...and a Happy New Year!

  I hope whatever you celebrated and however you celebrated this last week,  it was a good one! And now it's almost time to reflect on this past year and also think about what we hope for in 2016.

 Below are the gorgeous Christmas hand made cards and tags I received from friends near and far:

                              To my talented friends I thank you SO MUCH!!!

 And some Christmas fun and surprises:

 Our sweet 14 yr old Annie. I just had to put those ears on her:):) But then she got to open her gift-of course it was a package of treats . After all, she is all about the food!

Hubby and I don't exchange gifts per se because we can always get what we want for ourselves (and it certainly takes the pressure off hubby:) However, I always get him something unexpected-nothing grand, and I buy myself some things and wrap them so he can be surprised by my gifts too:)

Bill loves this Peanut puppet from the Jeff Dunham shows. It's his favorite of all the puppets. And if you've never heard of Jeff Dunham you must look for him on you tube or on tv or live - his ventriloquist acts are amazing!! So this Peanut is a bobble head and has 10 different sayings that are typical to him. Start the day with one of his sayings or not, -just look at him-and how can you not smile! I also got hubby a Peanut t shirt.

 And lookie what I unwrapped:

 I ordered these fabulous stencils from this site! I had been eyeing these designs in particular for almost a year and kept changing my mind about which ones I really wanted (ever since seeing some of them in a Cloth Paper Scissors issue). So, Christmas was the perfect excuse to order a whole bunch! I cannot wait to make lots of gelli print papers with these!!!

 This was another gift I got myself:

                                        a perfect apron for me -don't you think?

  And then came my big surprise from hubby. He actually bought me something-AND wrote his own inside for a card! He gave me a generous gift card to my favorite Irish place in town -you know it- so that I can buy one of their special wool made in Ireland sweaters or wraps!! I think we'll make 33 years next year:):) Of course I felt guilty about the stencils-but only for a little while!

 So, as this is my last post for 2015, I want to first of all thank you for another year of taking the time to comment and visit my blog. It means so much and there is no better feeling of community than here in blogland.

 Here's to a SPECTACULAR 2016!! May it be everything your heart desires.

Linking to Art Journal Journey, T Stands For Tuesday, The Simon Wednesday Challenge (theme is "party"), and  Paint Party Friday.

" Use this week to let go of all you do not wish to take with you into the new year, and to step into the truth of your highest potential."                  Alan Cohen