It was a magical holiday extravaganza at Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm and I look forward to the magic at Life’s Patina Merchantile and Cafe in Historic Yellow Springs Village!
I do not know how Meg and her team do it but every year it’s a new magical experience and Meg always sprinkles some of the magic towards a nonprofit charity partner every sale. This is truly a love what’s local 🎄❤️
Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm has one more day of their 3 day event which is tomorrow, Sunday November 24th from 10 AM to 4 PM. 1750 N Valley Rd, Malvern, PA.
Life’s Patina Merchantile and Cate is located at 1657 Art School Rd, Chester Springs, PA. AKA the Jenny Lind House. They are open the following winter hours: Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 8am to 4pm and Saturday & Sunday: 9am to 3pm
On November 11, 2014 Pamela Badolato launched a charity project and without telling anyone she knew, called Plaid Pajamas Project. She wanted to collect and distribute pajamas to people in need. They are about to hit their 10 year anniversary and in the past ten collection seasons we have donated probably 10,000 pairs of pajamas.
In her own words:
Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, my sister Kristina and I were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. We received a new pair of pajamas from our grandparents, Nonnie and Poppie, and wore them that night. During our teen years we had some funny pajamas opening experiences as it was humorous to see what they would choose for us. You’ll still find us laughing till we cry when recounting a pair I got during my freshman year of college which were purchased slightly too large. How large you ask? Large enough for Kristina and I to fit in them- together!
As you can see, these pajamas played a huge part of our family Christmas memories. My parents, Mema and Pepa, carry on this tradition and give pajamas to our children each year, and even when we aren’t together it’s the only gift they open on Christmas Eve. Nonnie and Poppie sent pajamas to Jim and I through 2021. However, we lost our beloved grandmother in November 2022, but I know our pajamas are still from her heart no matter what.
Our family has been inspired by our tradition, one that many families share, and we’ve created Plaid Pajamas as a way to provide warm winter pajamas to people in need. Giving our children a chance to learn about the importance of being helpers and givers, not just receivers. Our pajama collection takes place from October through January, with distribution from the end of November through mid-January to various organizations.
The requests for pajamas have already begun rolling in, and she expects to have even more this year. So far they are committed once again to T&E Care, about 15 Head Start classes in Philadelphia, and will have a pair of pajamas for each child that receives a bike from Dom Fixes Bikes .
Their pajamas help keep people warm during the winter, regardless of what holidays you celebrate or not. Their mission is to provide some happiness, smiles, and warmth.
I have thought this was a good thing ever since the inception of this project. It’s simple. It makes people happy. It helps people whose holidays may not be so jolly have some good cheer. It’s just nice.
Seriously a dead chrysanthemum (mum) is just a dead mum. Would you spray paint a dead squirrel ? Probably not, right? So if you can’t keep a chrysanthemum (mum) alive and transplant it into your garden for next year, why can’t you give it a dignified exit?
I’ve been seeing this disturbing barf worthy loving hands at home craft idea since like 2018 or 2019 and I can’t believe it’s still around. It’s still ugly and it still looks like a spray paint it dead plant with some Christmas ornaments stuck in it.
People have videos on YouTube and TikTok about this. How on earth do they think that’s crafting or normal looking or festive? It looks like Morticia Adams got bored with cutting the heads off of flowers.
I’m sorry is it just me or am I being mean? There are those who like to say I am a mean blogger as some of tell me that all the time all of you lovely people out there but I might have a grinch about Christmas? I don’t think so because I actually love Christmas and I don’t see a dead mum as a Christmas decoration.
Take this TikTok from Horine Homestead:
Or this one from Lora Bo
Actually, there are tons of videos on TikTok and elsewhere about this which is just like blows my mind.
If you want to add pizazz to your front porch or front walk and more, try real greens or even something artificial and even weather resistant Christmas greenery.
I guess my point is there are so many things that you can do with so little to create Christmas magic out front of your house or even in different parts of the inside of your house and it doesn’t mean you have to spray paint dead plants.
I am going to be a total bah humbug here. I feel like now we have a Instacart for holiday decorating. And I love Instacart but it’s for groceries and maybe Home Depot and Lowe’s when you don’t want to get your car all dirty.
But it’s like no one wants to do anything any longer that used to bring us all so much joy. And I don’t think people are necessarily busier today then they might’ve been 10 years ago or so.
I don’t know maybe I am some kind of an old fart at this point, but I have always loved doing my pumpkins and decorating for Christmas. And that’s been since I was a kid.
When I was a little girl, I helped my parents decorate. I had the most wonderful memories of going on then snowy nights with my father to pick out a Christmas tree. Thanks to climate change we don’t get many snowy nights anymore, but I digress.
As I grew up and got out on my own, no matter how busy I was, I found the me time to decorate for holidays. And I had total joy in going to things like the Saint Davids Fair in the fall, looking for new decorations and haunting thrift shops for cool vintage things.
I figured out long ago it wasn’t so hard to make a wreath. And that was whether I was making one out of ornaments or live greens or fake greens.
I am not Martha Stewart. Nor am I particularly crafty. I can cook, I can garden, but I am not a craft diva. That’s something entirely different, and you don’t have to be a craft diva or a decorator to do your house up for the holidays!
So we learned in October that there are professional pumpkin pimpers. Because God forbid, you pick out a pumpkin and put it on your porch or your front step yourself. Better yet you need to spend hundreds of unnecessary dollars to have someone look like it vomited pumpkins on your porch or front walk.
But the holidays/Christmas? How can you want someone to make you look like you live in Stepfordville? And Christmas is not for a beige beige world.
Now I do understand when people want someone to put lights in a really, really tall tree. Most people don’t have a bucket truck lying around.
I also understand when people are having a party somewhere and they need the help of a florist or a stager to get it together. Especially if you are renting a space which doesn’t necessarily come with furniture and things to give you your look.
I understand people that when they have Christmas parties or even Thanksgiving dinner, gatherings that they go to a local florist for table arrangements. But the rest of it? It’s not hard nor difficult.
If you are unsure what to do with greens outside your house, you can buy lovely preconceived packages from BloomBox. Literally with them, you can buy DIY container kits and you’re out per kit under 100 bucks before tax.
But this new service? It’s like you’re paying for a middle person to deliver Balsam Hill. Only to be honest, I think Balsam Hill artificial greens are better looking than what I saw on that website.
Greens and stems in an old tin watering can, cut from the garden. Simple, happy and festive…and not hundreds of dollars
And just FYI for information sake, these foyer fluffernutters offer packages that start at $475.00 but that doesn’t include service packages. Those start at $380.00. The higher end of their spectrum? $1150.00 before service, service packages add $750.00 and none of these service figures includes true customization. No ribbons, no ornaments. In other words, you look pretty bland like everyone else.
Do you really want your holiday decorations to look like everyone else on the block?
If you do, then this post is not for you. If you don’t, I’m telling you I think the prices are ridiculous and you’re paying for the Emperor’s new clothes and they’re not very attractive.
Spindle tree from BloomBox. Decorations by me.
Look, I understand the time is at a premium for some people, but when you just order the holidays without benefit of participating in the decorating, you’re missing out.
And if money is no option and you want to look like it’s a Stepford wife Christmas then hire somebody with the samey same packages.
But I think the better plan is to enjoy the reasons for the season which includes being creative and even encouraging your kids to get creatively festive. Try it, it will bring you joy.
Here are some links that you can go peruse for ideas:
I love Christmas. I love decorating for the holidays. I realize not everybody does, but from a practical standpoint it’s easy to do yourself, and you can save a lot of money, and not look like everyone else.
Don’t be bah humbug. Remember the little kid joys of paper chains and cut out snowflakes.
But please don’t start playing Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.
When your friends are on a committee, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and Christmas is a favorite season, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and it benefits one of your favorite local nonprofits and helps seniors, you also become a sponsor.
So yes, I am personally on the sponsor list for the 2024 Surrey Holiday House Tour & Shop. Now I can’t be a big platinum sponsor, but I joined in where I could.
Surrey Services is a very special nonprofit to us in our house, so this is a pleasure all the way around.
Jim Devine Photography Photo
I am so excited for this year‘s tour and it’s Friday, December 6 and those tickets sell out fast that is not just hype. They literally fly out the door.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning October 2nd.
Again, tickets are live TOMORROW !
Start your countdown…⏰
Visit SurreyServices.org to purchase your tickets for our Holiday House Tour. Tickets are $95 per person and include a box lunch.
And the shops which are open to all? They are amazing! They have tons of vendors and my friend, Eddie Ross, who is also Volunteer Chair of this event, will be a vendor this year as well. If you have ever gone to his sales at his studio, I need to say no more, he has fabulous taste. And he loves Christmas as well! We share a love of old German kugel ornaments and glass icicle ornaments – as a matter of fact, he gave me these wonderful vintage glass icicle ornaments last year for Christmas that I can’t wait to put on the tree this year!
You KNOW you want to go!!! Come on now, let’s sell this event out and raise lots of money for Surrey. There are very few events I support at this point and this is one of them so I hope you will join all of us. It’s a wonderful day!
It’s put away Christmas time. I really don’t like it. It takes a bit to create Christmas and I get so happy when my Christmas decorations get unboxed each Christmas. So naturally, I also get a little sad and overwhelmed as well when Epiphany rolls around and it is time to put everything away again.
I have found over time that it’s better to tackle a little bit of it each day so everything gets put away right. Once again, like every year, I’m rearranging some things. I even treated myself to some new storage containers because some are getting a little raggedy and will need to find other uses, or get recycled.
Today my AnnaLee Santas, elves, Mrs. Clauses, and reindeer went back into their containers. I also put away my Byers’ Choice Santas. I only have a few of the Santas. They are my favorites of the figures.
Tomorrow other things will be put away. This will continue until it’s all put away.
Until next year, Christmas.
I look forward to the magic of the season reappearing.
Happy Fourth Day of Christmas. Kindly note the Twelve Days of Christmas are not a new concept. They started in 567 with the Coucil of Tours. It was originally designed to bridge the gap between the two ways Christmas observances were celebrated. Eastern rite and Western rite.
Why? Because if you celebrate normal Western rite, you celebrate on Christmas Day or December 25. If you celebrate Eastern rite rite you celebrate or celebrate in addition on the 12th day of Christmas, or Epiphany.
So this is not a new concept that self- baptized lifestyle and style gurus can claim credit on.
There are actual historical facts behind this.
And most people I know keep their Christmas trees up until Epiphany.
Why?
The 12 days of Christmas. Also, from a practical standpoint, you put all this work into Christmas decorations you might as well look at them until you feel like the nutcrackers, elves, and Santas are staring back at you from the bookshelves. I’m speaking from personal experience here.
A funny story in my family was the year my father didn’t take the tree down till close to Valentine’s Day. My father was very particular with his Christmas trees. For example, they could only be silver and gold and certain kinds of ornaments, which is probably why my Christmas trees are kind of a riot of color. Daddy would put the ornaments up every year in a certain order and you could never go out of order or there might be an Italian Christmas temper tantrum. It was pretty funny, but he loved his Christmas tree. However, you could only also put the ornaments away in a certain order so it was hard to be helpful and he wanted to do it himself only one year it didn’t happen until close to Valentine’s Day!
And another funny story were when friends of mine were single girls, and the tree didn’t come down until probably closer to March and they were in an apartment. I don’t know why this happened but it was a live tree when it was first put up and a very dead tree with brown needles when it came down. And apparently there were things involved like changing the ribbons on the tree for Valentine’s Day. By the time they took the tree down, it was like Miss Havisham from Dickens’ Great Expectations had moved in.
Now I do know people that as soon as December 26 rolls around and boom all those decorations come down. But also for me and my family today, my stepfather is British so we do Boxing Day some years if people are around. And friends of my parents when my father was alive always had Boxing Day parties.
So Christmas being a season isn’t a new concept. It’s a traditional Christian concept and perhaps modern marketing has steeped its new philosophies in that but I don’t really know.
Now I don’t live in medieval times, I live in the real world, and if I did something separate for all 12 days of Christmas, my husband might lose his mind. He’s already pretty good-natured when Christmas takes over the entire house.
The 12 days of Christmas also our feast days for different saints. I’m not going to go into all of them. You can look them up on the Internet and there’s this website called Why Christmas that lays it out easily.
Now Twelfth Night parties used to be a really big deal. You would hear about those in the Times of Henry VII of England, for example. Complete with Christmas cake, and a Lord of Misrule and role reversals between servants and masters. Ironically, these celebrations go back to Roman times, and more pagan origins.
What started me on this? A lifestyle person’s self-marketing videos honestly. And there was this whole thing about the third day of Christmas and they were serving Affogato.
Affogato is a simple Italian dessert of Espresso and ice cream. But now some are saying make it with red wine. Well to me that’s a nonstarter. But in all fairness, I am allergic to red wine so I would never serve this in 1 million month of Sundays.
The recipe this person used was basically an ice cream sundae with red wine poured over it. You can find it from two years ago on a website called We Are Not Martha. If I did drink red wine, I would wonder why I would want to do this to wine or ice cream.
Another person who did this a couple of years ago was Giada DeLaurentis. Her recipe to me actually had more merit because she essentially made a holiday mulled wine and put it over vanilla ice cream. However, the reviews I read on this are mixed. Marie Claire Magazine wrote about it as a summer dessert in 2016.
Sadly, to me it seems like a waste of both wine and ice cream. I could see this dessert made for Christmas by adding whatever you would add to an alcoholic coffee along with the espresso to the ice cream, but not wine. To each their own. I’m kind of a purist when it comes to these things just like I think a cheeseboard is the only kind of board you need to have. Not butter or dessert or anything else.
And the thing I love about Christmas are the traditional dishes that go with the Christmas season. Sometimes you don’t need to dress them up, they are what they are. You can do a Yule Log or Bûche De Noël. I have friends who do make those and they’re absolutely gorgeous, but I remember the days of Walter’s Swiss Pastry in Bryn Mawr and Viking Pastries in Ardmore. Walter’s Bûche De Noël were the best, but Viking’s were good as well. I am a baker, but I do not have the skill set for these so when I want one, I ordered them from the Master‘s Baker in West Chester. We were a very small Christmas gathering this year so I didn’t order one and just served my own Christmas cookies after dinner, but are photos of two I have had over recent years from them:
Other years, I have served a white fruit cake that I make with Courvoisier. And yes, my cake is not used as a doorstop people actually really like it. Here is the base recipe from a few different vintage cookbooks :
So yes, I am kind of a traditionalist when it comes to certain Christmas things. It’s like I do use linens and china and fun often vintage wine and other glasses. I actually try to use my vintage and antique china whenever I can and as many people know my every day is vintage Fiesta ware because it just makes me smile. And my mother has always encouraged me to use the stuff I have because she said rightfully, so what are you saving it for? Use it it’s meant to be used.
Yes, it takes a little extra time to clean up when you use good plates but it sets a nice table. And people say they don’t want to use good things when it’s the holidays because of kids, but I don’t know since we all grew up with our parents using real china and glassware and linens and everything survived and a lot of it got passed on? And other people I know don’t want to use it because they think it’s too much time to clean up and it’s really not. It’s just a routine.
It’s like Christmas trees. We all have our routines based upon family traditions. I have a main tree in the living room and two little trees in bedrooms and they make me happy.
When I’m getting out my old ornaments and the ornaments that people have given me over the years at Christmas it makes me smile with a happy memory when I open up the boxes. I will admit when I use my father’s ornaments sometimes I get a little teary-eyed but that’s because he loved Christmas and they remind me of him and then I laugh because he had his decorations routine.
I am a crazy collector of vintage ornaments. And then there are the ornaments my friends have given me. I love them all, and I wish I could use them all every year, but I can’t. So I cycle my ornaments around. Some ornaments always come out like the little Peter Rabbit from my parents’ first Christmas tree I guess circa 1961.
Other Christmas things I love are Christmas books. I always have. I also have to cycle those around. I have some different ones out this year but here are photos of some others I have:
The Twelve Days of Christmas are a lovely song and a centuries old tradition with deep roots. Live and love your Christmas joy but please don’t turn your wine into a fake sundae. And check out PNC’s index on what the 12 days of Christmas now cost. They have been doing this for 40 years. The brain behind this for many years belongs to the former wife of someone I knew years and years ago. However I still think PNC is a crappy bank.
Yes, these are cookies I baked this year, and they are on a beautiful vintage white milk glass cake stand that I got at the Smithfield Barn a few years ago!
Christmas is a magical time and season for me. I love decorating and I bake, so it is always something I look forward to.
When we are growing up, we are in the midst of our parents’ traditions. Then we start to develop our own traditions which a lot of the time have their base in family traditions.
My mother and great aunts and grandmothers always baked Christmas cookies….so I continue that. Now there are some of the old school cookies that I have not mastered like pizzelles or true shortbread, but I have my own cookies that I make, including a new one for 2023: white chocolate peppermint meringue cookies. The base recipe which I doubled and changed came from the A Cook’s Tour of Shreveport Louisiana by the Junior League there which I will also share. (And this is a fabulous and out of print cookbook, but you can find it on eBay and Etsy.)
So here’s my recipe based on theirs:
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips (mini sized if you can find them.)
3/4 cup crushed candy canes or other peppermint candy
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
Preheat oven to 300°F
Chill beater attachments for mixer and metal mixing bowl about an hour ahead of time.
Beat egg whites, salt, cream of tarter, and extracts until soft peaks form.
Add sugar gradually until incorporated and stiff peaks form.
Fold in white chocolate chips, crushed peppermint candy, and nuts.
Drop by teaspoons about an inch or so apart. I bake these on parchment paper.
Bake each batch at 300° for 25 minutes. You will know they are done because they get puffy and they even may crack slightly on top.
I moved them, parchment paper and all to the cooling racks. I just slide them over from the cookie sheet that way when they cool they just come right off the parchment paper and I put fresh paper on the cookie sheet for the next batch also in between batches, I keep the cookie mixture chilled in the refrigerator.
My adaptation makes about 4 dozen meringues.
I also have a couple of recipes I was gifted. First was my childhood friend David’s grandmother’s pound cake recipe which I have made that is awesome. I was so excited when he gave me this recipe.
Another recipe I was gifted yesterday and will make it:
And then there is this shortbread recipe that someone found dropped in a grocery store and posted that I will try that I hope makes it back to it’s owner:
Now, one of the things that I learned from all my great aunts, both my grandmothers, and my own mother is when you’re having people over you get out the plates. No plastic glasses no paper cups no paper plates. Do it old school. It didn’t used to be old school, but now it is old school, because so many people who think plastic and paper are fine, and I’m not quite sure what they are saving their china plates and glasses for. China and glassware are meant to be used, and you can’t take it with you, so you might as well get it out of the cupboard and dust it off!
Funny I remember during Covid checking out this program by a “lifestyle expert“ only she used paper plates, plastic glasses, paper napkins. And this was a tutorial in instructing people how to entertain. Not a little kids party, but adults.
If you are going to set a table, then set a table. And you’re not doing it so the pictures look fabulous on social media, you’re doing it because you love it and you want to show your guests you care about them. Paper and plastic just don’t have the same appeal. And they never will no matter how a “lifestyle expert“ tries to tart it up along with a board for everything. Entertaining isn’t about social constipation. It’s about making things lovely for yourself and your guests so everybody enjoys themselves. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just put in the effort.
And if you don’t think you have the right things, check out a garage sale, a church sale, a holiday flea market. There are dishes and linens everywhere and you can pick them up for pennies on the dollar in most places, especially china because apparently it’s like “brown wood”. Sorry, not sorry while I like some accessories from West Elm, I will never be your West Elm child with art bought at Home Goods.
Yes, I am a crazy worshipper of old things. Especially at Christmas. I remember once in a past life, I had an almost sister-in-law at one time that did not put out holiday meals on pretty platters and things, it was all tinfoil containers and brown plates and paper napkins. How can you take the time to decorate a beautiful Christmas tree like she did and then the dining room table looked like an outdoor BBQ picnic table minus a fly swatter? But then, again, these were the people whose favorite blood sport was criticizing other people who weren’t there, so I guess it all fit?
And yes, do I dread unpacking everything and then having to pack it all up at times? Yes of course since I am not Martha Stewart with a Martha squad to clean up and set up….but then, when my dishes come out of their protective bags and the glasses come out of their storage containers and I iron the linens, it makes it all worth it. Kind of like the Christmas decorations.
My traditions for my female friends from high school, and a few others is a ladies tea. And it’s an excuse to dress up the table and I love it. It’s no politics, no world problems no local issues, it’s just Christmas.
One of my favorite flea market finds.
And yes, I actually do serve tea because years ago I acquired a slew of Spode Christmas tea cups and saucers at the flea market for next to nothing. And then this year at the Saint David’s Fair, I acquired the tea service that goes with the cups….again for next to nothing.
For Christmas plates I have vintage American China that I got a few years ago at the Smithfield Barn that has a very simple Christmas tree design on white plates that I love. They are not super valuable and they aren’t porcelain. They’re more like old hotel grade China, so they’re a little sturdier. But I love them and they’re festive.
And for hors d’oeuvres and nibbles and desserts I use those plates that people used to hang on their walls and now they are like bargain basement – the vintage Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates. A few years ago, I contacted the company to make sure I could actually use them to eat off of because there are some plates that are purely decorative. And the company wrote me back and said yes you can, so I do. And I literally see them now for a couple dollars a plate. Some of them are a little more expensive on eBay and Etsy especially if they are particular collector years, but plates are meant to be used. Above, I pulled two screenshots off of eBay to give you an idea of the plates.
I also like the clear glass, vintage dessert and salad plates that you can find all sorts of places that have the etching underneath the surface of the plate. They’re very simple, but they’re very pretty and they can go in the dishwasher. I know the ones I have are depression glass. Some were gifted to me, others I have found at church, rummage, sales and flea markets. Again very inexpensive if you find them in person a little more if you see them on eBay and Etsy but they have to be shipped.
Anyway, I hope all of my readers have a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the recipes and enjoy the time you spend with others this holiday season.
Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t remember where all of the pixies came from, but the two little angels are Italian and they came from Melangell Antiques on Old Pottstown Pike in West Chester.
Just in time for Christmas the residents of this apartment building feel uneasy because their complex just changed hands.
This has been a year with this place. People have been complaining a lot about conditions in some buildings, downed trees blocking W. King Road, and and orange tax notices being posted.
So they might call it Eagle Rock now, and Frazer Crossing two days ago, but they’re still the William Henry Apartments and they need more than absentee landlords jacking the rents, right?
I hope East Whiteland Township goes in and inspects since new ownership should hopefully trigger inspections , because there are so many people that have so many problems living there they might finally get addressed. East Whiteland also doesn’t have a rental ordinance, which might help address ongoing problems with apartment complexes etc if they did.
It is no secret that I love Loch Aerie Mansion. I love Addison Hutton architecture and this house is just magical! The difference from way back when I started photographing her. Here are some photos to illustrate the remarkable restoration:
Loch Aerie opened her doors today for a Christmas open house. All that was asked of her visitors was to bring a new toy for Tpys for Tots or non-perishable food for the Chester County Food Bank. In return, we got to soak in the beautiful Christmas spirit of Loch Aerie all restored, take photos with Santa and enjoy some holiday goodies along with cocoa and hot cider.
There were a whole bunch of adorable children, taking photos with Santa! My friend was the Santa and he had a great costume!
Loch Aerie should be awarded all sorts of awards for historic restoration and adaptive reuse that works. I loved this open house this afternoon. Enjoy the photos!
Loch Aerie is in East Whiteland Township, Chester County.
If you are interested in Loch Aerie as an event or wedding space it is located at 700 Lancaster Avenue, Malvern/Frazer PA 19355. Their website is www.lochaeriemansion.com
