Handmade Holiday Inspiration: A Decorating and Gift Guide for You

Hello Friends,

The holidays are just around the corner, and of course I've been very busy creating and preparing for my holiday trunk show at my dad's gallery in Manitou Springs, along with decorating the house for thanksgiving, and all the while having fun dreaming about what I will do with our mantle for Christmas...

Turns out I LOVE decorating the mantle. I don't think I could ever live in a house without a mantle again, because I find it so fun and creative and fulfilling to change the mantle decor with every season, using a combination of things found on Etsy.com, shops around town, and of course, things I make myself, and my favorite findings from times spent in nature.

Before every season, I begin to dream up what I will create for the mantle, and start to collect things little by little until the time feels right for putting it all together. And even after I put it together I usually continue to change it around throughout the season until it is just right. It becomes like a sacred altar at the center of the home honoring all the things that make each season special to me.

Here are some photos of my Spring mantle in case you missed them...

I love ranunculus flowers and put them in little vases throughout the Spring...

For summer, I gathered some beachy items, and they were some really cool unique things too found in little shops in Ventura and Carpenteria, CA where my sister Annie and her husband live, but I never got a photo or piece of artwork for the center so it never felt quite finished or right to me, so I don't have a good photo to share of that one.

Here are some pics of my fall mantle...

Here is my white pumpkin (yay!), and a candle that my sister gave me when she came to visit that makes the house smell like something amazing is baking in the oven!!

You can see the pot of little yellow mums that my husband brought home to me one night...they made me so happy...beside them a little leaf-shaped bowl filled with autumn nature findings...acorns...feathers...pinecones...

This mantle feels just right. I ended up using the same photo of my husband's for the fall that I did for spring, because I had another of his in mind, but we haven't gotten around to printing and framing it, so I thought this one would do just fine. And I LOVE it. I feel joy every time I look at our fall mantle.

Just wait until you see what I have in store for my Christmas/Winter mantle. I can hardly wait!

But for now, a few things to inspire you...

Here is a special "Decorating the Mantle" Treasury my garland was featured in recently by another Etsy member, Aurealious.

Etsy is just full of amazing handmade things. When I browse around, I am awed by the creativity and beauty that can be found. And it is SO wonderful to know that each item has such a connection to its source--a person, out there somewhere, who has created it with their own two hands using their own unique creativity-- and how wonderful to have so many unique things created by artists all over the world at our fingertips!

I just recently joined a Treasury Team called Selection Perfection on Etsy, having been invited by ShelleAnne. A Treasury is an Etsy member-curated list, or more like a virtual display case of beautiful things found on Etsy, often related to a theme, and usually coordinated by color to look as beautiful as possible. Treasuries are often what appear on the front page of Etsy. To me it is a work of art in itself, and a really fun way to browse through and support other Etsians' shops. Being on a Treasury Team, those of us on the team curate a number of treasuries each month focusing on featuring each other to help one another gain more exposure. So far it has been a wonderful experience, and I am really excited to be part of a team and tap into the wonderful community that Etsy is. So needless to say, I have been doing a lot of browsing, and along the way, I have found so many amazing shops, and amazing items I want to share with you...

So...

I thought I'd put together two little collections of absolutely wonderful items to inspire you.

I've created one collection of Handmade Holiday Decor for your home. The other collection I've created is a Handmade Holiday Gift Guide.

I hope you will take some time to visit the shops from which these exquisite items come. Each artisan featured has an array of wonderful things even beyond what you see here. You can visit each shop by clicking on their shop name in the caption for each photo. You can see the listing for that particular item by clicking on the name of the item in the caption I have provided.

With these collections, I hope to inspire you to explore the world of handmade goods when you do some of your holiday shopping this year. You can find all of these items, and so much more by browsing on Etsy and in other handmade marketplaces. You may also visit holiday craft shows and locally owned shops around your town to find unique, artisan made gifts for your loved ones.

How wonderful and meaningful a handmade gift is.... How beautiful to decorate your home with something created by an artist. Just think how lovely your holiday could be...

A Collection of Handmade Holiday Decorations

Here are some beautiful things to help you deck the halls this season...

Just look at these beautiful stockings... perfect for a wintery mantle... These and many other beautiful things can be found at Tuuni.

I've already ordered myself a set of these ADORABLE gift tags. Check out Whimsypics shop, to find these and many other beautiful designs to help you make your packages special. I love the attention to detail on these, and can hardly wait to use them!!

You may want to get some real mistletoe from FiveSisterz to hang around your home and inspire some holiday romance...

Start a special tradition with this precious, beautifully madeMini Stocking Advent calendar... visit LilTulip to find this unique creation...

Having spent a good part of my childhood in Maine, I was especially drawn to this lovely Fresh New England Christmas Wreath. You can find it at NorthEastNature.

Baby feet are the best. Keep those little toesies warm on Christmas morning with these sweet little Mistletoe Booties by BisonGirl. These would also make a fun gift for a baby you know! These booties were recently featured on the front page of Etsy!

This Ornament Tea Towel by TheHeated will look wonderful in your kitchen! What an awesome design...

Handmade Holiday Gift Guide

Here are some ideas for unique gifts for everyone on your list!

I've had my eyes on the awesome InTouch Clutch for a while. You can find it at DownstairsDesigns and it comes in many different fabric styles. What a great gift this would be for someone you know who loves to write, or travel...

Check out this awesome men's t-shirt. It says "Ride Me" on the back and would make a great gift for the bike loving guy in your life. I think its so cool. You can get one at OneGearClothing

Here is some Pumpkin Apple Butter Handmade Cold Process Soap from SouthernVermontSoap that would make a perfect stocking stuffer...

Visit this absolutely beautiful shop, MySelvagedLife, where you can find this necklace and other really special and unique pieces...

These handmade Eco-chic Mary Jane shoes are Amazing! Visit TheGeneration to find a great variety of shoes for the shoe-lover in your life...

These are the perfect earrings to celebrate winter...these beautiful Silver Snowflake earrings, by ShySiren would make a lovely gift for a friend or co-worker or even a special treat to buy yourself to wear to your holiday parties...

I love this shop, Uzura. What lovely items can be found there. This bag is one of my personal favorites, but be sure to check out this shop to find an array of beautiful and eco-friendly clothing and accessories to give your loved ones!

Look at this great necktie! Who needs boring ties when you can get amazing screen printed ones like this and so many other cool designs at Toybreaker. This one happens to be vegan too!

Help a friend or family member warm up on a cold wintery day with this lovely cowl from KittyDune. And its made with vegan-friendly yarn, in beautiful earthy colors...

Help your friend or sister beautify and protect her Ipod/Iphone with a wonderful case like this one! Visit Nimoo for this and other great Ipod/Iphone cases....

For the one who loves to pamper themselves with wonderful, natural bath and body products, visit FlyingBirdBotanicals for this Rose Cacao Bliss Kit that will make a wonderful gift...

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Hopefully, you have been inspired as I have been by these beautiful creations. To browse Etsy and find even more amazing things, you can either type what it is you are looking for (and you can find almost anything) into the search box on the home page of www.Etsy.com, or you can look through the member-curated Treasuries to see lovely collections of items found when searching Etsy.

I will be doing a lot of my Christmas shopping this year on Etsy and at local shops around Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, and I'm so excited to give gifts that have a lot of heart this year.

Much love to you this holiday season and happy browsing....

Abbey

Life is not Mundane. Watch This Video.

Now here is a perfect example of our true nature.

Isn't it amazing how mundane we can allow our lives to become? How we can shape and mold ourselves to fit into a way that is very "serious" and unemotional... Sometimes, when I am in touch with my conscious authenticity I look around me and I find it almost humorous to see people walking around so serious in their tight suits doing business, taking every little bit of the illusion so seriously, because I know it is just a costume that we allow to become very real. Nothing is wrong with that costume or way of being...sometimes it is fun to pretend. I've worn my share of costumes, and costumes can be an effective avenue through which someone can do their purpose-work. But if someone isn't happy in their life, or has forgotten why he or she came here to begin with, and is longing for fulfillment somewhere deep inside...

What if we raised our selves up to a new level of being...forgoing the need to fit--the need to keep on doing the same things we've always done the same way we've always done them...what if we let our true nature shine out and stopped being so afraid of how crazy or funny or strange we might be?

Because the truth is, no matter how much we choose to deny it, no matter how many times we've been "trained" or told by others that we are not--the truth is, we ARE radiant, amazing, emotional, beautiful beings by nature. We LOVE each other! For so long we have denied that. We've pretended a separation. Maybe we were scared of what it might mean to be powerful. Maybe we were scared for what would happen if we opened our selves up so wide. Maybe we were scared for how it might change our lives...but...

What if we let ourselves feel things deeply...What if moments and expressions like the one in this video became more commonplace? What if we healed our disconnection with our souls--with each other-- with that wild original creativity within us, and finally let ourselves Be? What if we were that honest?

I love to see authentic expression radiating out to the world. It seems to come in beautiful waves at this point in time... it seems to come in precious moments and experiences created by individuals from their own place of pure Joy. Pure Remembering. But I believe there is more and more of it every day. We can see evidence of it in videos like this.

The things we feel when we watch this--we feel them because we are still connected. We may have forgotton for a while. But the truth is--This life is Not mundane. There is nothing mundane about it, or about us. It is a wild and beautiful adventure we have chosen. Yes. Chosen. And no matter how things may seem to the human part of ourselves...The Soul, the inner, the higher self, our Truth-- whatever we choose to call it--is REJOICING. We are here. You are courageous for taking this plunge. For still being here. What an amazing, beautiful, courageous choice in the name of Love. And in the end, I'm certain there will be no regret. At least not to the Soul. And that is what will go on--spinning and dancing into eternity.

This video is so inspiring to me and reminds me of our wild and wonderful nature-- the way it is when we create something, with Love as our intention...with Joy as our intention--with Purpose...

It is ever important to me now to allow the true essence of my true nature express...to make the choice to let down the walls of fear, anger, and despair by taking responsibility for my thoughts and actions. To heal what it is I need to heal so that every bit of my life and my being can be devoted to my purpose--to Love, in all I do in this life... To be an authentic expression of my own inner beauty. And I wish to inspire others to feel more and be more, and to feel and experience the greatest possible Love that I can on this planet earth-- for all it is-- while I am here. I AM HERE!!! :))))

Remembering,

Abbey

A Lovely Transformative Summer

To begin to describe my summer would be strange because in some ways I find myself feeling a warm, wonderful feeling after a warm, wonderful summer, and in other ways it is as if it passed in the blink of an eye. In some ways it is as if it didn't even happen. But I know it did, and though I was for many reasons unable to bring forth new things in my business Love's Garden this summer, I feel that what my summer was comprised of was in time crucial for what Love's Garden is emerging to be now that the leaves are glowing with change and I am on the verge of total passion and the life that I have always longed for.

Let me share with you some of my experiences from this beautiful summer.

It began with a job that was very challenging for me on a lot of levels. Perhaps though, the most challenging part of my job was that I was working for many more hours than I had been previously and I was feeling myself being pulled away from Love's Garden and what felt like everything I loved. These feelings sent me reeling into a place of resentment, and I then created a space of boredom and lack of joy in my job, which I assumed was the job itself, but over time realized that it was my own creation that eventually lead me to a very important lesson.

Throughout the summer I found myself moving through many feelings of anger, sadness, and loss, as I gave myself (but not my passionate self) to something while simultaneously feeling that I should never have agreed to it in the first place. There was a lot of resistance, which in turn caused a lot of inner suffering. But I do not regret the work I did during that time because sometimes what we go through in life really helps us to form an idea of what we do want-- An idea of what we are and are not willing to accept for ourselves--and my experience this summer certainly did that for me.

The most valuable lesson that I learned through my job this summer was that if you are feeling miserable in your work, it is because you have not or are not infusing your work with your own personal passion and purpose. I found that towards the end of the job, when I finally realized that I was not being true to my own purpose and finding a way to infuse this work with it, and when I finally began doing so, EVERYTHING changed. The job became a joy. I was no longer miserable. My creative passion was lit again. Those I was working with were happier, and no longer gave me as much trouble. And then the energy shifted and my new vibration no longer matched the vibration of my job and it was time to move on...

You see, I believe that we each have within us a precious divine purpose, and the most accurate evidence of what our purpose is, is Joy. But I also believe that there are many layers to what that purpose might entail, and we can break it down to find what the very root and the very essence of that purpose is. And what it is that is the purpose at the very center of our purpose, is the part of our purpose that can be lived out no matter what work we might be doing on the physical plane. So even if we haven't quite gotten to a place where we can give our physical, mental, spiritual selves to doing the physical work we love to do every minute of every day, we can at least bring the essence of our True Purpose into whatever job we have now, and who knows, this could even bring on a shift that propels us into more fullfilling work that is even more in line with that which we really came to do on this lovely planet. This is the lesson I learned through my summer job, and for that I am forever grateful. Reach for Joy, wherever you are on your path. Joy will propel you into your next and most worthy step.

Here are some of the things that kept the real me alive this summer:

Throughout the month of May, I facilitated my painting for process class, Soul Painting. In my class we begin in a circle for centering, connecting, and bringing intention into our painting process. We then move into an hour of non-critiqued free-painting, and then close with a circle for sharing. I found new fulfillment in my role of leadership with my class. Lots of good things happened for those who attended, and it helped bring life and passion and leadership into my experience...

June was a very busy month with lots of travelling. The first weekend in June, we traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to attend a wedding. Preston got lots of practice with his new camera...

The third weekend we traveled to the Kansas City area again for business where Preston was the photographer for our friend Sharla's wedding. I was his assistant. It went really well and his photos were fantastic. I was so filled with excitement and pride for him to see him in his passion, to see Stohs Photography in motion. I so look forward to the next wedding season with him , and to watching his business grow. He is so talented and his photos keep getting more and more amazing...

The fourth weekend, guess where we traveled to? Kansas City! Of course we are that nuts. We went to attend Preston's mom's amazing annual fundraising event, "Stems: a Garden Soiree," a wine, food, and music event in the gardens at the Overland Park Arboretum that raises money for the Overland Park Arts and Recreation Foundation...

By the end of June, were were pretty wiped out from all the travelling, then back to work, travelling, then back to work. June was gone in a flash.

July was a month of great power and transformation for me. In all my personal struggle, I managed to decide that I needed to go and have a girls week in California with my incredible sister Annie, and my sister by choice, Gabriela. We arranged for Gab and I to arrive in LAX on the same day, and we had the most wonderful time together at Annie and Kevin's home in Ventura, CA. It was very rejuvinating, and I loved being able to collect sea glass in the surf, and build little cairns of smooth ocean rocks, have heart to hearts with my sisters, and laugh my ass off with Kevin and my sisters every evening. The girls and I even went shopping together in downtown Ventura, which is something we hadn't really done together since we were in high school, and it was so much fun to try on silly sparkly dresses and get lunch at Nature's Grill. We traveled up the coast to see the elephant seals and found a wonderful, rocky cliff side view over the ocean. We went to my favorite vegan and raw restaurant there; Mary's Secret Garden. We hiked a lot and took a day trip out to the Channel Islands.

It was just the break I needed, but when it came time to leave, it didn't feel like it was time yet. However, I do believe it helped me prepare for the next and most amazing step in my journey which took place at the end of July...

On July 30, I stepped beyond what I believed was possible for myself, and broke down old walls of doubt and fear as I served as the officiant for a dear old friend's wedding. I had prepared spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically for this day for months, and on the day of the wedding, the sun sparkled across the perfect mountain meadow, and I could feel the support and power of Love all around me, as I slowly spoke each word and witnessed Love merging two beautiful people as One. I can say that I will never be the same after this experience, and I am so grateful to sweet loves Amber and Blake for entrusting me with such a sacred request. What a beautiful, transforming experience to have here on earth. It enabled me to live out my purpose in new ways I never knew possible for me. It changed my perception of myself. I am so grateful.

At the end of August, my beloved and I set off for our annual National Park trip. This year, we spent one week visiting Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and finally Rocky Mountain National Park. There are many stories and many things I could tell you about our journey this year, but I will for now share with you a couple of journal entries from the first couple days...

As we turned another corner on the rocky mountain pass driving towards Grand Teton National Park, we were at once awed as we looked up and the thick, gray sillouettes of the Grand Tetons appeared in the sky. I felt filled with wonder once again at the majesty of our National Parks and the uniqueness of the craggy peaks, unlike any I'd ever seen before. Our first evening was wonderful. We made a fire at our sweet campsite surrounded by tall, skinny pines. We ate Sunshine Burgers and drank cups of tea. The air was cold and crisp...

Today we began our morning with an incredibly beautiful hike by the shore of the lake that banks right at the base of the Teton range. It was a vision. We returned home and ate breakfast and prepared for our 10 mile hike and we walked all day from about noon to six. It was a beautiful scenic hike with a turnaround of a stone-filled lake shore that overlooked Mount Moran and Elk Island. We took off our shoes and waded our tired feet in the cool water...

During our National Park trip we enjoyed many wonderful and inspiring moments together and I once again felt very much at home living in nature. It was the greatest ending to a lovely, transformative summer...

Now that I have caught you up on lost time, I am very excited to begin to share with you regularly, and now you can go to my shop to see the new Love's Garden Fall collection that I have been working on with all my heart. Thank you for reading!

All of the photos in this particular blog post with exception to the pictures from my visit in California were taken by my talented photographer husband, Preston. You can view more of his work at www.StohsPhotography.com and order fine art prints at www.StohsPhotography.Etsy.com

Love,

Abbey