linenandlavender.blogspot.com

This is our archive — full of timeless inspiration to enjoy anytime. For what we are up to now, visit us at www.linenlavenderlife.com


Showing posts with label holiday season. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday season. Show all posts

What we're up to this holiday season...

l&l at home - outdoor dining and lounge  -  December - image by lb for linenandlavender.blogspot.com - http://www.linenandlavender.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-were-up-to-this-holiday-season.html

This serene setting is an outdoor dining and lounge area overlooking our garden and stone fireplace where we sit and enjoy the soothing sounds of our fountain cascading into the pond.  

Where are we you might ask?  Well, contrary to this peaceful scene we are, (as usual) in a flurry of activity, rushing to finish up the last of the wrapping and baking and gift basket deliveries to our family and friends.
l&l at home - holiday gift baskets in progress - image by lb for linenandlavender.blogspot.com - http://www.linenandlavender.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-were-up-to-this-holiday-season.html
l&l at home - holiday gift baskets in progress

This year, we decided that we'd like to do a little less for each other and a little more for those in need and so we've been busy shopping and wrapping clothes and toys and other fun items for a family of five recommended to us by a local church. 

l&l at home - Preparing for Secret Santa Drop - image by lb for linenandlavender.blogspot.com - http://www.linenandlavender.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-were-up-to-this-holiday-season.html

We're going to remain anonymous and can hardly wait to make the delivery tonight. We're still not sure of the logistics...exactly how we're going to manage to get all these gifts stacked on their doorstep without being seen but that's the challenge and just part of the fun of it all—(wish us luck!)

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday.

  Merry, merry!

  Last minute gift: 


Send a gift card  
via email or facebook 
or it's super easy to  
print out at home - you can even
personalize with your own photos.
{Shop Gift Cards Here}
l&l at home - our 2013 tree - http://www.linenandlavender.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-were-up-to-this-holiday-season.html
We decided to pare down in every way this year—even our tree. (Last year our tree was over 10 ft. tall.) This year we elected to go with this diminutive,  simply decorated,  faux (gasp!) tree and adored our pretty little "lady" immensely. 


holiday playlist & last minute gift ideas
   



we're now at:

A Christmas Gift



...from me to you:

A special playlist I put together for the holidays.

Tip:  Right click on the playlist link and open it in a new tab so you can enjoy uninterrupted music play as you browse.

I've put one of my favorites at the top:  "All I want for Christmas is You" the Olivia Olson version from Love Actually, a heartwarming movie that has become a holiday tradition at our house. By the way, if I'm missing one of your favorite songs, write and let me know.  I'll be happy to add it for you if I am able.  

Wishing lots of love to you and yours.  
May your days be merry and bright!  

  GIFT CARDS 
ship free, overnight.
-Or- you can elect to send via email or Facebook for instant delivery any time.
-Or- you can even print at home with options to include a personal photo.
New!  Create your own video.

I'm dreaming...


...of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

~White Christmas by Irving Berlin

Top:  
Bottom:  
Cascade Bib Necklace by Kate Spade $62.50 -update:  bib necklace no longer
available, but see this beautiful option:  Kate Spade Crystal Chips Necklace


."White Christmas" dvd - available in the emporium by linenandlavender.blogspot.com. 

If you're not already in the holiday spirit, 
this is sure to take you there.  Enjoy!~

visit our new site:




"The best things in life..."

What woman wouldn't love to come home from a long day to find this waiting for her?  This would top my list of favorite gifts and it's virtually free.    —If guys only knew it was this easy. :)


linen & lavende



images via Veranda Magazine

see our new site:

Love is All Around Us










Our house is a flurry of activity.  We have had our Christmas tree up for a couple of weeks, but it is these final days where we hunker down and get serious about wrapping.  The stage is set:  The tree remains lit all day and Christmas movies and music play non-stop in the background.  Items we've been collecting over the last few weeks are retrieved from the attic and under beds and wherever else we felt we could safely stash them away from friends and family.  Last minute deliveries have been coming in too.  So just when it seems we must certainly be finished, a new item arrives that must be attended to and shipping foam and boxes are strewn about once again. 

Our gift wrapping table is overflowing with odds and ends of paper, ribbons and creative gift toppers in various stages of development.  My daughter, Alex, among everything else, is working on a photo project she's gifting friends in Italy –(where she'll be celebrating a second Christmas and ringing in the New Year —Lucky girl!)

In between wrapping gifts, I'm also baking them –making cookies (3 kinds) and coconut-covered "snowball cakes." (The latter are something new I suddenly had the urge to attempt — I'll let you know how it goes.)  The house smells of oranges (our main sustenance this day) and rosemary, vanilla and cinnamon. 

We've been home all day and the California weather is doing its best to convince us of the season — "It's a blustery day, Pooh!"  Alex proclaimed as she dashed just now from the house to the studio where I'm taking a quick break to write this. 

Though several rooms in the house have been turned upside-down in this creative whirlwind of ours, a happy energy is pervasive and there seems a magical glow to every package and every ornament.   We're blissfully enveloped in the warm spirit of this special time together...Love (really is) all around us.

~Wishing the same to you and yours!  

linen & lavender



see our new site:
www.linenlavenderlife.com

a few of our favorite things

a few of our favorite things
click image to view all items

Italia! per sempre www.linenlavenderlife.com

Be Love.

l&l collection no. 11

l&l collection no. 12 - It speaks to me.

.

. . . . . . .

composition ii

collection no. 04

Fireworks from the Ponte Vecchio

Fireworks from the Ponte Vecchio
Giovanni Signorini (Firenze)

Matera Italy




This = Love



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