on the feast of stephen

I'm so out of the habit of doing outfit posts that I felt positively shy posing for these, although it was Boxing Day and windy and cold and the bars were closed and the streets deserted. The perfect day for donning this dress, which I love but which really can only be worn in the dead of winter, and the Hudson Bay Company toque my mom gave me (and each of my sisters too, making family outings potentially embarrassing). Apart from its extreme wintery-ness, the other thing that has kept me from wearing this dress more since I got it over two years ago is that it's longer than the average coat, which tends to look a bit weird on the street. However, my snuggly cashmere coat has happily solved this problem, allowing me to go out feeling like I'm still wearing my pyjama and housecoat combination that I live in in the flat.

This year Boxing Day wasn't the usual snoozefest, but was a proper Feast of Saint Stephen kind of affair. After two days of gorging with Víctor's family, my sister and her visiting friend came over and we spent five hours cooking, eating and drinking red wine. Followed by a good bout of reading and snoozing in front of the space heater, and drinking water in a desperate attempt to avoid the dehydrated skullface look that tends to come down on me post-festive-season.






Dress and coat by Family Affairs (I think I might be developing a problem with this brand)
Photos by Víctor

shitty christmas

That would be shitty in the Catalan sense of course. I've gone on at length in past years about the Catalan "Caga Tió" tradition of feeding a log, and then hitting it so it shits presents, but this year Víctor and I organized a Caga Tió party to initiate our foreign friends (and some gate-crashing Catalans) into the tradition.

Otherwise, it's been a home-made sort of Christmas, which suits me perfectly. I bought a little Christmas tree at the cathedral market and staggered home with it, and we made paper ornaments, and also a paper Happy New Year sign for the front hall. My sister and I had TWO all-day baking Sundays to stock my freezer with a dizzying amount of traditional family goodies (sugar cookies, rum logs, truffles, magic squares, shortbread, gingerbread, birdsnests)and Víctor drew a delightful Christmas window for us.









Anyway, I have been failing on blogging lately, which hasn't been due to lack of interest, but lack of internet (we made an executive decision that we get more done and have more fun without its evil influence at home) but I REALLY intend to be back before the new year with a Year in Review, and perhaps even and outfit (I KNOW!)

Happy Post-binge detox day, meanwhile!

a different sort of christmas

I stayed in Barcelona for Christmas this year, which I wasn't terribly excited about (I love holidays with my family). On the other hand, I only got back from summer break two months ago and flights to Vancouver are €1,000+ at this time of year, so it seemed sensible.

I visited the compounds Shitting Log. Went for a coffee with Baileys (tis the season to overindulge) and then to Albert's grandparents for lunch.

On Christmas Eve we saw The Hobbit, which was entertaining enough but as usual filled me with rage against Peter Jackson. I just think the guy's a bit of an idiot. He thinks he's infallible and can do whatever he wants to Tolkien's stories, and he's just faithful enough that you have to take the movies seriously. But then everything is done so heavy-handedly, every reaction to everything has to be seen about four times, and he's way too action-happy (did not need a twenty-minute chase through the Blue Mountains). Also, he manages to get a bad performance out of someone as talented as Cate Blanchett. Martin Freeman as Bilbo was pretty excellent though.

Right, rant aside, I finished Christmas by going for drinks with some friends. I'm very family-oriented and this was the first time I'd ever been out on Christmas night, but it was good fun. There were even some spontaneous yoga-poses on bar stools in the wee hours--not quite dancing on the table, but getting there!

ally ally aster

snow snow faster! We've finally gotten some snow! It already seems to be melting/turning into a skating rink on the street, but I'm not complaining.

I find that the days between Christmas and New Years take on a curious sense of lethargy. The excitement and lights of Christmas are over, New Years Eve is, for me anyway, a bit of a sparkling afterthought, not requiring a great deal of preparation, but bookending the holiday season. And the days between the two are a time to wear flannel and everything else cozy, to curl up on the couch reading new books and watching old favourite films. I bought this dress last winter but never had a chance to photograph it before spring came. It really is perfect for these cold, snowy, December days.





photos by Shona

dress: Family Affairs, shoes: Clarks, tights: Christmas present. : )

velvet and dickens for christmas

Hi all! How's everyone holding up under their respective food comas? I had a fantastic Christmas... one of those where there are many things going on at different times. On Christmas Eve we drank mulled wine around an open fire pit in the yard. We always write Christmas wishlists and then burn them... Father Christmas reads the smoke signals and knows what to get us. Then we all tried to watch the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol from 1951 as we do every year, but passed out half way through.

In the morning we got up super early and watched a few episodes of Little Dorrit while opening stockings, made Belgian waffles for breakfast and then opened presents. In the afternoon my sisters, grandfather, dog and I went for a walk. No snow, sadly, but I love how Shona's pictures capture the cold grey air that I find almost as satisfying in winter. I kept cozy in my lovely 1960s velvet dress (and obviously a coat).

The day finished off with making sparkly star crowns to wear at New Years, and of course an enormous dinner! Mmmm, I'm still drooling at the memory of stuffing... and brussels sprouts.







photos by Shona

dress: vintage, necklace: Les Jumelles, shoes: Fly London, coat: handmade, Spitalfields market