de facto redhead

Nope, not going to Louisiana for Christmas Day, but I have been listening to Aaron Neville’s Christmas album a lot, and thus learning what to do and expect if I was ever in the deep south for the holidays. Fay do-do, anyone? Mama, I’ll find a way.

I have been alternating Aaron with my other Christmas CDs while taking care of Christmas business this week. Here is what I looked like while shopping for Darcy today:

Just had a little lie-down on the bed, and called a few friends. No big deal. I even wore heels!

In reality, I have been baking, cleaning, and wrapping like a madwoman, and now my back and neck hurt…so maybe I really do deserve a lie-down…or maybe I just need what I’m holding here:

Caitlin, Susie, Erin, Me, Andrea, and Leslie.

My friends and I went to Bryony’s Christmas party last Saturday night, and what I have in my hand is my good old standby drink of cranberry juice and vodka. What I have on is the skirt I just bought at Forever 21. What I have in my hair is a frustrating hat piece that needed constant adjustment. What I had the next day started with an “h” and ended with me not being mobile until suppertime. But look-y here, something to make all my holiday woes disappear – Santa Claus, arriving at my apartment with everything I just listed on Dear Edna‘s blog as guest poster for her “Fifth Day of Christmas.”

Tim Allen, are you out there? Take that weenie whistle back from Judge Reinhold and give me my Louboutins instead.

Coat, Simpson’s, thrifted; purse, High Fashion Handbags, thrifted; belt, thrifted; leather gloves and scarf, gift.

Shoes, Guess via The Bay; jeans, Paper, Denim & Cloth; belt, Dynamite; blouse, H&M; earrings, Le Chateau; bracelet, Claire’s.

My hair, not quite long enough to wrap around for the hiding of the elastics. But I like it anyway.

I have been writing and editing until Darcy has come home from work every night this week, so we went out for supper on Monday, had so-so suppers the next couple nights, ate a healthy-ish supper last night, and then went out again tonight. By my post title, can you guess where we went? The Keg. Da Keg. Dos Keg.

Since I spend my days at home working, I rarely stray from the uni of yoga pants and a T-shirt. And slippers. And very little makeup. If Darcy’s lucky, I’ll put on a pair of jeans for when he comes home. Tonight, though, he came home to jeans AND a nice top! Surprise! The slovenly mess crawled back into her editor’s hermit hole for the night, where dowds go to die. Maybe, too, if Darcy’s lucky, I’ll even hold his hand.

I was out Christmas shopping earlier in the week, and I bought three things for myself. Merry Christmas! This top is one item, for $7.91 from H&M. The other two pieces are a red-and-navy skirt (with red belt!) from Forever 21 for $10.16, and a pair of navy tights from Walmart for $4.52. Total spent for the Tally? Cha-ching, that’s $22.59, good sir, which puts me at $679.11 for the year. Only a couple weeks left in December. Will I hit the $700 mark? I think the chances are good, because I can never resist after-Christmas sales. Then again, I like sales all year round, so what does it matter? A deal is a deal.

This is just a quick post to show you (i.e. show off) my Goodwill find of the year – this Simpson’s coat, bought for $14.99! I mentioned it here, but I didn’t think I would wear it until I found buttons (two of three are missing). Wrong. I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I folded the coat over the button holes, belted it, and wore it today. I’m going into Toronto tomorrow to look for buttons (among other things, Christmas-related), so hopefully I can find a set to rival that lovely button you see peeking out from behind the fur collar…

Me, circa 1986.

It’s December 8, my friends, and by my count, that leaves a mere 16 days until Christmas. I thought I was doing pretty well with my Christmas shopping, but when I actually wrote everything down yesterday, I had more gaps than I realized. I went to an iRewards event at Chapters last night hoping to fill some of them, but all I bought was presents for my niece and nephew – who I “thought” I was finished shopping for! It’s so easy to buy for kids, and when a certain something-something is 75% off $25, well, I would have been a fool to turn down that deal!

Have you done your Christmas decorating yet? Darcy and I put up our tree this past Sunday, and I did the rest of the decorating around the apartment. I had fun placing everything while eating Christmas M&Ms (peanut kind ONLY, thank you). It was place, stand back, eat M&Ms; place, stand back, eat M&Ms… a very enjoyable way to pass an afternoon! Here are some of the results:

Not very fond of the extension cord, but those shelves are bolted to the wall, so absolutely nothing can go behind them. Just pretend the cord isn’t there. Can you see our Christmas lights out on the balcony? I love them! This picture is like an “I Spy” game at Carla’s place!

In this picture, I now expect you to ignore the too-long curtain tucked into the rod. Darcy and I took a complete and utter break from home renos, and this curtain is one of the things in a coma for now. On the bright side, do you like my under-the-tree Christmas friends? Burl Ives came to me in a dream and told me to place them this way.

Doesn’t the fake tree look SO REAL up close? Our building doesn’t allow real trees. I guess they don’t like people to share fires. Here is a shot of our homage to Alberta – this is one of my favourite ornaments!

The second Christmas Corner. That Snoopy decoration lights up, but I forgot to buy an extension cord yesterday, so it remains unlit tonight. Other things here are my Christmas records and CDs below the shelf, and some of my Christmas books between the record player and the light. And isn’t that capless pen particularly Christmasy? I noticed it when I uploaded my pictures, and I didn’t feel like taking another shot. Besides, our desk is just to the right of the shelf, so there IS a plausible reason for a pen being there!

I’ve read two Christmas books so far, and I plan on writing about them…sometime…one day…maybe…

Blouse, thrifted from Goodwill; necklace and earrings, vintage.

It’s hard to believe, but by the time December 31 rolls around, I will have actually kept track of every single clothing-, shoe-, or accessory-related purchase I’ve made since January 1, 2010. I feel like I want to keep it up in 2011, just so I can compare two years’ worth of spending, especially now that I’m starting to get into buying thrift-store clothing. What do you think, readers? Have you found my experiment interesting?

Going back to thrifting, though, I haven’t been able to make the leap into used shoes (I feel squeamish), but when I see other fashion bloggers wearing second-hand shoes, I feel jealous because what they’re wearing looks so great! I mean, it’s probably safe to assume they’re all not suffering from a frightening trifecta of plantar warts, corns, and athlete’s foot, right? I just have psyche myself up to cross this hurdle. Maybe when I find the right pair of shoes, and they call out to me from underneath the piles of cracked, misshapen, sorry-looking reject soles, I will take the plunge. Maybe.

In the meantime, I will continue to buy tops like the one above, whose pattern and colours I am in love with! And for $5.99, it was a steal. I also recently bought an old brown-leather Minolta camera bag (from The Reuse Centre) that I plan to use as a cross-body purse. It was $5, the camera was still inside, and Darcy actually liked said camera, so now it’s on our bookshelf. Five dollars for a purse AND a home decor item? Sign me up!

In other spending, two weekends ago I hit up a few of the “outlet” big-box stores in Cambridge, and, of course, I managed to scrounge up something. I found a navy, green, and white striped long-length T-shirt at Esprit that came to $8.46, and a pair of beige-coloured knit knee-socks from Mexx that were on clearance and cost me a grand total of $2.25. Whoot, der it is.

So, total spending in this post? $21.70. Total so far in 2010? $656.52.

And now, in what must surely be considered real-time blogging (come on, it practically is!), a picture of and Erin and I at the Santa Shuffle 5K this morning:

Dear Edna and De Facto Redhead about to get jacked on adrenalin.

We haven’t run this race together since 2006, so this year was a special treat, as well as the renewal of what is well on its way to being a time-honoured tradition – a tradition that ends with a hug and a knowing look that translates into “Let’s get us some food in our gullet, yo.” Today’s hit: french toast stuffed with Nutella, and that ain’t no lie.