I am dragging my holiday feet.
Oh yes I am.
A little snow in the desert made it linger.
I’d love a few more days to veg out, wouldn’t you?
I am over the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but a vacation.
Oh yes, that’s what I need, you?
It did snow a few days ago, but today it was sunny and delicious and I took some time to enjoy it.
Today it’s back up in the 70’s.
Silly silly bizarre ole place this is.
As promised, it took me a whole day or two, but I went through all my pics and chose some to share.
Like, of the fairy tree!
(which stays up year round)
And the fluffy white stuff!
And the mince meat pies and cookies.
Snow does make it more holidayish, doesn’t it?
My boys went beyond bonkers.
Miles was born in one of the coldest winters we have ever had 4 years ago.
So, he seems to adoooooore the snow.
The Christmas Village is always fun to sit and look at.
I made lots of gifts, one in particular for Mombie, an angel…
She loves angels.
I think a snow angel sprinkled powdered sugar all over my veggie garden!
Our fruit trees will be so happy for the cold.
As will the poppies and others too.
As you know I traveled to the family pad for a couple days.
It was all decked out and lovely.
Mom and dad work very hard to make it happen, they love it and enjoy it so.
Decorating and putting up lights just everywhere you can imagine.
It’s lovely.
A gaggle of wooden swans look down from above, all decked out in their holiday ribbons.
And the black Halloween tree promptly turns Christmasy.
I think it could easily flip into a Mad Tea Tree, don’t you?
The fairy tree does take the cake for all of us fairy lovers.
Fairies everywhere!
Smooch!
We ate…
Drank, and were extra merry.
Well, I am a fuddy duddy, so I drank a very tart Italian lemon seltzer.
It was gooood 🙂
Pretty things everywhere I turned.
I love gift packaging…
Brown kraft paper with silver dots and golds and black make me extra happy.
The wind kicked up like mad on Christmas.
We went to the cemetery on Christmas eve to visit my aunt and my dad’s dad.
Then we went looking at people’s crazily lit houses.
Then dinner.
It was lovely.
As a storm blew in I headed home and was almost whisked off the highway from the winds.
A couple days later, this happened.
Just in time to ring in the new year at the country pad.
I LOVE the black sky and the white trees.
Its extra great to have a delivery boy when it’s snowing.
Miles and Matty loved the snow in ways I can’t even describe.
They were out morning noon and night.
Sniffing and searching and rolling.
I love my little Matty (also known as Brownie) and his curly tail, my little warrior guy.
Miles is a snow dog of the heart.
He loves it sooooo!
Cutie!
He even did a little yoga out there on the driveway.
Where the snow turned to hard ice.
Maybe that’s the real downward dog pose, how would we know?
Haha!
We went around our paths.
Playing and taking pics.
Stuffing noses in fluffy snow, just because it feels good.
Checking out the vegetable garden, where the arbor lost a piece 🙂
Sneaking into the cottage loft and hunkering under fluffy quilts.
Watching everything turn shades of blue.
And then the next day, the sun…
Blindingly white.
Cactus pads plopping over everywhere.
I just love how snow coats everything so beautifully.
Snow dreams in the desert are soooo much fun!
So many plants adore the cold snap.
They needed it as there was no winter last year, which was strange.
Normally it snows here once a year at least.
My baby Christmas tree I planted 13 years ago is HUGE.
A real Christmas tree!
As it melted the fairy bower was just magical.
Hiding in the garden path tunnel 🙂
It’s so fun to see aloes and cacti covered in snow isn’t it?
Oh desert snow!
It was fun and fabulous and a treat.
And now, it’s gone, yay!
Just the way I like it, since I don’t like to be very cold.
🙂
And here’s a shot of a random house beyond decked out.
Gotta love the folks who do this.
What spirit!!
It was a blur of a holiday season to me.
I am ready for a vacay in the sun rays!
Lovely times for all.
I hope yours were lovely as well!!
Nothing like ending the year and beginning a new one with…
Snow skies.
At night they were pink, in the day dusty cotton candy clouds.
Gifts of nature all around.
There for the taking.
Reminding us to believe and dream and to not roll our eyes at being young hearted.
Wouldn’t you say?
Happiest New Year Wishes!!!
I love a New Year, hooray!
How are you out there in your neck of the woods?
Do tell me won’t you?
One sided tales are never gobs of fun.
Looooove, V
Dude! Snow?! It’s not fairrrr! Who do I complain to? 😀
Your parents’ home always looks amazing.
That downward doggie is cracking me up! 😀
What lovely pictures of the snow! We finally got some snow! We woke up to several inches outside & it’s so beautiful. It’s so much prettier than all the dead brown & grey looking stuff! It finally looks like Christmas! Now we have to deal with temps. below zero & wind chills about 25 below. Schools are already planning on being closed tomorrow. Winter has finally arrived! The in-laws went back home today so things should finally start winding down.
The doggie pictures are great! My big dog loves to run through the snow with his head down & nose in the snow! I have no idea what he’s doing!
Thanks for sharing your holiday with us!
P.S. I LOVE the angel you made! She is lovely!
Beautiful!Your pics are magical.I forget sometimes that it snows in the desert.Your Two boys were so fun to watch, I enjoyed this post Vanessa,as always.I too am in a hibernation mood,hunkered down, feeling cozy and lazy.This always happens to me after New Years.I love the first couple weeks on Jan. The Home seems silent,clean and so peaceful. Love and hugs Denise
H A P P Y N E W Y E A R ! ! !
Is it any wonder that you are so fanciful with such fancy parents? Both abodes are fabulous and inspiring.
It snowed today here in NY and it FINALLY feels like winter. Yes–snow definitely does make it more holidayish.
Beautiful, just beautiful. Everything, the snow, your decor, your family’s lovely home and the fur babies. Your village is pretty. I didn’t even put mine up this year. I just took down the decorations that sit around on shelves, etc today. Trees have been down.
This time of year makes me want to stay in and make things, read, stay warm. cold here. Last year we had snow in February. Some years we get snow in January and some years no snow at all for us.
And we are taking a real mini vacation soon 🙂
Oh I love snow so much! These pictures are so beautiful! It snowed here just a little bit but it melted soon. Here’s hoping it will snow more!
Wow! Vanessa! Your snow photos are marvelous. I can almost feel the cold coming off the pictures. Your boy dogs seem to be in snow dog heaven.
And your family photos are so scrumptious.
And the fairy tree is out of this world magical! I have always loved the miniature villages. If I could just shrink down to magical fairy size I would do it in a blink of an eye and live in that village!
Your huge living Christmas tree is so gorgeous, with the snow all over everything. Just fabulous!
May you also have a Merry New Years!
Miss Teresa
Dearest Vanessa:
I don’t know what it is about this post, but it left me in tears. I don’t even like winter or snow, but I am feeling something in my heart that I can’t explain. Maybe it’s seeing the photos of Miles and Matty in snow and loving life with a passion. Maybe it’s the black sky against the white of the snow-trees. Whatever it is, thank you. Thank you for lifting my heart and making me remember that life is worth living. Lately, I haven’t felt much like living. But I want to. I want to live. I want to WANT to live.
xoxo
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
Beautiful pictures, Vanessa! Thanks for sharing them. Your parents look like they have a gorgeous home. I see your Mom likes black and white in her decorating. I do, too, and have black and white going on in my living room.
The outside pictures look like a winter wonderland! I wish it would go up to 70 after it snowed here. : ) We woke up to snow yesterday morning and with frigid temps I’m sure the roads are a skating rink today. I’m not looking forward to heading off to work this morning (even though it is only part-time). I may just go in late!
Thank you Vanessa for sharing your wonderful pictures. You have a beautiful life and it is an honour to get a peek into it. You inspire me and make me happy. Wishing you a joyous 2015!
I always love your photos but the ones of the dogs are just the best–they make me smile.
What a delightful, delicious and delovely Christmas! And white, too! Here in Michigan we are getting our winter white and sub-zero windchills now, but Christmas was green and relatively warm. Your snow photos are stunning and I love how happy your dogs look.
Of course, everything is beautiful — it is Christmas, after all, and you are you, with wonderful creativity and style. And I can see from your parents’ home that the decorating gene runs deep!
Happy New Year! I hope it’s wonderful!
Oh magical! You make everything magical. Love it. 🙂
And a bit of snow, for a Seasonal Touch… Even Mother Nature complied…
Thank you for bringing us, your delightful posts.
Gentle hugs,
Tessa~
Desert snow…it doesn’t get much more magical! I’m completely smitten with your fairy tree. Such gorgeous holiday pictures. Happy 2015!
Love your snow pics. It made me cold to look at them even though I am sitting here warm and cozy in my comfy chair. Have a very Happy 2015 and keep up the good work.
Gosh V snow in the desert…lovely indeed! And Miles in the snow…Yes i’d have to say he was in heaven. Here we get cold at night …down in the 30’s at times but the days have been fabulous… up in the 60’s… We’ve been slowly going thru things, packing here and there… Deciding what we want to keep and what we want to get rid of…….Funny what i couldn’t let go of three years ago and HAD to drag to CA with me well now as i’m packing it again i decide i can let it go… Go figure… Things change i guess.. thats one thing we can be certain of.. Hubby can retire in April so thats what we are shooting for..Have the house sold by the end of April… then a long rode trip to Arkansas then finding a new forever home and a husband and wife figuring out how to be in each others company 24/7 and not go bonkers…lol Ch ch changes… thats 2015 for us.. Hugs! deb
Sweetest Vanessa, your pictures always blow me away but these are something out of this world! And I love seeing Matty happy and healthy.
In time for New Year’s Eve the postman brought me a very special package, yes he did 🙂 What a beautiful anklet! Like dark drops of glistening blood against my pale skin. I will have to revisit your shop more often!
Happy New Year, Lady V. I slept through midnight,but it happens when you have an active toddler.Your boys look wonderful playing in the snow. One of my best Christmas presents was a sweet black kitty.She is adorable.
Today, it is bitterly cold and snowing off and on.Winter is shining in all her glory here.
It’s so beautiful and I can’t believe you got snow. That’s magic!
Happy New Year! What a Beautiful Christmas you had… I’m Adoring the Fairy Tree! I keep a Tree up year round now too and decorate it for the different Seasons. Yes, Snow in the Desert was a Special Treat this year in some areas… we didn’t get any in our lower Desert but across town they sure did! It was over eighty degrees again today, so Winter only seemed to stay for a moment… I rather like not knowing what it will be like day to day.
Dawn… The Bohemian
Looking through your eyes that captured such loveliness makes me sigh……<3
Vanessa, you got some AWESOME shots of YOUR ADORABLE boys, your inviting Christmas adventures at Mombies and your MAGICAL snowy days that are now past. All were well worth waiting for! THANK You....<3
LOVE that shot you titled snow skies with the pink hues!!! Simply beautiful!!!
Miles, Matty and you must of had some great winter FUN!!!!
My goodness, you would never guess that was Winter! Your sweet garden looks like something out of Dickens!
I mean you would never guess that was Winter in the DESERT!
OH!! You got snow!! What magic!! And your doggies DID roll about in it!! Tee hee! Hooray! They look like they enjoyed it no end!! What magic it appears with your pretty fairy lights all lit up in the dark, too! Hope your having a splendid end of the week there in your lovely world! Happy 2015!!
Ooh Vanessa, how very beautiful it all is… truly an enchanted desert you call home… and I love seeing your furbabies at play in the snow!… Tessy loves it too, and she actually leaps in it like a little deer (which come to visit us and eat apples we put out for them in our back yard every night)… our weather has gone from snow and 75mph winds to sunny and warm now… 50 degrees today and my thoughts are of Spring… so happy you had a wonderful time with your family… nothing better in life than sharing it with those we love… your fairy tree is just gorgeous too… and I love what you posted about being young at heart… I will never be old, no matter what the years may say… as that ten year old little Julie Marie lives forever in my heart… and comes out often to play… much love to you, xoxo Julie Marie PS loving all of your stunning instagram photos too… xoxo…
Love love love those puppies! Always so happy to see Miles and Matty in your posts. What lucky dogs they are!
It’s all so very beautiful. I love all of your decor.
Here in Michigan we are experiencing a frozen tundra. it was 3 above zero (F) with a wind chill of -10. Today schools were shut down and a few business also. The best thing to do is sit back and be cozy and warm.
Your furry ones are so wonderful. I’m glad that they enjoy the cold.
Thank you for sharing.
It actually snowed in town too! I was out at La Encantada for New Years Eve and it snowed for quite a while. It didn’t stick like at your house, but it was still so exciting to see!!! Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Magickal Lady Of Magickalness!!! -xo
Beautiful photos Vanessa! The snow covered desert plants looks amazing, it’s the combination with the green and the snow perhaps.
We have a snowstorm blowing outdoors right now wich actually fills me with joy because we didn’t have much snow until now. I hope to go skiing during the sports holidays. Yes the schools in Sweden have a week long holiday called sports holiday. Kids are supposed to spend time outdoors doing wintersports.
I do love the snow pictures…well, all of the pictures actually 🙂 but particularly the snow. Here in the South…hardly ever any snow.
Thank you for sharing them.
With the start of the new year I’ve put on my mountain boots to scale the Mount Everest of duties lying ahead of me. I’m so tempted to just pull the blanket over my head and go back to sleep. Instead I sigh and buckle down to work… Christmas went by so fast. Now I’m packing away the decoration except for my pair of angel wings which I always keep within eyeshot. Whenever I gance at them, they remind me of all those secret paths that lead to the uplifting world of imagination, the kingdom of fairy tales, the dense forests of adventures and the castle of a thousand symbols… What an exciting place that world is, filled to the brim with magic and wonder. And how strangely it mirrors reality. Everything is in it: the perils, the fight, victories gained, virtues rewarded, life and death. In the end, it doesn’t really matter where reality ends and fancy begins. Both worlds are intertwined and just two sides of the same coin. That’s what I like so much about your blog: you capture the magic of both worlds, and then placing it in the palm of your hand, as if it were pixie dust, you blow us a kiss.
Wishing you an enchanting, gorgeous New Year, dear Vanessa, with loads of fun, amazing discoveries and experiences, and may you stumble upon many a treasure in the promising months to come.
Thanks for sharing your lovely photos. Can you tell me where you got the greenery you used over your mirror in the second photo? If you say Crown Imports I’ll cry! I lived in Phoenix before moving to Colorado and was so sad to find out that wonderful silk floral outlet had closed last year. I’m always in the market for realistic looking silk greenery…yes, even in the land of the evergreens!
Gorgeous pictures–both of the inside and out! Love seeing your pups enjoying the snow. Your mom’s decorating is beyond magical! I LOVE the Bohemian fairy tree!
It is pouring down rain while I type and it’s kinda chilly so I’m looking at your pictures and pretending THAT’S WHAT’S OUTSIDE. Hah! Soooooo beautiful! and the fur pups are so cute, rolling around and doing winter yoga (or poo-lah-tees har har). I loved loved loved peeking inside all of Wolf boy’s client’s houses and how they were decorated for the holidays during the season. Everyone does something different –there were beach themes and flamingo themes and world customs themes….so cool! I can’t imagine decorating every square inch of my house and then leaving two weeks out of December!! There was this one woman who worried her cats would be sad that they weren’t included in family Christmas festivities in Aspen (poor kitties had to stay home)…so she had us go by her house EVERY NIGHT and plug up the tree and sing carols to the cats! It was crazy, crazy I tell ya!
But we did it.
ANYHOO either one of those dreamy trees could be a Mad Hatter extravaganza within itself…as a matter of fact, are you sure he wasn’t there?
🙂
xoxoxviiixoxox
Stunning pictures of desert snow! Wow! And how cute is your fur baby loving the snow! xo Jen
What a gift of a post! So much delight! Powdered sugar snow, indeed! And oh, the snow boys. My favorite part (of course). Matty looks beautiful against the white — so regal. And then there’s Miles. That Miles. He is a snow dog through and through. The shot of his nose buried in the snow — and THEN . . . the “yoga” pose. Oh my. I think he needed a moment to himself there, haha!!! I laughed out loud. Reminds me of some of the positions our Baby Belle kitty gets into. They have no problem showin’ their bodies, do they?! And we love it, of course. I’m so glad you had such a merry time with your family. I remember some of these photos from Instagram, but it was great to see so many more here. And I love the little angel you made your mama! We call my mama “Mama Angel”, so I found that to be extra sweet. I bet your “mombie” adored her! Thank you for such lovely images and musings. 🙂