Monday, December 3, 2012

Merry and Bright

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Sweater: Thrifted
Cowl: Gift from Anne (she made it :)
Painted driftwood necklace: Gift from Anne (also her handiwork!)
Levi's: From Angelina
Boots: Thrifted

Not the most exciting outfit ever, but here I am!

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With all this RAIN we've been having, these duck boots I thrifted last year are getting lots of wear. You can't really tell in this lighting but the color combo of my cowl from Anne and this little sweater matches the color combo of the boots perfectly. Ha, that sort of thing probably makes me happier than it should.

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This weekend brought rain as well as the first day of December. With a certain little person who is VERY enthusiastic about Christmas this year running the show, we kicked off the holiday stuff a bit earlier than usual.

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Free "gingerbread house" making downtown at the public library on Saturday afternoon, resulted in...

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One very sugary little structure

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and one grumpy little girl complaining that her tummy wasn't feeling too good by the end of it.

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Hmm, I wonder why?

Saturday night the rain wasn't too bad, so we put on our raincoats, grabbed some umbrellas, and ventured out to the tree lot down the street. I know, not as romantic or eco-friendly as the local tree farm, but we did possibly end up with the most perfectly shaped Christmas tree that ever was, so at least we have that. Oh, and the guilt, we have the guilt. Just kidding, sort of.

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Sunday morning, with the Vince Guaraldi Pandora station (much to Lucas' dismay) setting the mood, we got to decorating our tree.

I realized pretty early on in the decorating process that someone shorter than me had some definite ideas about how things should go down with the ornament hanging. I was going to have to set aside my perfectionist tendencies along with any talk of distributing ornaments evenly throughout the tree. There really was no reasoning with her.

My one attempt at showing her the error of her ways was to make a wide sweeping arm motion across the lower mid-section of the tree and say:

“Look, there’s too much STUFF.”

Her matter of fact response:

“Mom, that’s how Christmas is.”

Well played Clover, well played...

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She was also concerned about certain ornaments having buddies to hang out with. Like the gnomes...

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... and the sleeping babies.

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"2007 Baby's First Christmas" This Winnie ornament was a gift from my mom. Clover wasn't yet 3 months old that Christmas, now look at her, bossin' me around, man time sure does fly.

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Zephyr checking out the tree. This time last year he was just a wee kitten, who almost climbed his way to the top of our Christmas tree on multiple occasions. I'm not sure how it never toppled. Now he's this big fluffy white wintery creature. His thick winter coat has come in and he's so bright white that when he's out roaming in the yard at dusk or on a foggy day he practically glows, like an Arctic spirit kitty.

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Clover and Buttercup, whose red nose got her a gig as stand-in for Rudolph :)

Annoying ornament hanging tendencies aside, it's pretty fun watching Clover really experiencing the magic of Christmas as her own autonomous little person for the first time. When this kid gets excited about something, her enthusiasm will light up a room. It's one of the things I adore most about her, and something tells me we're in for a very bright holiday season!

11 comments:

moonshinejunkyard said...

good lord she is CUTE. your christmas is gonna be the best ever, and you maybe sorta brought a tear to my eye imagining her as a wee babe like my own a few years back, and thinking about how fast that time will fly.

i LOVE her christmas tree ideas. the buddies hanging out is a tendency of my own that i fight when i decorate our tree which up until now i pretty much do single-handedly since i am the most festive person in this household by far. this year i had a little person in a front-pack accompanying me and listening to my annoying chatter about each ornament. i am seriously dorked out about christmas tree ornaments and i have to say, both the felted gnome buds and the baby jesus buds are KILLING me. great tree, great spirit, and great festivities abounding over there. say hi to your little elf for us!

Teeny said...

heeeeeeyyyy Missa! I concur! Mia helped me decorate the tree...Oz wasn't so interested, one or two things here or there. But talk about Dragon Lady! I found things in pairs too....two purple glitter balls, two pink glitter balls, two gold pillows....our little girls must be making sense of the world this way. And guess what, I tried to shiftily change things up and move them around. AND she spotted it. AND moved them back. And you look purdy lady. xo On a side note, Oz is at home today sick, so we lay down for a rest and watched "Birds" together...which is going to forever remind me of Bodega Bay and our trip out to see you too! Nice memories. x

anne said...

my mom would let us decorate and then when we went to bed she would evenly disperse the ornaments. we never noticed but something tells me clover most certainly would! your tree is beautiful and i love your simple outfit :D i could use those boots with all the rain we've been having. i always see those types of shoes and boots during the summer and i think to myself, "oh i don't need those now i'll wait until i come across some closer to winter" and of course once winter does come around there are not a pair to be found! such is life :D

Andrea said...

Fantastic Clover story! I love her zeal for the season... and her ornament logic makes much more sense via pics! Haha! Adorable!

flaming hag folkwear said...

maybe i need clover to come over here and whip me into the holiday spirit, because i ain't feeling it so far!

Tera said...

This post filled me with Christmas excitement!!!!! For one and all :)

Milla said...

Yeah, I'm with Clover on the everybody has to have a buddy on the tree thing. You don't want lonely ornaments. Like Nicole though, I could really use a Clover to get into the spirit. I'm having massive holiday annoyment this season. A little big package with stars all over it, certainly helped, now stick that Clover in the next one and the holidays can really begin! Have fun you guys!

Anonymous said...

thank you for confessing your mini-struggle with needing to let go of control issues...i've had to repeat some kind of mantra while doing projects with fern the last month, just to not grab the paintbrush/ gluestick/ ornament out of her hands. nothing like a kid to hold up the mirror that shatters my illusion that i'm easy going.

although i will continue to idealize YOU if just for a moment. you make duck boots look GOOD. pretty lady.

that last pic of clover is perfect. quintessential for years to come.

p.s. are those baby ornaments vintage?

Janet said...

aww, missa, this is such a sweet little post... :) those duck boots do look so cool on you.. those levi's are awesome, too. :) oh, what a pretty tree. clover was so enjoying herself decorating with all of the sugary decorations, i can tell. zephyr has grown so. our thea is so big, now, too. we have nicknamed her "little bear":) mama started calling her that today, for she is getting so big :) haha... fun to see the pic's of the tree decorating.. :)

Alexa said...

Vince Guarldi Pandora station, good idea, I'll be trying that out for our decorating this weekend! And indeed Clover, Christmas is entirely too much stuff.

Nichole said...

oh my goodness, i am RIGHT NOW wearing a pair of sorel rain boots i found at the thrift store for $12! they look just like those in your photo!

speaking of seattle thrift shops, have you seen macklemore's video for his appropriately named "thrift shop"? it is a love letter to thrifting, and features the vintage store i used to work at!

http://youtu.be/QK8mJJJvaes