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Birthday Fun

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Right after the holidays, I get to celebrate my two daughters’ birthdays in quick succession—the first in late December, and the next less than a month later in January. My kids are still just toddlers, but they are starting to recognize that they get a day of presents and cake.

I try to make their birthdays a little extra special with fun decorations for them to wake up to in the morning. I keep things pretty simple with just some inexpensive party supplies—plastic tablecloths, balloons, cake plates, streamers, etc. Easy and cheap, but cute. :)

For my oldest, who turned four in December, I gave her a mermaid themed tablescape complete with an aqua color scheme, a blue vanilla cake (at her request, and which she helped make), and the most perfect cute wrapping paper I was lucky enough to find on holiday clearance. She received a mermaid doll and dress up outfit as well, which she adored. She makes a pretty cute mermaid, if I do say so myself.


My second daughter turned three in January…
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Merry Coloring!

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Halloween is over... bring on the holidays!

I'm usually not one to skip over Thanksgiving and go straight into Christmas, but I am particularly excited to share a holiday-themed project that I have just finished.



For the past few months, I have been hard at work creating a collection of adult coloring pages with a Christmas theme. If you follow me on Facebook, you already know that not only have I completed the designs, but I've compiled them into a book that is now for sale in Amazon! This is something I have wanted to do for a long time because I love adult coloring designs. Their intricate detail and fun patterns are so attractive to my sense of style as an artist. They are so much fun to both color and create. While I think it is wonderful how popular they have become in recent years, I find that the market has been flooded with substandard work. My hope in creating my own pages is to make the kinds of pages I like to see myself and to inspire creativity in others. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction that sums up my philosophy:

"I most like to see designs that are hand-drawn, thoughtfully composed, and full of beautiful patterns and decorative elements, because those are fun to color. . . . I can promise is that a lot of time, thought, care, and passion have gone into these designs. I hope you enjoy coloring these pages as much as I enjoyed creating them. Have fun and make them your own!"

Here's a view of the back cover to give you a preview of some of the designs inside.



I hope you all enjoy my book, and I look forward to creating more in the future!

Niki



LINKS

Buy Merry Christmas: Holiday Designs for Coloring now!



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**UPDATE - 2015** The miniature sweater knitting pattern has been revised.  View/Download the new pattern here:
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