.they say it's your birthday.

As I hinted a bit last week, December 22 was my 23rd birthday. We celebrated the night before and all of my favorite friends (only a couple were missing) made it over. There was much dancing (Just Dance 2 for the Wii is my new favorite) and laughing and Rock Band-ing. There was good wine and good beer. I even managed to finish my first whole bottle of beer! It was really good, almost like a wine.

Anyway, my sister baked this amazing Italian-style cheesecake for me. Isn't it beautiful? The cheese were ricotta and mascarpone. I wasn't sure what to expect (neither was she!), but man oh man was it good. She spiced it with cinnamon and made a gingersnap crust. Need I say more?

That night was one of my favorite gatherings ever. Everyone was so sweet and made the night just perfect. At 12:15am the people who were still over screamed the happy birthday song to me. Scariest happy birthday song version ever!

To those who came and to those who didn't even know it was my birthday (I didn't exactly scream it into the world) thank you so much for being around. I'm so grateful for all of you.

.creative odyssey.

I have some exciting news today.

But you have to go over here to see it.

.still no lights.

blue spruce

lots of snow

We got our tree over a week ago, but still haven't put lights on it yet. Two of my good friends have let me borrow their extra lights. The only strands we already had are decorating the rest of our house (I might leave them up forever!). Note to self : buy lights once they're dirt cheap after Christmas!

The last two weeks have been non-stop. I know it's that time of the year and everyone's a little crazy right now, but man am I ready for a break! I'm vowing to myself that next week will be calm. I hope you're getting a break in, too. 

Our Christmas/my birthday party is tomorrow. It should be a ton of fun! My sister is baking me a chai cheesecake and I do believe I will have dreams about it tonight. So good.

What do you have going on this week?

.sunrise.

Thought I would let you in on what I've been up to this week. It all culminated in a lovely (and freezing) shoot this morning. We were hoping to get the sunrise, but it was completely overcast... Just my luck, huh? It worked out in the end, though. We got breakfast in Northville to pass the time until it was light enough out to shoot.

We even got a tiny, light snowfall. We also made our own snowfall. Hence, if you saw my tweet earlier, "can I get some snow over here?" That would've been Megan, my amazing photographer, calling for some snowfall.

I'm so happy with how everything turned out. What a beautiful morning!

A big, huge, truly heartfelt THANK YOU to Megan Boltz, Jessica Renaud and Shannon Priest.
_______________

P.S. I'm hosting a newsletter subscriber-only shop preview on Tuesday, Dec. 21! Early Tuesday morning, I'll send out a link to the winter collection through my email list. The lovely (and lucky!) people who have signed up will have exclusive access to the winter collection for the whole day. They will also get a nice little 10% discount for that day only. You're signing up, right?

Just scroll on up to the newsletter signup form on the top right :)

The public shop opening is this Wednesday, December 22 (also happens to be my birthday!), so stay tuned!


Brittany

.tree getting.

Every year, Eric and I go with his and his uncle's family to a u-cut tree farm in Monroe, MI. It's a lot of fun and utterly exhausting, just like any good family tradition is. His young cousins revel in the chance to run through the trees, Eric often chasing them (I think he spent more time with his cousins than he did with me).

Once we all pick out our trees (his aunt and uncle are always first, he and I always last) and have them bound, we head to the big barn to get snacks and a hot drink.

This year was just as wonderful as the past few have been. We picked a lovely blue spruce this year. I can't wait to get it in the house. We brought it home on Sunday, but won't be putting it up until Saturday afternoon. Eric's busy work/school schedule is very prohibitive when it comes to projects like these.

Do you get a tree for your house? Do you prefer natural or fake trees?

.twelve days.

dolmen

I know I haven't been over here in a few days. Was I ever busy! Noel Night in Detroit was this weekend and I spent so much time last week preparing. There wasn't a single day that went by that I wasn't working on jewelry! Stressful, but in a very good way.

It was such a crazy blur that I didn't even get pictures of my table. What was I thinking?? Yeah, I don't know either... But I do know that it was really exciting to see people's reactions to my jewelry in person, talking to them about which were their favorites and why. Doing this event really affirmed my desire to start offering home + office parties, as well as trunk shows. I can't wait to get started with that in the new year!

So, the other big reason I'm writing this post (we're getting to the title here) is because I'm hosting a crazy awesome sale at The Home Ground : Shop that starts tomorrow morning. Here's the rub. Each day for the next twelve days (December 9-20) I will offer big discounts on the entire shop. So exciting, right? So, for those of you who have been holding off, this is the time to buy that piece you've been coveting! The discounts will start big and get smaller each day, so you really want to subscribe now, trust me.

Here's the catch (if you can really call it that). I'm only offering these discounts to newsletter subscribers. Yup, truly. So, here's the plan of action : 

1. Sign up for The Home Ground newsletter.

2. Pick out your favorite pieces for yourself and the lovely ladies on your holiday shopping list.

3. Wait impatiently for the first email to arrive in your inbox tomorrow morning.

4. Run back over to the Shop and get the aforementioned favorite pieces before the limited editions are sold out!

Sound good?

Well then, go ahead and subscribe!

.i heart stones.

a little preview of some of the materials i'm using in The Home Ground's winter collection.

what do you think?

.cozy warm.

the ladies' dressing room. isn't it so cute? i love the turquoise chairs!

i love all of the white in the chapel. it will be especially helpful since our ceremony is at 6pm on november 5th. it will already be dark out by the time we're standing up there.

here it is! the interior of the eagle tavern at greenfield village. i love this place and can't wait to eat and dance and laugh with our closest friends and family. the two fires will be roaring, the bar will be open, and there will be a fiddle playing. no kidding, we're renting an oldtime band for a couple hours.

.pretty.

beatrix

musette

aren't these two dresses from elizabeth dye just... heavenly? musette is more me, but i love beatrix just because.

let me tell you that musette will be flitting around my mind, in a subtle grey if that were possible, for a while. perhaps even up until the point when i buy a dress.

is this wedding week or something?

hope you don't mind :)

.true love.

this is where we're getting married. isn't it beautiful?

specifically... our ceremony will be in that gorgeous little chapel. henry ford designed it in honor of his mother, martha, and his mother-in-law, mary. hence, it is called the martha mary chapel. it's very simple inside, which is perfect for us. our ceremony will not be a religious one, so we're thankful for the plain interior. plain, but really pretty.

the reception will be in the eagle tavern. this place is so so cool. it's a tavern that was running in michigan in the 1850s. the building still has two working fireplaces, so those will be roaring for the whole night! we're getting an old-timey band to play for a couple hours, with a fiddle and such. it's going to be so great.

it was far too dark on saturday to take any interior pictures of the tavern, and the chapel was locked. but, i have a bunch of photos of both interiors from this summer, if you'd like to see them.

yay or nay?

p.s. that guy in the picture with the tavern? that's eric :)