Jingle Stop NYC

Hallmark Channel concluded their Countdown to Christmas Bus Tour at the Blue Hill at Stone Barns outside of NYC. The talented Sheyda Best and I had worked on artwork for Hallmark’s holiday style guide and had the opportunity to customize holiday prints for Hallmark Stars and guests at the event! We had the best time exploring the grounds, enjoying the amazing food and working hard to hand-letter and embellish over 200 prints during the evening. I’m so appreciative of the chance to visit this beautiful venue and it was surreal to see our artwork applied at such a large scale!

December Around The Web

December has come to a close, and I’m having a hard time processing that we are leaving 2023, the year Grant was born! All month was filled with first Christmas activities: we went to our church’s Kristkindl Markt, had brunch with friends in town, took Grant to see Santa, survived a family stomach bug, attended Dale’s work holiday parties, I had my holiday dinner club favorite things exchange, our family visited Enchant KC, we got to meet baby Daphne, celebrated Dianne’s birthday, visited Union Station and Crown Center, and had a magical Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/26th visit to Lawrence! The last few days of the month were spent enjoying Smith family time and heading back to Enchant for New Year’s Eve! Around the web, I was especially inspired by these beautiful ornaments by Mille Amber. Hopefully next year I won’t miss the chance to purchase one! Take a look at her work here.

  • I also hope that I get a chance to try making these beautiful dinner rolls next Christmas!

  • London has the most beautiful holiday decorations! I hope to visit in person someday.

  • A bit of Christmas lettering inspiration

  • A new to me letterpress studio, the deep emboss is just so stunning.

  • Would you try this DIY? I would love to try a larger scale version in the doorway between my living room and dining room

  • After having a chance to try royal icing cookies this year, I could not stop watching these videos!

  • One of my favorite memories this December was making salt dough ornaments. This was the recipe I used, and despite Grant not loving the handprint ideas we had some super cute Santas to share with his teachers and family!

  • Saving this for inspiration in the new year, I would love to embroider on a sweater for Grant

  • I don’t have plans for a sparkly NYE outfit this year, but Grace always has the best roundups

Merry Christmas, friends!

Royal Iced Sugar Cookies for #My5Days

In early December I had the chance to take a royal iced sugar cookie workshop from the talented Bernard Shondell for Hallmark’s #My5Days. During the workshop he shared tips and tricks for baking the perfect sugar cookies and taught us how to decorate using royal icing. I absolutely love how my cookies turned out and can’t wait to get them out of the freezer for our Christmas Eve party!