does our tree look funny to you?

I love putting up our Christmas tree in our new house. I love the backdrop of the mountains and the valley behind the tree. But this year, something seems a bit off. Here's a photo of our tree. Does anything look funny to you? Take a good look.

How about now?

Yep, with the exception of lights (and if you look closely, you'll probably see pulled wires hanging loosely from the branches), our tree is pretty much naked from the waist down. I tried crocheting some simple ornaments to put on the lower half of the tree so Ryan could take them off the tree, play with them, do whatever he wanted, without any danger of broken glass and cut little fingers. But do you see any on the tree? They are somewhere in the house, but have seen a lot more action as balls to throw than they have as Christmas ornaments.

And I'm pretty sure there won't be any presents under the tree this year until Santa brings them Christmas morning. Ryan has learned to say "tree" but not on cue. I'm trying to coax him into saying "tree" and then turning on the lights as soon as he says it so it seems like magic. But so far, we have a very un-magical tree.

So we have a bit of a modified Christmas this year. But with all the joy this little mischevious boy brings, it's a small price to pay!

I'm freakishly good...

Several years ago my family had this weird conversation about what we're freakishly good at. I suppose it all started with jigsaw puzzles.

For as long as I can remember, Santa gave me a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. I LOVED puzzles! And for several days between Christmas and New Years, we would work on puzzle after puzzle. In fact, the holidays just don't seem complete unless I do at least one.

And if I do say so myself, I am freakishly good at doing puzzles. Ask anyone in my family. I know what they'll say.

But here's the thing. If you could be freakishly good at something, let's say anything at all, would you choose to be freakishly good at doing puzzles?

I think not.

This led to us asking each other what we would be freakishly good at. If you could choose anything in the whole, wide world, what would you want to be freakishly good at?

I would love to be able to sing. Freakishly. As a second runner up, I would love to be able to play any and every musical instrument. Just be able to pick up a guitar and jam. Play the violin until it made my mom cry. I think you get the picture.

My sister Melissa said she'd love to be able to do spontaneous back flips. She wants to be able to walk down the street and just jump and do a back flip. I have to agree, that would be pretty amazing.
My husband thinks he's freakishly good at dancing. But really, it's just freakish.

So, as the puzzle season approaches, I ask you two questions....what are you freakishly good at and if you could be freakishly good at ANYTHING, what would it be?

I bet it's not puzzles.

a somewhat long-winded story about a simple stocking for Ryan

Two winters ago was the winter of our partial discontent. I was pregnant and sick every day. We were remodeling our home. While our home was being remodeled, we were living in the unrented rental home of my ex-boyfriend (which is another post altogether, but one I probably won't be writing anytime soon. Let's just say it was a mistake and leave it at that).

In spite of the sickness and craziness, we were happy. Really happy. Good things were on the horizon....a new house....a new baby....a new life.

I needed to decorate for Christmas, but our decorations were stored in some unknown location amongst our furniture and furnishings. So I decided to make some Christmas stockings (which would also be our sole decoration that year). I searched and searched for the perfect Christmas stocking to make for our family. There were so many to choose from! In the end, I passed up the lace, the embroidery, the quilted, and the adorned and chose a simple, felt stocking with a single initial appliqued on the front.

In the midst of all the chaos, I not only needed to, but wanted to simplify my life. I made three stockings - one with a "t" for Tony, one with an "n" for Natalie and one with an "a" for Abby.

Last year, I exhibited my tremendous mothering skills and figured my five-month old Ryan wouldn't know whether he had a stocking or not, so we still had our three simple, felt stockings.

THIS year, I was determined to include Ryan in our Christmas Stocking Festivities, even though I'm pretty sure he still won't remember whether or not he had one this year. I thought about making new stockings. Maybe velvet with our names embroidered along the cuff? But when I pulled out our simple, felt stockings, I still loved the simplicity.

So, out came the felt and before long, Ryan had his own Christmas stocking with his appliqued "r" on the front (don't look too closely, I'm no seamstress!).

One of the fun things about these stockings, is making words with the letters. Last year, I arranged them in the words ANT, TAN and my favorite: NAT. This year, I was adding the letter "r" to the game.

I thought and thought about all the words I could create and in the end, decided that I would go the boring route and hang them in order of our age....which seems to fit our family culture just fine.

be good to yourself

A couple of months ago my sister Janelle emailed me and asked if I wanted to buy a groupon thing for a personal trainer - $50 for 16 sessions! We wondered how good the trainer would be at that price, but we decided to go for it.

We started at the beginning of November when my traveling slowed down and can I just say, I can now do 100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups (yes, girl push-ups, if you must know). But if you happen to see me on a Tuesday or a Friday and wonder why I'm moving so slowly, well, it's because I just did 100 sit-ups and 100 push-ups.

Our trainer is actually one of the better trainers I've worked with (and I've worked with quite a few). It's group training which is something new, but Janelle and I are able to go together. It's always good to have someone to make fun of when you're working out.

One of the things our trainer always tells us is "be good to yourself."

At first, I wondered how and when. I thought of cookies and ice cream and warm bubble baths. But after several weeks, I've come to the conclusion that simply taking a few minutes for myself is all I need (and, honestly, about all I can manage these days).

I tried to take a couple of days off work this week and while I was pretty unsuccessful, I did have a few hours to work on a project that I've been putting off for a very long time. It felt good. I still have long list of incomplete projects, but one is done. If I get really ambitious, I'm going to finish the baby blanket I was going to make before Ryan was born.

So, my message to myself and to anyone who happens to read this is, "be good to yourself."

Personally, I plan to take as much time off as possible this month - which probably won't be much, but it will be something. And I plan on continuing to work out with Angie Idle (isn't that a great name for a trainer...idle!). Who knows, maybe in a month I'll be doing 200 sit-ups and push-ups. And yes, they'll probably still be girl push-ups. It's what I do.

Happy Belated Birthday Mr Brown

Last October marked the first birthday of our new company, Mr Brown. It's been quite a ride, starting with the company launch just a few months after Ryan's pre-mature birth. THAT was fun. Working 100 hour weeks with a newborn is something I wouldn't mind not repeating.

It's a fun collection. This is one of my favorite chairs (I would change the upholstery on it), but don't you LOVE that wrap-around arm?!

Looking at the pictures is a bit overwhelming with stuff (yes, stuff!) everywhere you look. Thee line has also done amazingly well. We have customers telling us all the time that it's inspiring. See, in the high(ish) side of the furniture world, there was a "look" that was taking over the industry. That look was introduced by a company called Bobo's Intriguing Objects and was soon seen just about every where you turned in a furniture tradeshow. Which, as you know, makes something not as special. That look can now be seen at Restoration Hardware.

Enter Mr Brown. And if I do say so myself, it looks marvelous!

High Point Furniture Market

To keep with my tradition of blogging about a month or so after events take place, here are some photos from our Julian Chichester showroom at the October Furniture Market in High Point. My favorite new piece of the show is below - the Jane Churchill Curved Desk in Black Vellum. LOVED this!

This was a long trip - I was there for about 10 days - a very long time to be away from Ryan! This time though, Tony came out for the weekend. I loved having him there. Between the two companies, I was often busy, but I didn't have to worry about entertaining Tony at all. In fact, I would often walk into the showroom and find him talking to a customer! Tony was also able to meet Mr. Julian himself which is always delightful.

The show ended up being a big success. We had a great response from the press and customers alike. It was a LOT of work - I often put in 15-20 hours days. Not much sleep either. It's a good thing I LOVE my job!

Halloween before Thanksgiving

Just after Halloween, I saw hundreds (or so it seemed) of Halloween photos of all my friends' kids on Facebook. It was fun seeing all the cute and clever costumes. And the kids...so adorable! I wanted to squeeze everyone of them!

And as I looked at picture after picture, I mentally made a goal (I thought facetiously) to post Ryan's Halloween pictures SOMETIME before Thanksgiving.

Well, here we are. Thanksgiving Eve.

So to reach my lofty goal....may I present Ryan: our little panda bear:

Last Halloween, I waited until a week before to go buy his costume and found out that that was entirely too late. We ended up being a banana. But he was a cute banana!

This time, I was determined to buy a costume early. I shopped online and found a great deal on a cute little panda costume back in September. September! That has to be some kind of record for me.

But when it arrived, it didn't look anything like the cute little panda I saw on-line. You can't see the eyes (which, believe me, is a very good thing), but they are scary. I thought about returning it, but knew I wouldn't find the time so I decided to make a note for Ryan to wear that said "my mom thought this was cute on the internet".

When Halloween finally came around, I abondoned the note idea. By that time I was used to the idea that my little boy would be a darling little panda with buggy eyes.

So with that, Happy Thanksgiving from our buggy-eyed, cute little panda bear!