So I'm handling the snow pretty well.

     Basically I figure if I refuse to look at it and continually deny its existence it's not real. No snow here. Nope. Springtime abounds.

Snow day, snow dog?

     I know I said I was going to hibernate through this snow storm, but I did end up crawling out of my cozy cave to play in the snow for a bit...and build this masterpiece with Amanda: a life-size snow Lexie!

     If you're thinking that's not so impressive, please consider that our model there is 155 pounds of snuggle; that is to say, she ain't little. So a life-size snow replica was a good bit of work. Especially when your model insists on snuffling up behind you to try to eat the snow. 

A weather "event?" What, like a gala or something?

     So here we are, east coast friends, once again on the cusp of a weather "event" that's going to bring cold and snow and ice and misery upon us. Oh well. I'm trying to make the best of it -- if nothing else it's a stellar opportunity to wear all my sweaters at once -- but I must admit I'm not looking forward to another round of winter weather. Mostly because, here at least, snow isn't a pretty winter wonderland thing where it's all fluffy light pretty snowdrifts and junk (I feel like that's a thing in Canada? I dunno, I've never been to Canadia-land. I'll ask a Mountie next time I meet one. Also, did you know that Mounties are actually totally badass? Like they'll chase you straight over the border into the States and shoot you down with a submachine gun if you try to flee after, I dunno, stealing a moose or whatever? Fun fact). Here it might be pretty snow for a couple hours, tops, but there's always a layer of gross slush and ice underneath that just makes it treacherous to try and get anywhere and mucks everything up with gray ice-goo.

Shit, weather.com, you ain't messin' around, huh?

     But the bright side of a weather mess like this is it's a great excuse to stay in bed bundled up like a burrito all day. Unless you have a job that won't be closed due to inclement weather and you have to trudge out there no matter what to keep society from falling into chaos -- like working for the power company, Dad -- in which case, sorry that you have to do that, but thanks for preventing the collapse of our nation's infrastructure, I guess! I work from home though, so here's how I'm getting ready to spend a few frosty days indoors. 

NEW INSULATING SHADES! 

     Hey look, a solution to all my complaining about how cold my room is! These replaced the room-darkening pull-down shades I had before, and it's a massive improvement. They keep my room noticeably warmer because they're honeycombed, so there's an extra layer of air pockets to keep warm air in and cold air out. It used to be that you could step across the threshold into my room and instantly feel the drop in temperature, like a ghost lived in here with me. Now it's much closer to the temperature of the rest of the house, and I can sit at my desk over by the window without fear of losing fingers to frostbite now! The added bonus is that they're not room-darkening, they're just "light-filtering." I consider this a plus because I don't like to wake up in a dark room, and my room faces west anyway, so it's not like the sun busts in here at dawn. I need the light to be able to come in and help me cobble together some semblance of the Circadian rhythm I seem to have been born without. With these shades I can keep them shut at night to prevent all the heat from getting sucked right out the windows without having to sacrifice the morning light. Yay! 

THE HEATED BLANKET THAT I PROFESS MY LOVE FOR EMBARRASSINGLY OFTEN!

When I first got this, I hooked it up that night and without my contacts in, I could swear it went up to 11, Spinal Tap style. I was crushed when I realized it just said H for "high" or "hot" or "hell yes" or whatever. 

     I know I talk about it more often than some people talk about their children, but I seriously think I have become a person for whom a heated blanket is a necessity. This could be because I have the cold tolerance levels of a 95 year old chihuahua, but whatever, it's amazing. There's nothing cozier than pre-heating your bed while you take a shower, then climbing in like a human hot-pocket to combat the after-shower-shivers (serious condition). 

THAT WORK THING I MENTIONED I DO!

     This weather event, be it snow/ice/raining men, will at least be productive for me because I just picked up two new books to edit, just in time to keep me from going crazy if I get stuck in the house! I've been editing a lot of research papers and citation lists lately, which is still fun because I get to learn about things I otherwise wouldn't (and even citations can be kind of fun because it's basically just rearranging and formatting things according to a set of prescribed, if somewhat arbitrary, rules, which is supremely satisfying to anyone with a slightly compulsive personality), but I always get extra excited about editing stories. I mean, getting to read books for a living is kind of a dream gig, yeah? 

     I hope if you're in an impacted area you're all keeping warm and entertained however you so choose, be it working, catching up on a month's worth of missed sleep, or marathoning all the Harry Potter movies! 

     

"What sort of horrid ice goblin is guarding the thermostat?"

A comic requested by Amanda. 

Friday Fail

     Because I know we all like to laugh together (you are laughing with me, right?) at our failures sometimes, I thought I'd kick off the weekend with a classic tale of "this was a way better idea in my head." 

     Whilst I was digging around in the attic for Christmas decorating supplies that weren't already earmarked for another location of the house, I came across a set of big plastic lighted snowflakes. Oooh, I thought, those would look so pretty in my closet window! See, the window in my closet is the kind that's round on top and right in the center of the house from the outside, so it would look really nice to have something lit up in there. So I dragged them downstairs and asked around about whether they had a predetermined place. Nope, they were free for my designs! So, with my mom's help, I got them hung up in the window using a combination of tape, command hooks, and yarn. From inside, they looked so pretty! Then I went outside...

Sorry for the picture quality, I can't hold my hands steady enough to take a better night shot, and I don't have my life together enough to use a tripod. 

     Light-up blobs! They were totally indistinct clusters of lights. It kind of looked like maybe I had started to hang lights in some other configuration, but they were too badly tangled so I left them that way. I had to admit defeat on that one. So I took them down, and I've been brainstorming what to put there instead. I have an idea involving a rope light, a wreath, and some string lights, but we'll see where it ends up. 

     Enjoy your weekend, everyone -- hopefully it will be failure-free for you! 

The Christmas-ification, Part II

     I told you I wasn't done adding holiday spirit to my room yet. Apparently my method is "more lights, more sparkle!" until everything feels appropriately cheerful but still doesn't involve too much stuff (mostly because I don't want to have to put a million things away after Christmas, because that's depressing). 

MORE LIGHTS

     I needed to add some more lights because the room was a little lopsided -- all the lights and all the blue on one side, and all the pink and...lack of lights? on the other. So I wrapped another strand of blue lights up with some sheer shiny ribbon and blue tinsel to create a garland to drape over my desk, and added a short strand of white lights to my mini-tree (because obviously the tree needed lights. This is a fact). 

     Ahhh yes. That's the cozy glow I was looking for. 

MORE SPARKLE

     First I did a simple switch-out of the decorations on my wreath, re-using the white flowers that were on it before and adding a few festive bits and bobs to give it a frosty winter look. 

     I have a weird affinity for things like those little silver glittery grass-like sprigs because they remind me of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. That's the only part of that story that really stuck with me, actually. I couldn't care less about the sneaking out to dance with cute princes or whatever, but I always loved the trees with silver and gold leaves.

     The final addition to my room came in the form of a box of 12 glittery blue snowflakes (I feel like there's a clever segue to be made here based on the number twelve, but I can't find it, so...just pretend I'm cleverer than I am). I sat in the floor with these in my lap for a good long while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with them, until finally inspiration struck. Ten minutes and a bit of tape later...

     I love this so much! The snowflakes tucked geometrically into the polka dots remind me of a Nordic sweater somehow. It also vaguely reminded me for a dark second of how in the nineties everyone had horrible wallpaper borders all over their houses. Why was that a thing? Bleh. 

     Anyway, with the snowflakes up and the lights a-glowing, this room is really starting to feel cheerful and festive! I'll have to enjoy it while I can, because Christmas is coming up way faster than it has any right to. Or maybe that's just me getting older and inheriting the grand tradition of insisting that time goes by too quickly. 

It's beginning to look a ... little...like Christmas?

     I started the Christmasification of my room yesterday! I started out light with a couple of little changes here and there (mostly because I don't have many decorations that match yet -- I want to hit up the pink candy-themed Christmas section at Hobby Lobby), but it's enough to get my holiday spirit going. Have a look at some of the changes I made!

     First up, I swapped the roses above my windows for some silver, white, and blue tinsel, plus some blue string lights ($2.50 at Target!).

     The blue lights are really pretty in the dark, too. 

     Then on the other side of the room, I added a mini Christmas tree! I've had my eye on this little white tree with iridescent pink bits for a while, and it was the last one on the shelves at Target today, so I figured I'd go ahead and get it before it was gone. 

 

     I also stuck a sprig of wintry-looking berries (?) in the vase on the left and wrapped some extra tinsel around the bottom of the storage box there, just cause. The pink unicorn isn't actually holiday-specific, I'm just really into unicorns, and it kinda makes sense there. 

     The last little change I made was to wrap some silver garland around my wall mirror and stick a few bows on the corner, just so I'd have a little extra holiday-ness right before I go out the door. 

     I dunno what that face is, don't even ask. 

     Anyway, so that's what I've been up to, but I'm just gearing up in my quest to make everything cheerful and cozy! 

Winter is Coming.

     No, not in the figurative "go House Stark" sense, like, literally. So I spent some time this weekend getting my room ready for colder weather with a few simple changes. 

1. Blankets. All the blankets. 

     Useful for extra layers at night, for bundling up in when you want to walk around like a human burrito, or for fort-building supplies. I think the key to making a room seem warm and inviting in winter is to layer, layer, layer. Ever wonder what it is about those Pottery Barn/West Elm type rooms that makes them seem so cozy? It's the thousands of dollars worth of textiles. I love that look, but I get hives spending more than thirty dollars at a time, so I use a fluffy pink duvet cover (I stuff a down comforter in if it gets really freezy) that I got from one of those discount stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or Ross (I forget which one), a Shabby Chic quilt from Target, a soft white quilted blanket, also from Target, and a pink and white lap afghan that someone in my family hand-made at some point to achieve my desired level of fluffy warmness. 

2. Flannel sheets. 

     I was worried that I'd overheat in flannel sheets, since I have a tendency to reach near combustible temperatures at night, but I'm actually really enjoying them. They just multiply the existing snuggly factor. These also happen to match my quilt perfectly, so that's a bonus.

3. Thicker curtains. 

     I love my polka dot sheers, but when it comes to insulating from the frostiness outside, they're pretty useless. In winter I like to switch mine out for these heavy cotton panels from Target. They're not the fancy thermal kind or anything, but they definitely help. Aside from the obvious reason -- blocking any drafts that may sneak in from the windows and acting as a little bit of extra insulation to keep the cold out and the heat in -- they also help to visually bring the room in a little, as opposed to sheer white, which makes the room seem bigger. I know people almost always want to make spaces seem bigger, but in winter I like my room to feel a little more close and homey. But that's just personal preference! If you have a small space or just like to keep things very open-feeling, you could always just use heavier curtains in a lighter color. I also can't say enough good things about thermal curtains for older buildings. The apartment I lived in while I was at school in Richmond was built in 1921, and the windows were rubbish at keeping the cold out. The insulated curtains that I kept closed at night to stop the noticeable breeze that came in even when the windows were shut tight were a lifesaver. 

4. A cozy candle. 

     Subtlety is for squares, so I went with the aptly named "Winter" candle from Bath and Body Works, which smells like firewood and pine needles and a tiny bit of cinnamon. The reason I like this one so much at this time in the season is because it's definitely appropriate for the colder weather, but not Christmas-y. A lot of winter-themed candles skew way too pepperminty for the beginning of the cold season (though you best believe once Thanksgiving is gone I'll be pepperminting everything I can get my hands on. I'm so stoked for Christmas). 

     So there you have it! Just a few little changes to make the changing seasons seem a little less forboding and a little more relaxing.