winter solstice

It’s official: winter is here and Christmas is almost upon us! And believe it or not, I’ve watched almost all of my favorite Christmas movies, and I’m done making gifts. Done making gifts before the last hours of Christmas Eve, truly a miracle.

Under our tree is looking full this year, and the tree itself has a total of five strands of Christmas lights wrapped around it. At night it absolutely glows, and Dad has said on multiple occasions that it looks like it belongs in a movie.

I’m working on using every last day to post Christmas content on my YouTube page, because this seasonal aesthetic must be taken full advantage of!

My newest side-quest was making a Christmas wreath crown (the Christmas version of my autumn crown from last year) for some festive photos.

I can’t tell if I was channeling a winter-solstice-witch vibe…or just the Ghost of Christmas Present. But the wreath consists of balsam fir, holly, and multiflora rose hips, all handsewn to a burlap + pipe cleaner base and topped off with a few cute pinecones.

Yes, handsewn.

I was dedicated.

I had a vision

The day that I went out to harvest my materials, I was walking on the path behind our house and stopped when I saw a giant bird take off from a tree directly in front of me and land in a tree a short distance to my left.

We’ve had a pair of red-shouldered hawks take up residence in our yard the last month or two, and seeing them perch in the trees right outside our windows has become almost a daily occurrence.

So obviously I looked at the bird 100% expecting to see one of our giant hawks, only to discover that it didn’t appear to have a head.

I thrifted this dress from ThredUp and was excited to wear it to the extended-family pre-Christmas gathering, but unfortunately the get-together was canceled due to covid threatening to derail everyone’s Christmas plans (honestly I’m impressed that it took this long for covid to throw a wrench in one of our holiday gatherings)

That’s when I realized it was our elusive owl friend, and it was confirmed when he turned his head to stare straight at me. I was absolutely furious that I had left my phone in the house (especially since I had thought to myself you should bring your phone with you in case you see something cool right before I went outside), because he sat perched there for a few whole minutes while I talked to him and got to fully enjoy the realization that it was a special bird sighting.

After the owl flew off into the tall pines, the aforementioned red-shouldered hawk took a seat in the tree above me and started calling insistently from the tallest branches while I cut rose hips off the thorny bush.

It all felt a bit meaningful, but I haven’t been able to decode the message.

So anyways, this crown was blessed by an owl and a hawk.

I only realized later that that was the second time I’d seen that owl recently, because last month he flew right in front of me when I went out to collect Mary Todd from the barn after dark.

And yes, Mary Todd is back to spending every night inside with us, and she’s happier than ever. If you don’t follow my YouTube (shame on you), I recently made a clay Christmas ornament with her little dinosaur footprint, which you can watch here, because she’s a cutie patootie.

In other news, if you haven’t notice, I chopped off half my hair.

Okay, not quite half, but nine or ten inches is gone.

I was getting tired of my thin ends (and not being able to roll over in bed without laying on it), and since my hair was almost down to my waist, it was losing a lot of its curls and volume. I’m hoping that taking this much weight off will help bring some life back into it, although I’m still grateful to have the option of sock curls for any day where I need to help it find its curl pattern (like for this photo series).

I’m also grateful that I took these photos when I did, because the very next day I promptly smacked my head into the wall of the barn.

Because apparently that’s a thing you can do.

The only reason I don’t currently have a giant blue bruise on my forehead is because I immediately came inside and applied helichrysum essential oil to the wound, but I do have a nice little cut and a sore forehead. C’est la vie.

And now I’m off to pin all of these photos to my Pinterest boards in the hopes that I will one day be a true Pinterest girlie and inspire my fellow humans to hand-sew a Christmas crown and get blessed by an owl

Merry Christmas!