Holiday Special: Lilah's House

Some know her as Lilah, some as Nee-Nee and others of you have no idea what on earth I'm talking about. My mom. She's the best. She also has great taste and a gorgeous home. I love walking through her rooms and noticing all the little things that make it special. When I was there over Christmas break, I took some pictures to share with you.

Now, the history of my mom's house is steeped in mystery and intrigue. It reads like something out of a soap opera. She's only been there for about a year, but prior to her moving in nobody had inhabited the house in 15 years. (cue spooky music)

But that is a tale for another time. Right now the scene is a Christmas breakfast.

Good lord, could it be more adorable? Everything was delicious. My mom and her dude are both great cooks.


Lilah bought this tree at a sale a few years back. I spray painted it for her. look how adorable it looks housing these precious vintage baubles! Quite a few Santas and blown glass clip-on birds.

Ooh!

This is a print of a piece done by a famous local artist: Ramon Santiago. His work can be found all over Rochester in restaurants, museums and public places.


My mom loves to fill containers with small bits. Usually it's shells. But at Christmas time it's vintage lights, ornaments and mercury glass. (See the pixie pencil? I have one, too. We bought them at the same time.)



These guys are a set that we had growing up. One of the only decorations (besides ornaments) that she has kept. I treasure them. The hats are made from real socks!

Vintage red metal wreath-thing.

My mom and I got all hopped up on making these wreaths one year. Country Living Magazine will do that to you from time to time. This one was too good to give away or sell. A glorious tribute to kitchy Christmas!

An amazing vintage card that has been framed. I'm jealous of this girl's outfit.

I love this little dish. Probably one of these days I'll theif it.

My mom likes little things, just like I do! I made the star shaped fabric Santa ornament on the right. In 7th grade Home Economics class. With the special ed kids. But, again, that is a tale for another time.



Lilah keeps a white tree and decks it out in vintage ornaments. It looks like a candy dream!

She also displays her Christmas pins. Imma steal me that one in the middle.

I hope you've enjoyed your tour of Lilah's House!

In other news, I made this:

Oh, There You Are!

Let me just get my apologies out right away. It's been over a month since I've spoken to you, dear friends, and I want to say here and now that I'm sorry. The time has just slipped away from me. My Etsy shop has been keeping me hopping and while that is a good thing financially, it's a bad thing for my spare (blogging) time.

I can't even believe it's already post Christmas. I have so many things I want to show you!

But, first I'd like to address this winter. Yesterday (December 28th) was the first "real" snowfall we've had all year. And it was about an inch. Usually that stuff starts around Halloween. By Thanksgiving we've usually dug ourselves out of 20 inches or so. I'm aghast and agog and I don't even know what to say about it except that we've clearly broken the planet and we're going to have to pay for it. Probably we'll end up losing California to the sea. That and Coke will have one of the saddest ad campaigns of all time because the polar bears are all dying. Not even a cold Coke can refresh them, poor dears. One of my Facebook friends posted a picture of a dandelion. Growing in her yard. In December. Not good, people. Not good. We had a green Christmas, alright. The kind where you have to put on your shorts and go mow the yard after you open presents. I keep thinking how the mosquitoes probably haven't even died yet. We'll have a bobilliondy of them this summer. I think I'm going to start keeping bats. So just, you know: Beware the wrath of Mother Earth.

Onward. The drunken ballerina was finally able to pull herself together and finish the decorations. I bet you want to see them, right? Or maybe since we haven't spoken in so long you are pretending not to care if I ever show you another blessed felt bauble or glittered angel again. In any case. I'm going to show them. So if you'd rather not see them, just leave now. I'm not going to give you every single thing, like last year. Because most of the stuff is exactly the same. I'm going to break it down into two bits: 1-The New Stuff and 2-A Collection Of Sorts.

The New Stuff

I got it from the Craft Antique Co-op. I'd put a link to their website in there, but it's a hideous and obnoxious site and you can Goog that crap yourself if you feel the need. This thing is gorgeous. Two tones of green. I love me some tone on tone. I'm going to keep it out all the time, not just at Christmas. I'm also going to put it in my dream master suite. You know, when I get one of those, the second of never.

The Bathroom

OK, not new stuff, but I arranged it in a new way and liked it enough to share with you. Be grateful. There aren't a lot of people who decorate their bathrooms for the holidays.

The Little People House

See what I've done, there? Decked it out for Christmas. Also of note is the thick layer of dust. I want you to know that the layer of dust is there on purpose. Not because this is the top of a cabinet that is eight feet in the air and not even my tallest friend can see the top of it so I never bother dusting it....no, no. It's because I think it's artistic. I think the layer of dust subtly imitates a layer of newly fallen snow and contributes to the overall reality of the piece. Obviously.

The White Wreath

This is new. Also gotten at the Craft Antique Co-op. The Martha Stewart stand in our kitchen got a bit full this year so I took some of the other vintage wreaths into the hallway. (another new frontier!!) See below.

The Green Cupboard

Nothing new exactly. But a new set up. Note that Kermit has invited the dead dolly from Halloween over. She gets a lot more lively at Christmas time. The dapper little chick is one of my all time favorite decorations. Top hat dusted with green mica. Yes, please!

Red Shelf

New natural colored tree from HB on the top left. Nothing else new, but a new set up. The angel has migrated from my bedroom and taken roost in the kitchen.

Piggy

I bought this ornament for myself on Etsy. It's vintage. I allow myself to purchase myself one vintage Muppet ornament per year. Myself thanks myself.

Paper Bike Ornaments

This is one of a set given to the husband by HB. It's made from cut paper. He's obviously in love with them.

Picket Fence Gate

This little gate is supposed to be an ornament. But I got rid of the string and stuck it in with my picket fence. Perfection. I'd like to have a real picket fence. I know, how June Cleaver of me. If I get one I promise to always put on pearls before I vacuum.

Bedroom Trees

A lot like Bedroom Eyes, but with more Christmas and less lust. Well, maybe not that much less lust. Because these babies are beautiful! Sorry that my camera is crap and doesn't take great pictures in my dark house, forcing me to use the flash which ends up making everything look washed out and blah. Use your imagination and warm it up a bit, folks.

Check it out! That little house I bought for five cents! Remember?

A Collection of Sorts: A Peppermint Stick For Old Saint Nick

2nd Annual Rochester Tweed Ride

Hello folks! Some of you may know that the husband is heavily entrenched in bikery. He cycles to and from work every day, rain, snow or shine. He grumbles loudly about having to use the car, for any reason. He has three bikes and uses them for different things. He fixed my (awesome) 1980's mint green Schwinn Traveler up and added pink grip tape and pink break lines. It's probably the best looking bike, ever.

We sort of helped plan the Rochester Tweed Ride last year. The first one. We were only involved a little bit and I didn't even ride. Though, I did dress in garb. There were roughly 40 people who participated to various degrees last year.

This year we helped out a lot more, we able to get a lot more local sponsors and things turned out pretty well. Please don't read that as me taking credit for that. There were a lot of very dedicated and creative people helping!! 60 people joined us with about 45 riding. We were so pleased with the turn out!

Here is a picture of the Belles!


Nope, he doesn't wear glasses. No lenses. Fake. Everyone loved them.


Check out that Fantastic Mr. Scarf! My friend Ann made him for me. Let me tell you, that is one warm fox scarf! I was so glad to have him. His name is Edison. Say howdee do.

I'd like to say more about the whole thing, but I've already written it up over at the blog: Rochester Tweed Ride. Mosey on over and take a peep and get inspired to ride with us next year! Might I also suggest you head over to Philipson Photography and like it to gain access to a myriad of amazing pics?

OK, but just no looking at my ass too much. Because I see now that the knickers weren't a fantastic idea. Hindsight (no pun intended) is 20/20. Skirt for me next year, it is! But do catch a peek at my bike, because it's gorgeous!

The Usless Card

It's no secret. By now you should know. I frequent thrift stores. I love them. I love the variety, items that have a history, the way it's like treasure hunting, the prices, I mean, there is a lot to love. Henrietta is thrift store Mecca. There are tons of them there, ripe for the picking.

The first time I ventured into Savers it was the day before one of their major sales. When we went through the check out we were offered a pamphlet letting us know about the Savers Club Card. This card was free and would allow us to get major sales the day before the sale. There is nothing quite like a pre-sale to whet the appetite of a great sale-er.

All you do is sign up on the website! I greedily took the pamphlet and read it over, twice. Special coupons, deals on your birthday, random sales for card holders only, plus the pre-sale sales! I felt like Ralphie salivating over his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring. All I had to do was sign up!

So...off to their website I went. I'd signed up for other cards online. Panera Bread and Subway. These cards racked up points with each of your purchases, giving you FREE items! I'd just like to state for the record that the Panera card is one of the best card programs I've ever been in. I swear, I get a free item just about every other visit. And it's not cheap stuff either. It's good stuff. For free.

OK, so, I've got my pamphlet, I'm on the website. I sign up and then...am asked to print out a confirmation to be brought back into the store where they will then issue me a card. Mmmmkay. See, here's the thing. This is no longer convenient. In fact, it's starting to smack of stupidity. With the other cards I've signed up for they issue the card in the store. They have them right out for anyone to grab. Then you go to a website, register said card and BAM! You're in business.

So, now we have to get the pamphlet, go to the website, sign up, print a confirmation, bring it back in to the store, get a card and then bam? OK, fine. But this is the most bass-ackwards way of doing this that I've ever heard of. If this was for a regular store I'd ask them to bend over so that I could dispose of their paper confirmation the proper way.

After pressing print, nothing happened. This confused me. I pressed the back button to try again. It told me I had already printed a confirmation and couldn't do it more than once. This infuriated me. Let stupid Savers keep their stupid confirmation, their card and their stupid system, I thought. And I forgot about the card.

Until I started receiving their emails. Because I had signed up, you see. So I got to see all the promotions I could have been getting if their stupid card system would only work. That's pretty annoying in case you didn't guess. So I wrote to them describing my problem and trying (probably not very well) to hide my deep and growing resentment and frustration. After THREE email exchanges I learned that the confirmation will not print from browsers such as Chrome or Firefox. You pretty much are forced to use Explorer. (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little) Why this known problem wasn't mentioned on their sign up site is beyond my ability to imagine.

So, finally I got my printed paper confirmation (what is this, 1982?) and I took it with me to the pre-Veterans day sale. And I was issued my card, which inexplicably has a bar code on it. It was never scanned once. Not when it was issued and not when it was used. I just try not to think about it. I was also issued a paper coupon. What the crap good is having a card if you don't actually DO anything with the card?? I ask you?? I can't think about that. It will just send me in mad mind circles. I just have to concentrate on the fact that I got 50% off ALL of the items (except books) that I bought. Here they are. Just let the deals flow over your mind and wash away all the angst you've undoubtedly accumulated reading the beginning of this post. There weren't even any pictures in it. (Nobody wants to see bloody eyeballs, and brains exploding with inconceivable inefficiency, ok?)

Black (More of a really dark gray if you want my opinion. And I know you do) cardigan:
$3 with sale.


Green argyle sweater: $1.50 with sale


Blue dress: $4.00 with sale.

It's missing a button, but when I tried it on the button hits right about nipple level. That's never nice. So, I'm going to pick two fabulous buttons from my vintage stash and move them up to the lapels. I also think this dress is very Zooey Deschanel from 500 Days of Summer. What? You haven't seen that movie? STOP what you are doing RIGHT NOW and go watch it. That is not a request, people!! I'll wait....I'm glad you're back. You loved it, didn't you? You're adding it to your Christmas list, aren't you? Yeah, I thought so. I know, Joe is so cute, isn't he? I mean, that's why he's my boyfriend, after all. Come on with those freaking dimples, right?
So...what were we talking about?


I call this one the confetti dress. Even though it's not really. $5 with the sale. It had the original tags on it and hasn't ever been worn. Score. It is also a sun dress that was not made for someone with A cups. That almost never happens. I can't wait to wear it!
Check out the close up:



White dress with black polka dots: $4 with the sale.
Ridiculously adorable. I can't wait to wear it! I can probably just wear it tomorrow since it's been averaging about 60 degrees this November. We've broken the planet. That's it. They'll have to revoke that whole "no white after labor day" rule, because when it's a million degrees in November, why bother?

Oh, p.s. ... if you want to get any other coupons or deals from your "card" you have to print those out too. So really, the card is sort of like nipples on a man. They are there, for looks, apparently but they don't DO anything.

Oh, I can't leave you with that imagery. Quick, look at the buttons from the last dress. They're anchors. Cute, eh?