christmas cactus and paperwhites

A once teeny tiny Christmas cactus cutting taken from my mom's this summer - so happy to see it likes it here. 

Look at that bloom! Just popped a few days ago.

Lets hope these paperwhites like it here just as much. It's my first time trying my hand at forcing these fragrant beauties - if I timed it right, they should grow tall green stalks out the top of the glass jug and bloom around Christmas. 

practically perfect in every way

Favorite image of the day (thus far...) - this bedroom:

That is all. :)

Found via decor8's sneak peak at the newest issue of Heart Home Magazine.

lake and sky

Just wanted to share an image I captured before leaving my office in downtown Buffalo a few weeks back. 

. 

The cloud line was so dramatic and there was an intense glow on Lake Erie from the reflection of the setting sun. It's views like this that make working on the most intensely windy corner in Buffalo worth it. 

o christmas tree

This weekend we had the privilege of getting our Christmas tree from our friend Dave's family farm in Orangeville, New York - a bit less than an hour southeast of Buffalo. Orangeville is home to many an iconic red barn, old cemetery, rolling hills of farmland and deer grazing in fields immediately along the road. 

The farm has a chicken coup, apple orchard, cider press, woods full of maple trees, a gorgeous creek lined and flanked by shale (complete with deep swimming holes and a very convenient adjacent grass clearing for a colony of tents...) and a patch of evergreens that were planted years ago for the purpose of providing family and friends with Christmas trees. 

The weather was perfect. Having no snow yet in Buffalo, it was a treat to see just a bit on the ground - enough to make everything that much more Christmasy and beautiful, but not enough to make it difficult to trek through the woods to the evergreen patch. The sun was out, and the air was crisp but not too cold for one wee two month old's first hike, in the most adorable little bear romper outfit ever. Eli, you handled the great wintery outdoors like a champ!

And our friend Dave, a brewer at Naked Dove brewery in Canandaigua, New York, kindly brought along a growler of their porter - a wholly appropriate brew for drinking in the woods at 11 am. 

 Posing with our tree!

This is the first year that we've had a tree with this shape - not the super dense conical shaped tree we normally get at the nursery around the corner from us. It made hanging the lights a little more challenging, but I love how I could hang ornaments all over the tree - close to the trunk and on the outer edges. It is my favorite Christmas tree yet!

It was by far the loveliest time we've ever had fetching a Christmas tree - can't thank Chrissy and Dave enough for inviting us along for the adventure!

wanna play dress up?

This year, Evan and I, together with a few friends, are attending the Statler City Ice Ball for New Year's Eve - I am so excited! NYE is Evan's favorite holiday, and, done right, it can be right up there with Halloween for me in terms of dressing up excitement.

 

Sadly, NYE planning usually ends up being an afterthought, after the all-consuming shopping/baking/DIY gifting and traveling of the Christmas season is over. We make plans to go out or go to a friend's house, I frantically scour my closet for something "festive", come up short, go out shopping, and get frustrated because I can't find anything that I like in my price range. And usually, the whole evening ends up feeling woefully anti-climactic, and I am left thinking 

" Its the Eve of a new year, for crying out loud!

A toast to new beginnings!

A retrospective on all the good things that transpired over the past year, and challenges overcome! 

We only have so many of these to celebrate in our lifetime! 

This holiday deserves a party dress and a venue worthy of it!

 Styled hair!

Eyeshadow!

Lipstick! "

... or, something along those lines.

So this year it feels good to start making plans early, and to have something momentous to look forward to. I am in the market for a new party dress - something a bit more festive than the  fairly conservative subdued work appropriate dresses I have stockpiled over the years. After 5 consecutive years of Fall weddings to attend, making due with what's on hand depending on what end of the size spectrum I happen to be on at the time, the Ice Ball gives me the perfect excuse to find something that will become my go-to fall/winter "special occasion dress".

I will be hitting up the local dress shops around Buffalo soon, but in the meantime, its fun to window shop online to see what the options are if I strike out. Modcloth is by far my favorite online resource. I've narrowed down the contenders on their site to about 20. Yeah, you heard me - TWENTY. I blame the fact that every day they get at least two dozen new arrivals in. Every day!! I can't keep up!

So, indulge me in a virtual game of dress up?

~1~

~2~

Breathtaking, no?
 You'll see that I have a bit of a thing for black lace.

~3~

~4~

~5~

~6~

~7~

Another fun place to look is Asos - if you have time to sort through the 100s of "body conscious" and obscenely short offerings. Some "longer", more "conservative" favorites:

~8~
Of course, now I cant locate this dress on the site.

~9~

^ A bit daring, yes. But I love it.

~10~

~11~

^ This one falls into the too short and too expensive category, but it is beautiful.

~12~

Just kidding on this one.

Sort of. 

Totally speaks to my inner crow though.

I'm holding out hope that ~2~ will come back in stock. It is by far my favorite. Do you have plans for New Year's Eve yet? Will you be shopping for a new outfit? Something with lace or sparkles? Do share!

xoxo

 

I need a wedding

I need someone to get engaged so that I can justify getting these adorable salt and pepper shakers as a wedding gift. Or, a friend who is obsessed with elephants (if that's you, friend, speak up!). 

So adorable!

Sold here. 

I am making my way through the Cyber Monday explosion in my inbox - most emails go straight into the trash, but I couldn't help but take a look at Modcloth's Cyber Monday sale, since chances are good that I will be treating myself to a new dress for New Year's Eve ... more on that soon.