minä perhonen

I really like the Spring/Summer 2012 beauties from  Minä Perhonen.  One of my favorite textiles is the tree print, called Metsä, which is Finnish for "forrest".  Minä means "I", and Perhonen is "butterfly".  The Japanese designer behind the line (Akira Minagawa) chose a Finnish name for his brand because he "sympathized with the lifestyle and the culture of Finland".  


Me too, Akira.  Naturally, I thought this line a good feature amidst my series on Finnish names.


The lovely photos bring us yet more names: photographer, Norio Kidera, and model, Junko Motoyama. The film attached to this season's creations is really pretty, too.  It carries names Hiromi Chinone (hair and makeup), and model, Kiki.  And the music in the film is by group Karluv207, members Kozue and Natsuko. Interestingly appropriate (and likely no accidental selection on Akira's part) is that this Japanese musical duo plays the mandolin and the kantele, the Finnish national instrument and key player in it's Kalevala.  I think both instruments make names as lovely as their music.

Akira

Norio

Junko

Hiromi

Kiki


Kozue


Natsuko


Mandolin


Kantele

Minã

Perhonen

Metsä


With this beautiful mix of Finnish and Japanese names fueling my inspiration, I can't resist making a few combinations with one name from each language:

Kiki Elokuu


Ilta Norio 


Metsä Koemi

Suzu Laulelma (bell. song.)

Hoshi Ommel (star. stitch.)

Halu Umeko (wish. plum blossom.)

Yumi Kertova

Totta Midori (true. green)

Hiromi Mansikka 


Suvi Mandolin


Emi Apila 


Sachi Omena 


Ilo Maemi 


Sumi Perhonen 


Akeno  Kantele 


Sulka Kozue

Don't Finnish and Japanese names seem such natural pairings? Perhaps for some of the same reasons that a Japanese  line inspired so much by the culture of Finland (not to mention a blend of the countries' musical traditions) works so beautifully?

 I don't quite remember the meanings of each one of these names, but I know there are meanings there. It might be fun to look them up post-pairing, a sort of beautiful meaning-grab bag?


Don't forget to come visit me today at Design for Mankind; I'm featuring three pretty blogs from Sweden, Japan, and the U.S. 

(all images courtesy Minä Perhonen by Norio Kidera)

you're my fave - part two

The photos above are all images featured on this blog in 2011; they're either some favorite images of mine or pictures of some of my favorite things.

Yep, more favorites from 2011 today!  I hope it's not too masturbatory to compile favorites from my own posts and lists. The thing is that since I'm often writing on names as they relate to other subjects, I don't always get the chance to talk about which names I simply love the most. 

For today's second and final installation of favorites, I want to talk about my number one names for each sex, your favorite list, and a whopping list of my favorites from all the names and name combinations covered on this blog. (exhale) Heavy!

-- So, what are my number one name crushes right now for each sex?  I never divulge the number one or two names I'm actually considering for my future children (not pregnant right now), but that works out, because my current favorites are actually ones I can't use because they are too close to my own children's names  or don't match in style (and one of them was vetoed by my  husband.)

Girl:

Jane-Reve  (Reve, the french word for 'dream', sounds like rev, as in "rev your engines".) -- This was my number one pick for our second daughter, but my husband refused it based on it's hyphenation. Non-hyphenation was a deal breaker for me (with this particular name), so away it went. Double names are a staple of Southern (American) culture, and a staple that's peppered *all* over my family tree; my adult sister still goes by her double name at all times. I like taking old traditions (double names, smooshing, maternal surnames as middles, etc) and breathing new life into them. The hyphenation honors the frenchness of  Reve and, to me, makes a double name more indivisible. I would also not usually suggest pairing two one-syllable names together, but when it works, it works.  Both Jane and Reve are in my top ten names of all time, and together, they're unstoppable. But they're completely off the table for us now, even if my husband had a change of heart, due their closeness to both June and Reverie, which we've used. This double name will be revisited in a post dedicated to a new generation of double names! 

Boy:

Junius Nightingale 'Jules' or 'Jin'-- While I may very well still use Nightingale, Junius is off the table for this family, considering we often refer to our second as simply 'June'. My love of  the middle name Nightingale on a little boy was completely solidified when I came across the name David Nightingale Hicks, on the father of India Hicks (mother to little girl Domino). I love it because it honors my mother's middle name, Gail, albeit in a very roundabout way.  'Jules' works here, in my opinion, if middle name contains an 'l', and even without-- 'Sally' from Sarah comes to mind, along with tons more examples of nicknames that aren't super straight forward. 

Salvador Bluejay 'Sully'-- I love Sully. If we'd not established a different style, Salvador 'Sully' would likely be a first pick for me.  Bluejay honors my father.

--Your favorite list? O girl! has definitely been your favorite list.   You can see my most popular posts to the right, but not all of them are categorical name lists. And while the Japanese names list has had more page hits, many of those visits are coming from various google searches which have little to do with names. When I subtract those searches, O Girl! absolutely becomes my most popular list.  And let me say, while O girl! goes *beyond* Harlow, Marlo, Willow, and Shiloh, I am in no way dismissing these four beautiful names! While it's not really my style to publicly trash any name--they're all attached to real people to be sure-- the aforementioned names we're moving "beyond" in this post are names I do actually like; I'm simply using them as a take-off point for more -o ending names, since these four have been such hot topics of discussion already.  Provided you aren't just tacking an 'o' onto the end of a name/word, you will almost never hear me dismiss an -o ending name. period. My favorites, other than the one we used for our own daughter? At the moment I'm really liking Billow, Farrow and Yarrow. 

-- Now, for my favorites from all the names featured here in 2011-- how many favorites are too many, such that the word sort of looses it's meaning?  Yes, this list is long -- be prepared-- but it's really only a small fraction of the total names I've featured so far on this blog. So here it is, my favorite names featured so far.

Girls:
Artemis

Ardith


Agnes


Anjou


Anouk 


Anais 

Albertine ('Birdie')

Azalea ('Zizi')

Berenice


Beryl


Betti (b/c I haven't featured Betty yet.)


Bim

Betsy (many ways to get here, but I love none of them as much as this nickname)

Billow (Billie)

Bloom


Blythe 


Bijou


Calypso


Cassiopeia

Cim


Cosette 


Concordia 


Claudine


Clove


Cypress

Daisy (by way of Margaret, Marguerite, Theodosia, or on it's own, I love Daisy forever)

Dovi


Eglantine

Edith

Elka

Elsa 

Emerald

Eple

Endellion 

Ernestine 

Este (so many ways to get this nickname, mostly love them all)

Eudora

Eugenie 

Farrow

Flo (by way of Florence or Fallow)

Frances

Francoise

Frida (Frie)

Garden

Gardenia (this might be my favorite flower name right now)

Georgine

Gita


Gladys (with Alice so fetching these days, a similar sounding name with 'glad' in it sounds increasingly lovely to my ears)


Greta

Henriette

Hesper

Hestia

India

Ilta

Jane (top ten favorites)

June 


Juhl 


Koemi


Leonie 


Lillo

Liv

Lova


Loxia

Lula (by way of Louise or Tallulah)


Mabel


Maple


Maja


Malgosia 


Marlene


Marjoram (though really I like the french version Marjolaine or Marjoline better, I haven't technically featured them)

Marigold


Maude


Mathilde

May (as a first name, it still isn't used so frequently. I love it paired with Margaret)

Maxine (my own aunt goes by 'Mackie')

Meadow

Maybelle

Midori

Mim (by way of Miriam or a MM alliterative combination like Mary Matilde)

Muriel

Nell

Neige

Neoma

Nettle

Nitsa 

November

Oona

Ondine

Odette

Omena

Ommel 

Opal

Pilvi

Rosamond

Rosalie 

Reve

Ree

Rita

Rue

Saffron

Sable

Sauma

Sigrid

Sine

Suzu

Sumi

Sachi

Suki

Suvi

Tuli 

Umi


Uni


Veda


Verabel


Violette 


Viola

Virgina (top ten favorite names of all time)

Willet 


Xanthe


Yarrow


Yuki


Zenith


Zinnia


Zelda


Ziv

Zuzu (by way of Susannah, Suzume, or Zulema)



Boys:

Albertus


Abraham 


Aloysius

Arthur


Atlas


Aubrey


Augustine


Barnaby


Beaumont


Benny 


Bello


Beppe 


Booker


Casper


Cedar


Claude


Clement


Clovis


Dorian 


Dov

Ernest (or Earnest)

Eno


Etienne

Fritz

Franco

George


Gilbert 

Hachi

Herve

Hector


Hank


Hickory


Hoke

Hubert (Hugh)

Hugo


Humphrey

Ignatious (Iggy, of course)

Ivo


Judah 


Junius

Leopold (Leo)


Louie


Nao


Ormand


Oscar


Ovid


Philo

Pomeroy ('Roy')

Ptolemy

Rupert (Ru)

Remy

Raphael (Ralph)

Ringo


Robin


Rowe

Roald (Ro)

Salvador

Sigmund (Siggy)

Simon


Sol (has to be in my top ten for it's simple beauty)

Sully (by way of Sullivan, Salvador, or on it's own. Sully is my favorite boy's name these days, I think.)

Teak


Timo


Thurman


Tobias

Tulliver (Tully)

Wiloughby


William


Wilfred

Whimbrel ('Whim')

Virgil


Vito


Xylo


Yesper

Unisex:
Arrow 


Balu


Clemence


Domino


Frost


Garnet 


Golden


Helmi 


Indigo


Kit


March


Myrrh

Ren or Rin

Rumi

Rune

Sunny


Vetiver


Weaver


Wren (I know several male Wrens and I think it's lovely)



Names I love in the middle (or right upfront for the more daring) and I know I'm leaving some out:
Baywren


Bellbird 


Bluejay 


Cedarmoss 

Dahlia (she seems the perfect balance to so, so many names)

Fieldfare 


Fleet


Goldfinch


Illiad


July

Margaret (to balance a more adventuresome first name, especially if it's slightly hippie leaning)

Meadowlark


Moonlily 


Nightingale


Pear

Philomeno / Philomela

Woodrose


Rosegold


Rustylark


Spring


Snowdrop


Tigerlily (thank you to Nook of Names for turning me onto this one!)


Web


Wilde 


Favorite combos (some of these are from real people and some are my own or guest's creations):

Ada Margot


Artemis Liv

Autumn Apple Windseed (while I might not use it myself, it makes me so happy to see it!)

Carole Calliope (Coco)


Daisy Marlene


Doris Kite


Enid Cleona 


Esther Swan


Ina May


Gita Pomeline

Henrietta Dove


Joan Riverlily


Maple Calliope


Mary Zest

Marigold March (I listed it last time, I know, but dang-- alliteration, nature, word name, wow.)

Olimpia Olive


Philomena Marylove

Reve Concordia Wilde

Sally Kate

Sequoia Cas (Suki)

Sun Margaret 

Suzu Argene

Thisbe Dove

Umi Vrai

Viola Fair

Clovis Rin

Ernest Snow 'Ernie' 

Fritz Edward

John Henry


Johnny Garnet


Junius Lively 


Oriole George

Otis Francisco (from Ina May's Guide to Childbirth)

Raymond Dov


Vito Thespis


Whimbrel Frank



Of course, not all of my favorites are here, because I've yet to write about them all!

What are your absolute most favorite names? What would you name a child if you were giving birth soon? Any that you love in pairings, if not so much on their own?




(Images: 1 is mine, 2 by Zoe of Le Dans La, 3 by Jeana Sohn , 4 from The Farm in Summertown TN found here, 5 by Natsuko Hagiwara of Me & Arrow, 6 is mine, 7 by Ariana)

you're my fave - part one

I was planning to start 2012 with something I'm pretty excited about-- the first post in a series on Finnish names, blogs, homes and artists (including an interview!); but I've decided to put it off till later this week (stay tuned.)

In stead, I want to take a post (maybe two) to have a look back at Marginamia's 2011, selecting my favorites from each post: my favorites in the comments from my brilliantly creative readers, my favorite picks from the designers who participated in Ask,  my favorite name pairings from post to post, and the names I'm simply most partial to from all the names I've featured.... along with some new name pairings, of course. 

For part one of my 2011 faves list, I'm showcasing my favorites from our Ask interviews and my favorite contributions from you, the readers, from within your lovely comments. 

The images above are from each of the Ask series of designer interviews. This was a great year for Ask! (and yes, we'll be getting back to it regularly very soon-- I'm so excited about the coming interviews!) I want to extend another big thanks to all the wonderful designers who participated this year. This is absolutely such a special part of this blog; it wouldn't be Marginamia with out it!  Here are my favorites from our Ask segments--

single name favorites from Ask (in order of dates featured):

Celosia (Nicolette Owen of Nicolette Camile Floral Design and Little Flower School)

Edith (Jenny Gordy of Wiksten)

Potter (Jenny Gordy of Wiksten)

Honora (Jenny Gordy of Wiksten)

Dahlia (Amy Merrick of An Apple a Day)

Vine (Sarah Winward of Honey of a Thousand Flowers)

Cedar (Sarah Winward of Honey of a Thousand Flowers)

Aves (Jennifer Wong of Wongoers)

Kazu (Natsuko Hagiwara of Me & Arrow)

Rie (Megan Neilson of Design Diary)


name combo faves from Ask:

Dahlia Elspeth (Nicolette Owen of Nicolette Camile Floral Design and Little Flower School)

Cotton Lela (Jenny Gordy of Wiksten)

Marigold March (Amy Merrick of An Apple a Day)

Autumn Bell (Sarah Winward of Honey of a Thousand Flowers)

Halcyon Teak  (Jennifer Wong of Wongoers)

Hoshi Alela (Natsuko Hagiwara of Me & Arrow)

Phillipina Johana 'Pina' (Megan Neilson of Design Diary)

Another element of this blog that's really special to me is it's readers, not just in that it has readers, but in the particular readers and commenters I have had the pleasure of interacting with this year. I have been so touched in receiving such lovely emails from you, from the letters centered on funny name anecdotes to those full of beautiful, personal stories--thank you for sharing!  I'm often well entertained and inspired to simply link back to your own blogs through the comments, and I feel so proud to have such a lovely, creative bunch gathered here.  

Suffice it to say, y'all have left some amazing comments, and I'm so grateful for your thoughtful contributions- a giant Thank you to my readers!

Here are some names and name combos that really shine from your comments (in no particular order):

Sundew (from Nook of Names)

Momo (from Lucy of Merdenoms)

Hoshi (Japanese for 'star', from Ebirdie)

Iska (from Nook of Names)

Esha (from Lucy)

Clemency (also from Lucy )

Azusa (Japanese, from Mandy)

Palmira (from Jessie May)

Forsythia (from eBirdie)

Fuchsia (from Nook)

Georgina (from Jessie May)

Honey (from eBirdie)

Hermione (from Jessie May)

Robinet (from Lucy)

Cloud (from Lucy)

Georgia (from Modern Crush)

Boheme (from Äiti)

Ibis (from Eponymia)

Myrto (from Jessie May)

Bedivere (from Midwinter names)

Fergus (from Nook)

Oski (from Nook)

Inigo (from Nook)

Nell (from eBirdie)

Belia (from Midwinter names)

Fernanda (also from Jessie May)

Pomerine (from eponymia)

Cleonie (from eponymia)

Eimi (from Anna Emilia)

Brontë (from Nook)

Pepperberry (from Midwinter names)

Murrelet (from eponymia)

Fairuza (from Cristina)

Bay (from T.)


and my favorite name combos from your comments (in no particular order):

Alma Lark (from eBirdie)

William Pear (from Jessie May)

Olive Frances (JM)

Fig Ava (JM)

Emerald Moseley (from Nicole)

Ulani Francesca (JM)

Rosalind Roma (from Nicole) (this would be a perfect 'Ro' name)

Edith Honey Rose 'Eadie' (JM)

Frances Winter (JM)

Seneca Agnes (from Nicole )

Julep Henriette (mine)

Concordia Enid (from Midwinter names)

Lona Mavourneen (from JM)

Joesephine Dahlia (from T.)

Beatrice Bluebell 'Bebe' (from Nicole)

Marguerite Constance 'Daisy' (from T.)

Tallulah Reve (from E.)

Bramble Bellamy (from names for real)

Cloud Marceline (from P.J.)

Oscar Tobermory (from Lucy)

Lucia Frost (from Nicole)

Silvestra Snow (from eBirdie)

Juliet Ophira (from British Baby Names)

Jasper Deco (from British Baby Names)

There you have it, the best of all your lovely contributions in one place. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now I want to do some new combos from the two singles lists from today (Ask-designer singles and commenter singles), so that the designers and readers may join forces to create awesome combinations!

Designer/Commenter combos:

Celosia Boheme

Potter Inigo

Honora Cleonie 

Cedar Bedivere

Fergus Vine

Sundew Rie 

Clemency Aves

Georgina Kazu

Next up? more favorites, I think: mine and yours! 

Happy 2012! 

(images: one by nicolette owen, two from wiksten blog by jenny gordy, three from an apple a day by amy merrick, four from honey of a thousand flowers by sarah windward, five from me & arrow by brandon harmon, six from myrtle avenue bird town, seven from megan nealson's design diary by brett dierolf.)

crown + cookie

Please forgive the length of today's post--I intended for this to be three separate posts, but here it is two days before Christmas, and I haven't posted any of it yet. Add this to my hyper excitement for the coming week and healthy editing just can't be expected! But it's the holidays, so we indulge a little extra, right?

With a four year old and one year old, the best crafts involve keeping it simple, keeping it outdoors, and keeping it in cookies. I'm lucky to not have not gone into even one. single. store. this year.  This freed up lots of time for our chosen gift-crafts. There was the gathering phase, the making phase, and the adornment and delivery phase, and each were so fun.

 We made a lot of the stuff outside, just after gathering it, and I felt so much more connected to the process while breathing the cool winter air and standing over fallen rosemary needles with sap-sticky hands. When our cheeks got too rosy, we continued crafting indoors over warm drinks, and then finished up on our last day of making over a cookie picnic on the living room floor, Johnny Mathis and Bing keeping us company. After all was finally completed, we took the goodies to our neighbors, wearing a bit of our holiday fun on our heads. Some favorite names we delivered to: Joan, Sylvia, and Irene.

--The mistletoe: I'm continually inspired by Jaime Rough of the blog Found While Walking, so much so that I made a little pledge to collect natural treasures on daily walks, even in the cold. The arrangements she makes are so lovely and they inspired our "mistletoe" this year (with not a trace of actual mistletoe in it.) The giant wheat-like bush (pictured above) isn't very holiday like, but I couldn't resist including it in our version of the come-kiss-me plant, and it also made for a wonderful binding material.

-- The flower crowns:  We took the girls to a St. Lucia and Nona was most taken with the crowns. I knew I had to make some for us, and then when I saw this (thank you Nicolette and Jennifer), the inspiration totally seized me. We used Rosemary from our backyard as the base. We added Cypress (from the neighbor's yard) and Lilies and other greenery from a  bouquet.  There are many 'crown' names (I mentioned my dad's and Steve Jobs' here, along with all of the offshoots of Steven), but my favorites are Tsifira, Etienne and Nezer.  The potential plants for crown and wreath making are so very vast that I'll save them all for list time!

--The many wreaths, from rosemary to silver tinsel: We went a little wreath crazy, but Nona loves to make them. I wish I remembered where I first got the tinsel or rag tutorials a long while ago, but I do not. Tinsel is a bit flashy to my eye, but Nona really loves it-- everyone needs some sparkle here and there! The materials traditionally used for wreaths are similar to those for crowns. Wreaths and crowns are basically the same thing, historically. Apollo and Daphne are some ancient figures linked to them. As they were brought into Christian tradition, they were relevant for their circle shape, as circles have no beginning or end. Yep, I could see Circle working for both symbolic reasons and that it's such a pretty sounding word; I would definitely save it for the middle spot, though.

The following name doesn't mean 'wreath', but it sounds like it--when I was a little girl, one of my mother's friends was Reatha (Ms. Reatha, that is--I'm from the southern US, after all). I love the idea of a little Reatha going by Ree (my great grandmother's name.) There's the Hawaiian Kalei (ka-lay-ee), which does mean 'wreath', and I also like Garland as a name, which has versions Garlande (French) and Garldina. While tinsel is certainly a very pretty word, I might not recommend using it for a name--it's PVC and who wants to honor that? It's made to mimic ice cycles, and there are some pretty 'ice' names: Glace (French for 'ice'),  Hielo (Spanish), Siku (Danish 'sea ice') and there's the similar-to-ice-substance Frost, which I've suggested a lot on this blog-- it's just so darn pretty, both as a substance and word, so I really love this nature name. You might also consider the color of tinsel, Silver, which is such a lovely name. It's meaning may also be found in: Argento, Sterling, Lujane, and Argene (which I briefly considered for our second after repeatedly dreaming of dripping silver apples during the pregnancy.)

-- The plant mobiles: I found the inspiration here  and we went crazy on these. Like fifty of them crazy. The result would be smoother and prettier with a more petite type of yarn/string, like the one shown in the tutorial (the result is also smoother without toddler hands doing the tying and wrapping), but we used a thick jute because it's easier for Nona to work with (and the joy of those toddler hands doing the tying and wrapping is well worth the added bulk to the look of the things.)  We used branches, rosemary (again), some anonymous plant with red berries resembling Holly, and Cypress. We used lilies on a few, too.

--The cookies:  I made a lemon-rosemary batch and a chocolate chip.  I used this vegan recipe for all of the dough (I'm automatically on board when I see Maple syrup), but for the lemon cookies, I replaced the chocolate chips with the juice of one Lemon, Zest from the peel, and a dash of Honey. and Rosemary. because rosemary was in every freaking thing else we made, so why not?  The lemon cookies were a bit hard to get off the pan, and not very pretty, but man oh man they were so good!

--The bells: Okay, I use them all year long, but now is definitely a time for bells. And you all know how I feel about -bell smooshes, so I'll give some that I think are fresh in the list. There's also Suzu (japanese for bell) and Kello (Finnish) because you all also know by now that I just can't write a post without hunting down the Japanese and Finnish translations of everything.

--The month and season: the reason for all of this making? December. In October I suggested a set of names relating to the month of December in a consultation, from the month name, itself, to it's related goddess name (Decima) and it's gemstones and flowers. And the holiday season brings another name to mind, Holiday.  I'd  put something very traditional upfront.

--The random door/branch photo:  Nona snagged this clipping from me (from a J. Crew catalog), which I'd recently taken to my hair stylist. She insists that it says "I want to be alone in my room" and asked that we tape it to her door. She says the branch is the magic to key to her room for when the door is shut and can only be opened by magic. Beyond being sweet and funny to my heart, I think it's pretty on/in her door.

So from today's post: 

Johnny 

Bing

Reatha (Ree)

Kalei (ka-lay-ee)

Garland

Garlande

Garldina

Apollo

Daphne

Artemis (relates to deer)

Glace

Hielo


Siku

Frost

Circle

Silver

Argento

Sterling

Lujane

Argene

Evergreen (see Midwinter's post on this one)

Midori (green)

Cloris (ditto)

Berilo (green gemstone)

Crimson (for the red berries)

Garnet (red gemstone)

Carnelian (red stone)

Ormand (red)

Rufus (red)

Rosemary

Cypress

Laurel

Bay

Branch

Holly

Elderberry

Juniper

Pine

Shorepine

Snowpine

Snowberry

Spruce

Hemlock

Cedar

Azara

Hawthorn 

Timber

Twine

Snowlily (in honor the lilies in our crowns and wreaths)

Riverlily (the red river lily blooms this time of year, too....as do....)

Camellia

Cookie (I still like this as a nickname)

Lemon

Honey

Maple


Zest

Suzu

Kello

Ritabelle

Florabel

Magdabel

Carol (for our singing)

Lucia

December

Holiday

Decima

Turquoise

Poinsettia 

Holly

Joan

Sylvia

Irene (love nickname Nitsa for this 'peace' name.)

Zuzu (We're watching It's a Wonderful Life right this very second. Oh how I adore this name! There's also George, Mary, Violet, Harry and Clarence, all fantastic names.)

And for some combos:

Carol Carnelian (Coco)

Joan Riverlily  (no one in baby's or likely parents' generations will think 'Joan Rivers.' Joan needs a uber feminine, soft, quirky smoosh of a middle name, and it needs her.)

Decima Honey

Ormand Elderberry (could potentially be too descriptive, but Ormand is pretty subtle as a color name)

Johnny Garnet 

Cypress Magdabell (Sissy)

Cedar Bing

Suzu Argene  (silver bells!  but really subtle. perfect for the season.)

Sylvia Shorepine

Juniper Lujane

Nitza Glace

Kello Frost


Apolline December (Polly) 

Garlande Camellia 

Lucia Irene 


Timber Apollo


Azara Daphne


Berilo Twine


Artemis Silver 


Suzannah Spruce (Zuzu)

Mary Zest


George Evergreen


Harry Hemlock 


Violet Florabel


Clarence Snowpine

There are so many more holiday names, what are your favorites?  And I'm really curious about your traditions, from the old to the new ones you are creating as you go-what are they?

Happy Hanukka!! Stellar Solstice!!! Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!

(images: all mine)