dashing through the...

...MUD? yepper, that's what we did, on a quest for the perfect christmas tree! it rained here yesterday. it rained a lot. and here's a little known fact about christmas trees: they grow in dirt! so what happens to dirt when it rains? uh-huh. let's just say that today, there's a little less mud at the peterson farm in cherryville, new jersey, thanks to the copious amounts we carried home on our boots, jeans, tires, etc. the crazy thing, however, is that we managed to be out and about in pretty much the only hour of yesterday during which it not actively POURING. so whilst we were muddy, we were not soaking wet and chilled to the bone. which was nice. how do you swing something like that? well, it's 99% luck, but for the other 1%, it helps to marry someone who's addicted to the weather channel, who will spend several days beforehand glued to radar forecasts and somehow determine that there's going to be a little break in the... something impressively scientific-sounding... and thus we need to get ready and go NOW. so we did. and we found the perfect trees. yes, trees, plural; we got two. it's a long story. :) :) :)

dd06: peterson tree farm

one of the best parts of collecting vintage paper is that whilst making things like christmas ephemera packs and holiday journals, you are sorting through LOTS of lovely xmassy bits and it's possible to nab some of the best ones and save them for yourself! :) that's what i did with this beautiful page from an ideals magazine, which really does look quite a lot like the farm belonging to jeff's godfather, whence we get our tree each year. for the words, i experimented with a few different types of journaling card, but they covered up way too much of the illustration, so i chose to type right onto the top section of the barn. i cropped my photo-shopped photo of rain-soaked evergreens pretty tightly too... for exactly the same reason. thickers and dymo label made a nice strong title and i called it a day.

last year's view of uncle john's farm; quite a bit sunnier than it was yesterday! 

speaking of days, i hope yours is already delightful, but if not, there's still time to whip it into shape! we're hoping to put some lights and things on the trees we acquired, which should make it quite a bit more festive around here. ciao, darlings! ♥