Merry Christmas & Festival of Trees

Perfect Repost

Last year at that time, I asked for entries for a little blogland festival of trees. I thought it would be a nice post to repeat this year on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas to all of you.  I'm taking a few down days away from the desk. Sometimes it's necessary to step away from the keyboard, so I'm going to do my best on that front and just enjoy the holidays.  I hope you all enjoy yours as well.

And now...........festival of trees (is yours in there?).

No Power

Hi Guys. So sorry to have missed posting Festival of Trees on Friday. It got quite windy here and we lost power.  Sometimes the best laid plans.............well, they go a little astray.

First things first. There is a WINNER for the Mercantile Muse Giveaway. If you're name is Salina Martin, your entry (#3595) was randomly chosen by Rafflecopter!!! Congratulations. I'll be sending you an email. All you have to do is confirm how you are following Mercantile Muse and reply to my email with your mailing info, which in turn I'll share with my sponsors and you'll have lots of goodies coming your way. Woohooo!!!! How's that for a big Christmas present?

Onto the Innaugural Festival of Trees. I know there were some of you who wanted to participate, but the busy holidays made it difficult. I idea came to me late, so next year I promise to start gathering your tree pictures a little earlier.

Despite my tardiness in launching the festival of trees idea, I think the entries are quite charming.

Enjoy.

{our great nephew....grand nephew Cayden...whichever is right....was so excited about decorating Grammie's tree, he didn't have time to put his pants on! Remember that feeling?}

Busy day today finishing up all I have to do before we head to my sister Gloria's house for Christmas Eve with the whole family.

Tomorrow we'll spend a good amount of time on the phone and skype with our Dublin family. Of course, not until we toast the birthday boy and open our presents and stockings from Santa.  Christmas is all about the comfort of home and the people we hold dear.

I do hope you have a lovely Christmas. I'll see you on the flip side.

Peace,

What I Found & Overheard at The Party

via the telegraph

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That and a Moose 

Last week's Gotta Have It/Gotta Blog It Link Up Party was a blast. In fact, so much fun, it's still going on (feel free to link up if you have a shop or blog!).  It's a way to highlight small shop owners and bloggers and let you discover new artisans, crafters and blogs that you enjoy.

The things I find in the couch cushions afterwards, are always fantastic. And no I'm not talking loose change here people. I'm talking great stuff that people put their hearts and souls into- how cool is that?

Here's my picks from the current party.

1. Love the cow bell via old susan williams. It's got such great character.
2. The headboard tuned entry console via all things luci rae, makes me go 'hey, why didn't I think of that'!

3. I thoroughly enjoyed Chelsea's sketchbook and notes on her recent trip to Italy via sketchy notions. Oh to be back in Rome standing in the Colleseum saying 'Can you believe we're standing in the Colleseum?"
4. How could I not choose this printable wedding art via Signs of Faith2.......it features one of the readings from our own wedding. 

5. Oh my...the sweetest little fawn photograph via finding focus
6. Pretty sterling silver handmade spiral pendant via nisan
7. A perfect little milkglass compote dish via ratty daddy dinkums
8. Perfect for a log cabin.......moose clock via shellyka

Great stuff gang, thanks so much for linking up! Did you find favorites at the party? I'd love to know what caught your eye.

Since Shelly (one of my etsy teammates) who made the moose clock lives in Israel, I'm thinking she may never have seen a moose. If she hasn't, she did pretty darn good on the perspective on the moose and its size. If you have never seen a moose, let's put it this way...no matter how big you think they are, they're bigger. They're huge.  They're jaw dropping to your chin, mouth wide open in disbelief ENORMOUS.

I found a couple of pictures to give you non-moose seers a better idea of just how big they are.

Sure, this one looks big, but this moose is sitting down which doesn't give you the whole picture.

via The Telegraph

Remember, this guy is on a deck.

via active rain

Now, if you want a REALLY good idea of how big a moose is, you MUST watch this video. They are ridiculous. I may have said this before, but this is exactly why we have 'brake for moose- it saves lives' signs in the North country of New Hampshire. There's lots of moose and they're big. Bigger than your car.  If you hit one, you are not going to win.

Festival of Trees

I have a couple of entries for this Friday's festival of trees, but a couple of trees does not a festival make. PLEASE send me some your Christmas tree pics so this can truly be a festival! Be part of starting a holiday tradition on Mercantile Muse. Forward pictures or links to blogs posts about your trees, send them to me at pbates (at) speakeasyinfo (dot) net by Thursday afternoon.  And spread the word-- Let's make this a real festival of trees!

Have a great day.

Ciao for now,

PS- I keep forgetting to tell you guys, I only put word capture on for comments because I started to get a ton of spam. I'll try taking it off again and see if that's detered the spam-bots long enough. Thanks for your patience in posting screen captures....personally, the bug the heck out of me.



A Festival Of Trees

Join In!

Since we totally missed the Festival of Trees in Exeter when we attended holiday open house (you can read about it here), I thought....."Well, why not host my own little festival of trees."  Brilliant!

So here's the scoop. If you blogged about your tree this year, send me a picture and a link to you post. If you're not a blogger but have a picture of your tree you'd like to share....send it to me so I can include it in Mercantile Muse's Innaugural Festival Of Trees. The festival will take place next Friday, December 21st. If you want to particpate, please send me your tree picture by the end of the day Wednesday.  

Oh this is gonna be good........I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! 

Here's ours from last year..............

I can't wait to see yours!

A virtual Festival of Trees that we will all get to enjoy. Now, remember, it won't be a 'festival' if you guys don't send me your pictures. Come on, it will be fun!

I'm so glad it's Friday. It's been a very busy week work wise and I've been juggling that with shipping a lot of prints. They've been going out all over the place including Vancouver, New York, New Jersy and the United Kindom. I love that. 

I am looking forward to enjoying the weekend, even though there is much to do around here. No big plans. Maybe a little grilling tonight and there is always the possibility of YouTube dancing and singing, as you well know. Tomorrow....no plans, no parties......we're just going to wing it.  What about you, any big plans or parties to go this weekend? What are you going to be doing?

Freeform Friday

In the Spirit of Christmas, here's a perfectly beautiful song for you. There's something about a boys' choir.  We watched The Bishop's Wife last night. It's my favorite Christmas movie. I admit it, I'm quite partial to Cary Grant. There will be more classics this weekend, for sure. Enjoy. If you're reading via email, click here.

Have a great Friday. It's sunny but crispy here today and there may be some snow on the way this weekend. Finally. I'm always hoping for a white Christmas.

Ciao for now,

PS- have you entered the December Giveaway yet? It's for $200+ in handmade prizes. That's right, more than $200 in prizes will go to one lucky person.  But it can't be you, unless you enter. There is no time like the present.