Style Saturday

All Christmas, All the Time

It's all Christmas all the time around here.  Cards are all off in the mail, on their way to sparkly Christmas houses around the country.  Sea to shining sea!  So...half the cards were sparkly.  Halves...because it's hard for a girl to make up her mind. 

Style Saturday

Taking Your Vitamins

Dear Reader,

In our household, vitamins are only taken if they are the chewy variety.  They must not taste like "berry", they must taste like "fruit."  Running out of chewy vitamins is not advised.  It is like saying, "Surprise!  You know the candy you get before bed?  You ain't gettin' none tonight, shugah."  And we are only adults, nary a child to be found...except in our hearts.  Cue the "Awww's"....

Caroline

Christmas Gifting

Dear Reader,

Shopping for cologne for Numbers man and I have to say, I usually snatch up the gift sets for myself, but I just can't picture him actually using all those little bottles.  I wish there was a "mix and match" option available between different brands, but I suppose the answer to that problem is for me to package it together myself, right?

xoxo Mrs. Claus

Style Saturday

Teasing

I'm surprised this cat doesn't bound accross her shiny dress and go for the little bird treat in the cage.   It reminds me of a sign I used to keep up in my room as an easily amused adolescent.   I mean, she's just asking for it.

How Do You Shop

Dear Reader,

Ever since we moved up to Washington, from California, I am so thankful for online shopping.  It makes life so much easier when I can order online, specify gift wrapping where possible, so they show up at Number's Man's mom's front door just waiting for us to come and add little To and From stickers.  It really takes the stress out of Christmas shopping.

How do you prefer to shop for Christmas?

Caroline

Hair Doin's

I love this picture, if for no other reason than because I do my hair like this all the time.  I don't have this sweater though...such a shame! *wink*

Style Saturday

The Rare and Elusive Cookie

Dear Reader,

First of all, I would like to tell anyone reading, "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!"  I hope you had a wonderful holiday, filled with family and friends and good food.  If you were lacking in any of these areas, remember God loves you and He will not forsake you.  And with this I will tell you about how very THANKFUL I am that God gave me the ability to take pleasure in my senses, particularly my sense of taste.  I love eating, so today was a particularly fun day for me.  I might also mention that I thoroughly enjoy cooking so it was an all-out extravaganza.  I even baked cookies, which is a highly unusual treat around our house.   I may have eaten some of the raw dough as well.  Because, well, there isn't much better than cookie dough in my world.

Peace, love, and cookies,

Caroline

Shiny Sinks

No house cleaning thrills me quite like shining my faucets with a wipe of Windex.  Something about shine in and around the sink just sends me!

Style Saturday

Gettin' Pretty

Dear Reader,

It's funny how, as women, we tend to primp and preen and "make ourselves pretty", not only for our beloved man, but for ourselves as well.  I kind of think it's the best thing about being a girl (well, except for that whole baby thing).  If I were a man, I couldn't slather myself with flowery lotions, sweet and heady perfumes, paint my nails a rainbow of colors, use rosy soaps, smell a food and think..."I should mix some essential oils to smell like that!"  I could, I suppose, but...

Another post for another day?  Haha!

Caroline

This is what it looks like...

Dear Reader,

When I select an image I want to keep in my files, I just take a photo of it being as I don't own a scanner.  Honestly, taking a photo works just as well in my opinion.  I have a great camera and good photo editing software, so it all comes out looking as if I scanned it.  The primary difference I find?  I can be lazy in bed as I flip through the magazine.  Ahh...life's little bits of respite.

Caroline

Lost in a Book

"The time passed all too swiftly, there seemed to be so many nice things to do, singing and reading and talking, skating and sledding, and doing little homely pleasant things about the house together, catching up for all the years they had not known one another."

from The Substitute Guest by Grace Livingston Hill

Style Saturday

Dear Reader,

Since I have a very difficult time getting myself online Friday nights after a long day of work, I've switched things up to showcase beautiful vintage dress pictures on Saturday...hence the "Style Saturday" post name.  Enjoy this two for one with a stunning red and a elegant grey.  I perpetually prefer the plainness of grey.

Caroline

The "Old" Car

Dear Reader,

We took the old (2006) car in to get serviced today and got unexpected services.  Note, not additional services, just unexpected.  I brought it in thinking I would be buying new brake pads, but apparently I did not need them.  The squeak I heard from my brakes in the morning was just due to a bit of rust.  However, apparently I was about 20,000 miles overdue for a flush of the transmission fluid.  Tsk, tsk...  She's a good "old" car and to treat her (and me) I had them vacuum her dusty inards.  I sang her a song on my way home.

Caroline

One More Reason...

...to buy a sewing machine.  I too could have a fabulous checkered coat like the one above.  Tres chic!  To be perfectly frank, I have been thinking about getting a sewing machine and trying my hand at some skirts, then possibly move on to bigger and better patterns.  I find the idea of being able to choose my fabrics and styles to suit my own tastes incredibly romantic.

The Last of the Leaves

Dear Reader,

The last of the leaves are falling off the trees and the air is filled with a palpable cold snap, so here is one last picture of vintage fall.  Sweaters, penny loafers, and a teensy bit of the top of a can of Campbell's soup.  A graphic design whose relevancy has not diminished over the years.  The true testament to well-designed product "art."

Caroline

Fabulous Fashion...Saturday?

Well, I missed Fabulous Fashion Friday, so please accept may apologies and this gorgeous orange number with white gloves and gold shoes...I mean...PLEASE!

Guarding the Jewels

All I can say is I wish my jewelry box was big enough to serve as a bed for my Ralphie as well as a place for baubles.  Sweet goodness!

Oatmeal Weather

Dear Reader,

I woke up this morning to a pour-down, dreary-down weary day.   Woke up to a saucepan full of soaked, steel-cut oats in buttermilk and water.  Rinsed them clean, topped them off with water and set them to boil for 15 minutes while I had my morning devotion.  Closed with an Amen & poured out the mush into a baking dish (no need to fumble with fine china in the ay ehm).  A dollop of pumpkin butter and a splash of whole milk.  Maybe a squidge of whipping cream.  A plop of heaven after my supplication.  I spoon thee, oatmeal rendered autumnal and sweet, so sweet.

Caroline

Maybe It's Makeup

Dear Reader,

As a general rule, I do not wear makeup on the weekend days.  Perhaps a smidgen of concealer and a bit of lip gloss, but that about covers my concerns outside of the office expectations.  Today was a different story.  I played around with my eye makeup and enjoyed the result.  What I do not enjoy...?  ...Removing said eye makeup at the end of the day. 

Caroline

Fabulous Fashion Friday

Ford in a Field

There is a brief period where the beauty of a vehicle fades, but then it always comes back 'round. Those who love and care for them during their time of trendlessness, see their age-less appeal and are rewarded with a vintage treasure down the road.

All the Wonderful Things in the Kitchen

Dear Reader,

I have really been "nesting" recently, but only in the kitchen...so much yummy food!  Pumpkin Pie, Vegetarian Gumbo (I know, I know), my special meatloaf (a gazillion pureed & sauteed veggies in it), chili, cornbread garlic mashed potatoes, bacon baked green beans...and on and on.  And all I want to do is cook more.  It must be the weather...it's been raining cats and dogs...and pigs and turkeys.  It's liable to turn a girl's kitchen into a diner, I tell you what!

Caroline

Working Hard

Dear Reader,

Work is trying my soul right now...haha!  I work in the interior business (hence the ad for Carpet).  Lugging product around all day (I'm not the worlds biggest fan of doing manual labor...it's exhausting), not drinking enough water, and driving all over tarnation in bad weather and bad traffic is a recipe for an annoying Monday.

I will wake up tomorrow and feel refreshed...I will drink a big glass of O.J. and shrug off this Garfield-esque "I hate Mondays" attitude.  The power of positive thinking and all that....

Caroline

An Outing

My Numbers Man and I went on an outing into Seattle today to enjoy some good old-fashioned burgers.  It was such a treat, but the traffic was plain aweful, which is so strange for a Saturday.  The food was worth it though.

Fabulous Fashion Friday

Making a House a Home

Dear Reader,

Something I've learned...
What you start out with, isn't always what you end up with.  We reconcile our youth with our adult lives and sacrifice some of the clutter along the way.

Caroline

Doing the Dishes

I don't have any dishes to do tonight because we both picked up some of our favorite bad-for-us-convenience-food tonight.  A Japanese donburi bowl & pastries for me and fast food for him.  That means...the trash can feels the brunt of the evening (along with our tummies) and the sink & dishwasher take the night off.  Unlike the overstuffed KitchenAid above.   Crazy!

Caroline

Feeling Fall

This photo makes me want to play like a little girl in the leaves.  *guilty pleasure*  It also makes me yearn for ankle socks with lace.  Haha...

Soft Kitty

"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.  Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr."
- The Big Bang Theory

A neighborhood kitty stopped by to say hello last night and this morning, so I have kitten on the brain.  As if that weren't enough, a lady at work brought her rescued baby kitten into the office on Thursday and I just couldn't help myself, I had to cuddle the little guy.  I can't wait until we have a house simply so I can rescue the fur babies who need homes.  *sigh*  One day! :)

Caroline

A Clean Dog is a Happy Dog

Dear Reader,

I took darling dog in for his pre-winter mega grooming and his is just the darlingest looking buddy now.  Click here for evidence of his new found, inner puppy look.  I must admit, it had been too long since his last official grooming appointment, mainly because I feel that as long as he is shampooed and smelling lovely, all's well.  However, his nails were getting long and cumbersome for him, his ears could use a scroungy scrub and I don't have the tools or the know how to remedy those things myself.  Too much money later, he's like a new little fur man.  So, I took him for a stroll around the neighborhood to show him off.  Although...I don't know that anyone really cared save for me.

Happy Saturday!

Caroline

The Quest for Clean

Dear Reader,

It's amazing how beauty products have evolved over the years.  Chances are, your mother's face soap doesn't even resemble most face washes today.  I think I remember my grandmother's cold cream (or did my brain fabricate that memory?), which reminded me of sour cream though less tasty, and I definitely remember her glycerin soap.  I remember the way my hands smelled after I used it to wash up before sitting down to eat.  So many cleansing products these days smell like chemicals and nondescript "fragrance", I find my nose gets completely overwhelmed...or my skin becomes irritated.

So, today, at the recommend of the product reviewers on Makeup Alley, I picked up a tub of Albolene.  I have to admit, I'm a little petrified because for all my face-washing life, cosmetics companies lectured me that I have to strip my face of oils in order to become clean.  Well, Albolene, being the consistency of Vaseline according to many of the product reviews I read, seems counter intuitive, but I'm going to take one for the team of tradition and good old fashioned grooming and give it a try.  Paired with a Dove beauty bar -unscented, should my skin scream out for a transition period.

Wish me luck!

Caroline

What DUZ it for you?

There are some products that I feel like I "just can't live without."  Obviously, I would be just fine without any product, but some are made a bit better than others and so have found their way into my daily/weekly routines. 
Trader Joe's laundry detergent, free of dyes and conventional chemicals is one of those products.  So, "DUZ" is not my detergent of choice.  However, the woman above seems rather enthused.  Haha...

The First Post is the Deepest

Dear Reader,

This post isn't actually going to be full of any deep thoughts, useful knowledge, or anything quite so deserving of a first post.  However, it will serve as an introduction to just what sort of stuff will make up this blog going forward.

I've always loved the artwork of time gone by, both in illustration and photography.  Something about the blatant over-sell of advertisements of the 30's through the 60's, sends my heart into a flutter.  Over the years, my collection of this ephemera has grown into piles and files that serve no purpose other than the occasional flip-through on a rainy day.  Well, it rained plenty today here in the Seattle area, so I catalogued my collection and determined to give it a home in the blogosphere.  I hope you enjoy these posts to come over the next year.  I am happy to be able to share them.

The beginning: 10/10/10.
The end: 10/10/11. 
(Isn't it nice to know when things will be wrapped up in a tidy bow?)

Until tomorrow...
Caroline