Our Christmas present to ourselves

We'd been wanting them for awhile, hopeful for flea market bargains and/or a cast-off pair left on a roadside somewhere, but when we saw a pair of black Bertoia chairs with gray seatpads (!) for sale at Re-Pop, we knew they were the ones. We probably (definitely) spent too much money on them, but they're ours and they're awesome. I'm not ashamed to say that I waved goodbye to them before leaving for work the morning after purchasing them.

We've been on a bit of a spending spree lately, between buying stuff for the apartment and Christmas presents, so now our New Year's resolution (at least for the first couple of months) is to spend as little money as possible. We'll see how that turns out.

Toms=my new favorite shoes

Just sharing my new favorite shoes: the "Barletta Cordones" from Toms. I'd been wanting to get a pair (or two) of the canvas ones since the summer, and when I saw these gray wool beauties in the store I couldn't leave without them. I'm kind of in love with them.

Bedside tables and faulty alarm clocks

Back in October I went to an estate sale in Connecticut and somehow never posted about what I came back with: this little side table that I've been using as a night stand.

It has a plastic hollow base, with the top just sort of resting on it (as opposed to actually being attached to it). I've never really seen anything similar before, and while I guess it's not the ideal nightstand (no drawers or compartments), I'm still happy with it.

Shortly thereafter I bought this reproduction of the Big Ben Moonbeam alarm clock that was popular in the 50s. Besides looking cool and matching the table, it's supposed to start off by flashing a light, and then if that doesn't wake you up within five minutes, an alarm bell will sound--the idea being that you'll be gently roused from slumber, rather than wrenched awake by an annoying buzzer. Sounds good, except that lately the bell hasn't been going off. And even though the flashing light alone sometimes does the trick, there have been a few times when we've woken up fifteen minutes late to see the light still flashing. So it's going back to L.L. Bean, and I need to find a new alarm clock.

Christmas catch-up

I wanted to share a few more images from my Christmas, even though it's now post-Christmas (I'm not so good at the whole timeliness thing).

Brown paper, rubber stamps, and baker's twine=my favorite wrapping method.

I tried out incorporating buttons into one of the gifts after reading this post. It's cute, although I think I'd want to go with a little less next time.

I also made rubber stamped gift tags for everyone.

I embroidered an ornament for my ornament-obsessed mom (note that I did glue the extra fabric to the back--this photo is in an unfinished state). It was looking really good until I got to the word "Greetings." Not sure what happened there.

I usually try to bake a few varieties of cookies around this time of year, although I ended up doing less than I had planned. But these pfeffernusse cookies (recipe here) were so good that any other cookie might have seemed inferior.

Finally, the New York Times sent these cookies to my boss, and I couldn't resist including a photo here. It's an Oreo covered in icing and sprinkles. And of course stamped with the NYT logo.

This Is Christmas in America

Merry Christmas, and enjoy my gift to you: clips from what I consider to be the greatest Christmas programming in history, Miss Velma's Christmas in America.

New plants for the window

With so many large windowsills, I've been wanting to fill the apartment with lots of new plants. A couple of weeks ago I went back to Sprout Home and bought a few (though I still want more!).

For starters there's this lovely jade plant, though it doesn't actually fit into the planter I had intended it for. I think I'm going to get some rocks for the bottom since the planter doesn't have any holes for drainage, and then re-pot the whole thing. The second one is the same Haworthia that I've had since the summer.

I also bought an aloe plant, and then on a whim, a venus fly trap.

I've been wanting a carnivorous plant for a little while now. Not sure why but there's just something awesome about a plant that eats bugs. I didn't realize until after purchasing it that they're a little finicky. For one, they require distilled water--no plain old tap water for this guy. I had been thinking I would need to go to a pet store and buy some crickets to feed it but I'm relieved to find that they don't actually need bugs to survive. They're just kind of like vitamins for them. So hopefully my plant just happens upon some pesky flies the old-fashioned way.

Holiday decorating: stockings

Last year I decided to make some new stockings for me and Dave. I had an old plaid bathrobe that didn't really fit me anymore (I'd had it since I was about ten years old--ridiculous). I thought the colors were kind of Christmassy so I cut them into stocking shapes, lining the insides with random bits of scrap fabric to help maintain their shape, and sewed on a belt loop from the robe to use for hanging.

The only thing left was to sew our names on. A little sloppy but I'm fine with it.

Also in the window is this vintage Christmas card that I gave to Dave a few years ago. I got it at Alphaville, a great vintage toy store a few blocks from where I work.

The best part is the actual mint that Santa is holding in his little paper mitten. I can't believe the card stayed in tact all those years!