so fresh and so new!!!

(photo by photo by: Pablo Alfieri of playful)

I'm here, I made it! still working out some kinks but I feel so renewed and refreshed after cleaning house on FB. Since motherhood began in late April ('09), I admit that my time online has been more lax, making the time I'm on, more precious then ever. I felt like i owed it to myself to renew the blog and make it more clean and simple, heck the whole reason for Fb is to be inspired by the posts, not to see how much stuff i can pack into my sidebar and repeat over and over again!
I've also upgraded the sponsor area, We love our sponsors and we wanted to give them a bit more room this year without breaking their bank so we've made space for the sponsor banners to be bigger and more apparent up at the TOP of our list. In case your interested our rates are the same, but you'll slowly see our spots get bigger as we update them. email me if interested.
if you scroll down to the bottom we've made a fancy little footer with more info and links, to help unclog the sidebar! we are still making some tweeks and adding/taking away things but we want to keep the new FB as simple and clean as possible.
oh and by the way, we still love your submissions so keep em commin! We hope Freshlyblended  brings you lots of fresh and creative inspiration in the coming year!

::CONSTRUCTION AREA::

Hi folks, if things look a bit weird to you, thats because we are going through a huge overhaul which could take days, if you are a sponsor, don't worry, we still have your ads, if your on our link list, don't worry, we still have your links.....we have EVERYTHING from the old site, we just need to test things live so we know whats going on...just don't freak out, i'll do that for you!
~nicole

a very merry holiday season

Hi all, no regular blog posting today, only a warm wish that you and your families have a wonderful holiday season. we will be taking a short break to spend time with our family. We are very excited for Zoe's first christmas and hope she doesn't cry when santa comes to see her christmas morning!

we hope to share some new things with you when we return, a site redesign is in the works and new features are being planned, lets just hope we can get everything up and running for 2010! this has been the best year thus far with freshlyblended, we have gained so many new fans and supporters of the indie design and craft world and we hope to grown even more in the new year. Thank you to all who have followed us and to those new faces that have found us, we wouldn't be freshlyblended without you! see you in 2010!

2009 holiday ornament swap

LOVEly stars by susan of artstream studios


felt birdie by aprilini


cute little cozy mouse by sissym



a different twist on the ornament, paper garland made by shiny suitcase


very lovely snow flake by missgg

soul birds :: sanna annukka

OMG, did my heart skip a beat when i saw these stunning wooden "soul birds" by finnish designer, sanna annukka. I am such a big fan of her prints but this is just above and beyond for me. she has a great love for nature and nordic folklore which beautifully translates into her modern illustrations.
The "soul birds" are based on a an ancient belief that the soul bird (or Sielulintu) was thought to deliver the soul to newborn babies and also to transport the soul to the afterlife at the moment of death. It was believed the Sielulintu protected a persons soul at it's most vulnerable; when dreaming, and it was tradition to keep a carved wooden bird by the bedside to keep the soul safe during sleep.