Great Christmasy Gifts

These are a couple of my favorite Christmasy things in the whole world. Take a look at the Pouty Girl (who almost looks like my evil twin) made by my incredibly talented, wonderful friend Rachael Thomas.

I can't believe all the work Rach put into this - those are french knots on the lime green background and some kind of embroidery stitch for the hair - very textural. I don't know what happened between last year and this to the two bottom Christmas tree light embellishments. Don't remember the bulbs falling off and I can't find them anywhere. I hope the cats didn't eat them. At least they'll be easy enough to replace someday.

And look at this incredible Santa face jug my friend Siobhan gave me. Face jugs are a Georgia/So Carolina area folk art and the ones I've seen are usually glazed instead of painted like this.

Isn't he the greatest? What's extra special about him is that he was the only one available and Sio gave him to me anyway, instead of keeping him even tho she really liked him too. She's also the greatest.

I've been continuing work on gift bags. I know, I know, one of these days I'll get bored and quit, but right now I'm still having fun. I started re-re-rewatching the BBC miniseries of "Pride and Prejudice," one of my favorites. If I had it available, Jane Austen is definitely an author I'd love to hear narrated on a Books on CD (like lucky Bonnie gets). While I love Austen's books, they're a bit too tedious for me to read thru if I can't do something else. I was thrilled tho to see an Austen manuscript at the British Library tho (much more interesting than that old Magna Carta or the Shakespeare).