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I accidentally bought the world’s ugliest teapot.  It’s so ugly that I feel sorry for it and now I’m going to have to buy or make it a new wardrobe. 

A few years ago, when Martha still had her online shop, I fell in love with a teapot with a metal cozy.  It was gorgeous in its simplicity and functionality.  It was white and the metal cozy was a silver metal (aluminum I suppose).  Oh how I coveted that teapot but it was a bit pricey and at the time I was being frugal.  I don’t know how many times I’ve passed on something because its price was just a little above my comfort zone only to think incessantly about the object for ever more.  I should learn.  Just buy it and economize elsewhere. 

I keep thinking one will show up on eBay one of these days and last week when I was doing a search I found a Hall coverlet teapot in yellow that was very similar to my beloved Martha Stewart model.  Only it was yellow.  But I like yellow – I can make it work.  And as luck would have it no one had bid on it yet.  So I placed a bid and won the darn thing.  When the package arrived I tore into it only to be totally disappointed to find that the coverlet part is a urine yellow brushed aluminum.  You should have seen the dismay on my sad little face.  I knew the pot was yellow but I thought the cover was going to be silver.   I actually went back and looked at the listing and sure enough even there it looks slightly yellow.  But then all my pictures have a golden glow so I figured the seller had the same crappy camera I do.

So I think I’m going to have to ditch the metal cozy and make a pretty, embroidered one for it.   I’ve been looking online and haven’t found one I like so I’m going to have to make one.  I’m picturing white linen with pale yellow flowers embroidered on it. 

I bought a book a couple of weeks ago (no danger being a spendthrift here – it was only $3.50) that has hundreds of floral designs and initials.  So I think I’ll monogram my little cozy.

I thought it was funny how many posts I read yesterday had the title of "All is Calm.." with the unspoken "whew" and wiping of brow, I’m sure. 

We got our main tree up and decorated today.  Rick and I have this little tradition of seeing how fast we can get to the tree lot, pick out a tree and get back home.  This year we did it in about 12 minutes. 

My Dad is here, supervising the decorating.  He sat by the fire and looked up from his book now and then and told me where I was being skimpy with the decorations. 

I’m not quite ready to have a ‘all is calm’ post just yet.  But I’m getting there ~ almost there. 

Added 12/17:

I’ve always loved the look of real tinsel on a tree.  When we were growing up we would each be given a handful to carefully place, strand by strand on the tree.  This would last about two minutes and then as soon as my mother left the room we would begin flinging it on in fistfuls or wadding it up into hard little balls and throw them at each other. 

Then the powers that be decided it wasn’t such a swift idea to have lead based decorations so easily and charmingly accessible to small children (or anyone for that matter) so they switched to plasticky tinsel.  Which just doesn’t wad up as satisfactorily. 

It’s been a sad, tinsel-less existence for us all these years until now.  I found an online resource for old fashioned tinsel only made out of pewter rather than lead.  I’m too late for this year but I’m going to order some for next year. 

And finally ~ I cannot take a picture of the tree to save my life.  I just can’t capture the colored lights properly.  Flash just washes everything out and you can’t see the lights at all or without a flash it ends up looking all nether worldly.  I swear it’s just a normal, green Noble Fir: