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Maroon Foggy Fire In The Snow

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I took five outfit photos the day it snowed at my house this year. It had not snowed in years and it was too good of a photo opportunity to pass up.

Eck, I am such a blogger.

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This outfit ended up being my favorite.

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This is surprising to me for several reasons.

Mostly because I hate. Yes, hate. The color maroon.

I don’t know where this hatred came from. But it is there and alive and well. And I just learned that marsala is the 2015 color of the year! Which is pretty much a fanciful way of saying “maroon.”

Oi.

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Maybe the fashion gurus are on to something. Perhaps it is the name. When I purchased this Free People Embroidered Fable Dress two years ago, this color was called Mulberry. I like that name. Let’s think of some more.

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Foggy Fire.

Lusting From Afar Red.

Sunset Sangria.

Yes, I like all of those.

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I get more offers to buy this dress than any other item in my closet. The color is discontinued, but honestly, I love the grey color they have in it right now, too. The sweater is an old Anthropologie item I purchased from a sweet reader last winter. They had a a similar sweater this year that is now on sale. I loved that one when I reviewed it and would have picked it up if I did not all ready own and love mine.

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What is your least favorite color to wear? Mine actually isn’t maroon. It is brown. I guess I like cheery colors. But now that I can rename the offenders, I am liking their sultry offerings. Perhaps 2015 is the year I change my ways.

Or perhaps not.

It’s too maroon to tell.

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Babydoll Dress

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Free People does not actually call this dress, “babydoll,” however the shape that this is could not be anything else, in my humble little gnome opinion.

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I was on the fence about keeping this dress, because I had also gotten the dress in this post and I try, oh how I try, not to be a glutton. But I kept taking it out of the return box and caressing it until finally it felt weird to send back a dress that I had touched so many times. I’m not that kind of girl.

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Speaking of baby dolls, I have to admit to being terrified of them (ahem, gnomes being completely different). When I was a child of eight years old, I had a Cabbage Patch Doll I named Mary. I had begged Santa for a Cabbage Patch Doll that year, the ones I had seen on t.v…. With hair. And clothes… And chubby cuteness.

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I was rather surprised when I opened up Mary on Christmas day to find a withered up little thing staring at me from the box. She was a premie Cabbage Patch Kid. She was ugly. She was scary. However, she was the only one that I had and so I loved her. I played with her for years, but always in the back of my mind, was sorrow over not having a “real” Cabbage Patch Kid. Always she was not perfect. Regret swallowed her strange little head.

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I do not know what happened to Mary. Perhaps this is for the best. Otherwise I would have felt obligated to give her to my own daughter and the generational Mary duty would have continued. In fact, my daughter had no interest in baby dolls. It was not a fad while she was growing up. She did have every single Kelly doll ever made (thanks to an aunt who loved Barbie) which I regret donating many years ago.

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There was one doll I purchased for my daughter… It was a cute little baby. A sweet face… Whose body was made from some sort of water vessel. This meant she weighed one trillion pounds. She was dressed in… Wait for this. It is a doozy. She was dressed in an Eeyore suit from Winnie The Pooh and even had the hoodie with donkey ears attached. I do not know what I must have been thinking the day I purchased that doll.

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She played with it for a bit… And then it disappeared. I know. It could be anywhere. I am worried I will open up her closet one day to find the Eeyore baby staring at me from the depths of the closet. Its water body having slowly oozed out of the Eeyore suit to form a wretched smell. A gooey film clinging to its body as it stares at me accusingly.

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Aaaaaahhhh!

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How do I always manage to get so off track?

Do you own any babydoll dresses? Or baby dolls? Or warped Eeyore water babies languishing in your closet plotting your doom? I am hoping I can only answer “yes” to one of those questions.

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Oh Christmas Tree

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Picking out our Christmas tree was a bit of a scavenger hunt this year. We went to our tried and true place. The one we have been going to for the last ten years. And they did not have a single Noble Fir. They said they had been selling out of them by 4:00 each day. Well, with my husband’s work schedule, kids’ schooling and life, 4:00 was out of our reach for the week.

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We decided to search for a Christmas tree elsewhere.

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I am a true have-to-have-a-real-tree girl. I just am. I like the picking out of the tree each year. I like the smell. I like the tradition. I just like it.

We drove to a place that used to sell Christmas trees the year before, but they were not selling trees this year.

I remembered seeing a Christmas tree lot on the other side of town earlier in the week. We drove there and it was amazing. They were hoarding all of the Noble Firs!

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The tree we picked out for our main tree (we also get a smaller one, because I am a greedy tree decorator) ended up being about nine feet tall, but was marked 7-8 and the guy gave it to us for that price. It was a steal! And since my husband refuses to look at any tree taller than eight feet, my stealthy sneaky big-tree-heart exploded with joy.

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It almost made me as happy as this dress. I purchased Free People’s Bombora Dress during Free People’s annual 25% off sale. It showed sold out, but in my cart it went to backorder. I honestly did not think it would ship, so I never mentioned it. I thought it was a fluke. I was very surprised to see it show up at my door three weeks later.

It was a happy surprise.

It reminded me of my favorite Christmas movie, “White Christmas.” When I was a little girl my mother would tell me that when it was time for my prom she would make me a prom dress exactly like the ending Christmas dresses in that movie. By the time I finally went to my prom, I no longer wanted a fur-lined red velvet number for an event in May. Instead I opted for a custom designed (by myself) little number modeled after Marissa Tomei’s dress in the movie, “Only You.” In my head it was perfection. In real life, the seamstress did not understand what I was going for and I ended up going to prom in a periwinkle dress with triangle cutouts. Oh. It was bad. So very, very bad. As reality versus dreams usually are.

If only they had had this dress back then. Then both my mother and myself could have been happy.

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It only took twenty years for that scavenger hunt to come to a conclusion. What look from a movie do you love? Do you love the hunt for an item? If you have a Christmas tree, do you go real or fake? Theme or sentimental? Our big tree is sentimental. Our little tree is a gnome forrest theme… Of course.

*Also, I am sorry I have been behind on emails, comments and blogs. I plan on catching up this weekend. : )

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When Baking Goes Wrong… Distract Them

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I have been sitting on these pictures for months. I really liked the outfit. I really disliked the recipe I made that day. So, I was unsure what to do. Should I still show the outfit or scrap it?

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Well, with all of us baking this holiday season, there are bound to be some mishaps. If the same happens to you, just know at least you will probably be fully clothed when it happens. Winning.

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Although showing a bit of undergarments is a sure fire way to distract folks from bad food.

Or not.

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I have a chicken empanada recipe that is out of this world. It is my sister’s favorite thing that I make. And if memory serves me, my daughter’s too. Although I have never shared it here…yet. I am a bit slow on the draw.

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I decided to try making sweet empanadas. Sounded simple enough. Just fill pie crust dough with a filling (I originally typed “feeling” and that would probably have turned out better), crimp, sprinkle with sugar and bake. But the lemon curd filling oozed out everywhere and the Nutella ones I made dried out and it was all a big disappointment. My husband and my mom both liked them, but in my opinion, they were not worth making again.

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What are you baking this holiday season? I am making pie crust cookies. And chocolate chip cookies. And when I want something simple, I pick up the prebaked sugar cookie shapes at the grocery store (available at Albertson’s where I live) and dye vanilla frosting then let the kids take over. For dinner last night, I made Tyler Florence’s Pot Roast Tacos. The night before I made a very easy lasagna I will be sharing here next weekend. Tonight I am making Beef Enchiladas with the leftover taco meat. Tomorrow will be Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Potato Soup. Do you plan your weekly meals in advance? I love to cook. And I am trying not to fry my brain as I work out exactly how many more presents I still need to pick up. Smells like Christmas… And singed hair.

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I am oblivious to the future of these pastries as I happily wear Anthropologie’s Horizon Lines Maxi (sold out, similar here), Free People’s Shadow Hacci Top, and Cosabella’s Never Say Never Sweetie Bralette in this picture.