Hotspur.us

December has rolled around again and that means a slew of things are going down. Around here at least one of those pressing matters is picking out my dress for the annual company Christmas Party (or as they call it nowadays Holiday Party). Typically I am so on the ball (you can really stop laughing now) that I’ve either been working piecemeal on a new dress or have been altering a vintage dress dug from the depths of a grandma’s closet.

Not so on this occasion. This year I thought I’d just wing it. And to be honest it isn’t that big of a deal to wing a formal party when you’ve got a closet full of fancy dresses like I do. Honestly, if you looked in my dress closet (yes, I have a closet for fancy dresses, what’s your point?) you’d think Chad and I lived a life of high society and formal soirees instead of tromping through the thorns and driving in the mud on old rutted out roads.

This year I had three dresses plucked from the aforementioned closet that were in the running. Chad was in charge of deciding which dress was the winner. And I’m guessing you will be able to decipher from the title of this post, which one was the winner.

Number One was a lovely green dress I’d made quite a few years ago.  It was made out of complimenting green materials and had lovely gold cording.  Also, judging by the fit when I tried it on this weekend, at the time of sewing I was either: drunk or quite a bit bigger than I currently am. Although it could also be that it was from a store bought pattern and as I have aptly demonstrated, I really stink at using a store bought pattern to produce a dress that fits me properly. VERDICT: Chad liked this one, but the dress was going to be a challenge to wear in a crowded room.

Number Two was a funky vintage number that had been my mother-in-laws. It was off the shoulder and floor length. Aside from the mirabeau around the top and bottom, it was pretty straight forward. This dress has been on the back-up list for numerous occasions and has yet to rise to the first tier.   VERDICT: it fit and it wasn’t offensive, but Chad seemed unimpressed.

Number Three was a Tiffany Blue dress with lots of pleats. So many pleats that when I claimed it from my Nun-nun’s closet I took it straight to the dry cleaners. Not because it was dirty, but because no way was I even attempting to iron those very sheer pleats.  I’m not sure the age of the dress, as I can’t locate (of course) the dated photo of Nun-nun wearing it, but it’s been around a while. VERDICT: Chad kept calling it “cute” which wasn’t really what I was looking for when it came to a formal dress, but he liked it so much that it was the clear winner in his eyes. So I grabbed a pair of over the elbow length gloves with rhinestones sewn on them (Yes, rhinestones. Which, according to Chad, hurt his hand when he attempted to hold my hand.), a pair of shoes that kind of worked and away we went!

P.S. The images are in a slideshow, be patient.

We have three Christmas trees at our house. The first one sits proudly in the big window in the living room, it’s billion lights acting as a beacon to aircraft seeking a safe harbor (ok, maybe it isn’t quite that bright).  The third tree is in the attic, perched happily in the dormer overlooking South Park. As of late it is the horse themed tree. But it’s the second tree that, while being the smallest of the group, is the one that makes me smile the most.

A short little tree clocking in at 4 feet tall, and not much to speak of quality wise.  It’s a cheap tree with limbs bent back on themselves to give the illusion of being full with some garland being wound in to sort of fill in the gaps. Heck, I don’t even remember from where the tree orginated.

But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it is covered in ferret & cat ornaments. The cat ornaments are a heck of a lot easier to come by than the ferret ones. In fact, all the ferret ornaments were either made by crafty ferret friends or me.  (We used to have an awesome group called Creative Weasels a few years ago. We did all kinds of craft exchanges.)

The topper is a stained glass ferret made by a talented ferret owner in Australia.

One day the ferret ornaments will probably overrun the cat ornaments. (The cats won’t mind, they think we put up Tree #1 just for them.) And one day maybe I’ll get a proper tree for the ornaments. (Hint, hint Santa.)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

As of right now…. in 3 hours and 50 minutes WVU (16) will be playing LSU (2) at Mountaineer Field

College Gameday came to Morgantown this weekend. We rolled down the hill to see what was going on at the Mountlair. It wasn’t abject  chaos by any rate (that would have been Rome NYE). Still, it was pretty wild and crazy.

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After a long week I had a chance to go (back out) to 27′ Falls at Valley Falls State Park.

This time I wasn’t in a hurry and I had my camera.

It’s a gorgeous spot.

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