Time to play blog catch up - a recap of what I've been up to lately

Has it really been a month since I blogged? I'm sorry folks, time has really gotten away from me this past month. I can blame it on a lot of things, like being uber busy with work (both painting and book publicity), preparing for the holidays, or one of the biggest events that sucked me dry - a holiday show that I painted several large pieces of furniture and accessories for. So let's start there - with a recap of the show...

The Holiday Extravaganza show was a huge success for me. I sold all of the furniture I took, and nearly all of the small decorative pieces as well. And more importantly, I made many contacts with people interested in custom paint work. It was so fun to see many of the friends I have made on my Twig and Twine Facebook page, as well as my son's teachers, and our neighbors. And my hubby was home! So I had his muscles to help with the heavy lifting - thank you baby!

Here's a photo of my space:

Since the show, I've done no painting. I took the remainder of December off to decorate and prepare for the holidays. We put up a couple of trees.

And crafted gingerbread houses for my son's kindergarten class.

We had out of town family come for a visit, too. Here's a first - I made a breakfast pizza. (I'll stick to painting!)

Our family celebrated the holidays a bit early this year, as hubby had to deploy before the 25th. But, it's okay, he got to see Ohio State beat Michigan, so all was good!

We also began a major basement renovation. Well, not really we...a construction company is doing all the work. But, we get to make a lot of design decisions, so that is fun. Phase 1 is complete, which included a week of major noise (poor Charlotte was hiding in the closet for most of it). They finished all the framing, HVAC, plumbing and electrical. Here's a sneak peek...

We had selected pendant lights for the bar area that turned out to be too big for the space. So, instead of returning them, we hung them over our kitchen island. I LOVE them! In fact, I think they are perfect for our kitchen (which probably means they wouldn't have been perfect for the basement bar). See, everything works out like its supposed to!

Christmas morning came and we opened Santa's gifts, which included Skylanders and a pooping reindeer for Saxon.

Charlotte enjoyed her new comfy sherpa blanket.

And hubby gave me a fabulous new I-Pad mini - perfect for the mass amounts of reading I love to do! Mother-in-law gave me gift cards to Home Goods and Pottery Barn (she knows me so well)!
With those I bought a weathered wood mirror and a lantern.

We did some traveling to see family and are now having our first evening alone, with nothing to do, in weeks. Hence, why I am sitting here, able to play blog catch-up. My lack of blogging has been eating at me. I laid in bed thinking, "I have got to get on the computer and write something!"

And speaking of writing, here's something that perhaps I shouldn't even mention, because its so far from being a reality at this point. But, it was flattering and exciting nonetheless...I was asked to consider writing a how-to project book for painting furniture! If more develops on this topic, I'll be sure to let ya know.

So, the holidays are almost over and I hope to be more regular with my blogging. And with the New Year comes resolutions for things I hope to do with the blog. Of course I want to grow my blog and Facebook audience, and to do so, I want to provide a lot more how-to. I plan to provide more tutorials for craft projects, for painting, and other decorative goodies I have in store. So, please come along into 2013 with me...and always feel welcome to leave comments, concerns, requests or questions! Happy New Year my Nester friends!