Coffee and Cross Stitch

The Christmas season is officially here! | December Daily

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

This year, I ventured to NYC for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Why, you ask?  Simple.  My friend, Matt, was marching in the parade as a member of the Madison Scouts. He was one of 426 participants, made up of current and alumni members, to march in this event.

The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps was one of the groups that marched down 7th Avenue, around Columbus Circle, and down Broadway to Herald Square.  And guess what else?!  They were the group RIGHT IN FRONT of Santa, so they essentially escorted him to Macy's!!  

HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

This video doesn't do justice to how absolutely incredible the brass players are in this corps, but this is what was broadcast on tv (they played Christmas songs as they marched down to Macy's, but this is all that was captured for the broadcast....)

 

I mean, COME ON.  Those screaming trumpets!!!  I can't.  

Here's them at rehearsal, standing still, playing the cadence and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town":

 

Seriously.  So. Much. Fun.

This event, naturally, had to mark the beginning of my December Daily album.  This year, I am determined to keep up with it better than in the past.  Determined.

The December Daily is intended to be just the days leading up to Christmas and then Christmas day (1-25 December), but I like to include the entire Christmas season, which starts (in this case) with Thanksgiving Day.

Here are is my album so far ---

 

I'm not sure how I like the 4x6 title, so I may end up changing that, but I do like to keep things simple.  The top left is from a Heidi Swapp value pack with embellies from My Mind's Eye, and the right is a pic I took when I was in Chestnut Hill on Wednesday morning, before I headed up to NYC.  It was too awesome with the holly boughs and the pup sitting outside Starbucks, waiting for his owner.

For this spread, I used the Merry Christmas letterpress plate from Studio Calico, a quick pic on the train, and 2x2 instas from the parade (i printed all these pics on my Canon Selphy 910, which is a great lil' printer for projects like this, so you can instantly add photos to the album.).  Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough to the parade itself to snap pics of the Scouts as they went by, but since the balloons are enormous, I was able to get snaps of some of them.  I still have to do simple embelishments for the red squares, but I left it as-is for the moment, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be more inspired to get my stamps and embellies out to finish this page.

That's it, folks!  December Daily is officially started!!

How was your Thanksgiving?!  Have you started any of your Christmas season festivities yet?!!?

Hiatus.

Pardon my lack of posts lately, peeps.  It's summer, and I've actually decided to enjoy it this year, rather than work all the daggone time and not take any time off.

So, I've been going places and doing things.

I went to Annapolis, and had dinner & drinks at a place where boats could dock (like this one), and I had a great view of the bay.

I went to NYC, and had lunch in this awesome coffee shop, The Grey Dog, where I had my first club sandwich in I can't remember how long, because they could make any sandwich on their menu on gluten-free bread.  I about died.   I got the biggest latte they offered (which was gigantic and outrageously delicious), and my sandwich came with sweet potato fries, which might be the best thing in the history of ever.   

I also went into Macys for the first time in a really long time (because, honestly, it's chaos in there all.the.time, and I can't take it for longer than about 15 min) while I waited for the next train home, and walked through the danger zone: the shoe department.

I wanted them all.

And I went to Florida to spend some time with one of my best friends from college, which also happened to coincide with my birthday.

It's never a bad idea to spend your birthday somewhere like this....

...and get gluten free goodies to celebrate said birthday from a place that shares my sentiment about dessert, AND has macaroons.....which I've never seen in any gluten free bakery....

....and have this little guy sing me happy birthday two nights in a row ("Happy Birthday, Aunt Zzzzacki!!"  those J's are tough, man.), because he was so excited for cupcakes and blowing out candles.....

I've been dreaming about my next vacation since I stepped foot in the airport in FL to come home.

Have you guys been anywhere yet this summer?  Do you plan to?  

Summer's half gone, and I'm in complete denial about the entire thing.  Hence why I need to take another trip somewhere.  Not like I really need a reason, but ya know.

 

December Daily - The Beginning | Scrapbooking

I don't know how many of you stitchers also scrap, but there's this fun concept called a December Daily album, of which the intent is to document the holiday season each day.  This way, you can capture all the fun Christmas moments like baking Christmas cookies, decorating the tree, watching your favorite Christmas movie, and also documenting the ordinary things you do during the holidays.   

My first impression of this concept was that it wasn't for me.  Every album I saw on blogs was of people with their kids.

I might act like a 10-year-old sometimes, like this entire month because I'm obsessed with Christmas, and when I watch Disney movies (whatever. don't judge.  you know you love Aladdin just as much as i do. and The Lion King.  annnnnd Sleeping Beauty.  yeah that's right.), but since I don't have kids to take pics of every 30 seconds, I wasn't sold on the whole December Daily idea.

But I do fun stuff during Christmas, like go to NYC.  And downtown Philly.  And hang out with friends.  And I make stuff like, every day, but have hardly any proof of the stuff I make, because it all flies out the door almost as quick as I make it (read: my Christmas cards).  Oh, and I BAKE.  A LOT.

Bingo.  I will document ALL THAT STUFF.

So, I started gathering pics from last year, and since there weren't that many, I decided to have them in the front of my album for this year.  No harm, right?  Especially since I took some pretty cool pics last year when I was up in NYC two days in a row about two weeks before Christmas.

There really is nothing like Christmas in NYC.  The lights and decorations are outrageous.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit NYC during December, DO IT.

December Daily albums are meant to be small, so this is a SN@P album from Simple Stories (which you can find at your local Michaels with your 40% off coup), which I got in red (duh) and just got to it.

The building on the left?  Cartier.  Wrapped like a gift.  Those glowing blobs on the side & roof??  Jaguars.  I died when I saw this.  The pic on the right is Macy's.  

For this page, since my pics are all Instagram snaps cut to 3x3, and the instapockets in the page protectors are 4x4, I just took a piece of glitter paper, cut it to 6x8 (the size of this album), and stuck the pics on like a collage.   Then, I added the snowflakes.  Just 'cuz.  From top to bottom, that's Fendi, Radio City Music Hall, inside a mall in Columbus Circle, and the tree in Bryant Park.  I put those little thingies (yes, that's the technical name) on the edges to have them be on the rings like the rest of the protectors, and viola.

On this page, I took paper, cut it to 4x6 to fit the protector, then attached these lil' pics on front.  I plan on adding embellies later, but wanted to at least get these into the album.  One of the days I was in NYC last year, I went to brunch with one of my friends, and Maison is the restaurant where we ate.  The bottom pic is a restaurant in Bryant Park, which looked very cozy and warm, since it was a disgusting, drizzly, dreary day when we were there.

So, that's all I got for December from last year.  At least at the moment.  I may have some more pics hidden on my computer I can order and add later, but I'm happy I was able to start my album with these fun NYC pics!!

Do you document December?  Do you just document Christmas Eve or Christmas Day??  I'd love to hear how you do your memory keeping for the holidays!!  If you want to know more about the December Daily album concept, visit Ali Edwards' site - she's amazing.

Much love ~~~

I Heart NYC | Travel

I love New York City.  I love it. 

I love walking through the streets in the Fashion District, staring at all the bolts of fabric in the windows, and wandering aimlessly through mood. 

Seriously.  These rolls of fabric just go on for miles.....

And going into places like M&J Trimming and Tinsel Trading Company and just drooling over the unique trims and vintage embellishments you can use in your creative endeavors. 

Kinda makes me want to pretend I could actually make a living doing stuff with all that fabric. 

Oh, to dream.  But that's what NYC is all about, right?  So you can be a dreamer of dreams?

{sigh}

I do so much love going up there, though.  Being in Philly, it's a short train ride from Trenton to Penn Station, and I'm ready to take on the streets.  I went up to NYC one day over Labor Day weekend, and decided this trip that I wanted to wander around SoHo.  More specifically, I wanted to find this particular bakery ~

Gluten free.  Refined sugar free.  Vegan.  TO.DIE.FOR.  I got a chocolate chip cookie sandwich with mint filling, a pumpkin cupcake, a lemon cupcake, a samoa donut (YAH. SAMOA.), and a container filled with chocolate filled brownie bites.

Words cannot describe how good these were.

There's nothing like walking through Little Italy ~

And getting to see the Flatiron building for the first time was pretty awesome --

I love New York, and I can't wait to go back.