Thompson Family-Life

Goodbye, 2010

(New Years Postcard, USSR, 1971)

(New Years Postcard, USSR, 1966)

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I hope you all have a super fun and safe New Year's Eve Celebration. :D We don't normally do much, having kiddos and all, but we're going to try and pull off a fondue dinner tonight.. maybe start a new tradition. : )

Sorry for my absence, although I'm sure lots of folks are ignoring their blogs a bit to squeeze as much out of these last days of the holidays. I know I am. We're all four home, so there's not much time to blog! We also drove to Memphis to see all of my family for a few days.. it was a super-lovely time! We had a LOVELY Christmas. It couldn't have been nicer. I have lots of fun gifts to share and a gift I made for Cooper that is near and dear to my heart.

I have so MANY things that I'm excited about for the new year. I did some major slacking the past couple months so that I could thoroughly enjoy the holidays, but now it's time to get 'er done. ; ) My first New Year's Resolution is to fully embrace this time managing technique to get the MOST out of every minute of my day. I'm a pretty focused person, but I've realized that I am way too easily distracted, which I think comes with working from home. (I don't have a boss breathing down my neck!)

There will be lots of behind-the-scenes stuff going on in January, and I will also have one little boy home for possibly two weeks from school because he's getting his tonsils out on Tuesday! :*( Be thinking of Cooper during this difficult recovery time!

I've asked some lovely friends to help me out this month, while I'm busy showering Cooper with lots of TLC, so be on the lookout for some really fun Guest Posts from some super inspiring people!

 I also have some major reworking/redesigning of the blog to do this month, so I will resume taking sponsors in February. I want to make sure the blog is in TIP-TOP shape for my sponsors! So if you are interested in a spot, please email me towards the end of the month! THANK-YOU : )

I can't tell you how MUCH I appreciate you all visiting my blog this year. I appreciate EACH and every single comment that is left here. Your enthusiasm and support mean the world to me. 2010 was a fantastic year, and I know only good things will come of 2011. I wish you all only the BEST for the coming year. I know people can feel cynical towards New Years Resolutions, but isn't this such an exciting time of year?! It's the only time that I truly feel OPTIMISTIC about making things happen. No matter how things turn out, it is truly exciting and inspiring knowing that we are gifted with a clean slate on January 1st every year.

I hope your 2011 is beyond inspiring.

 

Merry Christmas from the Thompsons : )

New Ornament Printable over at Modern Kiddo!

Be sure to check out my new Mid-Century Christmas Village ornament printable over at my favorite kiddo blog, Modern Kiddo! :D There's a color-in version that your kids (or you!) can color in yourself, or print out the colored versions and decorate with tiny pompoms for the "snow" areas (i found them at Michaels). I also used glitter glue to accent some areas. They reminded me of those Putz houses I mentioned in my post here. These are great way to entertain the kids (or those Mid-Century Lovers in your family!) during your Christmas or Christmas Eve dinners. I hope you enjoy them!

Download the files here! 

Found these on ebay a couple weeks ago while browsing, and I couldn't resist them. : ) I'm missing some that I need to buy for next year. Cam and I are watching the movie while he plays with them. He's LOVING them.

We're off to see some Christmas Lights tonight. Ethan made some meringues from a Martha Stewart recipe and I'm having a hard time not eating them all today. 

'Tis the Season, right? : )

mid-century holiday inspiration

The boys are home 24/7 now for holiday break and we are spending lots of quality family time together. Which can be kind of crazyness in itself. Keeping boys occupied inside while it's cold outside is tricky. I took them to the "jumping place" today and we were the only people there. It was bliss. They could work off some energy and I could get out of the house.

We're doing last minute shopping, making cookies, doing some easy crafts with the boys. Typical holiday stuff around here. Trying to really enjoy this time off that Ethan has because he doesn't get a lot of it!

Here are some holiday images that have really inspired me this Season.

Melissa, over at Super-Junk, has been such an inspiration to me for a couple years now. She's an insanely gifted doll maker, and just REALLY GOOD at everything she does. Whether it be decorating her INCREDIBLE home or making original pose dolls from scratch. She does a brilliant thing or two with Blythe as well. She's definitely one of those people that you just say "how can so much talent exist in one human body?" Give some to me! : )

Here are some recent holiday images she posted to her Flickr that I'm all ga-ga over. Some of her vintage pose doll collection (SWOON) and some originals made by her as well (double swoon!).

Her mantle is quite heavenly.. I hope she takes more photos so we can see more! I've always wanted to make a gumdrop wreath and her's is pretty much perfection.

LOVELY felt ornaments.. totally adore. I've always loved handmade ribbon candy ornaments. I've never seen any made from felt!

She has this fantastic tutorial on her site Pucci Collective on how to make tinsel trees for your Blythe. Totally making some this week for the dollhouse that I hope to finally tackle.

I'm also a big fan of vintage Putz houses.. Christmas Village type decorations in a mid-century style. LOVE. Would love to start a collection of these one day.

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And these handmade ones in the Putz style are pretty much perfect. Would LOVE to make some of these! How fun! : )

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Here's some more Mid-Century Holiday inspiration.

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I've got a super-cute mid-century themed printable that will be posted on one of my favorite Kiddo blogs this week. Will let you know about that when it's up. : )