Category: Details

I love Christmas.

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I do. I love the trappings of Christmas, too. The green and red. The sparkly snowflakes and stripey wrapping paper. I love ornaments for my tree, and up until last year I didn’t really have a home where I could put my tree up. I had no idea what I had for ornaments.

I have balls. Lots and lots of balls. The plain kind from when I was a kid (and they are truly from when I was a kid – I think the boxes had Bradlees and Ames price stickers on them) that are glass and one solid color – red, green, silver, blue, or gold.

This year is my first married Christmas. Mr. Thor and I thought that it would be a good time to start building up our Christmas collection, so that we don’t have to hang these depressing, chipped balls year after year. Well, that’s my reasoning, anyway. I think Mr. Thor just kind of goes along with my whims when it comes to stuff like this.

On Black Friday, I took advantage of the sales at the Corning Museum of Glass and picked up a couple of ornaments that looked just like ornaments I grew up with, only safer:

the one i grew up with involved pins and beads.
the one i grew up with was perched on a VERY pinchy clip.

Then, Mr. Thor’s mom showed up at our house a couple of weeks ago with these two additions:

for the person who has everything.
for the person who is obsessed with cigars.

We were so inspired, and decided that we loved the personality that was starting to take shape on our tree! We decided to buy one more each, that we went to a store and picked out ourselves.

Mr. Thor's pick. I had to wedge him unceremoniously in the tree so that you could see his body.
My pick. He reminds me of a parade float!

The one thing that strikes me as I look through all of these is: BALLS. they are all over the place. I tried to take the pictures around them, but they are everywhere. I think I will keep one box for nostalgia, but the rest have to get permanently phased out.

Did I  mention that I love Christmas and the trappings of Christmas?

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The things that bother my brain…

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So, there is this THING going around facebook, and no I will not link to it here – it’s stupid! In an honest attempt to not steal stupid content, I will tell you is that it’s on http://www.buzzfeed.com and the title is: “12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music”and it lists out random facts like, “Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10” and “Ke$ha’s “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single.”

And the list is full of little factoids like that.

Think!

When music was hard copy only, how many singles did you buy? I bought exactly two, in my entire life, and I’m not too proud to admit it. The first one was a record of Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga.” The second was Chely Wright’s “Shut up and Drive.”

Now. Now that music is digital, how many single songs have I purchased?

I can’t even count. When a song is a dollar, and an album is at least ten times that, I am way more likely to just choose the songs I like the best and buy them.

When I was younger, the cost of an album was enough that I had no problem sitting in my room for hours listening to the radio to tape good songs as they came on. I rarely ever bought albums – I bought every New Kids on the Block, Madonna, and Debbie Gibson album, a Beatles greatest hits album, a handful of Indigo Girls albums, and a few more – and they were all ON TAPE. Not to mention, in high school, I mostly bought musicals on tape. Yeah, yeah, I know. Les Miserables, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, even A Chorus Line.

Do you think that even the dorky kids in school have such a weird music collection? No.

Technology is so pervasive that the great majority of kids expect to own iPods. Do you understand that I had to save up my allowance for a knock-off walkman… that played cassettes? I never owned a discman until after high school. I got my very first CD player when I was 18.

So. Music used to be WAY less accessible. WAY.

And there were also fewer people on the planet.

And there was no internet for most of the earlier artists that they are referencing.

It’s not even like comparing apples to oranges. It’s like comparing apples to… broccoli.

But, really, reading things like that gets my brain whirring, wondering if anyone out there is trying to make a reasonable comparison, and how I can get my hands on that information.

Struggling.

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Today, I am struggling to get in here and post something, anything at all (done.).

I am struggling to not eat cold stuffing with my fingers while standing at the fridge (I heated it up and put it on a plate. And ate it with a fork.).

I am struggling to stay awake (I get to sleep in my bed tonight after three nights on the air mattress!).

I am struggling with really, really not freaking feeling like going to the gym (but I will, I promise.)

All I want to do is curl up on the couch and turn on the tree and the little Christmas village houses and stare at them.

ahh. that's better.

 

ahh. even better still.

 

Recap.

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The table is set.
The "buffet" is ready to be stacked with food.

And then I forgot that I owned a camera. Imagine: Me carving the turkey (and only swearing at Alton Brown a little bit for making it look deceptively easy), making the gravy, mashing potatoes, and Mr. Thor carrying all of the dishes out here.

And then.

And then, we feast.

Surprise, surprise.

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Well, contrary to my own denial about how much I had to do over the weekend belief about how much free time I would have over the weekend, I did not do any pre-blogging. So, dear readers, this week you will just get me, on the fly, with whatever catches my fancy or my eye.

This morning, it was my brand new stack of mismatched dinner plates. I’ll just say that they were inherited form the living, and they came like this, all together. And they are all brand new.

Most people probably wouldn’t care for this, but I have actually dreamed of having a set of mismatched dinner plates for about 15 years. Because of the transient nature of my life since then, I actually only came to own any glass plates for dinner about a year and a half ago. They are cute and square and perfect for me and Mr. Thor and the small meals we frequently eat. But they are not quite fancy enough for Thanksgiving.

30-*cough* years old and I finally have plates for guests.

The one on top there is my favorite, due to its coupe style and its totally rad pattern. I shall eat turkey from that plate.

The other plates that I have had for a few years, but have been in almost-constant storage, are some adorable brightly colored glass dessert plates. Of course I had to choose them all in different colors; that’s just the way I am. I know it’s hard to see under the glaring overhead light in my dining room, but the plate on top is actually a different color from the plate on the bottom.

My favorite plates in the universe. Purchased at a now-closed boutique in Nashville, TN.

So, there you have it. My fancy plate collection in its entirety. Aren’t you glad that you tuned in today?

Sunday: Happy Snaps

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Rocky.

 

Eggs in a basket. From chickens I saw with my own eyes.

 

Once upon a time, I bought a cabbage bigger than my head for $2. I didn't know what to do with it. My dad saved me, and turned it into sauerkraut.

 

Sunny day walk with Mr. Thor.

 

New journeys.

Link Love: Snowy Saturday Edition

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It’s snowing here in Not the City, New York. Usually seeing snow fall from the sky strikes fear and terror into my heart, but since I have no plans, no commitments, and no intentions of getting out of my pajamas? Let it snow.

I decided that, since I usually have lots of time on Saturday mornings, I would take the opportunity to share a few links to stuff I am interested in at the moment.

1. Elizabeth Foster. Elizabeth is a Singer/Songwriter and Painter in Nashville. Actually, before I just looked up her site, I didn’t know about the Painter part. I have been listening to her album, San Francisco, on a very regular basis since it was released. It is inspiring, fun, and just folky enough to be nearly perfect. I am listening to “By the River” as I type this.

2. Sweet Clementines. I have never stumbled across a site that matches my style and color preferences more. And for someone as into details as I am, the hand-stitching on this stuff really gets to me. I go to the shop on a weekly basis to drool over sweet items like these:

Sleepy Owl!
Sleepy Owl Pilllow

Ferris Wheel!
Classic Ferris Wheel Wall Hang

This weekend I am finally going to pull the trigger and buy something. Decisions, decisions!

3. Tasty Kitchen. This little gem was the brainchild of The Pioneer Woman. The recipe for Fancy Macaroni is from The Woman herself, and I have made it twice since Thanksgiving. And I may make it again tomorrow.

That’s all for now. My pajama plans have been interrupted by a breakfast date request with the ‘rents (yes, it is noon, why do you ask?) I will be adding a page to this site where all of  the links from my Link Love posts will be posted – check for it within the next week!

Happy Saturday to you!