a christmas wool cape

Photos by Neil!

Camel Wool Cape with Plaid Lining - Handmade!!

Vintage Black Velvet Dress, Brown Leather Belt, Platform Lace Ups - Thrifted

Super Opaque Black Tights - American Apparel

Faux Fur Hat - Forever 21

Merry Christmas! Did you all have a good time celebrating the holiday? Neil and I are at his parent's house with his family - we ate crown roast and chocolate, watched cheesy holiday movies, and took these photos in the snow. I don't remember the last time I had a white Christmas, and since we live in Nashville, it might be a long time before it happens again. The snow fell all Christmas Eve, and I was happy.

I finished my camel wool cape just in time for Christmas!

It's incredible what a difference topstitching will make when working with a layered piece. I haven't added the button tab to the collar, but I might change it up now that I have it mostly done. I want to add hook and eye closures all along the front of the cape - either that, or a zipper. A button at the neck doesn't cut it if I want to wear this cape all winter long.. it needs to be enclosed somehow.

Let's all keep celebrating til New Years hits! This morning, Neil and I are driving to St. Louis to see college friends and eat at our favorite places. I can't wait to revisit all of our spots we'd go to when we were dating and shop the after Christmas sales.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all have had a wonderful Christmas morning!

Last night I took the dogs out for one last final walk and as I walked back down the driveway, I looked at my family home, that only hours earlier was bustling with family and friends.

I looked inside and caught my dad in the window setting up gifts and filling stockings.

By the time I came back inside, most of the family had gone to bed, but I sat for a little while looking at the tree with Whiskey on my lap, thinking about all that we have been blessed with this year. An evening with your loved ones can do that to you...remind you about what this holiday really is about.

Of course, I did take a peek under the tree to look at some of the presents too. How gorgeous is this wrapping paper that my mother found in the States?

Almost too pretty to unwrap. It sparkles when lit up by the tree. I used it to wrap a few special gifts :)

It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without piling on the couch with my sister and brother to watch Its a Wonderful Life. I always get a little teary at the end when the whole community gets together to help George Bailey. Oh how I would love to live in a place as pretty as Bedford Falls.

I'm looking forward to a quiet, relaxing day with the family. We did our big family dinner last night, so now its just time for leftovers and watching movies.

Hope that you all have a wonderful day. Merry Christmas!

The Sights and Sounds of the Season

Today I'm up early finishing the baking and helping with the cooking for our big family dinner this afternoon. Its our tradition to do the big meal on Christmas Eve with the whole family and then all the grandparents and great aunts stay over for Christmas morning brunch. I know that some year my mother wants to go to Hawaii or Florida for the holidays, but right now I can't picture Christmas without lots of family and lots of snow.

All week I've been getting into the holiday spirit, cooking, baking, humming carols, doing a TON of wrapping and of course, looking at all the Christmas light displays.

The boyfriend and I decided to bundle up and head out on a little Christmas date to take in all the sights and sounds of the season.

We drove to the town of Newmarket to see their Festival of Lights at Fairy Lake.

 All through the scenic park there are displays by some of their local businesses.

 I practiced my hoop skills with some jolly reindeer ;)

You can walk through the displays, or hop on the Tim Hortons Express and take a ride through the park.

We had a great time looking at all the displays and listening to the Christmas music.

Its hard not to get in the festive spirit with all the pretty lights and freshly fallen snow.

It was absolutely freezing outside, so the boyfriend was happy to pick up his free cup of Tim Hortons' hot chocolate, while I nabbed a mini candy cane.

I'm off to finishing getting everything ready for our big fun family dinner and looking forward to the end of the night when I can sit down with a nice glass of Bailey's while I watching Its A Wonderful Life. A perfect finish to one of my favorite days of the entire year.

Hope that everyone has a lovely Christmas Eve and that you wake up to everything you desire on Christmas morning!

Christmas Bootcamp vs. Baking Marathon

This year my friend Amy and I decided to do something a little different. Instead of spending most of our holiday days lounging around on the couch watching movies and eating chocolate, we decided to commit to a self-imposed Christmas Bootcamp. In other words, we agreed to motivate each other to workout most days during the two weeks we have off at Christmas......

....however, we had ALOT of baking to do this week as well.

I'm not kidding when I say "alot". Amy has been a baking fiend lately and she is so sweet about taking extra care to make things safe for everyone. She makes nut stuff, but then she dedicates a day to going nut-free for people like me and diabetic safe for people like her father. The time and energy to do it all just boggles me.

On this day we made 6 recipes, putting one in the oven and starting on the next one right away. With two blondes working in the kitchen we ended up making little mistakes on every recipe...twice as much green food colouring in one recipes, and extra cup of coconut in another. But they all seemed to work out great in the end.

These little guys are basically mint sugar cookies with a chocolate filling inside and a mint chocolate on top. They smelled amazing while they were baking. Mint chocolate has to be one of my favorite flavour combinations.

This is where things got dangerous....the extra pieces of chocolate.

We can't just let them go to waste, right?

My favorite dish that we made were these chocolate coconut bars. I'm hoping to grab the recipe from her and make a post about it soon.

Even though they weren't completely cooled before I left, I had to cut into them to get a little piece. Rich, decadent, chocolatey goodness :)

We also made white chocolate orange cookies with a little bit of Grand Marnier in there for kick.

Ever square inch of counter space was covered in goodies. It was so tempting to have some of everything.

But I knew that she needed all the goodies for her cookie tins, so I just grabbed one of the leftover Oreos and dipped it in icing like a grown up version of Dunk-a-roos.

Just look at all that icing! And this is where the Christmas Bootcamp becomes a predicament. Is it really doing anything to improve my health....or just keeping all the bad stuff at bay while I indulge during the holidays?

christmas as a southern affair

Vintage Velvet Collar Coat - Closet Case Vintage

Simple Black Oxfords - Etsy

Vintage Peter Pan Collar Holiday Dress - in the shop

Vintage Two Tone Satchel - thrifted

Black Hair Bow - American Apparel

A week or so ago, my mom was leading a Southern Homes tour for a group of out of state visitors, and she asked if I'd come along and help out. As it was a golden opportunity to check out lovely sites like Ferguson Hall and Rippavilla Plantation in all of their holiday glory, I knew I had to tag along.

While Rippavilla is grand with a very mixed history (blood stains on the wall and plenty of ghost stories - or so I hear), James K. Polk's former residence interested me the most. It's almost unassuming from the outside - the house of America's 11th president, it's a simple two story home with a light brick exterior and forest green shutters - but inside, it was opulence. A favorite feature of mine from homes of that era (and of Rippavilla's) is the pattern mixing.. notice the striped wallpaper in a leaf motif with the burgundy medallion carpet, all thrown in with rich velvet drapes and golden fringe and ornate chandeliers. They piled extravagance upon extravagance in those days and didn't even bother with coordinating colors. And it's glorious.

Exterior shots are of Rippavilla Plantation and the Polk Home, interior shots are the Polk Home.

It's Christmas Eve tomorrow! Neil and I are driving to his parent's house tomorrow evening to celebrate. Hope you all have a fantastic holiday!

Morton Family Strata from "The Family Stone"

On Christmas morning we often have a slew of relatives who have stayed over from our Christmas Eve dinner the night before, and we always try to serve up a nice brunch to get everyone started on their day of traveling to other family events. So last year I wanted to try something new for a change and I remembered that there was a recipe on the DVD of The Family Stone for a delicious looking strata.

In the film, Meredith Morton (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) prepares her family's recipe for strata to serve to the eccentric Stone family on Christmas morning. If you have seen the movie, you undoubtedly remember the scene where this strata is dropped all over the kitchen floor! 

Despite being accident prone myself, I managed to avoid spilling this anywhere. It was a great dish to prepare for a brunch because it needs to sit in the fridge over night, so you get to make it well in advance and just pop it in the oven when you wake up on Christmas morning.

What you'll need:
8 slices of White Bread
8 ounces Mozzarella Cheese, sliced or grated
14 ounces Tomatoes, sliced
13 ounces sliced Mushrooms, drained (or sauteed fresh)
1 medium Onion, thinly sliced into rings
5 Eggs
3 cups Milk
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Oregano
1 pinch Garlic Salt
Parmesan Cheese
Black Olives, sliced (optional)

 Using a cookie cutter, donut cutter or lid from a jar, cut bread into shapes or circles. Set aside.

 Place bread scraps in bottom of buttered 13' by 9' baking dish. 

 Layer half of the cheese over bread. 

 Arrange half of the tomatoes on top of the cheese.

Add the onion on top of the tomatoes.

 Saute the mushrooms in a little bit of butter.

 Place mushrooms on top and cover with the rest of the cheese.

 Arrange the bread shapes on top of the cheese.

 Put slices of the tomato in the center of each bread shape.

Combine slightly beaten eggs, milk, salt, oregano and garlic salt. Pour over the bread.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and dot with olives if you'd like. Cover. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Bake 1 1/2 hours in a 325°F oven, or until knife comes out clean.

 Let stand for 5 minutes or until firm.

Deliciously cheesy! 

Serves 8

Printable Version (coming soon!)