Happy Thursday morning to us all!  I am thankful to be alive this morning.  For health and strength, a warm apartment, birds singing outside, freedom, happy children, food, fabric, and all important and frivolous things that make life so wonderful!

I wanted to share with you a new polka dot skirt that I fell in . . . → Read More: Polka Dots and Some Blog Love]]> My Dear Friends,

Happy Thursday morning to us all!  I am thankful to be alive this morning.  For health and strength, a warm apartment, birds singing outside, freedom, happy children, food, fabric, and all important and frivolous things that make life so wonderful!

I wanted to share with you a new polka dot skirt that I fell in love with on first glance.  I felt simply RETRO the moment I clapped eyes on it.  So home it went with me, a 4-dollar steal of a deal that was washed up, put on a hanger and worn the very next day.  Forgive the grainy picture; it was taken with my phone!

I say, who is not happy in polka dots?  Do not dots feel the most retro of all?  Perhaps my own natural “dots” — my freckles — are what make me lean toward the retro, the old, the impulsive, the elusive.  Then again, the dark hair and fair skin that hails from that old isle Ireland and its sister country Scotland do lend to a melancholy and dark disposition, so what a mix!  By the Alice Tree. Me.  And my polka-dots.

Stockings.  Strappy leather shoes.  Vintage garden chair.  Bright floral fabric.

I finished up another millinery pin, and this one is, to me, perfection.  I love the satiny fabric and the touch of golden-bronze around the edges.  Currently testing for durability and compliments — it has already had a few — and then will have to get my polka-dotted self busy and get them in The Shop.  My oh my.  Orders are being prepared to go out.  More things need to go in!

And now, without further ado, I want to express some great big blog love for a blog I came across a few days ago.  It is called Esme and the Laneway and I think you’ll be busy there for awhile if you decide to visit.

Talk about a fashion darling!  She is lovely and has the most amazing collection of vintage clothing ever!  If only I looked so adorable in vintage dresses!  The following photos are from Esme and the Laneway, taken with permission from her darling blog.

Enjoy this day!  I am on to errands, a couple of thrift store walk-throughs, and a bit of letter writing.

xoxoxo

My moms goats, looking at the crowd around . . . → Read More: You Never Know What You Might Find!]]> Hello, Friends!  I just wanted to pop in this evening and share some pictures from Christmastime ’round here.  It was nothing fancy, I assure you, but it is nice to eat a meal with family and friends and do some old-fashioned things like roast chestnuts over an open fire. 

My moms goats, looking at the crowd around them.

And, yes, friends, we did roast chestnuts over an open fire for Christmas.  My mother, bless her dear sweet industrious heart, built a fire (even though ‘twernt that cold outside) and she roasted chestnuts, just so we could say we did.  They were quite interesting!  Good flavor!  Fun stuff!

The retro pink Christmas tree I lugged home from G.W. Boutique, not because I love Christmas trees (or even want one), no, but because I have one particular child who loves them.  But come to think of it, I might just leave this up and decorate it with Valentines.  Don’t you think it would become Rose Cottage?

All gifts were bejeweled this year with my handmade tags.

As well as pretty old-fashioned ribbons.  I do say, wrapping is half the fun!

Princess of the Universe informed me that she no longer plays with dolls, but this little porcelain cutie needed a home, and I needed to know that I can still put a doll in my girl’s stocking for Christmas.  Right?

And finally, last but not least, I found the prettiest corset while out shopping for Christmas.  You know G.W. called my name!  And you know I answered!  Anytime.  Anywhere.  G.W. and I have the most fun together. 

This corset is not so comfortable, unfortunately, but do I love the effect!  Romantic!  Old fashioned!  It has gotten me quite in the mood to look for more corsets and to maybe invest in one or two that are made to be worn day in and day out.  Unlike this one, which wears okay for an hour or so, but then you might feel like you have to get out of it, or else.  Oh well.

And now to the reason I called this post what I called it.  In searching on line for…ahem…corset information, I found a very cute blog that tied up my mind for about half an hour or so.  Very retro.  Lots of ideas.  Lots of cool pictures (though a little word of caution to those of you with children who read here, you may find vintage undergarments modeled).  Lots of retro info!

Alice Jean’s

Enjoy this day! 

Is all dead in winter?  I don’t think so.  The . . . → Read More: Let The Holiday Begin!]]> Yes, I am done stressing about school for right now because it totally went on the back burner this week.  Appointments.  Shopping.  Family traveling home.  Get-togethers.  I ask you, how can anyone do school work?  It’s time for our winter break here, and I intend to enjoy it.  

Is all dead in winter?  I don’t think so.  The withered rose blooms on my rose bushes look so pretty to me.  There’s a sad sort of beauty about them: clearly dead or dying, yet with a touch of summer’s red-pink blush left.  Makes me think of our lives.  The brevity.  The uncertainty.  The beauty.  The joy.  We’d better enjoy one day at a time.

Oh yes.  Life, I think I said.  I pulled a bloom from a rose bush and this little mayfly-looking winged creature came out.  I felt bad for disturbing its resting place, but it flew away, hopefully to find another rosebud. 

There’s life, all the time, when we look for it.

On other, less serious note, I’d advise you to visit homemadedollhouse.blogspot.com to read about our beautiful foreign doll and her current endeavor.

It is a worthwhile project, as I feel sure you’ll agree.

Around the net:  I stumbled across the most beautiful blog with the most adorable header yesterday.  Just take a look.  I made a screenshot because I figure that after winter this header will be gone.

You’ll have to visit Turkey Feathers yourself to see the snow falling across the header of this beautiful blog.

Enjoy this day.

Lynn