Posts in Christmas

Halls (Of The Midtown Global Market) Will Be Decked With Such Goodness

published by Fran Shea

There is always SO MUCH TO DO this time of year! Jen has to print and fold about a million cards and I have to sit still so my daughter can do my nails.panda-nails-2Yes, those are adorable pandas. And yes, that is stigmata.

The No Coast Craft-o-Rama has an amazing line up this year (as usual), there is Miss Amy JoAdam Turmanglass|wares, Cosmo’s CollarsMoss Love TerrariumsOh Dier, Soup Hunter Guitars, and… so… much… MORE!!

SO, bring your money and your eyeballs and get ready to check everyone off your Christmas list! AND send a belated Chanukah card (is that a thing??)funky-beat-30-f8

Summit of Greeting Cards

published by Fran Shea

After spending $80,000 on climbing gear and an entourage of Sherpas in Nepal,

Shriya Shah-Klorfine (foreground), of Toronto, is shown at the summit of Mount Everest. The body of the Canadian woman who died while returning from the summit of Mount Everest is one step closer to being evacuated from the mountain. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Utmost Adventure Trekking Pvt. Ltd.
the Canadian woman reached the Summit of Mount Everest.

I’m sure it was glorious.

The relief, the pride, the joy!

BUT, she forgot one teeny-tiny thing: enough oxygen for her descent. With temperatures hovering around -30° and an altitude of 22,000 ft., she laid her body down on the side of the mountain. 

And died.

everest1Lesson??

Never trust a Sherpa.

Zeichen Press reached a summit too! We’ve been climbing Mount Greeting Card for a looong time and we finally reached the tippity-top: Urban Outfitters.

…But now I’ll have to set a new goal… Suggestions?

Urban Outfitters bought this card — but just to be fancy, it will be printed with a bright blue ink:LetsDoThisLet’s do this, indeed.

Fear and Dread

published by Fran Shea

I’m not afraid of heights or clowns or rats or bats or cemeteries or sharks. But I AM afraid of centipedes.centipede7

Once upon a time, I vacuumed up a centipede that was wearing Bill Cosby’s sweater.

bill_cosby_and_sweaters-copy

But enough of that!

It’s August and time to dread Winter.

My research shows that Hell is being trapped in a snow cave with 1,000 centipedes. And here’s a card for Christmas.

WHAT?!beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas-2

Ampersands And Counting Skills

published by Fran Shea

Counting is not as easy as it looks. The intern and I had to count cards (we love to gamble) for a big Kate’s Paperie order.

Holiday cards in June?are-we-there-yetMy life is an endless sacrifice.

All of that counting tasted terrible, and so to cleanse her palette, the intern put a lot of ampersands together. That looked exactly like this:ampersandsAnd because I need attention, I made this:is-there-an-app-for-thisSee, it’s a profound cultural statement? DO YOU SEE?!

Always Winter but never Christmas (or Spring)

published by Fran Shea

The woman gazes through her window. A window covered in dog-drool, a window with a view of only one season: Winter. She stares, slack-jawed, at the slow parade of life.twilight-zone-logo

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone.

SERIOUSLY?!?letting-go-rose

A Christmas Miracle

published by Fran Shea

I welcome the extra-ordinary. In fact, I am hyper-vigilant and ever-watchful for signs of miraculous happenings.

I ate two pounds of filet mignon on Christmas Eve and I’m pretty sure that was a miracle. It felt like a miracle — béarnaise sauce drizzled over huge hunks of very rare cow flesh doesn’t happen every day.christmas-eve-miracle-filetI love Christmas Miracles, they are the most powerful kind of miracle — A change of heart is better than filet mignon and antlers growing out of a dog’s head is, perhaps, the most miraculous of all.

Jen did say I couldn’t make any more Christmas cards but I squeezed this one past her because she is a sucker for dogs and because I threw her computer in a snowbank.a-christmas-miracle

Diversionary Tactics

published by Fran Shea

The Christmas Tree lot shack doubled as a meth-lab and while I admire ingenuity and entrepreneurship, I like my Holiday Traditions to be more “cozy-by-the-fire” and less “mix-up-a-batch-in-the-tub.”

BUT THAT’S JUST ME.

The “lot” contained exactly eight trees but due to a Christmas Miracle, we found the perfect tree!

christmas-tree-2012

We only had to retie the tree back onto the car once. To be fair, cooking meth doesn’t really prepare a person for handling Christmas Trees.

My Jewish friends don’t have these stories and this saddens me, so I made them a card:chappy-chanukah