Enjoy . . . → Read More: Enjoy This Day]]>
Gluten free pumpkin pancake with recipe from here.  One egg over easy.

Enjoy this day.

“I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality.  Why just be yourself?“  ~~Margaret Atwood

“The right hat may also enliven our imagination of the past….an old-fashioned cloche, . . . → Read More: Le Chapeau]]> “Life is like a new hat. You don’t know if it suits you if you keep trying it on in front of your own mirror.”  ~Shirley McLaine.

“I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality.  Why just be yourself?“  ~~Margaret Atwood

“The right hat may also enliven our imagination of the past….an old-fashioned cloche, a picture hat, or a toque trimmed with a pouf of polka-dotted veiling is just enough to make us feel as if we were living in another, romantic age.”

Wearing a hat is like medicine for the soul.

“When you wear a hat, you become the dream that started when the hat was conceived.  The original energy that was put into the hat doesn’t die; it only changes forms and owners.  The dream doesn’t die; it is passed on, sometimes from generation to generation.”

Here’s to hats.  And wearing them.  Out.  Whenever you feel like it.

Enjoy this day.

I missed you yesterday.  And most of today.  My internet has been down due to an “off-line” modem that led me through a maze of phone calls, troubleshooting by phone, an appointment, waiting…waiting…waiting… and finally INTERNET IS CONNECTED!   I had planned yesterday to share a messy hair bun with you, but alas it did not . . . → Read More: A Messy Long Hair Bun]]> Dear Friends,

I missed you yesterday.  And most of today.  My internet has been down due to an “off-line” modem that led me through a maze of phone calls, troubleshooting by phone, an appointment, waiting…waiting…waiting… and finally INTERNET IS CONNECTED!   I had planned yesterday to share a messy hair bun with you, but alas it did not happen. 

Primping in the bright apartment… er uh, Rose Cottage window.   I recently found the gray hooded T shirt for a few bucks at G.W. Boutique.  It’s very soft but not too heavy.  Perfect for these days we have this time of year in North Carolina when it’s not really cold but definitely not warm yet.

Also found a really cool book about the history of cats.  It has some breathtaking pictures in it.  (TERRY, it made me think of you!)  Some scary pictures, some sweet pictures, and some unbelievable information.  But I believe it. 

Now about the messy hair.  Sometime I just like a messy hair bun, but I do NOT mean just pulled back tight in a rubberband so that it is flat on top.  No.  I want style I guess, but not anything fancy.

I first comb the hair out.  I use a big comb more than a brush to try and help care for my long hair.  Brushes can really break hair.  Oh, and hair that’s really clean makes the BEST messy bun.  At least for me.

I comb up the hair at the crown and fluff it up a bit for some LIFT.

I pull back some hair on each side, not too tight and not too much, and it’s okay if some of the hair in the back falls partly over the combs.

Then I start twisting up the back.  You can see how the hair is falling over the comb and giving a layered, messy look.

It’s okay if a few hairs stick out around the bun.  I put at least TEN pins in loosely all around the bun.

Counting… EIGHT NINE TEN.

BUN is DONE.

MESSY MESSY but feels DRESSY.

I hope your FRIDAY has been wonderful and full of JOY.  I am working this evening and trying to make up some time.  Who knew I loved my internet so much!  Not I.

UNTIL IT WENT OUT FOR 24 HOURS. 

Enjoy this day!

Well, I ain’t dead, even though when I was 17 . . . → Read More: What Kinda Pose Is That?]]> It is just the kind of question a teenager asks when his mom is posing in front of a camera.  You know, by herself, with the camera set up on a timer.  And goodness me! if old mother should do anything other than just stand looking lost.

Well, I ain’t dead, even though when I was 17 I also thought my mother was old.  Ya.  But now I realize how very young 49 is!  Yup.  I am on the heels of 49 years old.  Come March, with its blowin’ wind one day and lamb-like nature the next, I will be 49 years young.

So when I was modeling in front of my dreamy English cottage (I wish) and my 17-year-old son said with a big smile on his face, “What kinda pose is that?” I smiled right back at him.

It’s the kinda pose your mama does because she has a blog that about a dozen people like to read and you have to take pictures if you have a blog.”

He laughed and said, “Oh.”

Not to take a single thing away from my amazing son, who tells me multiple times every day that he loves me, but I get the drift.  And that was the end of that.  Anyway, would you just look at this delightful English cottage I have picked out?  Can you hear the tea kettle whistling inside? Please come visit me there soon.

Actually, dears, the reason I had to strike such a pose was to show you the new lavender-flower-covered summer dress I found!  With its perfectly fitted waist and its little cotton slip ready made into the dress.  But it is truly made for summer, so into the closet it goes this last day of January, to wait a few more months.

In the meantime…

You are seeing the polka dotted skirt again, but mostly because I love it so much and because I especially liked it with this long very-dark-blue smock-style shirt with a perfect little black Peter Pan collar.

Set off with a brooch, the collar is in fact very striking.  Hair’s a bit in the way, but this is sort of a hair post anyway, so I figured we’d work around that.

Thought I would share a picture of what the long hair looks like after a night of being braided.  One of the challenges of having long hair is finding ways to style it.  It’s a big plus to have long, unlayered hair when you are in the mood for a long-hair up-do.  On the other hand, it’s a huge challenge to find a way to wear it up each day.  I occasionally remind myself that I love having long hair by wearing it down from time to time.

I love the little heart-shaped, fabric covered buttons at the sleeves.  It’s a good shirt.

Well, tons of stuff to do today!  It’s bright and wonderful here today!  I even have a window open!  Little Annie sleeps close by on the purple chair.  My to-do list has been dented severely this morning.  It’s a good day!

Enjoy this day!

xoxoxo

I wanted to share with you just a couple . . . → Read More: A Heart of Pressed Flowers]]> Happy Saturday, dear friends!  I do hope the weekend is good to us all.  Today is a work day for me, but I am so grateful to be working from home and to have a job that allows me to support myself and my children.  All is well.

I wanted to share with you just a couple of things.  First, a little, most humble gift I made for a sweet friend in a nursing home.

It is a bunch of pressed flowers, from last year from The Wild Little Garden.   I put them in the shape of a heart (never discount even individual petals that seem to be uselessly falling apart, for they allowed the heart to take shape!

I placed them in a laminating sleeve and then ran it through the laminator.

While not fancy at all, it can be handled without hurting anyone (no glass) and it is pretty hanging in a window.  It will keep its color for about a year, maybe more, depending on how much sun it gets.

In fashion news, I wanted to show you one of the bright dresses I found a couple of months back at G.W. Boutique — a 4 dollar treasure!  If ever I feel down, I just slip this particular dress on and I feel like a flower in a garden!  You will see once again the favorite black shoes and my trademark white stockings, but look for some new shoes to be posted about soon!  I found two really cute pairs today!  Even now, my feet are covered in vitamin E lotion and dressed in thick socks, trying to make these 40-something-year-old feet as pretty as possible!

Thanks, mom, for taking pictures!  Excuse the grainier ones.  All were taken with a phone! 

Do enjoy the day!  I heard a little commentary on the radio last week.  The bottom line was this: 

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who refuse to give up! 

May we all keep trying!

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