A Christmas wish came true when we got snow last week in the days after Christmas. It was just the perfect snow: big, fat flakes that swirled and stuck, no wind at all, temps not even that cold. We walked all over the neighborhood and then down to the bakery. It reminded me of the hundreds of times I walked there with Amelia in her stroller, warm under her Sunshine Day and in her little knitted boots. The sun came out and make everything sparkle. It was a wonderful present.
I know it's been a hard year for everyone, and it has been harder for me than I can even say. I pray that you have found blessings in the challenges and I pray that I can focus on the blessings, and appreciate them and cherish them, and even grow stronger from the challenges. I'm so grateful for every one of you who has been here this past year (and before that) with your kind words and your generous advice and your stories and your orders and your recipes and your pictures of crafts that you've made. Every single one of the ways you've shared support with me has been important to me, and I sincerely thank you for being here with me when so often I feel that I've lost myself, sifting through the days, looking for things to help and hold on to. I'm going to try to be here more on a regular basis to help me remember and honor the little things. I have every hope for a brighter year and I wish each of you good health and every happiness in 2022. Love always, Alicia, and Andy, Amelia, Clover Meadow, and Agatha Raisin Paulson
Thank you! I have loved your blog for years, reading here in Canada. It is one of the kindest, coziest places on the Internet and has brought me comfort and inspiration as I became a mother. I love the beautiful way you look at life, and the home you have created, and the art and crafts and sewing you have shared. I hope this coming year brings good things to you! Happy New Year and thank you for your blog!
Happy New Year! 2021 certainly has had its challenges for all of us. Here's hoping 2022 will be brighter. I always look forward to your photography and blog postings.
Bless you! It has been a hard year for our world. ❤🙏🌹
“Snow is the most beautiful silence in the world.”
- from Monica Shannon’s Dobry, winner of the 1935 Newbery Medal
I hope the next year will be easier, kinder and more gentle to you.
Wishing you good health and peace of mind for the future. Thank you for providing balm for your readers, wishing the same for you and your family. I hope 2022 is a better year.
And a Happy New Year to you too! I’ve been reading for years and years, very glad you’ve resolved to post more, that’s excellent.
The very happiest of New Years to you and yours too, I hope it is all you dream of. CJ xx
Happy New Year, Alicia. I look forward to connecting with you more in 2022. Thank you for sharing these gorgeous snapshots of your life!
Happy New Year Paulson family! I am so grateful to you for sharing a little slice of your world with us. I have been coming back here many years and reading you blog always fills me with joy. Wishing you all the best for 2022 xx
Happy New Year to you and your family as well. Thank you for sharing your world with us. 💗
We got 3 inches and then 3 inches where we are outside Seattle. Usually we only get snow in Jan, if then.
2021 was hard. Here’s to a better 2022! I enjoy your posts immensely, thank you for sharing! We are also in the PNW, and my son is Amelia’s age so I can relate. Happy New Year!!!
Happy New Year to you and your family. I believe it truly helps to see that everyone has struggles to deal with, even when there is not a pandemic. It reminds us that we are all in this life together. Here's hoping for a better year for everyone in 2022.
Sweet Alicia, may you, your family, and all the world have a brighter, easier year in 2022! I think it will be a new version of "normal", after all that has gone on the past two years, but I hope we have all learned lessons about life, and ourselves, that will help us to make things better for us and the world.
You have been an inspiration to me for well over a decade now, I think. For a long time I liked to imagine moving to Portland, largely due to all you wrote about it, and your amazing photos of the seasons and life in both the city and surrounding countryside. As life has unfolded, it was not me but my daughter who moved to Oregon--she went to grad school in Corvallis 9 years ago and has never left. I have spent so much time there, especially after I retired and she made me a grandma (both in the space of two weeks actually!) in 2019, the last year that life was "normal" in the world. . .
Sending a big hug from Arizona!
Happy New Year!! We are getting a New Year’s Day snow/freezing rain mix here in Missouri. We did not get any snow in December. I do want to encourage you that your blog, photos and willingness to share your life is inspirational and always something I enjoy reading. Question- did you make the house on your mantle and if so do you have a post to go back and read about that? Love the photos as always. Enjoy this day with your family!! ❤️🕯⛄️
Thanking you and your blog for helping me find serenity in these troubling times. I'm a granny whose son and family live in Portland, so you've helped me envision their lives when I'm so far away simply by sharing your own life. Really, thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to share pictures and posts about your life. I enjoy reading about your day to day activities and watching Amelia grow up. I'm also in the PNW and I'm ready for the snow to be gone, at least from the roads. Here's hoping for a less stressful 2022.
Happy New Year to you and yours. I have been a fan since at least 2005 and have many of your kits. I decided collecting the kits is on hobby. Making them is another. I look forward to your showing up more. I am trying to focus on the little things. Love, Carol, family, and cat Fern
Happy New Year to you and your family! Best wishes for 2022.
Hi Alicia from just outside NYC, where I often dream of your part of the country! I've been following for a while and love your posts. A generous heart and an honesty so often lacking these days. I'm pretty sure your dedicated followers aren't going anywhere, so feel freed to post more if moved to do so. Love the beautiful photos!! -- Thanks for all...
Happy New Year to you! Your photographs are so beautiful! You make the world a little brighter, a little more creative and a lot more cozy. All the best in 2022.
Dearest Alicia, You have such a beautiful way of looking at the world. This space you've created here has been such a comfort and respite to me over the many years. I'm wishing you a brighter, more joyous 2022. Lots of love to you and your family. Kindly, Annette
You photography always stuns me with its beauty and lifts me up during hard times xooxxo
Thank you for the year of glimpses into the magical world of the Paulson household. I am so grateful that you share and it is a true source of inspiration to get me making. I am sitting under my own version of sunshine day right now. I just visited the Nordic Museum in Seattle and saw the paper cutting exhibit. I thought you would especially enjoy. www.nordicmuseum.org/exhibition/paperdialogues
www.instagram.com/laylamayarthurpaperstudio/ https://papercutart.no/new-bit-in-action/
It's been a tough year and I am sorry it's been so hard for you. Your beautiful photography is a highlight for me and always warms my heart. Keep shining.
Reading your blog has become an important part of my life over the years, and I thank you for it! I also hope that this year is a good one for all of us. I think 2021 was just as hard if not harder than 2020, so I’m praying for better days. Thank you for your recipes, awesome embroidery and sewing kits and beautiful blog posts. They are so special to me.
Love to you and your family!