Happy Birthday Bill!

Today is my brother's birthday.  It is a "milestone" birthday so I thought I'd embarrass him a little by writing about him on my blog.  He will always be my "baby brother" and I sometimes feel older when I hear his age than when I think about my own age!

Since he was born the day before Christmas, I was a little confused when my mother came home from the hospital with this amazing doll that actually moved and made noises.  I had received a few dolls for Christmas but I wasn't allowed to play with the new doll very much.  I have two older sisters so he was the first boy in the family and I was a little jealous that he got new clothes and toys while I had a lot of "hand-me-downs" from my sisters.

Bill is an incredibly talented artist - the image at the top of this post is a pencil drawing he made years ago of an old photograph of the two of us.  He looks a little grumpy, but I was very proud to be allowed to hold him while the photo was taken.  He painted my college graduation portrait and he has done some book illustrations, but he does most of his work in stained glass these days.

We don't get to see each other very often since he lives in the Minneapolis and he and his partner have a store in St.Paul which keeps them pretty busy.  I have written about the shop, Century Studios, a few times.  If you live in that part of the country and like stained glass and Arts and Crafts style I am sure you would enjoy a visit to the store.  Bill and Irwin are on vacation until the New Year but will be open again for regular business on January 4th.

 

Bill is also a collector of all things to do with the Wizard of Oz and has a blog called The Oz Enthusiast where he shares his collections.

This is a window that Bill designed based on the Oz Parade mural John R. Neill painted for Marie Lufkin. You can read all about it starting at THIS POST on his blog.

Happy Birthday Bill - and many more!

I also have a little gift for my blog readers.  Lettering Delights is now offering SVG files (scalable vector graphics) and for those of you who work with this type of file here is a LINK that will automatically download a zip file with the Nordic Christmas set of images you can see above.

You can click this image to go to the Lettering Delights site and see more of the items they offer.  There are quite a few SVG sets and there are two more freebies, Merriment and Merriment Alpha that are available until the end of the month.  You can also save 30% on a $15 purchase with the code "Holiday Delight."

We are doing all of the usual Christmas Eve activities and putting out the luminaries along our street.  It is always a beautiful sight - if you were not reading my blog last year you can see more about  our tradition HERE.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

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Lovely Luminaries

Christmas Eve - a very special time.  In our neighborhood we have a tradition  of lighting luminaries along the entire street on Christmas Eve.  It has become quite an attraction and many people drive through on their way to or from evening church services.  The candles we use stay lit from about 4:30 p.m. (dusk) until the wee hours of the morning (one year I finshed wrapping after 2 a.m. and they were still going strong).

The first step is the folding of the bags.  I am very particular about this - the tops must be folded under twice and creased to stay away from the candles.  I sat in this rocking chair and folded 70 bags this afternoon (if only the Cricut could do that for me!).

Next, my husband adds a couple of scoops of sand and the candle to the bag.  We were lucky this year - the weather is cold but no rain and not windy - perfect conditions for the luminaries.  If it rains too hard we have to move the date and it just isn't the same....

Then the bags are carried out to the street and spaced as evenly as possible by our sons.  We usually do them for our neighbors across the street since they go away at Christmas but don't want there to be a "gap" in the coverage.

The snow takes care of any unintentional mini-bonfires - fortunately that doesn't happen very often (usually only if it is windy).

Here is the view down the street - I had to wait for a chance to take a photo when no cars were driving through.  The effect is really magical and it is fun to have a few minutes to catch up with neighbors as we all get our luminaries set up and then wander along the street enjoying the lights and the candles.

We'll be off to the late church service soon.  One more tradition that has to happen on Christmas Eve is the opening of the handmade ornaments from Grandma Felicia.  She has been making dated ornaments for all of the grandchildren and great nieces and nephews for many years now and each of our sons has a nice collection of special ornaments.

I hope you all are having a relaxing and cozy time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!