2011 is on the doorstep & all the tasks I’d delegated to this holiday week sit undone, a thick fog floating up around me as I become one with the couch, kittens & cocoa. What I allowed to be a short rest and recovery after the wedding is fast becoming stagnation. I have plans! Things [...]

Wee tea party yesterday afternoon for friends, which led into our first family holiday here in the evening!! It was so good to be around new family (& extended family!) fire blazing, unwrapping presents & drinking mulled wine.

Getting ready in the gnome cottage for our first married hexmas while rain & thunder crashes outside – but we’re cozy by the fire! Boxes are packed and ready to ship for my family, prizes wrapped for his, our Hexmas Eve tea is coming together, the boughs trimmed from the tree have been turned into [...]

Every hexmas I watch Bell, Book & Candle – I think Gillian might be my #1 fashion icon. For dinner this year, I’ve got a long sleeve black silk velvet 1960s dress I plan to sparkle up with rhinestone bracelets and brooches. I need way more dressing up occasions in my life! New Years resolution? [...]

One year since my grandmother passed away. I miss her more and more every day, like we’re drifting farther apart on a sea, and yet I keep her in my pocket, close to my heart. I wish she’d been at my wedding. I wish I could see her, hug her tiny bird shoulders, tell her [...]

Inspired by antique crepe paper snowy shelf edging (which I can’t actually find) I decided to make a snow garland.  Just draw icicle-snow patterns on a sheet of paper, cut, and stitch at the top. I used grey and white baker’s twine. This took longer than it sounds because kittens love string. And scissors. And [...]

Menu Veggie Plate Cheese Plate (including handmade VT brie from a nearby farm!) Meat Plate Honeycomb, Blue Cheese and Fresh Fruit Plate Fig Chutney with Baguette Cucumber, Cream Cheese and Dill Tea Sandwiches Prosciutto & Gruyere Pastry Pinwheels Smoked Turkey Tea Sandwiches with Arugula Mayonaise Devilled Eggs with radishes, chives & thyme Pumpkin and Fennel [...]

Forest ceremony perfectly and magically crafted just for us,  stone altars, birch tree stumps with crochet seats, bell-clear blue skies, shimmering ever-changing autumn sunlight, chandelier crystals in the trees, vintage paper balls, a handmade deck with a trompe l’oeil tree railing, procession winding through the woods, elderflower liqueur, licorice pipes, milk glass, archery next to an [...]

Today is my parents wedding anniversary – 40 years! My mom was a tiny wee, almost 21. I can’t believe how young she looks here. They’re still this in love and are total inspirations. It’s funny because we got our wedding photo DVD yesterday, so I want to actually post photos this weekend. Serendipity! My [...]

Thanksgiving’s been pretty low key for me for the last 15 years – for years and years I’d fast all day alone, reflecting, and then head out dancing. I’m 3000 miles from my family, and I also feel not particularly fond of the origins of the holiday. But gratitude as a concept, that’s something I [...]

These are so fun to make, I’m sad this is the last one I was planning on doing & it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, jeez. I guess I’m pretty excited for the holidays. I’ll have to think about other places I went to last year – maybe an elegant grandma gift guide inspired by Palm [...]

Next up – Paris inspiration. I’ll take one of everything on this guide, thanks! Is it weird to want beauty products? I like giving & getting tiny luxurious things I might not spring for myself. That Huiles & Baumes dry body oil is absolute heaven, btw. I had a tiny sample from a Parisian pharmacy [...]