A Quick Note on this 26th of December

     Christmas has come and gone already but we still have more celebrating to do. I will be on a little blogger hiatus (although I know I only post once a week anyways) as we are having our little mini winter vacation starting tomorrow. So far its been a lovely couple of days with family and over eating and lazing about and I expect the next week to be pretty similar. Here are some things that will be included in the coming days' activities:

• Snow shoeing
• Snowmobiling
• Snowy woodsy walks
• Eating delicious food
• Watching HGTV
• Watching Food Network
• Playing with kitties
• Seeing my baby niece
• Photographing snowy Minnesota
• Mini road trip to Northern Minnesota
• Having drinks with Grandma and playing Mexican Train Dominoes
• New Years Eve celebrations with best friends

SO it's probably going to be a pretty fun week off of work. I'm hoping everyone is having a fantastic holiday and I'll check in with lots of photos next week! Also here's the best picture I've ever taken of my niece:

Christmas Break?

     Now that I'm officially an adult and no longer a student, "Christmas Break" isn't really such a thing. I got extremely luck with my first nursing job in that I don't have to work on major holidays like Christmas Day and New Years Day.. etc. I was able to get 6 days in a row off the starting the Friday after Christmas and I have a nice little mini-vacation planned for Tanner and I. Starting with snowmobiling and staying at my parent's house out in the woods to going up north to Silver Bay to stay with Tanner's grandma and hopefully do a good amount of exploring, snowboarding and eating ridiculously good food. I've had the travel bug bite me and I'm eager to explore. We have a nice little trip in the works for next May as well. But anyways, we go up to Silver Bay almost every year after Christmas/around new years. Here are some photos from Christmas 2010/New Years 2011 that I shot (or Tanner shot of me) with my Pentax 35mm film camera. I hope everyone has a warm happy place to be this year and people they love to enjoy it with.

Vintage Glasses Galore!

     I have this vision of my blog being awesome and flawless and featuring all the cool things in my life and my clothes and what not, and then it doesn't happen. I want to do these things but it's difficult living in an apartment (not a cute one at that), not really having anyone to take photos of you during daylight (which in Minnesota now a days is 8am to 4pm and both my husband and I work), and being lazy contributes to the mix as well. I have a lot of cute things to show you guys but I am a perfectionist and a very picky photographer when it comes to myself.
    So today I was looking through old pictures for inspiration, and I came across some photos from last April. My great-aunt passed away over a year ago now, and last spring her kids were getting the house ready for sale and invited the family over to see if there was anything we wanted. I found a lot of vintage treasures there. One was a beautiful old mirror that I absoultely adore. I found a lot of vintage fabric and scarves. Also a dress from the 60's era that I have yet to alter for proper fitting. But what I was going to show you today were these lovely eye glasses from the 1950's/1960's era. My great-aunt had kept these since then, they had her name and phone number on them in case they got lost!

The blue background is actually the dress that I got from her:

The dress is hanging from the lovely, lovely mirror I found. I ended up painting the frame black this summer which makes it just perfect for me. It's probably one of my favorite- and most frequently used- household items. I did a blog post all about it here.

Natural and Organic Jewelry: The Wolf Wife Etsy shop

     Through mutual friends I've met this wonderful lady, Kyrie. She makes natural and organic jewelry from materials such as bones, shells, etc that she finds and sells them in her etsy shop, The Wolf Wife. I just wanted to highlight her craftsmanship and share with you all these beautiful little treasures. All of the items are ethically made, as she describes, "All natural materials for my jewelry are ethically sourced, meaning no animal was harmed or killed to make my jewelry. I find (or friends find and give me) animals that have died of natural causes, or I stumble upon old bones and shells, and I respectfully repurpose them."

Bird ribcage hoop necklace with feathers and leaf charms.

Hip socket bone necklace

 Vintage silver locket necklace with shells

 Jaw bone necklace

 Last but not least, my favorite, Tiered crab claw necklace

     I strongly encourage you to check out her Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/thewolfwife. Seeing as the holiday season is here, one of her pieces might make a lovely gift for the forest nymph or siren in your life! Her other artwork/photography can be found at http://www.kkotlowski.com/. Thank you for supporting local artists! 

All images are property of Kyrie Kotlowski, owner of thewolfwife Etsy shop.

Thankful

I have so, so many things to be thankful for in this life. I appreciate that I was given the insight to realize this at a young age and I thank the stars for every breath and every heartbeat. It's the little every day things that I am most thankful for. A refrigerator full of food and clean fresh water from the tap in my warm and cozy apartment in which I live with the person whom my heart beats for. Falling asleep every night next to him and getting a goodbye kiss every morning. Being able to call my mom and my dad and to simply just talk to them. And my sisters. And my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. My little niece is one of the cutest reasons I have to be thankful for. New life is such a beautiful thing to witness. Not only yesterday I thanked the being who created all of this and all of us, but I make it a point to count my blessings every night before my eyes close on the day behind me. It's humbling and eye opening and I hope that everyone takes a moment in their day to appreciate all that you have. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

My Jewelry Corner

This is one of my favorite parts of our room. The dresser we got from my Great-Aunt. It was a wedding present given to her and her husband back in the sixties. My grandmother actually refinished the wood sometime in the past  decade so it has a nice seal on it. The little corner table is something I picked up from my elderly neighbor's house at a garage sale after he passed away. Also from the late fifties/early sixties era. The jewelry board above I made myself from an old bulletin board, a vintage table cloth, staples and furniture nails. 

For as long as I can remember I've been collecting jewlery, and ever since I was about 15 I took a great interest in vintage jewelry. Much of the jewelry I have is from my grandmothers, or other relatives. But I like to pick out little treasures from antique stores every now and then. This tray idea came to me out of desperation for the need of organization. It keeps things somewhat organized looking, although I have multiple containers that just hold piles of jewelry.

Vintage clip on and non-clip on earrings from my grandmother.

Brooches galore!

Some of my favorites, all from my Grandma.

This necklace was given to me by my husband last year for Christmas. He ordered it from Etsy and it arrived on Christmas Eve. Made in Japan with real pearls. I wish I still had the link to the shop but alas I didn't save it and I have no idea what it was called.

Some of my Great-Aunt's glasses from the sixties. 

I have a lot of pretty earrings but I really hardly ever wear them. I should make it a point to put them to good  use.

Vintage gloves and handkerchiefs.

I love to keep my wedding bouquet in sight. 

A favortie ring from another of my Great-Aunts. Aquamarine, my birthstone.

One of my favorite most recent purchases. A vintage ring estimated to be from the 1950's era. I found it at this darling little vintage shop in Uptown, Minneapolis Via's Vintage. It's a locally owned shop that has pink walls and perfect placement of items. I will definitely be making another visit there soon.

I figured I could finish with my favorite piece of jewelry, my wedding and engagement ring. Lately because of my job as a nurse I've just been wearing the wedding band, so when I put on my engagement ring with it, it's like wearing it again for the first time. I catch myself just staring at it with googly eyes and patting myself on the back for picking out the perfect ring for me. It's super sweet when husbands to be pick out rings, but my husband to be in particular would be like a man lost at sea when it comes to my picky jewelry preferences. Some people think it's weird to pick out your own ring, but the way I see it, this is what you will be wearing for the rest of your life, so it's nice to have a say in it!

We've reached just the tip of the iceberg of my jewelry with this post. I have tons more that would make for a ridiculously long post, but I hope to start incorporating more fashion into my blog posts!