Home Sweet Home

I think my life-long lack of a real home has made me into this person who obsesses over home furnishings. I really can't wait to have a home of my own to decorate and be comfortable in. I want to travel and I'm rather nomadic at heart but I also want to have a place to come back to. My life-dream involves traveling all over the world as an anthropologist and I have always been uncomfortable in the houses I've lived in. I suppose it was probably more the living situation in all of those places than the houses themselves, but it's not like the houses were all that comfy anyway. But I want to have a home for the times that I'm not dragging my family all over the globe with me. It's going to be in the Northwest, I can tell you that. I've never lived out of the Northwest mountains and I don't want to. No matter how far I go, it's definitely home for me. So the point of this post is to show y'all how much I love Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and The Trouble With Trolls by Jan Brett.

Wait. What?
Trust me, it has everything to do with my future home decor.

I love Jan Brett's illustrations. Her books are always set in these beautiful wintry Scandinavian places. This book specifically is set in Norway. And the little girl in the book reminds me of my cousin, Lily. Not that Lily's little anymore- she's in highschool now!! How crazy is that!? But she's pretty and blonde and I have every confidence that she could outsmart a bunch of trolls to save her dog.

I love the clothes in this book, too. I want to dress like that in the cold north Idaho winter. People seem to think that Canada has really cold winters. If you want to experience a Canada-like winter without the out-of-country hassle, head on up to North Idaho! But don't move here, we're trying to discourage too much growth. I guess we're all still rather into the old frontier feel of Idaho and we aren't quite willing to give it up. Of course, I'm from Northern California, so... Sandpoint has a winter festival every year, I actually haven't been yet.

There's an Elk ranch up here, too. They're so very pretty in the snow.

But be sure to pack your mittens! Oh... mittens... So toasty. Can you tell I was cold today? Actually, it's not very cold yet this year, but it was windy! And my friend got snow at her house in the mountains Friday night.

To be honest, I only like snow in December. I wish it would stay confined to that month. But lots of it for Yule! Anyhoo, I want some pretty carved wood like the seven dwarves had in their cottage.

Pretty, pretty.

Thankfully, there's a whole buncha lotta folksy stuff at thrift stores and flea markets 'round these parts. When was everyone so into this stuff??
Have a good winter, everybody! Enjoy the snow and sweaters, but be careful not to freeze your buns off!
Love,
Belle

Gallant and Jubilant Inspiration!

I know: adorable, right? I love her Nordic-prairie-orphan style... (all the pictures until the first etsy socks are straight from prettysmartgirlart.blogspot.com [the object of my current obsession and adoration])
The above outfit was inspired by a documentary on the Roma! You may have noticed it on my Roma (Gypsy) style post. I stuck it on that post.
This is gorgeous! The fabrics are so pretty.

Lots of fair isle here... and I am unbelievably obsessed with fair isle.


The socks in the above picture are available on etsy. Just click on the picture, it's linked to etsy.
Same deal with these socks. Etsy.
Once again, etsy socks.
Feather earrings from... you guessed it! Etsy!
i wonder where this scarf is from...
This is such a brilliant picture. I adore everything about it. Her hair color is so beautiful!
Etsy!!!!!!
No way! Etsy again!!!!
Make it stop!!!!!!! It's all from Etsy!!!!!!
Holy crap!! This one isn't from etsy!
Neither is this!
Not etsy... another go to site for me: delias. Sadly I just learned that this is no longer available for purchase. Which is depressing because I really wanted it.
These boots are awesome and they had better be on my feet by February 27th! (That's my birthday) They look vintage... but sadly they are not. Alas my huge feet will rarely ever fit in vintage shoes! this is a cause of much depression for me.

I discovered that the blog prettysmartgirlart.blogspot.com is the greatest thing since sliced bread and am now following it devoutly. The lovely lady who is the blog's author always wears frocks and wonderful boots and gunne sax dresses and I just adore her clothes! I find myself inspired (fashionably) by posts on other blogs often enough but never before have I been inspired by the author herself! But after looking over her old posts I felt incredibly inspired! I was already obsessing over gunne sax dresses before I read this blog, but after I checked out her beautiful outfit pictures I exclaimed: "Aaahhhh! That truly is quite cute." Actually no I didn't; I just searched Etsy and begged my mommy to dig out her old gunne sax dress for me to try on. But alas! Her dress is in storage! Curse you.... gods of... storage...? Sadly, I couldn't find anyone to curse for that. Anyway... So, strangely enough, I am going to write a blog post inspired by a blog post. Well, inspired by a fashion blogger...
Love,
Belle