Are you in a mess? Me too.

What’s happenin’, duckie?

It’s Christmas! Well, nearly. We’re on the slippery slope but I’ve decided not to lose the plot this year.

Instead…

I’m systematically working through our house. So far we have one festive, almost pristine, room. The dining room. Naturally.

We painted it. White. It used to be green. Green, I tell you! Did you know a dining room should NEVER be green? It suppresses the appetite. It can even make people feel queasy. So, green be gone!

We have a Nordic/Scandi style tree this year. I call it the Narnia Tree. Which doesn’t make sense. The trees in Narnia were lush, green, needley and heavy with snow. Meh.

We have silver bells and cockle shells. And handmade cinnamon stars that smell like cinnamon every time you walk by!

But you can’t eat ’em. That would be foolish…

I have two of these handmade ceramic angels. I store them carefully in great wads of tissue paper. I adore unwrapping them every year. I dangle them from these amazing candlestick holders that are made of rusted fencing wire. The little angels are no bigger than one’s thumb.

The rest of the house is a tip. Especially my studio. Does that happen to you? If you work from home, do you find your standards slipping around this time of the year?

I’m moving out of this room soon.

I’m setting up my studio in a bigger brighter room. In January I’m interviewing Hazel Edwards (for another Quackerview). I refuse to entertain that lovely woman in my current studio.

For me, the studio  becomes a dumping ground at this time of the year. It reflects the inside of my head; old ideas, new ideas, half-finished projects, projects with looming deadlines that I’m trying to ignore (dum de dum), vision boards with new stuff hastily pasted over top the old stuff —because my vision has changed and what I want to create/manifest has changed too.

And also because nice people send me pretty cards that I want to look at while I work… See that postcard from Leonie Dawson? Love that girl. Next week, or so, I’ll blog about her influence on me.

See the couch up there on my vision board? We got it! But it won’t be here until January. Dang!

I’m about to strip the cork board, too. Preparing for next year’s pretty paraphernalia.

Today’s To Do List:

Write a Christmasy blog post. Done.

Write 500 words of Danny Best book three.

Finish writing Christmas cards.

Paint a water-colour plum pudding.

Bake gingerbread stars.

Toodles, duckie! Enjoy your preparations and remember, you’ll never get it all done, so why worry? 

Squishy festive hugs

Jen xo

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