House Tour

Since many of our friend & family

have requested photos of our little house,

I thought we would close out the year with

a pictorial house tour.

We'll begin in the kitchen,

since I spend so much time there.

Christmas!

My parents flew into a very windy

Bakersfield for a quick, but very fun visit

on Christmas day.

Here are some of the many pictures from their stay.

We loved having them with us,

and hope to have more visitors soon!

Rain, rain

Here in Bakersfield

water is precious.

In a place that only gets 6-8 inches

of rain per year,

a day of rain is usually celebrated.

Unfortunately, a town that

never gets much rain is

not equipped to deal with a lot of rain.

It has been raining for 4 days now.

On Sunday, the ping ping ping of water falling

announced a leaky roof.

Cars are stalled in flooded roads as people

unfamiliar with driving in these conditions

attempt to finish their holiday errands.

The damage is daunting,

& I pray for all those affected.

But I also think, in some way,

the rain has forced us all to slow down,

to stop.

With all of the rushing around, the

usual break-neck pace of the holidays,

a moment of pause to reflect on the waters

may be just what we need.

This & that in LA

This past Saturday we headed over the

mountains to LA.

We started out with a trip to IKEA

for a few items we'd been needing.

This recycling sorter, for example.

Nothing fancy, but it saves spaces

& makes recycling easier,

which is always a good thing.

Plus it came with blank labels,

so I had fun customizing them!

From there we made our way to the Fashion District

to visit Unique LA. All the jewelry, clothing, crafts,

talented designers, and food were awesome.

We had so much fun browsing

& picking out a few special items.

From the Fashion District we made our way

over to Echo Park.

We are big McSweeney's fans

and had been interested in 826LA for all the

awesome work they do.

So when we found out they were having

a writing workshop for adults,

we had to be there.

We were so busy writing & editing

that I didn't take any photos,

but both of us had lots of fun

and met some really great folks.

Finally, we headed home,

grabbing veggie 'burgers' & fries

from the most crowded In-N-Out Burger

ever in Santa Clarita.

I'll leave you with some images of the

'Christmas' light show from our trip back to Bako.

Yarn wreath

I'd come across some lovely yarn wreaths online

& simply had to create one of my own.

I love this idea because it is so easy.

Use any color of yarn, ribbon, or twine,

add beads, ornaments, berries,

felt, or any number of embellishments

& your wreath becomes completely unique.

Since we are big on Advent around here,

and don't put up the Christmas tree & trimmings

until right before Christmas,

I decided to make my wreath represent Advent

with blue yarn & 4 beads marking

the 4 weeksof the season.

The star reminds us to "Keep Awake!"

It also means that I really like sparkly glitter.

The yarn makes me feel all snuggly &

I love the way it looks against our red door.

What's your favorite holiday decor?