Week 19

This week for Flashback Friday, I thought it would be fun to dig around in my photo box and pull out an old picture of me sitting on Santa's lap (hes real, you know). If we're friends on Twitter (if we're not, click the word "Twitter", and lets change that!), you might have seen my tweets about doing a sort of theme (we've been working with themes over at the Mama Dramalogues, a really fun Mom-blog I participate in, and I thought it might be a fun idea to apply to Flashback Fridays- we'll see if it sticks or not) this week.



As a kid, one of the things that I especially loved about Christmas, was getting to dress up. Always getting a new Christmas outfit (every year without fail, I could count on it), whether it having been given to be my Grams (oh how I miss her, what a beautiful woman she was), my Grammy (who I'll be seeing in just two weeks!!), or my parents (3 weeks and I'll be greeting them at the airport!). Having something special to wear around the holidays made me feel special. It made me feel beautiful. Even as a child, beautiful isn't how I would have ever described myself. Its funny how a layer of cotton can affect your overall well being, isn't it?

In the picture, I'm wearing a simple denim skirt, and a long sleeve white tshirt. Its nothing fancy. Its very plain, yet classic. And I felt beautiful. Look at the huge grin on my face. I was sitting on Santa's lap, telling him what I had hoped that he and his elves would magically bring me for Christmas that year, dressed in my very best. Pretty little girls must be good, right? Surely he must have known that I had gotten this new skirt just for him. Surely, he'd see that I was good, and oh so deserving of that new Candy Land board game. I had played it once at a summer camp style daycare at the school, and I just had to have it.

Since I've had kids of my own, its been very important to me that they have special Christmas outfits as well. I'd hope that they feel beautiful all year round, but there is just something about having a brand new skirt and tights to twirl around in beside the lit up Christmas tree, that can instantly warm your heart and put a twinkle in your eye. Well, for us ladies at least (tee hee). I'm not so sure Charlie will feel at all the same about his green sweater vest (baby's first Christmas!!). In the past I've spent a small fortune on finding the perfect dress for my daughter, but after seeing this photograph (thank you so much Aunt Laurie, again, for sending me all of these old memories), I remember that its not what the dress looks like, or how much it costs- its the simple fact of its beautiful existence. Any Christmas outfit, is a special outfit.
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Want to play along?? Simply add your link to the list below! You don't have to be a blogger to play, you can use whatever photo hosting or networking site you prefer. Please link from your flashback, back to this flashback, so that we can get more and more Flashbackers each week. This is my favorite post of the week, and I read each and every post that y'all write out and share. So much fun!

Oh, and since I'm testing the waters of flashback themes- next week feel free to post a picture involving holiday decorations. Lights, nativity scenes, trees, whatever you might have. I've got the perfect picture, I can't wait.

Support Your Local Potter

Lately I've really gotten into handmade pottery. I bought Christopher a rad "Sasquatch" mug for Christmas last year (you can read about that here, its a pretty funny story if you've got the time), and I was given this mug (well, a similar one) as a gift from my friend Megan over at Lemonade. I've browsed bowls and baking dishes on more than one occasion, but just can't justify buying any for myself yet. As a gift for somebody else, yes, but for myself, probably not. I keep thinking "what if Eleanore drops one and breaks it?", even though she uses plastic toddler dishes and I rarely give her a "Mommy and Daddy plate". Or what if Christopher drops it and breaks it (if you've read the Sasquatch story, you'll completely understand. Here's another chance, haha, you can read it by clicking here). Or worse, what if I'm the one that breaks it? Then I only have myself to blame, and lets face it, sometimes we feel better when we have the reassurance of knowing that its somebody elses fault (its in our nature, we're never proud of it).

When I first moved here to Abilene, I met this really rad girl, Saybra. Shes an awesome photographer, great taste in music, and obsessed with coffee (seriously, obsessed). We've only hung out a few times, twice maybe (moms, do you find that its hard to find the time to hang out with non-mom friends? its not just me, right?), but shes the type of person that you feel comfortable around, even though you've only met them once before, not awkward (know what I mean?).

The last time I went over to her house, she had mentioned that her husband was a potter, and I remember seeing a few pots laying around, but didn't think much of it. We were there to workout anyways (she lives kind of far away, the reason for our planned workout partnership failure). Something else I noticed, she really likes Gilmore Girls, haha.

Ok but back to the pottery part. And this is so cute-


Not only is her husband, Brandon (you can read his blog, "support your local potter", by clicking here), a potter, but they are having the cutest traditional (this is something that they do every December) right-out-of-their-house, pottery sale. Brandon has an etsy shop, PhillipsPottery, but this weekend they're opening up the doors to their home, serving hot apple cider and cookies (omg, is your heart melting yet?), and doing things the old fashioned way- out of love (don't laugh, yes I really just said "out of love").


For those of you who are local, this event is taking place this weekend at their home showroom, the address is 1049 T& P Lane. If anybody is interested in stopping by at a time other than when the actual event is taking place, has any questions, or wants to gush at Saybra about how freakin' cute her and her husband are for doing this (I know, I've said cute at least 10 times in this blog post), her email is Saybra@gmail.com.


For those of you that aren't local, please take a minute and stop by Brandon's Etsy shop. All of his pots are made from hand-mixed clay and glazed with all natural, and often local materials. No artificial chemicals are used in any of these processes, which makes the pots straight from the earth to the table. All of the pottery is completely functional- microwave, dishwasher, oven and food safe (!!!).


Yes. A very cute event indeed.