One more thing I forgot to mention that happened in last month – my desk calendar was mentioned on Print & Pattern!
It’s a pretty big deal to me even though it didn’t result in any sales. But it was a honor just to be “nominated”!!!! 
PPS. Oh wait, here’s another thing. Remember that f-ing Annie wig I made Jane for Halloween? The little $h*t finally decided to wear it three months too late. Enjoy!
Hi. That was a much needed break. The beauty of being the boss of your own blog is that you can take as much vacation time as you want. So I did!
Here’s a quick-and-dirty of what I was up to in the meantime:
* Sent out a Christmas card…
… and had a lovely Christmas and New Year’s, thankyouverymuch. I hope you all did as well!
* Met some Cougar Town people:
(The show’s back on February 14. Please watch!!!!)
* Attempted a Photo a Day Challenge on Instagram…
… but only made it to #11. Check out my Instagram feed here (there is also a link on my header menu).
* Watched some good movies:
The Muppets – ***** The Descendants – **** Our Idiot Brother – ****
* Purged a lot of belongings from our house. Well, technically it’s all still sitting in our basement, but there are definitive piles for Goodwill and garage sale. Something about the beginning of a new year makes me want to get rid of everything.
* Thought about a lot of things. And here’s my conclusions:
That pretty much sums up my last month. I hope 2012 has been treating you well and that it’s your best year yet!
Am I the only one who still has some presents to wrap? And does anyone else need some last minute gift tags? Look no further, I’ve got you covered! 
Just click this link to access the PDF file, and you can print them at home (for personal use only). Happy wrapping!!
Many thanks to Natalie of Nat the Fat Rat for featuring our Christmas tree on her blog:
This month, in addition to her normal posts, she is featuring reader-submitted Christmas trees, and ours was one of the lucky ones she picked!! Please check out her blog; she is the cutest and funniest thing ever, and her little boy Huck is SO adorable.
Thanks again, Natalie, for sharing our tree with your readers! Have a wonderful holiday! 
Kate from Retro Ranch Revamp recently shared her newest creation, these adorable mini ranch house ornaments:
And now she is selling them on etsy! Take a wild guess who bought the first one… Can’t wait until the silver one is gracing my Christmas tree.
Great work, Kate! Be sure to check out her blog and her lovely MCM home.
Because I have not been posting much lately, I’d like to extend a peace offering to my readers in the form of a free holiday postcard download! Just click this link to access the PDF file; it is an 8.5×11 file containing two 4×6 postcards and trim marks. You can print this at home or have it printed professionally (for personal use only). Enjoy!
Christmas is in full force at the Browning house. Here’s some highlights of what we’ve got going on here…
All of our window clings hung at toddler-eye level:
Our “tree” centerpiece:
Our lovely tree:
My tree collection on top of the entertainment center:
Our “mantel”:
Wreath made out of Christmas cards:
Jane’s tree:
PS. Apparently I was in a funk the same time last year as well. Maybe it’s the calendar that puts me in a bad mood. (BTW, it’s at the printer and should be done by the end of the week.) This might be the last year for the calendar. We’ll see…
I’m in a slump. There’s a lot of things swirling around in my head right now, none of which is making sense. This happens to me quite often, but the year-end brain swirly sucks the most. (What did you accomplish this year, Jill? Have you made any progress this year, Jill? You’re almost a year older, Jill… Whatever.)
This blog turned 3 this month, and I didn’t even notice. My last post was #300, and I didn’t notice that either.
2012 is going to be better.
Unfortunately that moment for me has come and gone. I’ve hit snooze on a few projects too many times. This will be my only post for the week so I can cross a few things off of my to-do list and hopefully regroup a bit. Have a great week!
(quote found on Pinterest)
Remember this little guy (girl?) with the dangle-y eyeball?
I now own its gold-toned brother (sister?)!!
Yeah! And mine has a tail! And it was almost $20 cheaper!! Man, I love ebay! I think I’ll name her (him) Dorothy. We were meant to be together.
Yes, I have purchased my first holiday paraphernalia of the season (found at Wally World). I can’t help myself. I partly blame Mabel of Make Every Day Count because she has posted not once but twice about Christmas decorations in the past week. But really, I’ve been in the mood for Christmas for at least a month now. I may have to bust out Love Actually or The Family Stone this weekend while I have the house to myself.
My sister-in-law Jami and I are going to check out the Bloomington Handmade Market this weekend. I hear it’s pretty good. I’m always a little leery of “craft shows”. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve been to one, but my memory is conjuring up images of painted saw blades and potpourri. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this one will be better. While we are there, we’re planning on stopping by the Bloomington Antique Mall (where I bought this ottoman from AZ Vintage). Regardless of what we find at either place, I’m just looking forward to being in Bloomington. That town’s got a cool vibe, mostly thanks to the thousands of college kids running around. It’s the kind of place that almost makes you forget you’re in Indiana.
I pretty much want to marry whoever designs jewelry for Trina Turk. I mean, look at this stuff (in order of importance):
[on sale on TT's website]
[sold out on TT's website but available on Amazon]
[on sale on TT's website]
[via Bloomingdale's]
[via Amazon]
[on sale on TT's website but found better picture on Amazon]
[on sale on TT's website]
[via Amazon]
[via ebay]
I’m on board with all of it. Owning any of these pieces would make me a better person. I want to be the Liz Taylor of costume jewelry.
Head on over to the Draw! Pilgrim blog. You might see something you recognize:
I paid for an ad for the month of November. Best case scenario, it will bring a little bit more traffic my way. We’ll see how it goes! Baby steps…
PS. If Draw! Pilgrim looks familiar to you, it’s because she has the cutest header in all of blog land.
This is what I did with my weekend:
It’s Little Orphan Annie’s wig. It took me about eleventy hours to make. But did she wear it? Of course not. Here’s the best picture I got of the little whirling dervish:
And her poor dad. I made him dress up like Daddy Warbucks:
He’s such a good sport, putting up with the two crazy women in his life…
Happy freakin’ Halloween.
#1 – from Zoe Ingram
#2 – from Linda Ketelhut
#3 – from Veronica Diago
(and #4 which isn’t really a print but should be [found on Pinterest via Capree Kimball])
And someday when our spare room becomes my “studio”, they will all hang on the wall and be friends. Like this:
Look how cute this little Rubik’s Cube chest of drawers is (found here):
Guess who had a similar brilliant idea back in college:
Yeah, that’s me, circa 1998 (check out the word processor box behind my chair!!). Yes, I have always been weird. No, it wasn’t Halloween. I had rollers in my hair because I was graduating from VU a few hours later. The pale face and tanned body is a combination of bad lighting, bad makeup, and bad decisions. I was 20, ok? What I didn’t know then could fill a warehouse.
So, the Rubik’s Cube table. The summer before my second year at VU, I had a dream that I was in some type of nerdy game store, like at the mall. From the ceiling hung a very large Rubik’s Cube, and I remember thinking to myself in the dream that it would make a cute table for my apartment at school. So (in real life) I had Dad build me one and I painted it. It was not nearly as sophisticated or well thought out as the one above, but I’m still pretty proud of it 13 years later. And where is it now? I’m pretty sure it’s in Mom and Dad’s basement covered in mold… 
I apparently could have made some good money from the idea. This puppy‘s selling for $600:
Geez! Do these people not realize that a junior college “undergrad” can make one with her dad for like $20?
Can anyone guess what my TV stand was made out of?? I update you on that later. I gotta get some sleep so I can dream up my next brainchild.
My cousin Amy just sent me a link to these Jonathan Adler giraffe sconces at Macy’s (left and right, respectively):
At first glance I thought they were table lamps, but the fact that they’re sconces makes them cooler. Why aren’t there more sconces in the world? Was that a 70′s thing? All the more reason to bring them back!! If I was planning a nursery and had a $500 lighting budget, I’d slap these two puppies (calves?) up on the wall and call it a day. But since I’m not and I don’t, I’ll probably just be putting this adorable little ornament on my Christmas list instead:
I’ve been trying to shake things up a bit here on the blog (ok, really it’s more like a few nudges…).
That just about covers it. There’s a million more things I’d like to change/update/add/try/fix, but there are only so many hours in the day. It can’t keep me from trying, though!
