it's a wonderful life!

Last year I watched It's A Wonderful Life for the first time and ever since it's made Christmas feel a little more special. It's been something extra to look forward to as November rolled around; another small thing I've wanted to share with my love and another new tradition I've wanted to start.

So yesterday we found ourselves, on a double date, grabbing the last few seats at our favourite city cinema. I was the only one who'd seen it before and I was nervous. I simply wanted everyone to like it. 

(And the old man we talked to outside the cinema did, too. James Stewart, he told us, was his absolute idol, coincidentally stationed in our city during the war).

They fell in love with it, of course. Who wouldn't? It is frilled with magic and I don't think it ever, really, dates.

Last night I didn't think I was going to cry, either. But I did. At exactly the same scene as last year--and probably next year, too.

(Picture credit).

oh, christmas tree!

I loved the tree Arnold and I made so much that I had to make my own.

It's the perfect little place to display those tiny decorations I have collected over the years.

...it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

last week.

It's taken me a few days to catch up on the sleep I lost at the very tail end of last week. It was kind of a rush to get things done; to have assignments handed in and presents made and diaries pretty much cleared. (And maybe, just maybe, to have a whole gingerbread house collapse on my hand and a bus full of angry people scorn at my bags. Of presents.)

But I was lucky enough to spend Friday with a handful of my favourite ladies. We got to celebrate Christmas by cooking up a storm in their tiny galley kitchen and playing trivial pursuit around a table that barely fitted their front room. But d'you know what?

It was lovely. And very bittersweet.

I'd really, really like a Christmas every year with these girls.

on our first date of christmas...

...my true love made a tree!

Arnold and I might not have time to squeeze in the Twelve Dates of Christmas this year, but I love the idea nonetheless.

After weeks and weeks of me talking about the "rustic" Christmas tree I wanted to build, we finally did and - if I do say so myself - I think she's quite, quite beautiful.

It's coming by so soon... (Too soon?)

scarlet, rosewood, carmine.

Gift-guides are pretty big right now, aren't they?

I love them. I absolutely love them.

So for a few days, in between stressing about impending (self-imposed) deadlines and seeing friends and family, I've toyed with the idea of creating my own. But calling it a gift-guide seemed a little too bold, you know?

So for now I'll call it a (small) collection. A snapshot of the material things I've seen, lately. Organised by colour. (Because I couldn't possibly think of any other way).

So, I give you...

...scarlet, rosewood and carmine.

1.Esme Velvet Cat Slippers. (I might have put these on my Christmas list already).

2. Gingerbread House kit.

3. Scottie Clutch bag. (They also do shoes!).

4. Padded Polar Bear tree decoration.

5. Polka Dot Recipe Box.

6. Fairisle Cardigan. (I love the little collar!)

7. DKNY Red Delicious fragrance.

xx

i'd like to, please

Hope #27.

Build a gingerbread house.

I am so excited about this that I might even make two this year.

(My I'd Like To, Please posts are inspired by Someday Hopes. And the picture can be found here!)

~

Psst. I cannot even begin to think about how I am going to fit everything in over the next few weeks. I have reading to be done and essays to be written and presents to be made. (The latter is shaping up to be a ridiculous fantasy, I think). But I need to do these things well, and at the same time, I intend to soak up as much festive spirit as I can. I look forward to this time of year more than any other--but as I get older, I start seeing the stress of it. The pace and the speed of time. It's the same for everybody, right? How do you manage?

I hope to post festively as frequently as I can--maybe, just maybe, some holiday gift-guides!--and in the mean-time, you can always check out my holiday inspired Pinterest board.

limbo

My sister refers to these days teasingly* as 'crimbo limbo'. They are days when everyone positions themselves in celebration, yet waits for their end. The long, languid evenings are savoured, yet their end awaited with expectancy. With their passing, a better, brighter and more beautiful start can appear.

I am included in every aspect of this. I am enjoying the rest and the physical, mental and dietary laziness** these days allow. And yet everyday I find myself storing activities in my brain - hopes, wishes, goals - I want to start in the next few weeks; the activities I want to start 2011 with, as I mean to go on.

But really, I could do all of these things now. I could exercise my brain and my body in the ways I intend; I could begin visiting the places I want to see or learning and using words I feel I have lost. I do not need the first of a new month. The date is not something I need to strive towards--it is, instead, motivation.

There is a difference, though, between realisation and actualisation. The distinction, with its differences enclosed, has never felt so prominent.

*It is a running joke in my family to pronounce my favourite words incorrectly or play on linguistical pet-peeves. Thus, 'Christmas' is shortened to "crimbo", 'specific' to "pacific" etc. I am a little bit of a nerd, you know.

**I could so easily disown my body right now.

on christmas

I love Christmas.

Yesterday my (all-above-the-age-of-twenty) family and I spent the day in our pyjamas. We gave, we received, we relaxed. Then we giggled at a tipsy game of Balderdash and curled into bed.

I was unable to spend it, in physicality, with my love, but knowing that I am spending this, a third Christmas, with him is wonderful enough. (Having said that, I will always, always look forward to the day when we spend it together, becoming the tying ribbon between two families.)

My family and I have never had a Boxing Day tradition, so today I will spend it tidying the bedroom I have lately neglected. I have new Penguin postcards I want to stick on my wall and books I need to arrange; I have a doll's house I need to place by the wall (thank-you, my love, for the part of a girl's childhood I never received) and clothes, un-ironed, I need to put away. They don't feel like the most festive of tasks, but today, I really couldn't be happier doing them.

These few days are made up of contentment and happiness--and yet there is a swirl of emotion (of reflection, nostalgia and of not taking things for granted) that is dancing, delicately, upon the surface.

(Christmas could not be Christmas without cake. Home-made, iced by hand).

I sure hope you have had a wonderful Christmas wherever you are and throughout whatever pursuits are filling your days.

mapping christmas

I have pretty much finished all my Christmas shopping.

I just have writing, painting and wrapping to do. Oh, and baking (quite a lot of baking). I wish I had had more time and made more effort to give home-made gifts...

This year I feel like I have been a little slack on presents, but I keep reminding myself that everyone will have something under the tree. Perhaps it is because I have restricted myself to useful presents or split the cost between others that a sense of decadence has been lost. I would rather this, though - I would rather the presents I give will last long into the year.*

Yet I keep seeing things...

...like this clever Scratch Map from UO.

*I thought Mandi's Christmas present ideas - and more specifically, sourcing local or antique goods - was wonderful.

it's here

Everything is handed in.

Now I can start enjoying this time of year properly.

And it starts properly tomorrow, with a Christmas dinner with friends (before they leave for a month).

If I owned "Elf", I would be easing it out of its case right now.

no words

I do not know how to elasticate my words. I do not know how to thicken them.

Nor do I know how to give space when comfort is needed; hold at arms length when cold.

And I cannot stop telling people to see the light at the end of this dark, crowded tunnel when I do not see it myself.

There is cheer, here. I can feel it. I just need to get to it. I just need to do the above things - elasticate, thicken, spread myself thinly - and then relax.

Because next year will hold many more contradictions; little blocks that will be fallen over. And I might stumble into it - just as naive - or I might learn from the mistakes I have laid.

But there will be a smile. A smile at a job tried hard.

on fancy

This is my unapologetic Christmas list of absolute decadence (and self-confessed impossibility).

1. a publishing deal (and a book fort in which to write in)

(Photograph from Bookshelf Porn).

2. a little winter get-away in a solid wood cabin

(Photograph from Google Images).

3. a collection of vintage cake stands in my very own bakery (and the knowledge to maintain it)

(Photograph from Etsy).

4. a vintage dress like this one (and another wardrobe full of them)

(Photograph from Modcloth).

5. this beautiful wallpaper (and an apartment in which to hang it)

(Photograph from Anthropologie).

But what I would be happier with, above all of these, is the health and happiness of my friends and family. And more than a little hope.

And him, of course. More than anything.

on avoidance (part II)

I have still only written three paragraphs (although they are strengthened, embellished, re-ordered).

This makes me a very happy lady.

on avoidance

I promised that I wouldn't allow myself to feel festive until after my assignments are finished.

And yet, with the household Christmas tree up, a Christmas dinner and dance and the annual charity Santa visiting our neighbourhood already over, I have only written two paragraphs of one (of three) essays.

And then, as a sort of last-ditch attempt to motivate myself to cross the literary bridge to the festive season, I watched this.

I will watch it again next week, when all is handed in and work on my Christmas crafts can begin.

...

on the 1st of advent

I woke up to this little guy* in my Advent Calendar this morning.

I could not be more excited.

*Sadly the camera I have is not focusing properly (I need a new one, desperately) so this is a stolen photo from the Lindt website.

I am thinking about Christmas when I simply shouldn't be.

But these tree decorations are lovely.

Isn't the idea of using textual paper beautiful?

Can be found here, at Anthropologie.

on needing help

I need your help.

For Christmas this year, I am planning to make my second family a Christmas cake (sponge instead of fruit but similarly festive) but someone suggested that I add to this and make a sort of hamper out of it - basically bake 'til my heart is content.*

If you were receiving a family hamper (parents and adult children), what would you like to see inside?

*And with hopefully fewer catastrophes than the Hallow'een Extravaganza I tried a few weeks ago. I sometimes forget that not everyone has the stomach for the cake-to-icing ratio that I favour. I sure love baking, though!

simple pleasures

I like watching people put lights on their Christmas trees.*

*And yes, it feels early. But I love that.

a dress of love

Today I am quite in love with this dress.

And I am already becoming hopelessly excited for Christmas.