JENuary!!!

Can you feel the excitement in the air???  Not only is tomorrow the first day of JENuary........it's the biggest JENuary ever!  I will be celebrating my 40th birthday next month!!!  And no....the JENuary thing is not a typo.  Long ago I decided to rename the month JENuary in my honor.  As you've probably already guessed, I'm not one of those people who says that my birthday is no big deal.  I plan on celebrating ALL MONTH LONG! 

As of right now, I have a 3 part celebration plan....

Part One:  I was inspired by the Mission Statement of Saucony (a running clothes company):

At Saucony, a good day is when we get to run.

A great day is when we inspire someone else to run.

So here's the plan.......I'm going to run 140 miles in the month of January for my 40th on 1/14/14 aaaaand.....I want you to join me!  I want it to be kind of like a quilt along......but we'll be running or walking instead!  But don't panic.....you can drop the 1 and just run or walk 40 miles next month.  Or 14 miles.  Or 4 miles.  I'm so, so, soooo excited that I already have a small group of awesome peeps on Facebook and Instagram that have said they're giving it a go!   I really hope you'll join me for my Run or Walk Along.  I'll be doing weekly updates about my progress....and I hope you'll be posting comments about your progress too!

Part Two:  A week long Staycation.  Yeah.....I know.....I just took one.....but it's my 40th birthday so this is no time to be practical or responsible.  Some people want a huge party for their birthday.  Or a long, extravagant vacation.  I just want to be at home with my pets and Col Sew Fab and hang out in my jammies while watching Netflix and working on all sorts of crafty projects!  I'm sooooo cool!

Part Three:  A weekend trip to Napa sometime next month.  Because I love wine.  And food.  And wine.  Did I already mention that I love wine???

Well, Happy New Year.....but don't stay up too late....because we're going running tomorrow!  Col Sew Fab and I have an exciting evening of sipping champagne, eating a nice dinner of tenderloin, bearnaise, creamed spinach and button mushrooms with warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert, watching t.v. and pretending that we're on the east coast so we can go to bed at 9:00!  Like I said before.....I'm soooo cool!

Hugs,

Jenny

Quiet Holidays

Is there anything better than a quiet holiday season at home full of your favorite things?  It's my favorite way to celebrate!

Puppies in Christmas sweaters....
Staycations with champagne minis and lots of sewing.....
The Twelve Days of Christmas in cross stitch....
Lots of yummy food to nibble on.....

And a quick Daycation to the winter wonderland of Yosemite.....

I hope your holiday season has been merry and bright, warm and fun and full of everything that makes your heart happy!

Hugs,
Jenny

Susan Branch

I can't believe I haven't told you all about this yet but I MET MY IDOL last month!!!

The most amazing artist EVER, Susan Branch, was doing a book tour for her new book, "A Fine Romance" about her journey through the English countryside and one of her stops was at the sweetest little quilt shop about 3 hours south of me.  So, I grabbed my amazing friend Karen and off we went on a mini adventure!!!

It was love at first sight when I first laid eyes on her artwork 13 years ago.  Everything about it was just so sweet and perfect and warm and full of joy and inspiration.  And ever since I discovered her, I have been on a mission to gather up EVERYTHING that has her name on it - books, scrapbooking supplies, fabric, greeting cards, calendars.....if she makes it, I buy it!

I was absolutely giddy with excitement when I got to meet her!  Fortunately, I didn't say anything too embarrassing.....although I do think the first words out of my mouth were "I am SOOOO excited to meet you."  Hey, you should never postpone joy, right?!  Why act cool when you can't contain your excitement???!!!  Just go with it!

And Susan was just as gracious and kind and sweet and lovely as her paintings are.  It was a fabulous day and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet someone so inspirational who I admire so much!  I can only hope that one day I inspire someone as much as she has inspired me!

Hugs,
Jenny

12 Days Of Christmas

Just thought I'd pop in for a minute to show you my latest project!  I got caught up in the cross stitch frenzy going on over on Instagram and last Friday I caved......even though I was determined to not start another new project.....even though my addiction to cross stitch had been on the back burner for a few years......but I just couldn't help myself and I started this adorable 12 Days Of Christmas counted cross stitch sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery over Thanksgiving weekend.

It's a mystery sampler which I've never done before because.....well.....I'm kind of a control freak and the thought of starting something when I didn't know what the whole pattern looked like never appealed to me.  But when I saw how cute the first row is, I HAD to throw caution to the wind and just do it!  The second row comes out tomorrow and I'm seriously giddy with excitement!

And now I've gotta run.....no, not to get back to cross stitching....we're having a party for Col Sew Fab's work department tomorrow and I'm nowhere near ready.  I have lots of fun baking and decorating and appetizer making ahead of me and I've gotta get to it!

Hugs,
Jenny