Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Birthday Bill!


Today is my brother's birthday.  It is a "milestone" birthday so I thought I'd embarrass him a little by writing about him on my blog.  He will always be my "baby brother" and I sometimes feel older when I hear his age than when I think about my own age!

Since he was born the day before Christmas, I was a little confused when my mother came home from the hospital with this amazing doll that actually moved and made noises.  I had received a few dolls for Christmas but I wasn't allowed to play with the new doll very much.  I have two older sisters so he was the first boy in the family and I was a little jealous that he got new clothes and toys while I had a lot of "hand-me-downs" from my sisters.

Bill is an incredibly talented artist - the image at the top of this post is a pencil drawing he made years ago of an old photograph of the two of us.  He looks a little grumpy, but I was very proud to be allowed to hold him while the photo was taken.  He painted my college graduation portrait and he has done some book illustrations, but he does most of his work in stained glass these days.


We don't get to see each other very often since he lives in the Minneapolis and he and his partner have a store in St.Paul which keeps them pretty busy.  I have written about the shop, Century Studios, a few times.  If you live in that part of the country and like stained glass and Arts and Crafts style I am sure you would enjoy a visit to the store.  Bill and Irwin are on vacation until the New Year but will be open again for regular business on January 4th.


Bill is also a collector of all things to do with the Wizard of Oz and has a blog called The Oz Enthusiast where he shares his collections.


This is a window that Bill designed based on the Oz Parade mural John R. Neill painted for Marie Lufkin. You can read all about it starting at THIS POST on his blog.

Happy Birthday Bill - and many more!


I also have a little gift for my blog readers.  Lettering Delights is now offering SVG files (scalable vector graphics) and for those of you who work with this type of file here is a LINK that will automatically download a zip file with the Nordic Christmas set of images you can see above.

9 Free Fonts


You can click this image to go to the Lettering Delights site and see more of the items they offer.  There are quite a few SVG sets and there are two more freebies, Merriment and Merriment Alpha that are available until the end of the month.  You can also save 30% on a $15 purchase with the code "Holiday Delight."


We are doing all of the usual Christmas Eve activities and putting out the luminaries along our street.  It is always a beautiful sight - if you were not reading my blog last year you can see more about  our tradition HERE.

Have a very Merry Christmas!


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7 comments:

  1. Diane- Merry Christmas to you and your family. Your brother's work is amazing. Also your house looks so pretty with all the luminaries. TFS.

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  2. Diane - Merry Christmas and a Happy CRUISIN' New Year! I love your brother's work, please let him know you've shared and "embarrassed" him. LOL.
    Second, I wanted you to know that the link to NORDIC CHRISTMAS is broken in your post ... I Neeeeeed these files. I tried to find them on the Lettering Delights website and couldn't locate them. A mystery! Also, the discount "Holiday Delights" has expired. So sad! Anyway, I purchased some items from them while I was there, mostly to support their work! YAY, nice stuff!!

    Off to cooking now. I hope I find some time soon to craft!

    Fondly,
    Ellen
    Cardmonkey@comcast dot net

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  3. Merry Christmas! I fixed the link for the Nordic Christmas (I am not sure what went wrong but it works for me now - let me know if you still have a problem).

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  4. That wasn't so embarrassing - it was rather sweet! Merry Christmas!

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  5. Loved your brother's work and I think it's great that you "embarrassed" him. Everyone should be so loved.

    Wanted to let you know I get an Error when I click on the link for the Nordic shapes. They look great and I'd love to have them if there is any way to fix it.

    Wishing you a merry holiday season,
    Donna
    DonnaCMC at optonline dot net

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  6. Hi Donna,

    What are sisters for if not to embarrass their brothers?

    I am sorry to hear that you got an error on the Nordic download. I just checked the link and it worked fine. When you click it you should get a pop up download window - do you have a computer setting that is blocking pop-ups?

    Please check to be sure that pop ups are enabled and then try again.

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  7. Thank you for the Nordic files. They'll get used since we live in Scandinavian country in western Washington. I have always followed your stories about your brother and his web site. He is such an awesome artist.

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