We Wish You a Merry Christmas

It's that time of year again: Christmas time!
Thanksgiving, Black Friday, AND Cyber Monday have all come and gone
My marching band had our last performance (a Christmas parade), I've had my yearly tree-decorating party (my family has a 12-foot artificial tree so decorating takes more than just the 4 of us), and midterm madness has begun.
Among it all, parents, friends, and family search and squander the shops for the perfect gifts. I decided to make life easier for the aforesaid people by putting all of my wants and needs in PowerPoint format. For others, i decided to DIY gifts and make the world a more preppy place. The boys are getting custom bow ties and the girls will get cute skater skirts or hair-bows sewed by yours truly.
Apart from the commercial aspects, I think the best part of Christmas is the electricity that runs through the air. Think back to your school days: remember the last day before winter break? There's this sort of exciting tension felt by student and teacher alike. Our last day was Friday, so now the excitement is reaching an all time high (only 1 more advent calender space to open!!). My family and I are day-tripping in New York City today with some close friends and getting into the spirit for the next few days. Tomorrow will be a day to go to church and watch the polar express (we only watch it once a year: on Christmas eve), then forget about sleeping; I may be 15, but i still get jitters on Christmas eve, wondering about what awaits me in the morning. Then of course, we come to Christmas day: My dad's insane train garden, presents, stockings, family, laughter, happiness, ham, and more family. I'm super excited for it to come, but, at the same time, i don't want it to ever end. New Year's is nice, but the amazing feeling accompanying Christmas cannot be beat. What are some of your favorite traditions?

A blurry photo of the lovely tree-trimming I hosted

Bear during the first snow of the season

Poinsettias in my family room (mantel in the background)

The mantel, one of our trees, the stockings, and the nativity

Pucker up ;)

MY stocking

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Some New York trip pictures:

me with the big tree...ignore the hiking boots: it was raining all day

The Plaza hotel...the hot cocoa here is TOP notch

trump tower

A Henri Bendel window display featuring none other than Audrey

lots of umbrellas and lots of people

Cartier

the plaza tree

Wishing you and your family the merriest of Christmas' this year,
Hannah, Anastasia, and Marin (even though she celebrates Hanukkah)

A Formal Introduction

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a fun, relaxing weekend. Sadly, the fun will end because tomorrow is Monday wah, wah, wah. But hey, we not can look forward to Friday!! Wohoo!

Lately, Hannah, Sky, and I have been discussing some long-term goals and plans for Twirl. Soon we hope to have a full about page on all three of us, a custom blog background, and further interaction with you guys, you followers... These are long- term so no sudden changes. But, in preparation for this I've decided to rid myself of a "cover-up" name, Amour, and formally introduce myself as... Anastasia. That's all 9 letters, 4 a's, and no fancy accent- just Anastasia. Along with this, I wanted to share a little bit about myself with you guys. These are quirky little snippets of my life and personality. Feel free to share something about yourself in the comments below:)

 Favorite Ice Cream:

Place I want to Go:

Rome- Italy in general

Favorite Artist(s):

The Black Keys

Florence and the Machine 

...and too many more to list... I listen to a LOT of music...

My Type of Humor:

Gotta love puns..
.

Favorite print: 

I love geometric and colorful designs on any canvas (via this awesome artist)

All Time Favorite Book: 

The Fault in Our Stars by the most talented and brilliant author, John Green. I LOVE ALL his books but this one just hits that one spot in your heart and it just won't ever move. Such feels.

Favorite Movie:

Despicable Me = Perfection

Favorite App:

Wattpad- all the books I could ever ask for

Favorite Article of Clothing

Sundresses:)

Yep so those are a few little things about myself. I'm a very open person so I very try to limit myself to many things but I do have some must- haves. Have a great week :)

xoxo,

Anastasia

Victorian

It's been a while since I did an outfit post, no?

{Sweater-unknown, Jeans-american eagle, Flats-land's end, Jewels-vintage}

This outfit was not only conveniently cozy for a snow day, but reminded me greatly of the Victorian era. High necks, cameo pin and earrings, but i think my wearing jeans is the end to the similarities. The cameos entered my wardrobe a few years ago from a cape cod flea market and never got any use. I love the beautiful intricacy of the elegant faces carved into such a small space giving so much decoration and delicacy in such a small space. This outfit is pulled together not by the matchiness of the sweater and shoes, but the sparse accessories and that's how my style has been lately: less is more
xoxo
Hannah
PS, sorry for no gift guides, i'm awful at giving gifts and most of the gifts that i will be giving will be coming from my sewing machine (don't tell anastasia and marin!)

Splurge, Spend, Save

Hunters/ Joules / Target boots

Can we talk about how expensive hunter boots are? Rubber boots with a label should not be $140 in any world. An absolute splurge in my book. At the same time, I love how cute they look on. They definitely made the cut for this year's Christmas list.
The joules come in at about $70. Still pretty pricey for boots that you can't use every day, but more reasonable than hunters for sure. I also love the prints they have available! The foxes? Too perfect. I've been obsessed with fox prints for a while now so these would be another great addition. They are the first runners up to hunters on my Christmas list.

Lastly, we have the most affordable boots, the coral target boots. I don't know if $40 is worth it, per se, but i definitely like the fact that they are $100 down from the hunter's and the only true differences i can see from this computer screen are the adjusting strap and the label. 

In all honesty, i wouldn't actually want the target boots. I have eyes only for those hunters, but the pricetag gives my parents a heart attack. Why spend $140 on rubber boots for a 15-year-old? 

So while shopping around, i hatched a fabulous plan:

step 1 is to buy plain rainboots

step 2 is to buy a vinyl monogram decal

and step 3 is to apply the decal to the rainboots. 

These etsy boots more or less sum up what i had in mind

Better than hunters? Maybe...they fulfill my addiction to monograms, my love of bows, and my need for rain boots all at once. Sounds like a winner to me!

Wish me luck!
xoxo
Hannah