What are you doing New Year's Eve?

I'm not someone who's totally in love with everything Zooey D. does, but this little diddy with Joseph Gordon Levitt is both sweet and holiday-appropriate. I've always loved this song, anyway. Also, her voice sounds really good here. And JGL isn't that bad of a crooner, either.

Joy.

I wish all of you, wherever you are in this great big world and whatever you may celebrate, the very happiest of holidays. Time with family, good friends, good food and drink, laughter and smiles. Peace and happiness in the New Year. Thank you all for visiting my little blog and leaving comments... I hope you will continue to stop by throughout the year to come; I promise to make it worth your while!

Photo: Jennifer Zinn

Crafty Holidays.

I love this sweet video holiday card from Chronicle Books!



I've been very neglectful of my little blog lately... No excuses other than sheer laziness when I'm home from work. With the promise of a full week off (with pay!) between Christmas and New Year's, I've been making a "to do" list that includes not only some housecleaning/de-cluttering, major laundry doing, and a visit to the local DMV to renew my little Civic's registration, but also catching up with friends I haven't seen in ages, finally seeing the Muppet movie, finishing up some of the many craft projects I've begun but never yet completed, actually listing new items in my Etsy shop (instead of only continually writing here that I'm going to do it), and doing a bunch of new posts here that I've had in mind for months or longer. Whew! That's quite a list, considering when I first learned about this little break I imagined myself doing absolutely nothing except lying around watching DVDs and reading magazines.

Cool collab.

This is very exciting news to me (and, I'm sure many, many others out there)... I've never did the waiting-on-line-to-grab-whatever-I-can-by-(insert designer's name here)-whether-I-really-want-it-or-not-because-it's-all-going-to-sell-out-in-under-one-hour thing, but that may have to change come March. Fingers crossed that the designs and quality will be worth the wait. And I really, really hope there's some great necklaces such as Consuelo Castiglioni is known for.

Collared.

Collars: a big trend lately. Peter Pan. Pointed. Scalloped. Cloth. Metal. Plastic. Bought or DIYed to wear over your own dresses and tops. I haven't jumped into this fashion yet... As much as I love them, I don't know if this is one fad that I'm too old to partake in. That is, until I saw this fabulous design. I really, REALLY want to add it to my wardrobe. ASAP.

photo from YOUNG FRANKK's Etsy shop.

Shock to the system.

I've been AWOL again for the past few weeks... Between work, and my friend's husband's 50th birthday/son's 1st birthday party (yeah, you heard right), and a five-day trip to the San Francisco Peninsula for my sister's wedding (woohoo! The best I've been to!), and back to work, I've not had much time for my little blog. And if I've had time, I haven't had the energy to compose anything coherent (see, I'm rambling right here, even when I'm not that tired).

As for my post title, we're now experiencing a bad storm here in the Northeast... strong winds, heavy rain, sleet, wet snow... It's a terrible shock to my system after the lovely warm and sunny weather in California. The day of the wedding in San Gregorio it was in the lower 80s, and the rest of our stay in Half Moon Bay the temps were in the upper 60s/lower 70s. I've just started sorting through the hundreds--yes, HUNDREDS--of photos I shot on the trip... I do believe I got some images worth sharing here, but until I get them edited down quite a bit, I'll just leave you with a small preview...

My very talented father, hand-lettering the chalkboard that would sit at the entrance to the wedding venue...

My beautiful sister, waiting to see her super-wonderful groom...

The breathtaking sunset on the beach our last night in Half Moon Bay...

My photos, along with my memories, will help keep me California warm during this destined-to-be nasty New York winter!

Connected.

I finally managed to get a cord for my new camera (a ridiculous saga not worth recounting here), so now I can download my photos onto my computer. I've been playing around with some product shots of my jewelry, enjoying the freedom of a faster camera that allows me to shoot much crisper handheld images. It's also nice to have control over depth-of-field/selective focus again.