Time to Decorate the Christmas Tree

Thanks to an allergic reaction to a real live Christmas tree two years ago, I now own a a real live fake GE Pre-lit Christmas tree. Thanks to my pre-lit tree, I am now one of those early birds who put up their tree Thanksgiving weekend. And I love it! Sure, I feel like a giant nerd but it only took me ten minutes to put up. I did have a little scare when the mid section didn't light up but just as I was about to search for a bad light bulb, I realized I hadn't connected all of the plugs.

Now that the tree is up and glowing, I just need to decorate. If I were in the market for ornaments, I would love to get some of these beauties from Anthropologie and create my own woodland-themed tree. Sadly, my two year old has her own ideas about tree decorating and redecorating. We'll be sticking with straw ornaments from Sweden this year. Still very pretty and very unbreakable.

Giving Thanks and Black Friday

As the Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, I'm pondering gratitude and how easy it is to forget what we have to be thankful for on a daily basis. I'm going to try harder to remember how much I have to be grateful for and what really matters each day.

A day never passes when I don't stop and think how grateful I am for my daughter. If it doesn't occur to me at least five times during the day, I'm always reminded at bedtime when she's cuddled up next to me as she struggles to go to sleep. It's also when I get to catch up on kisses and hold tights.

So, while I am constrained financially this year and sometimes lament that I can't join the shopping frenzy and partake of the huge discounts, on another level, I'm glad to actually have to refrain. It's not that I haven't bought anything, it's that I have had to think before I spent the money. My shopping has been focused on my daughter which actually is more satisfying.

I realize there are so many things I already have that I don't use regularly or fully enjoy. So my goal for the upcoming year (I'm getting a head start.) is to truly be grateful for what I have, to make use what I have and really appreciate all the great stuff that is already a part of my life. I think I am going to start by reading all the books I've bought and have been dying to get to.

Most importantly, I am going to remember the best stuff in life doesn't come in shopping bags.

Hmm, I just thought of how grateful I am that I wasn't out in a store on Black Friday. The photos above are pictures I took of store shelves the day after.

Affordable Luxuries #6 Flower Bulbs

The weather is still warm enough in many parts of the country to sneak a few bulbs in the ground before it freezes. I planted two rings of daffodils this fall. One ring around an old tree that had a sort of natural fairy ring and another around a yet to be weeping cherry tree I plan to plant in the spring. I hated digging the six inch holes in the pure clay soil that plagues our yard, but I persisted. I just kept thinking how cheerful the tulips I planted last fall were this past spring. Flower bulbs are not for those seeking instant gratification but they are an affordable luxury that will keep paying off year after year.

While looking for photos to accompany this post I came across the Daffodil Principle. It may seem a bit corny but it was just the sort of "just keep putting one foot in front of the other" message I was needing to keep me going this week. Tiny steps add up and a few bulbs in the ground equal lots of flowers in your future.

Top image is of tulip fields in the Netherlands by Luud Riphagen. Bottom image is a daffodil field in Whaplode Parish England by Patricia Carter.

Haramaki = Happy Warm Tummy

I'm wearing my haramaki as I write this and it is keeping me cozy despite the gray skies and the thermostat which has been set at an environmentally correct 65 degrees. The origin of the haramaki heralds back to the samurai but you don't need to wield a sword anymore to wear one. These comfy belly wraps not only keep your tummy warm but are said to be good for your internal organs and blood circulation. Add to that how great they look peaking out under a shirt or worn obi style and I want a drawer full of them. The adorable haramaki shown are by Hobonichi. Another great source is Haramaki Love which has versions in fleece and a maternity selection. I can vouch that a warm tummy is a happy tummy.

Inspiration for Operation Pare Down

I'm really trying to pare down these days in so many ways. I'm on a campaign to eliminate stuff we don't need or really love and to find homes for those things others might treasure. Thank goodness for the Salvation Army or Sal's as my friend Susie calls it. I remember the first time she told me she'd been shopping at Sal's. I thought it must be the newest boutique and that I was out of loop. No, Sal's was not another Jeffery's, it was the good old Salvation Army. She had hit our local one for some cheap work t-shirts. I was definitely out of the loop in terms of frugal shopping.

Now a days, I'm trying to reform in terms of how much I spend, how much I own, and how much time I spend taking care of stuff versus living life. So I'll be making a trip to Sal's this coming week, not to shop but to help stock the shelves.

The photo from Fine Little Day above is my inspiration for the weekend purge and proof that less can still be warm.

Green Tea and Habit Versus Ritual

I have been trying to incorporate a cup of green tea into my daily routine and it has proven harder than I imagined. It certainly doesn't come as naturally as that first cup of coffee in the morning. I have thought about swapping my morning coffee for green tea but can't imagine that it would suit me or get me going. My morning coffee is a habit bordering on an addiction and not subject to tampering. Also, I think that a cup of tea is more suited to ritual than habit.

My Grandmother used to have a cup of tea every evening after she finished cleaning up after supper. It was her evening ritual. She took her tea black. It was just a Liptons tea bag and water boiled in her whistling teapot. Nothing fancy, but she always sat at her dining room table to enjoy her tea. I say it was a ritual because, I imagine it was her way of marking the end of her chores and savoring the little bit of personal time she allowed herself each day.

That's how I envision my daily cup of green tea being, a pause from busyness. My cup of coffee is the beginning of busyness each day. It's a crutch and a jolt into a day of doing. I want my cup of green tea to be about the opposite, a few minutes of not doing or worrying about what needs to be done next. I think that may be why it has been so hard to get to each day. It requires I step out of my routine and into a ritual where I take some time to just sit and be in the moment. I am going to take a lesson from my grandmother and make the time and place for my daily cup of tea.

The lovely teahouse pictured above are by the architect Terunobu Fujimori. I love their quirkiness and very human size. They look like the perfect structures for the ritual of tea and just being present. You can read more about Terunobu Fujimori here.

Enchanted by the Moon

The moon is just amazing tonight and it's lovely to lie in bed with the moon light illuminating the room. It's like taking a moon bath.

This first scientific map of the moon by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini c. 1679 includes the tiny moon maiden pictured beneath the full map. Perhaps proof of the moon's power to enchant even the scientist.

Halloweenimas

Looking at the level of decorating that now seems the norm for Halloween, I have decided the holiday has morphed into Halloweenimas. I'm not sure whether I should be amused or horrified by the large blow up ghosts and full light displays that are proliferating. I love Halloween and its aesthetic but I guess I'm used to the old fashioned paper scarecrow on the door and a few pumpkins on the porch approach to decorating.

Maybe it's because this new hyper Halloween decorating seems driven by something more than holiday spirit. A marketing scheme to sell more Christmas perhaps? I can just imagine some ad agency brainstorming ways to make people feel the need to use twinkle lights year round. When I get past that image I can almost enjoy Halloweenimas in all its orange twinkle light glory.

What I Wish I Was Wearing

I would be very happy to be out and about in this outfit instead of slogging around in my yoga pants. I'm always a sucker for a great black and white stripped shirt. Check out the great collection of stripes at the thinking tank.

Pick Up Sticks and Back to Blogging

I know it's fall (I've been in a deliberate denial) because the leaves are starting to really pile up. Oddly they have seem to have decided to just wither and fall off this year rather than turning pretty colors first. Perhaps they are not happy with the early cold either.

Accompanying the leaves are a mass of sticks that need to be piled for pickup. While living in the heart of Brooklyn I gave sticks very little thought. Now like a city kid learning that steak comes from a cow (or rather cattle) I am realizing trees make sticks. Trees and blustery days. It seems pretty elementary, but when you pick up a stick to play with as a kid you think of it as a discreet object rather than a former branch.

I would not be giving sticks so much thought if I were in my city apartment or just had one or two trees in the yard, but the small patch of woods that edge the house are a stick factory. So as I lug the sticks, I think "chop wood, carry water" and try to be zen. I also think it's sad that my stick piles don't look like the art of Peter "Beetle" Collins. How lovely what artistic intent can make of even a pile of sticks. Now back to blogging regularly.