Fright Before Christmas (or at Least a Healthy Panic)

Christmas is almost upon us, and your Hostess, like everybody else, is facing some specific goal-oriented challenges.

Which is marketing-spin-speak for, "Freaking Out."

I am freaking out because the greeting cards that I considered so very fun and festive and Victorian and "Me" in the store, now peer out of their shopping bag wondering why I never stop by, I never write. And I just know I will be writing them in such a hurry, my family and friends will take one look at my already-unfortunate-looking scrawl and wonder whether I've finally gone off my nut. Because, well, they knew it was coming, didn't they, when I started hoarding lamps, and joking that decorative cherubs should unionize. But they really hadn't expected the dementia to advance so RAPIDLY.

I am also freaking out because the Christmas gift I've been working on for a dear friend since late this summer was almost done when it decided to explode. And I mean EXPLODE. In an actual "unexpected bit-o'stuff-breaking-off" sort of way. I am not certain how it even happened. But never let it be said that The Thrift Shop Romantic hasn't experienced a healthy share of Good Intentions Gone Wrong.

I would go into more detail, so you can enjoy a nice, big cup of holiday schadenfreude at my expense (it goes well with cookies). But I am still deluded enough to believe that while this particular gift project is a wash and has been safely replaced, that my original concept was doable. So I must keep mum about my nefarious plans, since that same dear friend actually reads this blog sometimes. (Hi there, how's it goin'?)

Lastly, I am freaking out because my More-is-More decorating style for the holidays has meant I've spent an inordinate amount of time trimming everything in sight... doorways... window ledges... passing neighbors' cats...

...But now there is this mound of Christmas gifts still to be wrapped. And to my stupid, irrational fingers, wrapping is not decorating. DECORATING is fun and rewarding and happy. WRAPPING is clumsy and hard-to-estimate and somehow involves tape in my hair.

It will all be all right in the end, of course. It always is. And Scotch-taped hair, redrum handwriting and some lengthy wrap-sessions are small potatoes compared to, oh, pretty much every other thing that's going on in the world.

So this week I leave you with some photos of The Decorating Which is Not Wrapping, that's been going on at Waterhouse this season. Many of the Christmas ornaments you see here, and even the bowls they sit in, were off-season thrift store finds.

Wishing you a safe, happy holiday season where none of your gifts explode (unless they're supposed to-- like someone gives you hot air popcorn or somethin'...)

And I'll see you again bright and early in January 2007! As always, thanks so much for spending some of your time here.

--Jenn