This last week before Christmas always sneaks up on me. I think I have so much time, and then I’m like.. oh shoot. I wind up spending the whole week working and have to squeeze in last-minute present shopping and wrapping. Luckily, I have been doing soooome Christmas stuff. There is now a tree, decorated, in my living room, and I actually put on all the lights myself while the doggie supervised. This is a big accomplishment. I never am quite sure how to string them up there and make them look evenly distributed without winding up with them tangled around me. I also tackled making Christmas cookies!

The extremely talented Natalie Davis asked me to take some photos for the Canoe Winter Lookbook. Being a HUGE fan of Canoe, the Miss Natalie line, and Natalie herself, I was so happy to do so! She also got an amazing model who brought his own axe to the shoot! Completely perfect.

Btw.. if you are in need of a gift to give that special guy or a guy wanting to buy yourself a present, I highly recommend checking out Canoe. Very amazing stuff. Also, Natalie put together an amazingly-curated gift pack for the holidays. The last day to order for the holidays is December 19th!

Below are some of my favorite photos from the shoot:

I’m not sure why.. but I just haven’t gotten into the Christmas spirit yet this year.

In Texas, sometime we have the problem of it just being too warm. It can be hard to feel Christmas-y in 70 degree weather. But that hasn’t been the case lately. The high for today is supposed to be 47, and we’ve been having cold and rainy weather. So that’s not it.

Maybe it’s because we haven’t gotten our tree or decorated the house yet?

Maybe it’s because I am too busy with work to start thinking about Christmas?

Well, whatever it is, I WANT to be in the Christmas mood. I was going through old photos yesterday, and found these that I took three years ago in Seattle when we still lived there. They are helping me get into the Christmas spirit.. a little.

It’s a good start.

1. Sydney has been cuter than ever

2. Some new dish photo props courtesy of my brother and his fiance moving and cleaning out their kitchen

3. Burgers and fries at Hopdoddy

4. Gorgeous evening light

5. Cloudy, rainy days

6. Staying indoors and keeping my raincoat and an umbrella handy

This past weekend, I met up with the styling genius of Kathy Phan to do a little photoshoot for her Etsy store. She’s also going to be at the Austin Flea this Saturday at the Highball! Info here.

Check out these cute plates and mugs. And Austin-themed ones as well!

Photos: Aimee Wenske

Styling: Kathy Phan

Products: Kathy Phan