Cute right? So cute! I love stripes, I love bows, I love tiny!  Together you have the new striped motif stamp!  Too many exclamation points? Okay, I will try to dial it down this Monday morn, but I am excited.  I have to admit this holiday creep that happened the day after Halloween has thrown me a bit. Why did I not notice that people are getting ready for holiday so soon?  I am usually either hyper aware or totally oblivious, it’s how I live my life, the holiday creep must of been one of my oblivious moments, but back to the stamp…I think it will be something that will be useful way past Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza, etc. It’s just a good little stamp to have. It’s especially cute printed in red, very festive!  Of course, I shall be giving one away because Mondays are always better when  a prize is involved, right?  Just re-pin this here, or Tweet it, or leave me a delightful comment, I am open to however you would like to enter to win.  I will announce the winner next Monday. If you can’t wait, you can always pick one up here.

How is your shopping coming along? Are you like everyone else and have started your shopping in July for holiday?  Or are you waiting until after Thanksgiving and will succumb to the holiday heat?  I’m not a last minute shopper, I actually think about gifts all year round (if you haven’t gathered yet, I am a bit obsessive, so no surprise that I have been thinking about something for 12 months straight).  This will be the first year though that I prepared so thoroughly personally. I was assuming professionally I wouldn’t have to bring out the goods until the day after Thanksgiving, but I have quickly learned otherwise–noted.

And I must announce the winner of last weeks giveaway the Stag silhouette  + tiny snowflake, I couldn’t choose just one so I chose–Paulina Bäfverfeldt and Georgina Gill (because flattery gets you everywhere with me). I do hope it makes the winners less anxious to know they can make holiday goods (cards, tags, ornaments, etc.) on the fly!  Good luck to everyone on today’s giveaway and thank you all as always for playing, it delights me to no end to be able to see what you will create with the prizes.  Oh, yes, and of course this giveaway is open world wide!

Am I the only one marveling that holiday is here, right now, this very sec?!  Per usual I feel a little behind, thankfully everyone else in the world has been preparing and thus all is right in the world. I have been supremely fortunate to be featured in a couple gift guides this season, In Honor of Design has a Gift Guide-cum-magazine and the little ol’ faux wax seal initial is featured. I actually have a cool d.i.y. coming out with this stamp next week, perfect timing! The price featured is off by oh, $31 dollars but to make up for that ‘gah’ inspired detail there is a nice discount code beside the feature, yea!  I was asked a few months ago by the super talented Hope Wallace of Paper Relics to shoot a holiday card d.i.y. spread for Heather Bullard’s Souvenir Magazine. Ask Hope, my husband and any of my friends, I was a total + complete wreck because I wanted it to be just perfect. I probably will never be asked back because I was so neurotic, so I urge you to buy the publication (it’s an on-line beauty with a print edition option) and revel in my maybe last editorial masterpiece. There is of course so much more to the holiday issue than my bitty contribution so it’s well worth a peek. To top off all this holiday reverie I visited Creature Comforts last night to see that I was featured on one of Ez’s awesome of awesome-est Gift Guide’s (the one for ‘Her’). Be still my beating heart!  If you aren’t following these guides, please go and visit, you won’t be sorry. Not only does Ez have an amazing eye, but she chooses a lot of easy on the budget items like Susy Jack’s amazing Recipe cards + box, just brill!  I feel so lucky to be included, I am usually like Rudolph and never get to join in any Reindeer games, but look at me now!

I love, love, love listening to podcasts while I work. I have tried to listen to audiobooks, but for some reason it isn’t as pleasurable and of course there’s cost factor, I would go through a couple books a day with the hours I log in the studio.  I am always interested in suggestions for new ones because I can go through a whole series in a week and then I am stuck listening to my thoughts, not as much fun at the moment as a podcast. When I saw a recommendation from Itunes for ‘The Dinner Party-the all- book’ episode I thought it sounded intriguing enough, I love books and have been known to partake of the party.  I was hooked show one. It has a really nice pace, almost course like, it starts with an ‘ice breaker’ a silly joke usually told by a luminary, a quick wrap up of the weeks news, an interview with a journalist from an indie publication that will inform you of ‘news you haven’t heard’. There’s a bit of history thrown in to coincide with the week the show is being aired (the idea being things you can discuss at your next dinner party), a cocktail created from this historical trivia, a guest of honor and my favorite ‘your etiquette questions answered’.  Listener’s write in with their etiquette questions and either Emily Post’s great, great grandchildren answer, or someone like Henry Rollins does, either way it’s enjoyable. The hosts end the podcast by asking an indie band to choose their dinner party music. It’s all very entertaining and informative. I listened to almost 200 episodes in a row.  There is one odd thing, there seems to be a lot of repetition of guests from previous episodes, not that they come back, but the same interviews. I don’t know if it’s how they edit but it makes me feel like I am going bonkers (and anyone that listens to a podcast for nearly 48 hours straight must be). I still think it’s well worth a listen, you can find it here. I hope you enjoy!

…And the winners of the tiny hand-lettered ‘to’. are Vanessa Correa, Chiara, Tanya M.  Please email me with your shipping address so I can get you your stamp in time for your holiday gifting:) Thank you everyone for playing!

Hello, and good Monday to you!  I am not here, I am being swept away by my husband to the Appalachian mountains, have any of you seen Deliverance?  If you haven’t do, but don’t, it’s seriously intense and disturbing. I will wax poetic another time about Jon Voight who stars in it (one of my top 3 favorite actors), but today on this fine Monday morn I think I should be giving away a set of the new stamps, no? I am adding an awesome stag silo, we have a ton here where I am currently living, so I felt duly inspired. For the record, they are much bigger in person than they seem in the media, the same can not be said about the Kardashian’s.  I met them last year (the Kardashians not the stags) and the tiniest one is absolutely miniscule and the one everyone thinks is ‘large’ is totally perfect; I digress.  I also have a snowflake in  the shop  I have a seriously cute striped bow that I haven’t had a chance to shoot for the shop (did I not mention I have been whisked away?).  I am kind of crazy for it, I did take a shot with my Iphone here. I have much more to shoot, I have some new wood box sets, and some super easy but chic d.i.y’s. Can someone please let me know how holiday came so fast?

If you would like to win both the stag and the snowflake together and start on your holiday cards + gift tags, then I shall choose one winner on Friday (time is of the essence, you need to get ready for holiday gifting and what not).  All you need to do is re-pin this or leave a comment below, I am easy, whatever you are up for.  Btw, I so want to see how crafty you get if you win, k?

Tomorrow I have a new podcast addiction that I think you will love being introduced to! There’s maybe 173 episodes and I may have listened to them all in one day, maybe. I will also announce the winners for the ‘to’. stamp, thank you to everyone that played!