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

Things What I Miss

Continuing in the same vein of winter hatred/impending cabin fever madness (or as the husband calls it, "hibernation sickness") I'd like to present you with a list. A list of things that I miss, haven't done for months, and am nearly positive I'll never get to do again. Feel free to add items.

1-Bracelets (currently covered up by layers and layers of long sleeves and coats)

2-Dangle Earrings (currently get snagged on thick winter scarves or hidden by sweaters with turtlenecks)

3-Necklaces (currently get covered up by layers and layers of shirts, scarves and coats)

4-Dresses (currently have to wear long sleeves with them which covers up a lot of the pretty bits, can only currently wear thick/warm dresses which don't exist and have to wear tights with them which is limiting)

5-Sandals (currently must wear two layers of socks and clunky practical man boots)

6-Peep Toed Shoes (see above and add to that the distress of finding at least two great pairs of said shoes at the END of last season!)

7-Eating Outside (currently can't think too much about this or might go insane from longing)

8-Cold Beverages (Currently must imbibe warm beverages or room temperature at least. Remember the clinking of ice in a glass and the refreshing feeling. Think it will be never before I get to enjoy this again)

Old Man Winter

I can't decide if Old Man Winter is old because he's going to die soon or if he's old because he is cranky and spies on his neighbors. Either way he is breaking me, mind, body and spirit. How is it that this winter has lasted for two years? I swear it's been two years. The voices in my head tell me so.

Usually, I'm down with winter. Me and winter usually get along like gangbusters. Not so much this year. This year I want winter to die a very, very painful death. It seems like it started in about April of 2009 and hasn't stopped yet. Right now, there is a blizzard happening. An inch per hour for ten hours. This is like pouring bleach and salt and acid into the open gaping wound. Of a baby. That is what winter is doing to us. It's just so wrong that it's evil.

This is the first time on record that I want summer. Not even spring. Summer. I want 80 degrees and I've never wanted that in my whole time on this earth. I want a bathing suit, a swim up bar and about nine or ten fruity alcohol laced drinks. And the sun, oh mother I want the sunshine! The tropical paradise that I've been living in, inside of my head is getting alarmingly realistic. If winter doesn't quit it, I may be trapped there permanently.

I wish there was a restaurant in Rochester that had a tropical theme. With palm trees and they would crank the heat up to sweltering and you could go there to get ice cold drinks and fruit and ice cream and warmth! Warmth would be on the menu. It would be #1. I'll have the #1 please: Warmth with a side of fruit.

My hands are chapped, my lips are chapped, I can't even admit to places where I have chapping! Can I just tell you how sick I am of wearing layers? Ninety layers? Just to keep myself alive? Just to keep my fingers working on this keyboard? I'm sick to death of going around like Randy from A Christmas Story. "Put your arms down when you get to school." That's me, marshmallow woman.

Sometimes I think that the White Witch has us in her grip. Is it bound to be winter forever and never Christmas? I think maybe. I'll tell you what. If I could find Old Man Winter I'd kick him in the junk.

Memory of Sunsets Past

When I was younger and still lived in the country, my family built a house. I was gifted a huge bedroom with a walk-in closet and a window seat. (My parents also let me draw on my walls and I did so with gusto) I had always longed for a window seat. How romantic they seemed! I pictured myself curled up with a book, leaning against a plush pillow, taking occasional glances out the glass, watching the life around me glide by. I used that window seat all of the time. I studied there, ate snacks there, talked with friends there...I lived there.

The strongest memories I have of it are of summer evenings. I didn't have a book to distract me and I didn't take occasional glances out the glass. I watched, enraptured, as the sun sank lazily toward a horizon obscured by tall trees. The colors were joyous and at times, bizarre and otherworldly. It's the only time in my life that I really remember watching the sun set with any regularity. Although, in most of my fantasies of "the perfect life" I live in an A-Frame house in a cozy gully and it's perpetually sunset. (Though in real life I have no desire to live in such a house, in such a place.)

I kept the window open and let the soft smells of summer waft over me as I sat in perfect harmony with my world. The view from that window haunts my memory. It is one of the few things that makes me yearn for summer. Some of the other things are yard sales, watermelon, corn on the cob and...nope, that's it.

Living in New York state allows me to experience four seasons each year. I like fall the best and I like summer the least. I might be one of the only people who is glad it only lasts a few months. I hate being too hot. I'd rather be too cold. Although when it's too cold you can put on more clothes and blankets and drink hot, delicious treats and cuddle with someone. When it's too hot I don't want anyone to even think about touching me and you can only take off so many clothes in public. Legally.

Tonight the sun was doing beautiful things while I drove home. It made me think about summer for a minute. For almost a whole minute I missed it.

Light

It feels right to start something at the beginning of a new year. It's not a resolution really, just something I've been meaning to do. Something I feel would be a comfort to me, as these small flickering lights are on the dark, cold nights of winter.

I have begun to crave small points of light, candles or store bought strands of electric twinklers. Pictures of small candles shining brightly on a holiday table have brought me to tears more than once this season. I've heard it said that certain people groups have a "long memory"- that somehow memory of things past have been etched into their biology. Perhaps that is what I'm feeling. The tug of some ancient knowledge that equates fire or light with safety and home.

There is nothing more cozy than being in your darkened living room cuddled under a blanket while the soft snow falls outside. It's a small consolation for a season with no yard sales.