Alright, you have exactly 11 days left to find your very own Ugly Christmas Sweater to wear on Christmas morning.
I haven't gotten my own yet; still debating. (Guess which one is my favorite? I bet you can.)
Style
How-To: Wear Leopard & Stripes
Last night I went into the city for a dinner meeting, and all my favorite prints came with me (that's a NYDJ shirt, a Juicy Couture skirt, and the INC vest I was raving about on Tuesday).
Leopard and stripes = totally not as weird a combo as you'd think.
Beginning To Feel A Lot Like
Last weekend, we put on hats and scarves and headed over to Nyack in search of Christmas ornaments, because we only have a couple of weeks to go and I wanted to jump-start our family into a holiday kind of mood. We bought sparkly owls and ferocious lions, and then went home and hung them on our tree, and it was lovely. Not Christmas, exactly, not yet...but almost.
The thing is, these past few years I've had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. Of course the magic you feel when you're a kid dwindles away once you get into the whole Life As An Adult thing, that makes sense: but still...a little would be nice. The heart-flutter you get when you come down in the morning and see a lit-up tree. You know what I mean.
When I was a little girl, I'd spend the days leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas morning trying to be as good as I possibly could. It started out because I didn't want to risk Santa making a last-minute snap decision that I wasn't deserving of that Garfield phone...but even after I began to suspect that the magical red-suited man might be a bit of a ruse, I kept on doing things like giving my mom hugs just because on Christmas Eve. Feeding our ten thousand animals before my parents got up on Christmas morning, so they wouldn't have to jump into chores right when they came out of their bedroom. Bringing my dad coffee to try and put him into the best mood possible before he opened his stocking. Not because I was a saint of a child - I wasn't - but because I think as I grew up I started to realize just how tenuous the magic is, just how easily it can fall to pieces completely. And I didn't want it to.
Simple Holiday Beauty Updates
There was a time in my life when I went to parties wearing things like clip-in hair extensions and eyeshadow with enormous glitter-flecks in it. Heels that I couldn't walk in, because if I fell it didn't really matter (because I probably wasn't carrying a child). No coat, because I would rather freeze while waiting for a cab than deal with checking it.
That time in my life is more or less over; even on a big night out, I still want to be...you know...kind of comfortable. I'd like to look like me; just a slightly more dialed-up version of me. And I'd rather not spend more than about fifteen minutes on the whole getting-ready process; I'd like to just get there, please, because mama wants to dance.
Ladies In Red (And Two Must-Owns)
On Saturday morning, I co-hosted the INC holiday fashion event with Camila Alves in Garden City...and it seemed like a good time to wear red. Holidays and all.
It was also Camila's last public appearance as the INC Brand Ambassador, which made the whole thing a little bittersweet - I've had so much fun getting to know her over these past few months (Vegas! Seattle! Minneapolis!), and am excited to see what she ends up doing next.
