From The Patch

Our FAVORITE tree farm, Fish Creek Tree Farm!

We've mentioned our favorite tree farm before, in past issues of From The Patch (our printed newsletter, which has now become our eNews.)

Fish Creek Tree Farm is, quite simply, part of our holiday tradition.  Every year we go and cut a tree - yep, down on our hands and knees (although they'll help you with whatever you need help with; we just prefer the full-meal-deal).  We walk and choose the PERFECT tree - although it always seems a little bigger than last year's tree, and wasn't last year's tree a little too big for the space we have?  

Fish Creek's trees always seem to last us for months.  Our first year, we pulled the tree down well into February!  Make sure to water it regularly, and enjoy the tree for the entire season!  They'll be open this year from November 27 until December 21st, 10am - dusk.

Anyway, we're extremely excited to share their new website with our wonderful readers!  Be sure to check them out, and make them part of your holiday plans this year!  The pictures below are from 2007, when Ben was a little younger... it was his first experience with snow. :)

Check Fish Creek Tree Farm out online today.  There are directions, tree types and prices, hours of operation, contact information...pretty much everything you need!

Lori Mitchell Christmas 2009 Products!

A very FEW of our Lori Mitchell products, for Christmas 2009! Artist Lori Mitchell's products have become quite the collector's items, and are always a favorite with customers (which also, of course, means they sell fast!)

Do you collect Lori Mitchell (or have you HEARD of Lori Mitchell?)  What's your favorite piece of this year, or all time? :)

Rachel Badeau Christmas Ornaments

Jack in the Box Ornament

Christmas is starting to arrive at The Patch!  I have been rather slow going about getting it online, as we've been busy trying to get it all open and out in the store!  We're working on it pretty steadily now, and I'll try to keep you all updated with some of the collections arriving, a bit more regularly.

A new item for us this year are some Christmas tree ornaments by artist Rachel Badeau.

Monkey Drumming Snowman

Some info about the artist:

Rachel lives in Rhode Island where she creates hand colored, embossed and engraved intricate works of art inspired by her love of nature and animals. The detail in her work captures the deep feelings she has for wildlife, and the whimsy in her pieces reflects her humor and wit. Rachel’s signature style resembles precious scrimshaw and can be found in galleries across the country.

Here are some of my favorites:

Rocking Horse Ornament

Train Ornament (I'm getting this one for Ben!)

Teddy Bear Ornament

Squirrel Building A Snowman

Enjoy! :)

Halloween and Fall Linens from DII

This month we're expecting our shipment of Fall and Christmas Linens from the Seattle-based company, DII (Design India Imports).  We've picked out some adorable things this year, including spooky black and orange dishtowels, warm harvest napkins and tablecloths, and fun Christmas things too!  This year we've also ordered some of their seasonal dishes, such as their snowflake mixing/serving bowls, harvest glass plates, and some awesome polka dot Halloween plates.  I love DII, because they are a local company, and they always have really great quality for a really great price.  Here's some pictures of what's coming!!

Full Moon Polka Dot Plates

Scaredy Cat Spider Dishtowel

Spooktacular Spider Web Embroidered Tablerunner

Pumpkin Spice Jacquard Tablecloth

Pumpkin Border Jacquard Dishtowel

Pumpkin Spice Dishtowels

Gingerbread Dishtowel

Happy Holidays Dishtowel

Snowflake Bowls

Candy Cane Dishtowel

Check out all of our Fall items HERE, our Halloween items Here, and our Christmas items HERE!  We expect DII to arrive some time this month, so that we can start shipping by the end of July.  Place your preorders now! 

Studio Bakeshop

Oh my yes, are we cooking up some great things in the artsy-fartsy studio bakeshop!  Sneak peeks just for you....

Great things to come!  Ooooo, I can't wait...

Pumpkinseeds Folk Art

I just submitted our Fall and Christmas order for this year's Pumpkinseeds figurines by artist Janelle Barryman, and oh my goodness peoples, will you just look at these guys?

Halloween's Best Dressed

Hocus Pocus

Aubrey the Good Witch

Melt Your Heart Snowman

Santa Stack

North Pole or Bust

Pilgrim Couple

Kid Pumpkee

That is just a sampling of the little darlings.  They have such fantastic detail, and the faces are really sweet unlike a lot of Halloween figurines.  Both Halloween/Fall and Christmas should arrive by July, but they are up for pre-order right now.  Enjoy!!

Fish Creek Tree Farm

One of our traditions each year is to trek off into the "wilderness" to find the perfect Christmas tree for our home. We love to go to live tree farms, because the trees are, well, alive! We spend hours wandering the farms, comparing this tree to that. We sip cider or hot chocolate, munch on candy canes, and revel in the brisk air and the rich tree smell that permeates the tree farm. Finally, finding our perfect tree, we grab the (provided) saw and get to work. Sawdust flies, and soon the tree is down and ready for us to carry to the car. This entire experience marks the start of our Christmas Season, and we wouldn’t miss it for the world! Below is a list of some local Christmas Tree Farms. We found our information online, and for a more complete list would recommend one of two websites: The Puget Sound Christmas Tree Association (http://www.pscta.org/) or Northwest Trees (http://www.nwtrees.com/washington.htm). Other than Fish Creek Tree Farm, we have no experience with the farms on this list, so please call the farm first for more information, and have fun exploring some of the options!

OUR favorite farm is up in Arlington Washington, and is called Fish Creek Tree Farm.  This year we have missed our trek to our favorite tree farm - between the craziness of life and having an 18 month old who insists on tasting everything, we decided for this one year we needed to use a *GASP* artificial tree.  Actually, it's a beautiful tree, but it's still not "the real thing".  Each of the past years we got a live tree from Fish Creek, we were thrilled with our trees which lasted for months - and months, and months.  Of course, we made sure to water the tree regularly, and to take care of it.  If you’re looking for a great Christmas Tree Farm where the experience of searching for a tree is surpassed only by the experience of HAVING a healthy tree, then make the trip to Fish Creek Tree Farm!

Fish Creek Tree Farm
Lloyd Dietlin and Family
360-652-9030
18420 3rd Ave NE
Arlington, WA 98223
Open Nov 25 to Dec 19.
Daily 10am till dusk

Seasons of Cannon Falls

So sorry it has been so long since we've written!  All of our Christmas and Fall stock has been arriving, and we are furiously trying to open up all the boxes, prices everything, and find a place for it all before the next big shipment arrives!  We've had some long stressful days, but it is so much fun to see everything in person finally!  This means that within the next several days, I'm taking off most of the preorders for the Fall and Christmas, so that everything shows on the site as being ready for immediate shipment!  It is so much fun!

Today I am working on our Seasons of Cannon Falls order.  Here is some eye candy for you, just a few of the over 150 Seasons of Cannon Falls seasonal goodies we have!  Enjoy!

Girl on Pumpkin Container, by Nicole Sayre

Glittered Star Treetop

Happy Halloween Blocks Set

Merry Old Soul Santa

Noel Door Swag, by Wendy Addison

Oh Little Snowman Salt & Pepper Shaker Set

Welcome Pumpkins

Vintage Winter House

See all Christmas here, Fall/Harvest here, and Halloween here!  More to come!

Illness

We apologize for the complete lack of posting lately - Chris, Benjamin, Chris' parents, and both sets of grandparents, even some of our employees, have all been down with a really nasty flu.  It figures that the year I get a flu shot, I get the flu.  I hardely ever get sick, so to have a fever, infection, and all the other fun things that have come with this flu, including a sick infant, has had me rather stir crazy.  I'm sorry to say we were sick all through Christmas.  Which means I only got us halfway through our Christmas Advent!  Oh well, that leaves me something more to look forward to next Christmas.  I do have some fun things planned for the blog this year, that I'm excited about.  Not going to spill the beans yet, though - you'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, we're still on the mend.  We've made plans to have a special Christmastime together when we're feeling better.  We've opened our presents, but we haven't eaten our traditional holiday yummies that we were looking forward to enjoying, nor played any games, made our visitis, or watched our movies.  No flu is going to keep us down...we missed the day on the calendar, but we'll still get the day!

K is for Kris Kringle

Now of course, what's Christmas without Santa?  Our parents shared the magic of santa with us as children.  I can remember sneaking into the livingroom at night with my sister, where the tree was, so that we could catch santa filling our stocking.  We of course just fell asleep, and never did catch him. 

I don't recall the transition between believing in santa, and then finding out he wasn't real.  I can't remember believing in him, and then not believing in him.  There was no crushing disappointment.  My parents were obviously masterful in their techniques of sharing Santa with me - I got all the fun, with no negative memories.  I myself am torn about how to enjoy the concept of santa in our household.  I think santa is a beautiful, magical, fun idea, one that was actually based someone in reality, although I am unsure as to which stories are true and which are myth.  All have the same happy message, though, so I don't waste much time worrying about it. 

Just browsing online, there are lots of different stories - you can read one here, here, and here.  This is an interesting site on Christmas in Germany - many of our stories, decorations, and customs here in America have their origins in Germany, so this site is a fun read.

I'm not sure how we'll share the fun of Santa Claus / Kris Kringle with our son when the time comes, but whatever we choose, our goal is give him something fun, inspiring, and magical to believe in and anticipate year after year!