Happiness Is . . . Finding Beautiful Cards

A few days ago I bought some of these beautiful cards on etsy, which I originally saw on Poppytalk. I think they're so pretty and so sweet. You might wonder why in world I'm buying Christmas cards when I make them myself. Well, I'm a bit of a card junkie, and I don't always send out my own cards anyway. I send out some, but I like so many cards, I can't resist buying other cards and sending them out as well. I just love cards! I keep all the cards people send to me.

Here's a my rickety, old, paint chipped metal card rack that my mom bought for me at a flea market. It's filled with all sorts of cards. Every now and then I read through some of the good wishes and kind words that live on my card rack and think about how grateful I am for receiving them. I have a few boxes full of cards under my bed too, which are mostly from my mom. I started collecting her cards first. I also have a drawer full of blank cards yet to be sent--cards I just liked so much and knew would be perfect for someone, someday that I had to buy them. And when I buy a pack of cards, I almost always keep one, just for the sake of keeping it. I try really hard to send that last one out, but usually never can.


I'll definitely keep one of these "happiness is" cards. The card reads, "happiness is a fresh blanket of snow." And what a cute, curious bunny that is! I just want to pat its little cotton tail. I also like how Erika describes the card: "When snow is falling in the woods, and you can hear it. When all is quiet, and animals don't even know you're there. I imagine a tree somewhere that's been decorated for this time of year. The colors are inspired by memories of childhood--going to bed when it's snowing heavily, cold winter days, blankets of snow on trees and on the ground, looking into my backyard forest. One of our favorite books in the house is this darling little newsprint book by Charles Schulz called Happiness is a Warm Puppy where the characters of the Peanuts cartoon tell what happiness means to them. "Happiness is a good climbing tree; happiness is a night light; happiness is . . . happiness is a blanket of fresh snow . . . this is what happiness is to me this time of year."

This card makes me happy. It also makes me happy that now we're at my mom's house in Atlanta for Christmas, and soon the cards should arrive here in the mail. I think it will be too late to send them out this Christmas. Lucky for me, then, I get to keep them until next Christmas.