Under a Blue Moon

Friday Favorites

Silk Baby Robe, ◊ Shabby Vintage Tins, ◊ the edge of a winter past, ◊ Untitled

Okay – now this is a commitment to the Christmas tree. I need to step up my game
You know me and my doormats. I certainly wouldn't need this one. Ahem
Lovely little saucepan. My favorite green
This is just so mesmerizing. Murmuration

I am officially on vacation for the rest of the year!! Except I have one more meeting to attend!! BOO! Ah well. I was trying my hardest to get all of my loose ends tied up for the year but I have an email or two and perhaps a report that needs to get out before I can officially sign off from work. My work takes the week between Christmas an New Year's off and I'm tacking on an extra week before. I'm super looking forward to meeting up with my nephew (all the way from Dublin!) in San Francisco where we can enjoy Union Square and have a fancy cocktail somewhere. And then it is serious wrapping all all those other last minute things that need to be attended to.

My son's in laws are in town (that makes them my in laws too, right?) and we are meeting up for dinner tonight. They are lovely people and I always enjoy when we can get together (they live 2000 miles away so it's extra special).

Happy weekend everyone! Stay away from the malls!

Stocking Stuffers

I think my favorite part of Christmas is the stockings. It is such a low pressure way to add fun to Christmas. No stressing if it is THE perfect gift as it is just an assortment of fun or useful items. Also it is really a lovely (and easy) gesture, if you have stray out of town guests, to give them a stocking of their own on Christmas morning. We've had a few people that were at loose ends on Christmas so of course we had them come celebrate to us and I think it really helps them feel part of the festivities. They have their very own stocking!

It is also my experience that the older the recipient the more fun they have with their stockings. My boys and daughter in law, good lord help me, are in their 30's and I think they get as much fun out of the stocking as they do their regular gifts. I have a stocking for my granddaughter too, but I think ideas for children are plentiful so I'm concentrating on stockings for young adults.

Speaking of stockings – you can be creative here and not do the standard stocking. Although they are plentiful and inexpensive if you want to go the traditional route. Instead of a regular stocking I have found nice red boxes that I have filled with stocking stuffers and tied up with a fluffy white ribbon.

I have a few standard items that are added to each stocking every year. Regardless of the gender or age of the person. Toothbrush, lipbalm, socks, candy cane, pen, notebook, See's chocolate Santa and chocolate coins. Then I try to add gender specific items. Pocket knives, mascara, face masks, bottle openers. All of which can be added to either gender – depending on the recipient. Hey I'm an equal opportunity face masker.

I'm not adding links to this post because everything is so easy to find. If you have a question about a particular item let me know in the comments and I'll supply you with a link.

Ideas for the boys:

Socks
Flask
Phone camera lens
Phone charger
Playing cards
Bottle opener
Comb
Chocolate Santa
Candy Cane
Lip balm
Chocolate coins
Pen
Notebook
Giftcard
Pocket knife
Toothbrush

Ideas for the girls:

Socks
Mascara
Phone camera lens
Phone charger
Playing cards
Face mask
Makeup brushes
Chocolate Santa
Candy Cane
Lip balm
Chocolate coins
Pen
Notebook
Giftcard
Eye-shadow Palette
Toothbrush

I do hope you found this helpful or inspiring. Remember – it's the little things in life that give us the most joy.

More Christmas

So how is everyone doing with the whole holiday season? I'm feeling a bit of panic settling in, despite my efforts to chill the heck out.

I did have a fun weekend – my friend came to visit and we did lots of talking, shopping and drinking more wine than was totally prudent.

One of the things we did was drag her out on Saturday night to go see the Christmas lights at Deacon Dave's here in Livermore. There is no preparing anyone for Deacon Dave's. It just has to be experienced.

There is a team of over 30 people that start putting the lights up in August. Over half a millions lights! It's just a regular house, in a regular neighborhood.

Can you even imagine? Move aside Clark Griswold. To quote a friend…"it's like Christmas threw up all over the place."

There that's better. There's my nice, soothing palette. That little cabinet with the teeny trees is a new acquisition. I picked it up at the Paris Flea Market on Saturday. I certainly have plenty of Christmas decorations but I do like picking up something new every year. Last year it was the snowman in the first picture and this year it was this sweet, little cabinet.

When I was going through my Christmas decorations I pulled out something that I haven't displayed in years. It is something my mother made for me back when I was in my early 20s. One year she went on a miniature bender and made all kinds of Christmas vignettes. There was a store in Palo Alto called Studio D that had, among other things, a huge inventory of miniatures. She made this Christmas scene and for years it had pride of place on my mantel. I'm not sure why I haven't included it in my Christmas decorating over the past few years. Probably because I have scaled way back since the boys are grown. But I pulled it out this year, chased out a couple spiders and put it in the guest room. This time of year, especially, makes me miss her so much. Having this out just reminds me how much she loved making Christmas magical.

Friday Favorites

Tatting Thread ◊ Even a small rearrangement ◊ My Vintage Home ◊ Untitled

I know a few people who can identify with these wine labels
Prettiest 2018 calendar
I do have a thing for marble. Loving this cheese board and this little tray (which I would use for trinkets)
Lovely, simple Christmas decor (my theme this year!). I think my favorite element is the sweet little bells she has strung on her mirror

I'm starting to get into the festive spirit now. I've decided that, like my Christmas decor, I'm going to keep things simple this year. I just stress myself out trying to get everything just right for everyone and forget to slow down and enjoy the season myself. In the moment – that is my plan.

One of my dearest friends is coming to stay with us this weekend. One of those "pick up where we left off" type of friends, no matter how much time passes between us getting together. It's also the weekend of the Paris Flea Market so I think we will hit that up. And other than that we will just laze around and play it by ear.

I hope your weekend is calm and cozy.

Late Autumn Garden

I know everyone has flung themselves headfirst into Christmas and all that wintry loveliness but autumn is still with us for a couple more weeks. I know I am fortunate to live in No. California where the blooming season starts early and lasts a long time but I can already see our garden winding down. We've (haha – you know I mean Rick) stopped deadheading the roses so they can settle down for their winter rest. And most of our summer flowering shrubs are hanging on to their last couple of blossoms.

We had a terrific wind yesterday that blew most of the lingering leaves off the trees. Isn't funny how the leaves have lined themselves up in the lawnmower tracks.

My impatiens are still going like gangbusters. Both the ones in the pot at the end of the walkway and the ones in the three-tiered planter.

Once we dip down into the low 30's these will be gone. We are supposed to get down to 37° F tonight. Rick covered up one of the begonias. I'm thinking I might need a greenhouse situation on the backside of the garden shed to over-winter the begonias and the fuchsia.

The camellias have started blooming to give us a couple of months of flowers while the rest of the garden sleeps.

We do have some lovely camellias in the garden. I'm not sure what this one is – it was here when we moved in. My favorite is Nuccio's Pearl followed very closely by Debutante.

That milky white sky always reminds me of late autumn.

Here's the last of the fall color in our yard. I kept meaning to take a picture of our pistache tree when it was vivid orange and red but it was so fleeting. You can barely see that bench during the summer. It is surrounded by gladiolas and foxgloves. Not a fan of gladiolas (funeral flower) but Rick loves them and lord knows he accommodates me often enough.

Here are the last of the fuchsia blossoms. They always remind me of ballerinas. I can remember having them in our yard growing up and getting constantly scolded for "popping" them before they had a chance to open. Did anyone else to that?

Simple Christmas

Grace watching the world go by. My Christmas decorating for the past two years has been dictated by Grace and Rosie. Oh if they had their druthers it would be huge tree covered in precious, breakable ornaments. I can just see waking up to a crash and broken glass everywhere and two innocent faces. "Who us? We don't know what you are talking about."

So instead I have been keeping things simple.

I bought a fresh garland and cut it in half. One piece went on the chandelier in the living room and the other on the big mirror in the dining area. I added some twinkly lights to the mirror. And if you are astute you will notice I just swapped out a mercury glass pumpkin for a glittery tree and there is my Christmas tablescape. Simple AND lazy.

I really need a retro looking refrigerator, don't I? It would make for a more charming picture for sure, but I'm not sure that is reason enough to shell out a fortune for one.

I am toying with the idea of putting up a small tree. We did that last year and had it on a table and the cats seemed to leave it alone. We were at my Dad's last night and my sister Kate was putting the lights on his Christmas tree and it just smelled so good. I have a small faux tree that I use but maybe I can find a real one that is around five feet tall.

We spent yesterday taking inventory of our outdoor Christmas lights. We have two types of lights and not enough of either kind to do our house. Of course we can't find either kind in the stores so we had to buy yet another kind. We'll spend this week putting them up so we are ready for the Christmas light tour that begins on Friday.

Speaking of Christmas light tours – we had the most magical thing happen on Saturday. We were watching our Granddaughter and when it was just getting dark out we bundled her up and took her for a walk so we could see some of the houses in the neighborhood that have their lights up already. When we were on our way back we could see Christmas lights coming down the street towards us. It was eight horses and their riders completely decked out in lights! They were in perfect formation and just silently went past us. It was so magical.

I do have two simple trees up in the sitting room. I added twinkly lights to them as well. I'm thinking I'll just leave them as is. Please ignore the running shoes under the chair and the fact we have to flip up the valance so Miss Rosie doesn't chew on the trim. See what I mean? She looks all innocent…

So that is pretty much my Christmas decorating so far. Very simple. Enough sparkle for my glittery heart and out of harm's way.

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