Happy New Year!!!!

2008 had been an interesting ride, but I have really good feelings about 2009. Here's to a charming, shabby, cottage year! :-)

Best,

As I sit here gazing out at an unbelievable landscape with almost two feet of snow, I can't help but think that this has been a wild year all the way around. What a year, huh? Not just with everything going on in the world, but in all of our lives, too. It's one for the record books.

At times like these, I'm also filled with gratitude. Not just for my life in general, but for all of you. There are so many of you who have been so supportive and encouraging of me and visiting here every day to leave your comments and offer your thoughts to me and the other readers. I love that about our little group here, and I thank you all, sincerely, for being such great friends. I wish I could give every one of you a big hug!

For now, though, it's time for me to focus my attention on my family, and the holiday, and my usual end-of-year reflection. So I'm signing off for 2008, returning next on January 1, 2009. I've got lots of ideas, tons of projects in the works and a bunch of improvements going on in my house that I haven't shared yet. So I can't wait to get back to all of you.

In the meantime, I genuinely hope that each of you has a memorable holiday, filled with love and light and experiences that will charge you up for the new year. It's going to be a great year next year, I can just feel it. I can't wait for us all to meet our greatest successes in 2009.

My best to all of you,

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Since some of you asked, the ornament at the top is my own creation. I made it from a vintage bulb reflector and a vintage earring. I have how-to photos to post, but the time got away from me. And then I made, like, 50 of them and was going to put some up for sale, but I wasn't sure people would be interested. They'd be, like, $6 each? Ish? So if you're interested, let me know. Otherwise, I'll probably go ahead and put the how-to's up later for next year, if you want to see that?

P.P.S. Just got a super-nice e-mail from Ki Nassauer of Junk Camp who said that she was excited to see that we had come up with the same idea with the vintage bulb reflectors, isn't that cool? If you haven't already, you should check out her new blog, Junk Camp

Welcome to Cottage Magpie, one of many stops on several awesome Christmas tours (more on that below). I hope that after you visit my home, you'll make a point to visit everyone else on the various tours. I had the first part of my holiday tour last week, and this is the second part.

This part of the tour features my living room. This is my special tree with the colors and decorations that I love, that the boys in the house aren't interested in. It's silver and gold and white and because of the many nature-inspired ornaments, I call it my fairy tree.

I love all the sparkly sparkles of the gold, silver, crystal and white on the tree. I really wanted the tree to look full, so I made several more ornaments this year, and I'll be posting how to information as the week goes on.

And of course, no silver and gold fairy tree would be complete without an angel on top. Or maybe she's a fairy angel? Could be.

This room of the house is starting to become a sanctuary of sorts for me. No one else uses it, so I am taking it over for myself. I've started redecorating it, too, and though I haven't gotten far, I can't wait to show you my progress after the holiday. For now, if you looked carefully, you may have noticed a sneak peek at some thrifted furniture. More on that soon.

For now, Happy Holidays!

P.S. There are tons more amazing holiday tours this week. Here are some this post is included on that you should check out: The Hookedonhouses Christmas Home Tour, The WeAreTHATFamily Christmas Tree Tour, The Thrifty Decor Chick Christmas Tree Par-Tay Tour, The Southern Hospitality Deck the Halls 2008 Tour, The Annual BooMama Christmas Tour of Homes 2008 and last but not least, A Soft Place to Land's Kimba's Open House Party. Make sure you visit them all! :-)

P.P.S. There's also a cast-signing party with an absolutely gorgeous necklace as a prize, so you'll want to check that out, too. It's at Living Life One Day At A Time

Thank you so much everyone for joining in on the Virtual Cookie Exchange! What a fantastic turnout, and SO many delicious looking cookies. Man, oh, man I think I gained 5 lbs just reading through them all! :-) If you haven't already checked them out, please do!

And, now the moment you've all been waiting for, the giveaway!

The winner is....

....drumroll, please...

Lisa from akawest, who posted some delicious chocolate filled thumbprints, which look fantastic!

Congratulations, Lisa!

You've won a $50 gift basket of at-home spa goodies, custom-made by a registered aromatherapist! You choose either Lavender Fields or Romantic Evening. I promise, they both smell FANTASTIC.

It's here! The day of the virtual cookie exchange! Happening simultaneously with my real-life cookie exchange, this is my chance to include all of you!

And, to thank you for participating, on Monday morning one lucky winner will receive a $50 gift basket of at-home spa goodies. It's custom-made just for me by a registered aromatherapist. You choose either Lavender Fields or Romantic Evening. I promise, they both smell FANTASTIC.

Okay, some rules:

• Please link directly to your cookie post, not to your home page. I want people to be able to find those recipes months from now! :-)
• Please include a link back to this post so everyone can get access to the amazing collection of cookies
• If you have more than one cookie post, please feel free to add more than once. I'll definitely be adding all of mine (though of course I'm not eligible to win my own prize! :-)
• One last one: please include the name of your cookie in your Mr. Linky (along with your name)

Thanks so much for sharing your favorite holiday cookies (and recipes, if you can). I can't wait to see them all! Mr. Linky will be up until Monday morning, so have fun! :-)

Happy Holidays!

Sorry, the contest is now closed and the gift basket has been given away. However, feel free to add your cookie recipes as a resource to others!