Makes my heart sing

It's November, y'all! The month when all of my favorite things start happening all at once! (Well, minus exams, but that's trivial.) Autumn is hands-down my favorite season, as previously mentioned, but if you want to really get a Callie excited, give her a Martha Stewart, Real Simple, or Southern Living holiday decorating magazine, turn on some Windam Hill Celtic Christmas and watch the scissors fly into a holiday crafting frenzy. (Once upon a time, I had a room with a great spot in a window for my own little Christmas tree. I spent ages attaching - and getting Mama to help me attach - strings to little Uberaschungseier toys to be my ornaments.) I pull inspiration from these homemaker sources, but really most of my best and fondest memories of decorating come from the Swedish/Norwegian influences of Carl Larsen and Jan Brett.

Carl Larsen

Christmas Day by Carl Larsen, Carl Larsen Gallery
Now it's Christmas again by Carl Larsen, Carl Larsen Gallery

With his darling children accentuating nearly every scene, Carl's Swedish realism really thrills my heart. The relationships, the decoration, the expressions, the color, the light - really, folks, I just want to be Scandinavian sometimes. (Or at least let my house be decorated in such a way.) It doesn't hurt at all that one of his favorite holidays to depict is St. Lucy's Feast Day - December 13th, also celebrated in some parts of the world as the Day of Callie's Birth.

Jan Brett

Somewhere along the line, reindeer, hedgehogs, and little girls in Fair Isle sweaters came and decided to steal my imagination. For a good, oh, 10 years I would dress up like "Treva", the main character in the Christmas Trolls book by the (American) childrens book author Jan Brett and wish it would snow, wish I had a sled dog named Tuffi, and wish there really was a little mischievous hedgehog scurrying around just out of sight.

And now I set about sewing ornaments, gifts, and other decorations.
Bonus points for those using Kirsten American Girl's Craft book and wearing Hanna Anderson long john striped pajamas.