Friday, December 30, 2011

Oh Christmas Dress, Oh Christmas Dress...

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...In forest green crushed velvet :)

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The wee potted tree at my sister-in-law Isolde's house as seen bright and early Christmas morning. We wandered across the street to their house in our PJs at approximately 7:45am for Clover to open presents and do stockings with her cousins. We were greeted with delicious homemade lattes.

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This backless beauty of a dress was bestowed upon me by the lovely Brigit. We did a swap, in Spring I think it was, and I had been saving it for the perfect occasion. It made for a wonderful Christmas dress, thanks Brigit! I got many a Christmas compliment on it. I think I will be busting it out when St. Patty's day rolls around too.

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More lovely decorations in Isolde's Christmas corner.

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Hey, guess what? If you happen to love this dress too, you are in luck, because it has a sister dress in deep purple, and she's available over at Violet Folklore for a steal! Wanna be dress twins? DEEP PURPLE.

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Speaking of deep, Clover has inherited my love of chocolate :)

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I fittingly trimmed my Christmas dress with past presents: green shell necklace from Milla, crystal bullet from Sadie, and red suede belt lined with teensy brass studs from Oosa.

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Her new ballerina bun holder, fairy wings, and dance leotard went on as soon as they were unwrapped.

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Mis-sa in her dre-ess, with sun flares. I can always seem to count on this corner of the backyard for interesting light effects. As you can see, on Christmas it was pink pentagons!

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Ready to try out her new watercolor paints, while not letting that chocolate bar out of her sight.

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Yeah, Santa totally came through with the unicorn. The bandaids too for that matter. He's good, that Santa. Almost as good as Isolde, who HAND MADE these adorable Clover fairy dolls completely from scratch! She even hand sewed their little felt outfits and painted the faces herself. Jonas, my brother-in-law, made their little box too.

Their family was awesome with the homemade gifts this year and really inspired me to be better about getting it together in that department for next year. I did ok with buying handmade and shopping local, but I'd like to get an earlier start next year and do more making myself.

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All gussied up for the next family gathering, Christmas brunch at my sister-in-law Kelcey's.

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First, a peak at the Christmas morning aftermath in our living room.

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The Christmas tree at Kelcey's house. Wild and gangly and covered in lovely ornaments. Jonas and his mom Linda have started making the coolest bags out of repurposed feed sacks. You can spot a couple of chicken feed ones under the tree and I got an awesome one made from a pigeon feed sack.

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Ah, the many faces of Christmas... just keepin' it real folks. Not sure what this was about. Most likely I just told her she couldn't eat her chocolate bar yet. Hey, what's Christmas without a few good meltdowns though, right?

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See, she's over it, not loosening her grip on the chocolate bar though.

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After a delicious brunch at Kelcey's and a lovely afternoon with Lucas' family, we went home for a few hours then off to a gathering of friends at Ben and Julia's house where we enjoyed a super yummy Christmas dinner and a rollicking fun evening with friends that ended up going until the wee hours of the morn.

By the way, we had a wonderful Christmas gathering with my family the weekend before at our house, no pics unfortunately, as I find it impossible to simultaneously host and document an event but I assure you a fun time was had by all. Ok, apparently, I find it impossible to simultaneously attend and document an event as well, since I only managed to get a few shots of everyone's Christmas trees here, ugh.

On that note though, who knew empty Coors Light cans made for such festive tree ornamentation? Way to think outside the box (of beer) Ben. You can see Wain back there working on his "ornament" ;)

We had a really fun, albeit busy, Christmas. I hope yours too was full of family and friends and Christmas dresses, not to mention a chocolate bar or two ;)

Wishing you all a Happy Happy New Year!

15 comments:

Teeny said...

haha, Miss Clover's waaaah expression is priceless. I'm seeing many of those around my own house at the moment. You look beautiful in that dress, Brigit chose well for you! Glad to see you had a lovely time; just as Christmas should be. I know what you mean about handmade gifting, I only managed to make a couple of bags as packaging this year. Okay, i'm tired and can't remember how to spell now, so tootlepip. And happy to see you around these parts.
x Happy New Year too!

bonfire of my vanity said...

omG! that looks so amazing on you!!! i was like, is it the green dress? when i saw the title. and it was. it is such a perfect fit for you, i love the backless look, so jealous of those who get to pull it off. we had so many xmas meltdowns, good lord. i love clover's little red dress.

sally said...

your dress is incredible, as is clover's adorable chocolate obsession! happy nye, missa!

Violet Folklore said...

Pink pentagons on parade!

Such a pretty dress Missa, perfectly accented with the boots, belt, and jewelry. And I love that you made the connection with the purple dress in my shop- twinsies! (Have you seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-yLGIH7W9Y). Clover's little red dress is darling too.

Over xmas someone in my family was lamenting the loss of extended kin living nearby, and I was telling them about how your family, and Lucas', pretty much all live in your town and how you even live on the same street as some of them. So cool that you just moseyed across the street on xmas morning!

Clover is so gorgeous, it's going to be so fun to watch her grow more into that fairy face of hers. Oh and that gift- the fairies and the box- so sweet! I really drop the ball on homemade every year too. And that's probably not gonna change...

anne said...

love the dress!

fun day! i'm a huge fan of the crying pictures. always so fun to look at AFTER the meltdown.

coors christmas ornaments...hmmm i may have to create one for next year :D

hope you have a fun new years! we're staying home this year...what duds.

flaming hag folkwear said...

that's a whole lot of fun in one day! the dress is amazing on you--it almost has me convinced i need a dress like myself...almost ;)

those dolls! we went handmade (by us) with a few family members this year and it was the best! i want to give and receive only handmade forever and ever now.

missa's hair is so lovely and lo-ong, and clover is adorable even when melting down*, and it looks like L escaped the lens this time around :)

hope you all had a happy new year!
xo

*i have found it easier to laugh at such melt-downy moments--because they still happen at ages 9 and 11 in their own "mature" ways-- while i photograph and threaten to publish them on my blog. is that terrible?

Crystal Lee said...

Happy Holidays, Missa. You look stunning in the green velvet dress. I love the low cut back. Goodness, your hair is getting really long too. Like a mermaid, a christmas mermaid.

Tera said...

Love all of these!!! Happy New Year cuties!

Teeny said...

Hey, i don't suppose Miss Clover would like a silvery long wig would she? I have one that we used for a certain misses fairy party.

Anonymous said...

seems to me like you took just the right pictures, and i for one don't begrudge you enjoying the party rather than remembering to snap shots. you look like a christmas angel, good lord you are lovely.

fern has inherited the chocolate love too, and also has developed a homing beacon...no matter where we hide it, she finds it, devours it, and then announces to us with a chocolatey face and sticky voice what she just did. can't be too mad.

i'm glad your xmas was so cheery, and thank you for sharing a glimpse into your magical world.xoxo

Milla said...

Hahahah! I love your christmas wit almost as much as your Christmas frock girl. And Clover's expression. That's how I felt at times during this holiday, for sure.
Happy Happy Happy New Year, m'dear!

Alexa said...

Handmade fairies! Yea! I love Clover's little coat rack by the door...so sweet. Merry merry and a great 2012 to all of you!!

Anonymous said...

Ohh, I just love your Christmas images - so lovely! It gives the feel of a cozy, loving, and festive Christmas..and your tree look big and gorgeous, and REAL! I fight hard against my hubby's ideas of getting a fake tree; it just wouldn't be the same. Thanks for sharing!

xx
Tracy

Cel said...

Oh WOW, gorgeous dress! It looks amazing on you. Clover is so cute, and those dolls are awesome, lucky her! Especially getting that unicorn ;) Love that she's keeping tabs on that chocolate hah.

Buddy_Wakefield said...

Hello Missa, I'm having the darndest time tracking down your email address. My name is Buddy Wakefield (buddy@buddywakefield.com) and I'm wanting to communicate with you about a photo you took that we'd like to use for submission to a publisher.

Sorry to post to your blog, but sure lookin' forward to speaking with you.

All the best, Buddy