color and gloom

 Can you believe it's December already? Me neither! Time is ghosting by. As it always does.

Winter has always been my least favorite of the seasons. So dead and colorless. But I'm preparing by putting even more splashes of brightness around my house. We've joined the "paint-your-door-a-pretty-eye-catching-color" trend. I'm quite pleased with the shade of teal hubby and I settled on. 

Woodpecker is very happy with the shade of his door.

Also, one of my good friends just sent me a wonderfully bright paper-bird cutout from China. An artist cut this design out of tissue paper (which blows my mind). But I think they look really lovely against the yellow paper and orange frame.

Also: baker's twine and parcel paper. Who knew such simple items make for such fun gift-wrapping? The snowflakes are perhaps a bit more elaborate. I blame Pinterest. 

And while we're on the subject of crafty things: aren't these pinecone Christmas trees the cutest? I made them with my preschoolers today. All it takes is pinecones, spraypaint and pom-poms. And its super easy for little ones (as long as they're careful not to poke themselves.)

I've been hard at work on the sequel. It's very slowly (might I emphasize the very and the slowly) coming together into something that resembles a story. (Yay!) I'm definitely resigning myself to the fact that I am indeed a pantser. And not a plotter.

I tried to plot. I really did. But the characters were not cooperating.

Typical.

I got this in the mail a few days ago:

*this is supposed to be my scary face...

It's the anthology I was telling you about a few weeks ago! The one with my short story in it!

Here's a quick teaser of said short story:

I'm sorry that I've now ruined Gushers for you forever. Probably KFC too.

Want more anyway? You can get it here (electronic or actual book-style).