. Do you suffer from it? I do. After all these years with travels all over the globe, I still get incredibly jumpy the last few days before departure. My head stops working and I enter a "I can't do anything" mode... The list is so long and overwhelming, there are so many things to do before locking up the front door... and even though I make lists, I seem to not be able to tackle it all in one go. I sit, glued to the sofa, and stare at the most ridiculous shows and programs as my body turns into a freeze.

It is not until a good 24 hours before leaving the house that things really happens. I get frantic and accomplish more things in a few hours than in the whole week passed. I'm in the frantic phase now... Getting so many things done. Ticking off those things from my list:

- Paying the last couple of bills
- Call about the letter from the tax office
- Call about the letter from the insurance...
- Setting up the cats in the laundry room with cozy chairs, fur, crochet blankets and all...
- Making sure I have enough cat food
- Getting travel documents in order
- Wrapping the last few gifts
- Packing the kids stuff
- Folding the last run of laundry
- Wiping down the bathrooms
- Booking the shuttle to the port in Miami
- Emptying the fridge
- Taking out the garbage
- Bringing compost to the recycling
- Going through my emails
- Checking my Etsy Shop
- Preparing this blog post
- Charging everything that needs to be charged (including me...)- Making sure we have the night light, Ping Ping, chargers, passports, camera...
- Do my last day at work... Just a few more hours to go...

Well, we are ready. We ARE ready. We are READY! WE ARE READY! Not really, but we will be. I always pull it off in the end. Just got to make sure all kids are with me at 4.30 in the morning when we leave for the airport. Passports and money. Anything else can be purchased or fixed as we go I guess. Oh, I better not forget the memory card for my camera. Or the charger... Ear phones. Travel socks. Turning down the heaters, unplugging all electrics and of course, leaving the key for Madame to care for the cats. Oh, and lets not forget to breath shall we... Oh my gosh! I just remembered - What WiP shall I bring!!!??? The stress level is certainly high here...

PS The pattern for the Pine Tree Wrist Warmers will be released in January.
PS 2 I made the Christmas Greeting Card at Picmonkey.com. Great and fun free editing tool online. :)

Kärlek
Annette

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My Christmas Blog Header

Some of you have asked about my Christmas blog banner lately so I thought I would tell you a little bit about it. One of the most fun things with a blog, is that you can play around with its visual display as much as you want. When the First Of Advent arrived, I knew I wanted my blog to join in with the Christmas spirit here at home, so I started to search the net for backgrounds and illustrations to add to my header and side bars. I wanted a Scandinavian warm Christmas theme and red is of course the dominating color to use for that. After playing around with some free backgrounds, which were either too busy or too ugly (!!!), I decided to go with a simple polka dot background offered by Blogger itself and make a Christmas blog header to rule the rest. My first attempt on just swapping the pictures to seasonal ones did not work and I was delighted when I found Maje at GraphikClipArts on Etsy, as her Scandinavian styled clip arts and illustrations were just what I was looking for. I threw out the photos from my header and decorated it with some Scandinavian Christmas bulbs and snow flakes instead. And that Christmas tree is to die for!

I'm extremely pleased with the outcome and can highly recommend Etsy for any graphics you might need for your blog. And clip arts can be used for so many things part form your blog; invitation cards, adverts, gift tags, framed gifts... There are so many talented shop owners out there. Most of them take custom orders too. It is quick, easy and very simple to add to your blog. And it is not overly expensive either, saves you the headache and time to make your own.

Now Christmas is here and there and everywhere, isn't it? I'm all in! Drowning in it. High on Christmas spirit I'm packing wrapped up gifts to the kids' cousins and preparing for the big day. I so love this time of the year. Give me more, give me more, give me more!

Note: All photos from GraphikClipArts.

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE: