New Year's Eve

I'm guest posting for Kristina from Pretty Shiny Sparkly today. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago when I was in Philly visiting Kim and her beau. It just so happens that I'm back in Philly right now to ring in the new year. I guess I just couldn't get enough. 

While in town my last trip I also met up with Lisa from Tree & Kimball. She gifted me this amazing deadstock vintage sweater. It is so soft and my absolute favorite olive green color. She couldn't have found anything better for me. 

Head over to Kristina's blog to check out a few more pictures and read a little about my feelings on dressing pretty, shiny, and sparkly. Nothing like my standard sunglasses, wrapped scarf, cropped pants, and booties to lead me into the new year. 

Thank you so much Kristina for letting me be a part of your blog for the day! It was alot of fun and I am so lucky to be in the company of such amazing guest posters. I hope you're having a wonderful time in Norway and enjoying the heaps of snow, time with family, and much deserved relaxation. 

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I will definitely be celebrating tonight. Especially while in the company of two of my very favorite people, Kim and Merl, that I've met these past few months blogging. This year has certainly been quite a wild ride and nothing like I ever would have imagined. I think it's because of those reasons why I'm so grateful for everything that has come my way through this community. Feel free to look through my archives, but I feel like my "real blogging life" didn't actually start until August (ehem). I'm absolutely looking forward to starting a new year with all the amazing changes that have come into my life. I can't wait. 

I promised to announce the winner of the $50 giveaway to either Tree & Kimball or Tree & Kimball Market Etsy shops today. So (drumroll please) the winner is:

Congratulations Annie! I hope it gives you an extra reason to celebrate tonight, well that and the baby on the way and the husband, you have alot to celebrate tonight!

Thank you so much to everyone who has come into my life by way of this blog. These past few months would have been greatly different without you. Happy happiest New Year. 2011 here we come. 

Scenes from a Holiday : Christmas

Christmas! Christmas always ends up being a very relaxed holiday. There's all this stress leading up to it, but once it's actually here everything slows right down. I celebrated the holiday at my parent's house outside the city. On Christmas Eve I spent the day helping my Mom get ready for family to come over, last minute decorations, organizing things in my room, and pitter pattering around. It was one of those days where I really didn't know exactly how all my time was filled up, but it was. 

We use the same decorations every year. It's just easier that way. My mom hung the wreath from the second floor window and decorated the outside of the house right after Thanksgiving, but only had time to finish the rest of the house in the few days before the 25th. We actually only got around to decorating the tree after work on Thursday night.  

On Christmas Eve my Dad came down with the flu. He didn't leave his room the entire day. Even when my family came over that night, he was out of commission. We don't have many yearly traditions, but one thing I starting trying do in recent years is bake scones for Christmas morning. Since my Dad was so sick and I knew wouldn't want to eat anything I skipped that this year. No baking for me this holiday. 

My Mom made seafood bouillabaisse for Christmas Eve dinner. We somehow fell into the seven fishes tradition even though we're not Italian. We always have icebox cake. It's just a dessert we've been having for years and years. In between meals and before exchanging presents with all my cousins I made everyone some yerba mate. I'm beginning to feel like I'm a sales person for the product. They all seemed to like it!

Christmas morning was a little different this year. I feel like as the years go on things keep changing, even with our very loose traditions. I put my presents (newspaper wrapped) under the tree in the morning and went into the kitchen for breakfast. My mom made poached eggs with toast and I made myself some spicy cinnamon tea. My brother had to go out of the house for a bit so we decided to hold off opening gifts until he was back. I took advantage of the time and went outside to take a Christmas morning picture with Lua on the dock. 

I got some amazing gifts from my family including a down coat which I really needed, new cookbooks, and a vintage stone belt from my Mom. The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the house. I ordered Sweeney Todd in the afternoon, which my Dad seemed to be really into. Not exactly a Christmas movie, but I've been meaning to watch it for so long and the opportunity finally came. My brother and his fiance came over for dinner. My Dad still wasn't feeling too well so everyone ended up having something different to eat. 

I bothered Lua for a bit with some Christmas bows, hats and antlers. She was pretty good and only tried to eat them a few times. All in all Christmas ended up being just what I always want it to be. Quality time spent relaxing with family, sitting around the house, and staying in pajamas all day. I work with my family so it's nice to get away from that atmosphere on the holidays and be able to unwind together.

Many of the gifts I bought this year were from Etsy. Those that weren't were from responsible or local companies. I'm really happy that I was able to give people gifts this way. Everyone seemed very appreciative of the uniqueness of the handmade items, or the quality of the vintage pieces. Since I was also so happy with the gifts I gave I'm going to leave a list of the places I shopped for this year's Christmas gifts.

Clyde's Rebirth - Taylor House - Off the Beach - Nesta Home - Patagonia - Girls Can Tell - Movoeva - Chandi - Brooklyn Brew Shop - Kahili Creations - Shady Grove Sundries - Mayron's Goods - Sydney Hale

Whether you celebrated Christmas or not, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend relaxing and reflecting on the year that is so quickly coming to an end!

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A Merry Gift

Merry merry everyone. I wanted to do something special this year for all the new friends I've found over the last ten months I've been blogging. Since I can't exactly give everyone an extra special long holiday hug I had to think of the next best thing. How about $50 to spend on vintage clothing or handmade jewelry? 

 

 

For this huge thank you gift I decided to contact Lisa from both Tree & Kimball and Tree & Kimball Market to offer a special giveaway from yours truly. Since I'm not exactly sure what you wanted this year I thought it would be best to give some credit to spend in either of her amazing shops.

 

 

The giveaway will be open until December 31st, New Years Eve. I hope it will give someone an extra reason to celebrate that night. One winner will be chosen randomly and will get a $50 credit to spend in either the vintage or handmade jewelry shop.

 

 

To throw your name in the figurative hat leave a comment below! You don't have to say anything special unless you want to. If that's the case feel free to share a special memory from the past year, or what you're grateful for, or how much you love Lua even though you've never met her, or you know whatever.

Tree & Kimball • Tree & Kimball Market

I hope in some small way this giveaway represents the huge thank you hug I would give all of you if I could. Merry merry everyone!!

The Season of the Elf

Christmas, Christmas time is near. Time for toys and time for cheer. We've been good but we can't last. Hurry Christmas, hurry fast. This song has been stuck in my head all Christmas season. In fact I woke up this morning with it in my head. It's a good way to get in the spirit of things. Nothing like a little Alvin and the Chipmunks to kick things off. ...Me I want a hula hoop!

I felt particularly Elf-like walking around NYC with these green tights on. Especially when I realized my coat was just long enough to completely cover my shorts, leaving my bright thighs entirely exposed. It ended up being appropriate because I spent the day searching for last minute Christmas gifts for family and friends. 

After shopping Melissa and I walked pasted this slightly strange flea market. They had things like mummy heads, coffins, and bizarre paintings inside. Lining the sidewalk there were assorted pieces of furniture. In some ways it felt like its own little vintage Christmas set with all the different shiny gold fabrics. It was funny taking pictures as so many people walked past. They were probably just really confused be the whole scene. 

I'm just about ready for Christmas this year. Gift-wise almost everything has been delivered. I did the majority of my shopping on Etsy. This time last year Etsy was brand new to me, blogging was new to me, and I never could have predicted my life would be where it is now. It absolutely blows my mind how much things have changed. I'm ready to have a very different Christmas this year than years past. To be honest, I'm feeling pretty happy about where things are right now. And while I didn't see this years situation coming, I feel pretty ok with it. 

Scarf from Scotland, Wool Shorts from Madewell, Tights from Target, Socks from Madewell, Bag from DSW (old)
Banksia Top from Megan Nielsen, Vintage Sweater, Vintage Frye Boots from Old Baltimore Vintage

New friends, baking, traveling, beach time, and relaxing are all things I plan on taking full advantage of this holiday season. Now all that we really need is a little snow. 

Pictures by Melissa

I hope the holiday season is treating you all just as well. What are you looking forward to the most? The gift giving, eating sweets, sleeping in, wearing pajamas for a full day (just me?), some QT with family, or something entirely different? I can't wait for all of it. Merry merry almost holiday.