I feel fine

It is the last week of 2011. Hard to believe.

And R.E.M.'s song is on re-play in my head.

via
(interesting side note... my father's initials were REM)

I am curious to see what is to come in 2012. Not just personally, but generally as well.

Christmas mail call

I love the holidays due to how busy my mailbox becomes with season's greetings! 

I love the vintage feel of this fantastic postcard sent from Kitty

 Somebunny knows my nickname is bunny and goes out of her way to pick bunny themed things to send my way! Oh she know me well. Thank you my darling dear Micaela! 

Santa cheer from my new love, Kary.

From Chantelle in the UK:

And Chantelle included this beautiful ornament:

Thank you Chantelle!!! 

I love being a therapist with therapist friends. This cracks me up:

I also love being an artist with artistic friends. Some fabulous art mail arrived for the holidays:

From another art therapist, friend, and peer:

From the talented and always encouraging Kelly

From the ever inspiring and always thoughtful Janet:

 Janet sent me a random little package out of no where before the holiday season hit. 

Why?

Because I had mentioned that my childhood nursery was Peter Rabbit themed and that I saved onto all of it for my child's nursery. How thoughtful and touching is that? And the best part is that it arrived after a 14 hour work day of having a client scream profanities at me. Ahhh... to know someone out there has a kind heart after a day like that... divine! 

To one of my dearest friends who just celebrated her birthday and is about to celebrate her wedding:

And my Christmas card.
I'm sharing my letter with you all:

Happy Holidays!

I love this time of year because it is a time I get to hear from all of you and we can take a moment out of our busy lives to catch up and share all the joy of the past year.

Hubby has continued to work for IBM and go to school to study forensic computer-y stuff... maybe its computer forensics. Yes, that sound right, but I still can't tell you any more about it. I do know that Hubby and I both share a passion for TV shows about crime and in particular, serial killers. It is very romantic stuff.

This year, Hubby has really started to enjoy mountain biking. He even has padded shorts; it is serious business. This leaves me teasing him until I'm literally eating his dust as he goes past me. There was one day that I was determined to beat him... it didn't happen; I obviously blamed it on not having padded shorts, obviously.

I *finally* graduated with my masters in Transpersonal Counseling and Art Therapy (I swear it isn't the same as underwater basket weaving) and went out into the "real world". I am working as a multisystemic therapist, which is a type of in-home family therapist for families that have a teenager labeled either "at-risk" or as a youth sex offender. It is intense work but also has a lot of perks, like:
* I am reminded daily what a great family I have. It would be unprofessional to say "nanny nanny boo boo, my family is better than yours" but sometimes I think it.
* my children (no, we don't have kids yet) won't get away with anything. I now know all the tricks in the book (I really hope future holiday letters don't make me eat my words due to having raised delinquent children.)
* it also gives me proof that I was a good kid albeit blue hair, tattoos, and loud music
* it has a pay check! It is a huge raise from making a whole $0.00 as an intern. Awesome, because student loans are due. I thought about going straight through for my Ph.D. to avoid having to pay those back just yet, but then my brain threatened to self destruct.

During the summers I continue to work as an art therapist at the Colorado Heritage Camps for adoptive families. It is a job I *LOVE* and have no snarky comments for. I ionly wish I could figure out how to make it a full-time all-year position.

This summer we took our first vacation together since moving to Colorado. We went to Maine and Massachusetts and spent our third wedding anniversary in Chatham, Cape Cod, the town we were married in! It was a delightful get away. We also had a lot of family visit Colorado this year. It was so much fun to see everyone. Speaking of family... we are expecting our 13th niece or nephew in 2012 from Hubby's brother. Even though it is our 13th, it is the first baby on Hubby's side of the family! We love being aunt and uncle - so we are pretty excited!

All in all, life is good!

I look forward to hearing all the joy you've had in your year!

May your blessing abound in the year to come,

xoxo Bunny.

Sleep Shopping.

I can't sleep. So instead I'm screen shopping playing make pretend I have money and can buy myself these items for Christmas.





From  Beautiful Details by the Sea Shore 



From Kelly's Art Journaling 


I would kill for this hat and glove set. SO freaking cute! From Stylish Knitting


since the bunny is my spirit animal after all... From Sandra n Dan



Mojo Spa is divine. The infinity scarf I love reminds me of a rebel woman in a bomber. Totally 1920s love.  And the bow! oh the bow. Coco would be proud.

Down time in-between a family session and a court date.

A quick walk around Fort Collins, Colorado

Thanks Karina

Not only was my marvelous ornament package wonderful...
it made me feel wonderful too.

As part of it, Karina gave me the coolest peacock feather earrings.

I wore them to work yesterday. It was a long crazy day. And one without caffeine. Bad idea.

Despite the craziness I kept getting compliments on my fantastic earrings along the way.

So when I finally got home late at night, I had to say thank you for giving me something that made my day survivable.

 Thanks Karina!

See!

 (I'm such a dork)

Feeling fabulous and sassy

Paint Party Friday: Oh Christmas Tree

Easy peasy pallet christmas tree

if you are cheap like me and refuse to put a pretty pennie to buying a christmas tree

this is a fun, easy, and FREE way to be festive.

Step 1. Score yourself a pallet.

Step 2. Pull it apart.

Step 3. Paint those bad boys

Step 4. Cut them in decreasing lengths for a tree-ish shape

Step 5. Nail it all back together. Only really needs on nail per limb.

 Step 6. Sand it down

Step 7. Display and decorate. 

Step 8. Eat lots of cookies and have some spiked egg nog.

PS. step 8 is the most important. if you have not done this, you have not properly made your christmas tree. 

Ornament Swap with Karina

Sweet Micaela hosted her annual ornament swap and this year I had enough pennies to participate!! 

I was SO SO excited when I was paired up with Karina from C'est La Vie 

Karina SPOILED me! Her thoughtful carepackage put mine to shame. 

So this girl knows how to pick accessories! I'm in love with the earrings. Peacock feathers are obviously a winner in my book. And those teal ones!! ooo divine. (PS Karina, the little polka dot feathers are another favorite of mine)

That flower, is a ring! I am so excited to wear it.

Plus some lip smacking good chapstick in berry flavor! 

And cookies! 
fancy ones at that

Karina's son, Miguelito, picked this little guy out for me.
HOW FREAKING CUTE!!!
He might have to stay out all year.

 And then Karina picked this little flapper peguin because she knows I love the 1920s. 
Plus it has teal glitter and feathers! 

You'd think she had known me for years. She did good!!!

To send Karina something I knew she would like (or at least I really really hope she liked), I had asked her some interview questions. From those, I learned her favorite colors are red and silver. 

I also loved her answer to my question to be glittered or not to be glittered. 

"We all need sparkle in our life! :)" 

How sweet is that? 

My guess is that her son is that sparkle. 

And when I asked if she had a favorite animal, shape or symbol... her response was absolutely touching. Here, I'll share. 

"In Mexico it is believed that when someone passes away they

turn into butterflies. The morning before my grandfather passed away (he passed away during the night) I got an urge to get my first tattoo, I went and got one of of nowhere, it was a blue butterfly and it rest on my chest to the right side of my heart. I always look at my butterfly tattoo and think of my abuelito."

This little ornament idea came from Design Sponge  

The only thing I did different was use invisible fishing wire to hang the butterfly so it was flying.

And then, just in case my homemade ornaments turned out to be disasters, I bought this one for her love of cupcakes:

and just because I've been on a banner kick...