This is the pretty face that stares at me while I stare at her…and my cup of coffee.
Author: Gina @ Oaxacaborn
Gina Munsey is a Mexico-born, Eastern Europe-raised missionary kid who ended up being a Californian by way of Florida outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She lives her days full of coffee and adventures while her 12-year-old learns Mandarin Chinese and Greek, her 3-year-old uses all the markers, and her artist-husband creates worlds from pixels and light. A blogger since the turn of the century (ouch!) she's an editor, co-op teacher, and writer who has only completed four chapters of her languishing manuscript. You can find Gina right here at oaxacaborn.com, or in the middle of [home]school surrounded by stacks and stacks of books.
CHRISTMAS :: A Fun New Blog Discovered in the Blogosphere – Scandinavian Christmas
I just stumbled across a delightful gem of a blog called (no big surprises here) Scandinavian Christmas. According to the bio, it’s written by “A Swedish-Norwegian family who lives in the very north above the polar circle, and blogs about our favourite season.” It’s brand-new this year, so be sure to go back to the first post (October in the archives). I’m honestly surprised this blog isn’t more popular!
(Click on each of the photos below to see the original post).
It’s still 14 days until Christmas, so there are sure to be more great posts from this blog over the next couple weeks. You can visit the site directly, grab the Scandinavian Christmas RSS feed to add to your readers, follow Scandinavian Christmas on Bloglovin, or follow AnnaLinda’s Pinterest boards!
[Update: I’m planning a special Scandinavian Christmas series in 2012.]
CHRISTMAS :: Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop :: Christmas Decor, Scandinavian Style
I didn’t get enough white Christmas yesterday with Monday’s Pretty Things :: Scandinavian Christmas, so I thought I’d link up with the Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop (which isn’t until Thursday. I scheduled this post a day early. Oops!).
Scandinavian Christmas tree – photo by Sofi Sykfont for the Swedish magazine Lantliv
Scandinavian interior – photo by Roy Alsén, styling by Anne-Charlotte Andersson and Anna Kvarnström, for the Swedish magazine Livet På Landet
Exterior of Danish home at Christmastime – photo via the Swedish magazine Sköna Hem
Mother and son on wintery Christmas porch in Denmark – photo via the Swedish magazine Sköna Hem
Someday, I think I’d like to have a tree decorated with all white and silver ornaments, and maybe some cranberries. Ahh, dreamy. Right now, though, we have something a little more beautiful than that. ;-) Despite endless reprimands, the toddler-baby removes a rather high percentage of our Christmas tree ornaments on a daily basis, and strands of lights keep burning out. The decor theme, more and more, is looking like dark, blank patches. But when I look at Aveline’s dancing, happy eyes staring up at the tree, the tree is as perfect to me as any in a magazine shoot. Oh, I love her!
MONDAY’S PRETTY THINGS :: Scandinavian Christmas
UPDATE: Open call for guest posts for a brand-new Scandinavian Christmas blog series!
I think what I really like about this is the birch branch and the natural light from the window behind the garland. The colors in this photo made me think of Scandinavian design and Scandinavian Christmases — white, white, white with some natural elements and burst of bright color here and there.
Felt Ball Cascade Kit via the ACME Party Box Company
Frederikke Heiberg, a Danish photographer, captured Christmastime in a gorgeous seaside home in Rågeleje, Denmark. The following three photos were published in the Swedish magazine Lantliv. Aren’t they lovely?
Kjerstis Lykke, a Norwegian photographer and blogger, has a gorgeously simple and elegant home. When I see photos like this, I want to seriously clean and dejunk with a giant garbage bag in hand.
As the owner of a tree which is wholly undecorated everywhere within the baby-toddler’s reach, I loved her rationale behind the minimalistic decorating —
Fir was in place yesterday, and it is not overloaded with lots of Christmas decorations. I have boxes of boxes with pretty beads in the poor man’s silver in the freezing attic, but with a 2 year old who cruise around in your living room on his bike, so they better in the cold;)? (Poorly translated by Google Translate; alas, I do not know Norwegian.)
Off to bemoan clutter and with a renewed resolve to dejunk,
Gina
LIFE IN PHOTOS :: Eat, rinse, repeat.
Lunch is a rather messy — but joyous — occasion around these parts.
(Today she was eating oven-roasted butternut squash, carrots cooked in homemade vegetable broth, kidney beans, black beans, and organic tofu sautéed in olive oil and garlic.)
LIFE IN PHOTOS :: ♥
My favorite people. My favorite time of year. (My heart is nearly ‘sploding from the wonderfulness.)
The Many Poses of Aveline
Apparently, the wooden chair + sheepskin is my favorite backdrop for Aveline snapshots. Although, I may have created a monster. She makes all kinds of faces as soon as I pull out the camera.
This week, she started walking (watch out world!), and is also suddenly affectionate! Although she never was much of a snuggler, lately she’s been giving out dozens of hugs each day, and even pats me on the back when I pick her up. Her little cheek next to mine, and her little tiny breaths on my neck…heaven.
And she is seriously one LOUD child. She never.stops.making.noise. Proper words are few and far between — mum-mum, papa, and peesh (please) — but why bother talking when you can just shriek?
Oh, how I love this little ham!
between the way the sunlight fell to earth
between the way the sunlight fell to earth,
this afternoon, and
between the way it rose yesterday morning,
i can feel how it was to collect drops of sun
for years
the way i did
before they finally settled
into my heart, like a quiet pool of sun and shadows
of rain and things we forgot.
tonight, like the glassine pool,
the house is quiet, settled. there are no swinging
doors, no shutters to creak in the wind
— no wind, in fact
and nothing of mystery, shrouded
but there is
peace
in every corner, settled,
elevating the dust bunnies to some higher, almost celestial plane.
i am surprised how the easily the words untwist and unwind, once i
scratch
the inaugural word out of the pen.
i would have expected something
more akin to the way a rusted pump handle
is sealed to itself, stubborn underneath
the chipping paint of a spring thaw
after a dozen years of unuse.
but here, tonight, in the november stillness the letters seem to
jump into place,
seem to alit the wick, as it were,
and flow like melted wax
and burn
almost,
nearly,
like the flame in the glass bowl
across the room.
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