Happy Christmas everyone

(it came so fast this year, let's make it count!)

I'm assuming we won't be having a white Christmas here, but my morning walk in the snow last week made me wish for it even more. The snowflakes were the size of my hands and stuck to my face. It was a quiet moment, outside and in. 

Just this

Lately I've been complaining of my dark walks and how little fun they were for me. I felt like I was missing out on what is there, right next to me. For a while I would just walk Ducky as quickly as possible, just so I could get home and out of the drizzle and cold. Then I started to look around again. Instead of seeing the flowers, porches, yards; I saw coziness, cheer, happiness of the people inside. I've looked at these houses for months, not realizing that they were homes.
(It made me want to make my little apartment feel more like a home than ever, perhaps able to spread some happiness and warmth to someone else.)

Each minute bursts in the burning room,

The great globe reels in the solar fire,

Spinning the trivial and unique away.

(How all things flash! How all things flare!)

What am I now that I was then?

May memory restore again and again

The smallest color of the smallest day:

Time is the school in which we learn,

Time is the fire in which we burn. 

Delmore Schwartz

(I read this book, which led me to this poem, which reminded me to appreciate.
Appreciate my loved ones, the beauties around me, and myself, right at this moment, how we all are.)

Who knew cutting paper for hours could lead somewhere?

Time is somehow escaping me. It is ever so much more noticeable around this time of year, the end of another year. I've been looking back, not to the things that I think I should change, but to the best of memories. Not all of them are happy and great, some taught hard lessons, which make them great. And some of the memories are blurry, but the overall feeling is still in my mind. And some of them are just filled with so much love, that's all that really mattered.

I've been quite busy lately with my life lately, but I've been able to work in some down time to knit

 (a little for me, a little for some others). 

There's something about this early darkness that makes me need some extra coziness. 

It may not be snowing in Portland yet (or ever), but it is in my apartment. 

And this and this is on repeat, already......

I feel like I've been really fortunate with the amount of work I've been able to do with my internship. They have been amazingly inclusive, and I've learned so much about the process of creating with others. I designed these Christmas party invitations for them. 

(Mad Men theme at a horse race track, Ohmy!) 

And I created the cover art for their holiday magazine. 

I can't wait to see what comes next!

Green and orange seem to be the theme this Thanksgiving(and I'm thankful for that and much, much more)

Hidden gems of my neighborhood, there's always something new to discover.