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White Zombie is playing, I’ve had turkey leftovers TWICE today, we survived Breaking Dawn (with a little help from our friends at Knob Creek), and I’ve had approximately 8 billion cups of steaming hot Gypsy Cold Care tea to keep nursing this blasted cold. This morning, M & I waved goodbye to her family, who’ve been staying with us for the past few days for Thanksgiving festivities and a wee bit of San Francisco sightseeing. It was a really, really wonderful holiday!

These photos are from Thanksgiving at my mama’s house, hooray! Isn’t this bright red tree kind of awesome? On the drive up, despite a wee bit of rain, we kept noticing a ton of autumn colors in the landscape – deep reds, fiery oranges and deep gold-yellows – that I’d never really noticed before this time of year.

While M’s mama had already met my family at Christmas last year, this was the first time for my sister-in-law’s family, as well as M’s (delightfully) wily grandma. Everyone got along so well, and everything was beautiful, from my mom’s table settings to the incredible spread to our tasty cocktails and the happy, cozy mood throughout the evening.

Of course, it wouldn’t be my mama’s Hallmark holiday without a little arts ‘n crafts, so the minute the girls had a nibble or two, my mom put them to work on a secret project. They cut out all kinds of leaves from appropriately colored construction paper, and went around to all the guests, handing each a pen and their own leaf. We were to write what we were thankful for and give them back to the girls, who very carefully glued the leaves onto big leaf-y paper plates.

When we gathered ’round for dinner, the girls read all the leaves aloud, and it was adorable. Almost every single person had written about how thankful they were for family and then, for the first time ever, there were two versions of grace: one in English and one in Spanish! Total bilingual Thanksgiving! Rad!

Let’s talk about this outfit. The Karen Walker dress is all kinds of precious, and 100% wool (so that sucker got real warm whenever I was near the fire or in the kitchen). I love the oversized plaid and buttons and whatnot, paired with these plain black tights and my riding boots, it was just such an easy, festive combo. I had my Sparkle & Fade cardigan and a handmade scarf from M’s mama to keep me warm outside. The latter is chenille and the brightest chartreuse shade, I love it! Wait until you see the one she made for M, it matches my dress perfectly.

I hope wherever you, and however you chose to celebrate on Thursday, with friends or family or both, that it was wonderful!

XOXO,

FFAF

CONFESSION: Today marked a very important day in our new San Francisco life. (We just realized that we recently breezed past our six-month anniversary living here! Good heavens, that went by ultra-fast.) After a cursory search on yelp.com, we selected a barber shop for M. It’s been that long since she’s had a haircut! She adored her lady in Oakland’s Rockridge ‘hood, and was skeptical about whether or not she could be replaced without paying dues in the way of a bad cut, obnoxious stylists or an overpriced hipster salon. She’d been growing it out per my request, but it wasn’t cut in a way that was meant to be grown out, per se, so she’s starting from scratch. What sold us on this particular barber were the following reviews:

• No gabbing! No chit-chat! No small talk! If you want a hug and some hippie tea, one reviewer hissed, go somewhere else. It’s straight to business here, and that is rad.
• Plenty of gay porn to peruse while you’re waiting! Well, Christ. Do I even need to keep listing reasons?
• Not only have they been in the Castro for 20+ years, they have a 4+ star rating. Word.

So at 1PM today, M got a crazy fast, efficient, and very serious and handsome haircut in a barbershop where the classic barber pole’s stripes are made of bandannas and rainbow flags adorn the walls, and yes, I admired some gay porn while she was in the chair. It was superior to any of ours and I suppose I should have snagged one. Drats! (I’m kidding. Stealing is bad.) You’re going to have to wait to see her new ‘do, but to amuse you in the interim, here was her inspiration (ignore Jake G.’s dopey mug, please):

PS. If any tomboys have tips on how to train a part into hair, please let us know in the comments! M is also on the hunt for a new product or two for this type of style – she doesn’t think her American Crew pomade is going to cut it anymore, and I’m trying to get her to try my Jonathan Dirt Texturizing Paste, but the more options, the better. Thanks, yo.

CONFESSION: My mama’s vintage scarf again. I love it anew. I know y’all have seen this same GD LBD 84,000 times before, but not this epic wool pea coat from DKNY, all sharp and boxy. I like it a lot paired with the shoes. We had to dress up for a tea dance with friends last Saturday and I just wanted to be warm and comfortable without that meaning jeans, etc. I hope y’all are making do on the Monday back after a long and lovely holiday weekend: I’m happy to report that I scored 5 tops and 2 skirts for…let’s see, appx. $15 at the thrift store. Best picks are a Kensie sweater in a perfect shade of asparagus green ($2.50), a NWT drape-y, vintage tank in cobalt blue lamé ($1.50) and a floral print corduroy Esprit miniskirt ($4). It will be tempting to wear them all at once!