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I don’t know about y’all, but I am ready for the next 4-day weekend. Scratch that, I’m ready for two weeks paid vacation! If only the TSA weren’t imposing such senseless, intrusive new rules and regulations on travelers. Perhaps it’s time to take the plunge into icy ocean waters for a leisurely cruise!

I trust that everyone had a (mostly) sane, relaxing, lovely holiday. We sure did! It was full of family and friends, thrifting and DIY projects around the house, and lazy mornings in bed, or hours spent stretched out by crackling fire with eggnog or my delicious new spiced pear and ginger cocktails. I baked a pumpkin cheesecake from scratch, we still have a whole sweet potato pie needs eatin’ in the fridge that my Grandma made, and an adorable gingerbread house kit is waiting for all the piles of cookies and whatnot to die down in the kitchen!

Lord have mercy, will someone please come on over and help us eat it all!?

See that great big, blue sky?
See all that pretty, pretty green?
See how my hair shines?

Just kidding on that last bit. This little meadow lies just next to the tennis courts where we live. Although we have our rackets and our balls (my racket is a vintage Fred Perry number and all kinds of gorgeous), we haven’t been able to play yet – we’re either busy as bees or the rain’s kept us away. Soon. Soon! These photos were taken on Thanksgiving morning, on our way to my grandmother’s house.

TRUE FACT: After hurling myself at this tree in heels not once but twice in an attempt to hoist myself up there (and failing quite spectacularly), M finally stopped laughing long enough to give me a boost. Bless her heart.

A few things about this outfit. THE GLOVES are Cole Haan, and they’re giving my collection of cheeky knit fingerless gloves a complex. The leather is terribly soft and fragrant, I adore the brown on black and gold equestrian detail, and they fit me like a dream. THE SHOES are Adrienne Vittadini, and I fell in love with them immediately. The black leather ruffle trim gives the right amount of vamp to the sweet grosgrain ribbon-esque upper. THE DRESS is I don’t even know what, but I got it new on ebay.com because it was too darling to pass up. Y’all have seen this necklace before, as well as this amazing coat by Tulle!

I have announcements. Ready? OK, good.

Have you heard of a hot queer band called Hold Me Luke Allen?

WHAT, ARE YOU NUTS?!?

They are super rad.

I first heard them play at Bring Yr Own Queer in Golden Gate Park, and even though it was raining all over this band and their fancy equipment and they all risked death by sopping wet soaking electrocution, they impressed the hell out of me. I can’t wait to hear them indoors, where it’s nice and dry and I can dance a lot without worrying about putting my eye out with my umbrella. Anyway, y’all should check them out next Monday when they play in San Francisco at the Elbo Room with other queer bands.

Here are the details, and I hope you can make it!

Monday, December 6th
Elbo Room || 647 Valencia
Quiet Coyote || Hold Me Luke Allen || Story of Slim
9pm || $6 || 21+

Next announcement: Sneak peek! If you liked this Thanksgiving Day post, you are going to LOVE Part II: Tomboy Times. M’s holiday outfit was pretty outstanding, so try and be patient and I’ll get it up ASAP.

Last announcement: THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS. Femmes, if you have ever wanted to become a paper doll, here is your chance. The incredible Afrotitty (pictured above in an incredible photo by Shameless) is creating a femme paperdoll zine and wants to “immortalize you and your style in all of your femme-gendered fabulousity” – can you even imagine anything better?!?!

The deadline is Valentine’s Day 2011, so get on it and don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.

FEMME PAPERDOLL ZINE TEA PARTY IN APRIL 2011!!!

XOXO,
FFAF

I believe I’ve mentioned it before, but tule fog is unique to these here parts this time of year:

“Tule fog (pronounced /?tu?li?/) is a thick ground fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of California‘s Great Central Valley. Tule fog forms during the late fall and winter (California’s rainy season) after the first significant rainfall. The official time frame for tule fog to form is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the tule grass wetlands (tulares) of the Central Valley. Accidents caused by the tule fog are the leading cause of weather-related casualties in California.” (Wikipedia)

Aside from reminding folks to exercise caution whilst driving about in the fog, it’s also a cue to start bundling up in earnest! It makes me especially glad to have this brand new wool coat from Tulle. It’s my third coat from them – I have a snazzy pink one and another soft robin’s egg blue brocade – and the shiny black faux fur collar it came with is detachable, so you can play around and swap it out for any vintage numbers you have in your closet.

I am so into this shade of green right now that we just bought a new sofa that matches it. Our other sofa (a sleeper that’s seen many of our lovely houseguests) is more of a split pea soup green, and I am giddy about seeing how the two play off each other when the new one arrives later this week!

Here’s a sneak peek:

If you’re anything like me, it doesn’t matter how many coats are in your closet, how well-loved or made, each winter a new one begs to be added to your wardrobe. I surprised M by my intense recollection of a supple, buttery camel coat I tried on in 2005. It had a fur collar and was Narciso Rodriguez.

If you need a little inspiration, here are some of my current favorites (also from Tulle!) below:

I love the colors that pop and the bold patterns that say absolutely anything but humdrum wintry hues.

Let’s move on. Welcome to the little sitting nook in our new bedroom. Antique silver trays carry pretty bottles of perfume, while a miniature birdbath carries tiny, precious vials of obscure, hard to find fragrance. A tiny silk pillow filled with lavender says DREAM. The branches hold baubles and a birdcage whose sole purpose is to provide whimsy sits atop the vintage table. Atop a single pillar sits an Archipelago Botanicals candle in Havana (it’s our favorite, smelling gently of handsome tobacco).

I cut up our old Ikea duvet to use as this toile tablecloth, and a pen, notecards and matches in a beautifully ornate little box are tucked safely away in the hidden drawer. I can’t wait to put some art up on the facing walls! It’s a perfectly serene and cozy little nook.

Boots + Fur Collar: Vintage
Tights: Gap
Raw Silk Tunic: Banana Republic
Long Black Vest: Calvin Klein
Coat: Tulle

I love this song by Rufus Wainwright. It’s beautiful. It takes a few listens to full bloom, so to speak. My favorite line is I have suffered shipwreck against your dark brown eyes. So gorgeous. So true.

Here at the homestead we are eagerly awaiting a lovely guest, who arrives today and stays with us for a few days. Of course, I decided it would be a good time to clean my room (my side of the room, rather) and will somebody please explain to me why I can’t get through a single square foot without discovering 84,000 abandoned projects?

Exhibit A: At last I found my seam ripper and attacked a few tentative repurposing prospects that had accumulated into a dusty pile in the corner (all but one went straight into the trash). In addition to the abandoned projects, there’s a kind of freaky domino effect that overtakes me and I’ll also decide it’s a fine time to begin a new project.

Exhibit B: For instance, the drill battery has been charging because WHERE WILL I HANG ALL OF MY FUR STOLES? (the surface of the dresser cannot be properly cleared until there is a place to put them, obviously). I remembered the awesome panel of hooks that M brought home from Target months ago and thought, if I just move my scarves from where they are hanging (the awesome silver antler hooks) to the new one (which is why the drill is charging), I can relocate my fur stoles and collars to the old one. Genius! It’s perfect! It’s ridiculous. I am ridiculous, but I suppose I get brownie points for enthusiasm and innovation.

Exhibit C: On the upside, I somehow posted and sold three pieces of furniture doing nothing but taking up room and collecting dust on Craigslist in under four hours. That’s kind of a record. Good riddance to stuff I don’t need and have no use for!

On that note, I must return to the above-mentioned tasks. It’s exciting! I’m still basking in the glow of the co-tomboy post from yesterday, though. So many new readers! So much love via tweets! Dreamy, dreamy, dreamy.

TOMBOY CONFESSION: M has said that her confession would only wax poetic about ham or sweet potato pie or my deliciously festive sparkling Cosmopolitan cocktails from Christmas, so I guess I’ll say a few words in her stead. We are both VERY excited about the gun rack my brother and his girlfriend so thoughtfully gave us for Christmas. She keeps fussing with her hair, y’all, saying it’s already gotten too long, despite the fact that it’s only been three weeks since she had it cut. Tomboys!

A bit about this blazer: M found it without much ado at our favorite neighborhood thrift store, for five gay bucks and in pristine condition. Turns out it’s from a little place in San Francisco that’s been in business for over 35 years, The Hound Shop. The embroidered label on the inside says “Tailored for the Montgomery Street Man” and has a great hound in the center – it’s really fantastic. She did a dapper job pairing it with this vintage striped, flat-bottom tie I got her two Christmases ago, I think.

FEMME CONFESSION: I really, really, really love this dress! Another epic thrift store find – it must have been somewhere between $3-$5, tops. From the fluttery little sleeves to the deep pinks and reds to the cut and wearability – it’s almost perfect. I have to try it in some va-va-voom heels and decide whether or not the hem needs to come up a couple of inches. I tossed the beret on as an afterthought on our way out of the door and it really made the buttoned-up look (though the weather was so agreeable, I didn’t need the coat at all).

Long story short, it was a very brilliant Christmas – cozy and raucous and abundant in the best ways – with a very full house, wonderful surprises, lots of incredible food and loved ones. My mother had several silly games with awesome prizes for us to play, including a 2-page, multiple choice Christmas trivia quiz in red and green ink that had us all in stitches (M had the lowest score of everyone, even the foreigners – it was hilarious). Nearly everyone teared up when I opened my mom’s gift to me – several sets of my beloved Grandma’s gorgeous vintage jewelry – I was astonished! Amazed and so, so touched.

Some festive Christmas pics below:

A NOTE FROM SKINNY: Greetings, FFAF readers! It’s a very exciting day, because I’m posting the very first ever guest FFAF post from a dear, dear friend, the lovely Kelly Alice. One of the things she loves to do is sit in bed at night and catch up on all of her favorite fashion magazines or blogs, until she’s sleepy enough to retire. The other night, she told me recently, she’d drifted off and her sweet and lovin’ tomboy came to bed, and in her sleep she said, “I want to start a fashion blog.” “Oh, yeah?” said her tomboy, Fancy Pants, “Who will be in it?” “Me and my friends!” Kelly Alice replied, and vanished back into dreamland.

Of course, Kelly Alice doesn’t remember this at all (I never remember the things I say in my sleep, either, but M sure does!), but she DOES remember waking up determined to whip up a FFAF-esque post, which she sent to me right away!

This is her awesome post. I’m sure you’ll all welcome her warmly and find her to be just as smart and kind and adorable as M & I do! Enjoy!

KA’s CONFESSION: I know that I wear the same things/styles over and over again and could never justify a style blog, but I do love them so (especially FFAF)!  Just for fun though, I did a little photo spread for you from this morning. I now realize how much work goes into your blog. I didn’t have the time to take many shots, then I had to download them from the camera, and then edit the photos…phew, I’m tired just typing all this! How do you muster up the time and energy to do this every day? I salute you! Maybe one day I’ll create a blog that incorporates all the things I love (food, fashion, travel, the damn cats). Who knows, maybe it will be fun!

I hope you’re enjoying your little west coast cold snap!  I have to be honest, it becomes very hard to stay fashionable when it gets truly cold here in Boston (the kind of cold that makes it hard to breathe!). Here are some of my winter weather femme fashion tips:

• buy boots in half a size bigger; wear warm wooly socks tucked inside when wearing dresses and skirts
• use MAC Prep + Prime to keep make-up in place after tucking on hats and wrapping around scarves all day
• wear silk long underwear under clothing – it makes a world of difference, feels so nice against the skin, and is so smooth you can barely notice the extra layer (especially under office clothing!)
• when expecting to be outside for longer periods, put disposable hand warmers (found at sporting goods stores) in shoes, gloves, or on the nape of your neck

Also, I know you can hardly see it at all in the photos, but my latest eyeshadow obsession is MAC’s Vex.  I have been wearing it every. single. day. for weeks since I’ve bought it!

(Skinny here again: I hope KA does start her own blog one of these days, and in the meantime she can guest post here as often as she likes! Also, she is maker of the amazing almond marshmallows and awesome mix CDs! Here is the video for my maybe-favorite on her November mix. It’s way fun and happy and sexy.)

CONFESSION: Record low temps in the Bay Area mean epic layers for this femme. You get creative. This morning I used the snow scraper we bought up in Tahoe earlier this year to get all of the ice off of my windshield, and while it worked like a charm, I felt a little bit sheepish. Like a crummy rookie. I mean, normally you curse while you grab a credit card or library card or something out of your wallet to get the morning freeze off, and there I was making a big old ruckus with my fancy scraper at 7:30AM, with my petite rolling her eyes at me from the backseat. You know what she got for giving me guff? I picked her up with a 5-hour-old head of Lush henna piled under an old scarf, that’s what. How do you like them apples?

OH, GOD. I’VE TURNED INTO MY TOUGH-AS-NAILS, NO-NONSENSE GERMAN GRANDMOTHER.

On second thought, that’s kind of awesome. Carry on! Stay warm! Send snowy femme photos!

PS. These are the thrifted Bandolino boots, fetched for a wee $16 at Buffalo Exchange, that I tried to patch up with Gorilla Glue. You can’t tell, can you? They are such a supple, pretty, deep and warm brown, I can’t bear to part with them.

PPS. 3′ of fresh snow at Heavenly, my sneaky little email tells me. Is it that time again, already? Let’s go!

CONFESSION: I suspect that this could be the very first time I’ve added actual COLOR to this dress. How foolish! Now I can’t wait to pair it with a yellow belt or a bright red coat. I had a stroke of genius and took this cameo ring – which is much too big for my skinny little fingers and which belongs to M (it’s too big for her, too – little know fact: our fingers are the same size, give or take half a size…that sounds pervy, I guess, for a lesbian blog, but I meant it in terms of pretty little baubles) – and just looped the scarf ends through twice to secure it snugly. Now when I’m thrifting or antique shopping and find a ring I’ve fallen in love with but am too tiny for, I’ll buy it anyway, because I really love this look.

Two nice things from today:

1. After a work meeting and some errands, I popped into Noe Valley and treated myself to a nice Italian lunch. I woke up in a bit of a funk this morning, and it went away almost instantly over a giant plate of creamy fettucine alfredo, garlic bread, a single glass of champagne and a good book.
2. Success regarding workout clothing at Nordstrom Rack today: A cozy new Reebok track suit thingee in a nice, rich shade of charcoal that didn’t break my bank (nothing sparkly or vulgar scrawled across the ass! nothing so absurdly tight that panty lines would show even if I went without panties at all! nothing in a shitty, fug print!) and three baby t-shirts and a tank top for appx. $6 each! HAWT. I will admit, however, to buying dark grey eyeliner. For all my strength, a gleaming ribbon of weakness.

Before I say good night, thanks to all the folks who offered words of wisdom regarding workout clothes here or elsewhere! Y’all are rad. XO!