Blame It On Portland

On my latest trip out to Portland, I attended the Saturday Market which is always a highlight of my trip. This time I came away with a messenger bag. It wasn't a planned purchase. I saw this great looking bag that I discovered had plenty of room for my knitting project, my I-Pad and a few purse essential such as wallet, phone and lipstick. I could sling it over my body making hands free walking possible. Sold! It wasn't until I was pinning my button collection onto the one side that I realized what I had bought. Back home in Denver, I am still using it. I have too many holiday gift projects to go anywhere without a stash of knitting projects.

Fireside Books and Coffee

Unlike Portland, Denver has a wide variety of cozy coffee shops that encourage a person to hang out. I discovered a new one early in the month that I returned to tonight. The best part of this place is that it is also a used book store. This makes it a dangerous place to hang out for me but I feel it is well worth the risk. For the holidays they have put up a beautiful real tree which sits by the lovely fireplace.
With the books lining the shelves all around us, we were in cozy heaven. My friend and I decided to eschew our beloved Fancy Tiger this coming week and instead hang out and have a grilled cheese dinner at what is fast becoming another favorite spot. Since I spent the better part of the weekend getting my house ready for the holiday festivities, I plan to spend many hours sitting by my tree knitting away while I catch up on some of my favorite shows. This year we brought back our holiday village after an 8 year absence. Our cat Luna terrorized the Halloween village we used to put up, so after we got her we took a break. We decided to chance it this year and though she has already taken a stroll down main street causing a few of the citizens fall over in a faint, we think it might be OK.

Intact village, for now

I put up some new exterior illumination on the back porch. I have hanging icicles and over them a string of white and blue snowflake. The side tree is plain white lights giving my back area a frosty winter look which is good since the lights will be up all winter long. The lights strung across my wall unit in the living room are multicolor, as are the lights on the small tree that sits in the window. This year the living room  tree is flanked by extra village buildings that did not make it to the main showcase. It's a nice effect. My mantle in the family room is a woodland scene with a few elves, a few owls and a winter bird sitting in a holly garland with some pine cones as accents. Tiny lights will be added when I find them. The tree is a simple Yule tree. It has pine cones, sparkle, red balls and tons of white lights. It's unsentimental but visually pleasing. I added my Byers Choice Nutcracker Suite doll collection to my sofa table this year in order to change things up. As a kid my parents would take me into Philadelphia to see the ballet perform The Nutcracker Suite. To this day it remains one of the best performances of it I've seen.This year's yule Eve party will be desserts and holiday cocktails which is a change from the dinner we used to have. Though I like to maintain some of my traditions around the holidays, I feel it's good to change things up just a bit to keep things fresh. We are hosting two parties next week which I am already looking forward to. One is a movie night (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) with movie style food. The other is my small gaming group that I will host with much more elegant food since it will be a smaller group.
I like to get the holiday decorating done early so that I can enjoy it and also so I can concentrate on some of the other fun holiday things such as special meal planning, baking and making gifts. Then there are the outside activities as well, taking in the sights of Denver at the holidays and lunch and teas out with friends. All I wish is that this special time go very very slow.