Back in late August, when the first Christmas items were filtering into craft stores, I bought this basket shaped like Santa's trousers. They had a similar pair in green which I assume were elf trousers but shoving your hand into an elf's trousers has a completely different vibe, so I bought the Santa pants. Because I am a hopeless hoarder of fabric I had no difficulty locating some holiday printed quilting cotton to line the basket with. At that point, it was obvious I wouldn't be using it as a basket (who goes to the trouble of lining a basket to hold pine cones?) so I went ahead and made a lid from a sturdy piece of cardboard and covered it with matching fabric.
Ta da! My new holiday handbag set me back a fiver, but I won't be seeing anyone else carrying it around town. I have the first event of the holiday season to attend this weekend and Santa Pants will be a great accessory. Chuffed with how well it turned out, I've been buying up novelty baskets to make into bags. I recently found a straw one shaped like a pig that will make a fun summer bag. Figural basket bags are crazy expensive, so I figure I'm saving myself a small fortune hunting down interesting baskets. That's my argument anyway.
The baking has commenced. The biscuits that need aging (lebkuchen, springerle, peppernuts, etc) are mostly out of the way now. My Christmas cake was baked back in August thanks to Danny, so I can focus my attention on his Birthday cake, and the various holiday breads. I will still make candy to fill Danny's shoe for St. Nicholas night, though I suspect he's wise to me by now??. There will be Lucia Buns, Stollen, Pannettone, Pulla and whatever else people ask me to bake. Danny will be 13 in a few weeks, and I know he won't want to be doing the big holiday at home thing much longer, so I'm really going all out this year to make it memorable. Thankfully, he's not into material stuff and we're focusing on activities instead. I'm going ahead with the Open House because I really want our neighbours to get to know one another, but I do realise we might be sitting there alone if no one shows.
On the wardrobe front, I've been doing my best, but I've been feeling less than inspired between our odd weather and the awful fluid retention from long-term use of Prednisone. The good news is I'm currently tapering off it after all these months-the bad news is it didn't help all that much. Anyway, hopefully my face will return to a normal shape soon. I didn't expect to feel worse coming off it, but I'm told that's normal. Anyway, I still need to get dressed every day, so here's a peak at what I wore instead of the dressing gown I'd prefer to stay in all day.
I love this velvet hat with the tiny feather sticking up-I feel like Robin Hood. The Corde bag with the lucite handle was a thrift shop find years ago. Upon opening it I spotted the tag from the Antique mall for considerably more than I paid for it. It amazes me what people will buy and then re-donate. The skirt is satin with a tulle underskirt and a net and velvet overlay.
This ski sweater is a fun bit of 70's polyester. It has a Dacron label in it, letting you know it was genuine DuPont (yep, the chemical company). I hadn't seen that in years, so naturally I had to buy the sweater. It is
very warm, Warmer than wool anyway, but at least wool breathes. I don't think this sweater really fits in with my er...
menopausal lifestyle, so it will probably be moved along to a new home. The furry headband (also have one in pink) was kind of plain so I stuck a snowflake brooch on it. The leather skirt and boots are both quite old. I'm never sure how to wear leather without looking like I'm headed to a club, but I have to think a Dacron Polyester ski sweater is about as un-sexy as it gets!
Not sexy but it hasn't stopped creepy men from DMing me on Instagram, Geez. I certainly don't do anything to attract that sort of nonsense, and I'd kinda hoped by my age I wouldn't have to put up with it, but yeah, I figured out how to block people. Sigh, what a world we live in.
When I was going through my holiday decorations I found these prints I don't remember buying. I'll leave you with a look at them. No idea why they ended up in the Christmas things, but now I need to locate some frames and find a bare wall (no easy task at our house). Hope midweek is treating you well.
Look, it's Blondin!
I'll be back tomorrow with another Christmas Brooch of the Day.
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