My Christmas Tree - Part 2 (The Ornaments)

Okay! Today, I'm going to show off my Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments, as well as a few other cool ornaments that somehow made it onto this theme tree.

I grouped the Star Trek stuff together (I don't have as much of it), and then have mini-tableaux of the Star Wars ornaments. My ornaments are mostly from Hallmark, mostly bought by me, and I'm not a completionist, so I don't have all of the ones ever made, just the ones I liked (or could afford - these babies aren't cheap!).

First up: Star Trek!

When I was a kid, we watched the original series (yay! Captain Kirk! Spock!) on TV on reruns with my dad. I remember being really afraid of the "pizza monster". I'm not ashamed to admit that I was a member of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Fan Club (okay, maybe I'm a little ashamed) in the early 90s - I had a jacket patch and everything.

We boldly start with the trifecta of Star Trek vessels (or "wessels" if you're Chekov):
Sorry, it's a little blurry - these are less than 2" big and they kept swaying on the tree. At the top is the Klingon Bird of Prey, on the middle left is the Enterprise D (from "Next Generation") and at the bottom is the original Enterprise. These were issued in 1995.

I have a full-size Enterprise D (from NG):

It's a plug-in one; the nacelles light up (blue and red) and a yellow light blinks on the top of the dish (near where the bridge is - you can't see it in this pic). This was issued in 1993.

Then, there's the Romulan Warbird, issued in 1995:

Nasty looking thing! I wouldn't want to be in the same quadrant when that sucker de-cloaks!

Again, it plugs in and has green lights on both nacelles. I got this one when I worked in the Christmas store - I was chatting with a customer about how I'd missed getting this one from Hallmark (I used to get my ornaments right after Christmas, when they were 1/2 price), and she actually mailed it to me! I still keep it in the shipping box - it was sent to "Number 1 Elf".

The shuttle Galileo is probably my favourite of all the Star Trek ornaments:

It's a plug-in and lights up - it was issued in 1992, and is the oldest one I own. Up until this year, it played a recording of Spock's voice: "Shuttlecraft to Enterprise, shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here. Happy Holidays. Live long and prosper." When I plugged it in and pressed the button this year...nothing. So sad.

But, it's just an ornament, so let's move on to the USS Defiant:

I think I got this one from Mom for Christmas in 1997 (I watched "Deep Space Nine" but I wasn't as much of a fan of that series). The nacelles light up, naturally, but the front also has a glowing green window (not visible, sorry) and those two little dots on the left flash yellow.

The Klingon Bird of Prey is awesome:

This is from 1994 - and I'm sure I paid full price for it because it was so cool. You can see lots of lights on this one, and I caught the yellow flash just under the "head" on the left.

And now....

Star Wars!

I am a massive Star Wars fan! Original trilogy only (Han shot first! Lucas, stop messing with your masterpiece!).

I've been collecting the Star Wars ornaments since 1997 when Hallmark first started issuing them. Again, I only got a few here and there - this isn't the complete series by any means.

I got the Death Star in 2002:

It lights up from the inside and when you push a button, the voice of the evil Emperor says, "As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now, witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation! Fire at will, commander! [sounds of charging energy that then shoots and explodes]."

And yes, I typed that from memory.

I like to make little groupings that tell a story (you'll see more of that soon):

Luke, that rash hothead, has abandoned Yoda on Dagoba to go charging off for a confrontation with Darth Vader. Vader says raspily, "The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet."

Yoda's all like, "Ready you were not, mmmm!"

All three figures are from 1997 - that's the year I got married. I remember we had ol' Darth doing his thing on the answering machine for a while. Heh.

Next up, we have the classic confrontation:

Crazy old Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi who lives out beyond the Dune Sea and the desert-dwelling Tusken Raider have a go at each other.

Obi-Wan is from 2000 and the Raider is from 2007.

The whole story of Star Wars is actually about the droids, C-3P0 and R2-D2:

I got Artoo in 2001 and had to wait a whole extra year before they finally issued Threepio in 2003. The nerve. R2-D2 takes a couple of watch batteries inside him to make him make bloop and beep. He didn't work this year, so the batteries are likely dead.

A classic tie-fighter:

It makes zooming flying noises and shooting bursts. It's from 2003.

It's usually paired up on the tree with Luke's Tie Fighter:

They shoot at each other! You can see Luke in the cockpit and Artoo's little shiny head just behind it. It's from 1998 - it doesn't light up anymore, alas.

I really wish I had the Han Solo and Chewbacca figures. I should just bite the bullet and buy them online. Anyway, if I had those, I'd put them with these two:

Boba Fett (the coolest!) and Princess Leia. They're both from 1998.

All of the above figures are around 4" big, but these ones are tiny:

They are about 1.5-1 inch tall and are from 1997.

The first Christmas we had with Inigo, he was just a little kitten still (I know, hard to imagine). He was pretty good with the tree and all the decorations, but we were never sure what he and Othello would get up to when we were at work. Othello was terrible for biting ornaments until they fell off the tree. Inigo liked to carry things around in his mouth: coins, pens, whatever he could pick up and carry.

One day I went to feed him and Othello as usual, and I found C-3P0 laying face up in Inigo's water dish. He looked like he had been crying for help - he seemed very happy to be rescued from his watery prison.

Vader's Tie Fighter:

Note the curved wings, that's how you know it's Vader coming after you! Well, that and you can clearly see him in the lit-up cockpit. This ornament is from 1999.

If I don't have Han and Chewie, at least I have their ship, the Millenium Falcon:

The cockpit lights up, it flashes on the top and the rear wide nacelle lights up. This was my first Star Wars ornament, from 1996.

My favourite movie of the trilogy is "The Empire Strikes Back." It's got everything: adventure, romance, exciting revelations, and Yoda. Not to mention the best planet: Hoth! Where we see the AT-ATs (the All-Terrain Armoured Transports):

I know they are the most cumbersome, non-efficient way to invade a planet, but how can you not love a walking tank? Especially one with a little speeder about to trip it up and send it into a huge crash! It even makes the clanging walking noises and the zreeeooooommm of the ship!

It's from 2006.

I used to have a subscription to National Geographic's "World" magazine as a kid. Every few months, there would be a poster - and I remember one was of Star Destroyers. I had that one beside my bed.

Of course, I had to have the ornament when it came out in 2004:

That little blur hanging from it is Princess Leia's diplomatic ship that's sucked into the Star Destroyer in the opening scene of "Star Wars" - accordingly, the ship plays some dialogue over the background of shooting and alarms:

C-3P0: Did you hear that?

R2-D2: Boop-be-boop!

C-3P0: They've shut down the main reactor! We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!
R2-D2: Boop-be-boop!

C-3P0: We're doomed.

R2-D2: Boop-be-boop! Boop-be-boop!
C-3P0: There'll be no escape for the princess this time.

R2-D2: Boop-be-boop!

Awesome.

Well, that's it for the Star Trek and Star Wars...but I do have a few other ornaments that I have on the tree that are sort of in the theme.

The big light bulb:Hee, you can see my reflection in it! It's by Department 56 and is about 6 inches long. It's really heavy.

I also have a space shuttle:

It was a present from our friend Andrew, from his travels.

I'm also a "Babylon 5" fan, so I have a little Minbari cruiser:

It was a keychain originally - I just removed the hardware and tied some thread to it for hanging.

I have a wire star as my topper, but right below that is my favourite space-farer, the Iron Giant:

"Superman!"

My last anomaly is this one:

Yes, it's William Shakespeare - I got it in the Globe Theatre gift shop when we went to London last May. He's the right colours for the tree, but he also reminded me of one of those wacky time-travel Star Trek plots where Kirk and Spock meet some historical figure.

And so, at last, that's it!

I hope you enjoyed my tree!

My Christmas Tree - Part 1 (Help from the Cat)

This weekend, I'm going to be doing some picture-heavy posts about my Christmas set-up. As I'm a very detail-oriented person in my clothes, you can bet I'm the same with my tree and my village.

Tackling the tree: Because I worked in a year-round Christmas store for over a decade, I have a ton of lovely ornaments. Unfortunately, decorating feels like work to me, so I don't put everything up every year anymore. This year, I decided to just put up one tree.

Inigo was a substantial help with this.
"Let's go in the closet! I never get to poke around in there!"

Looking pretty and watching me lug everything out:

He's pretty good about not attacking the bags and lights.

Scoping out the spot where the tree will go:

"I approve."

I set up the small tree on top of two low bookshelves (we store our DVD collection there). It's a good height, and leaves lots of room for food for entertaining. Or for a cat to sit. If you had a cat.

"What are you doing?"

He's very curious.

"This seems like a good place to supervise."

All the gear is out.

I grabbed the metal stand from my big tree, as the dinky little plastic one that came with the small tree is pathetic. A strong stand is essential!

My mom made this lovely Christmas-themed quilted table cover for me a few years ago. I put it over the top of the bookshelf to protect it, and to make a nice visual base.

Strangely, Inigo does not play with the gold tassels on each of the corners.

The tree is all lit and set into place:

I am gradually switching from my old lights to those new LED ones. The entire tree is lit with white lights, then several sets of coloured lights are put on over top: I use blue LED (can you tell? they're rather bright), multi-coloured blue/purple/aqua and a string of purple.

I hate lighting trees - it is the single most annoying part of decorating for me. It's also wicked rough on my cuticles.

Inigo checks in one of the bags:

Heh, that's a bag from the Fluevog store. Classy!

As you can see, I have written on the tops of all the boxes in blue felt pen - that's so that I know what goes into what box when I put the ornaments away after Christmas. I always seem to have some leftovers every year, though. What's up with that?

This little tree will be a theme tree: Star Wars and Star Trek! I am a super nerdy geek about both of those.

I unpack all my ornaments and lay them out on the coffee table. I separate out the ones that plug into the light strings:

From the top, working down, left to right:

- A star destroyer (SW)

- Romulan Warbird (ST: the original series)

- The USS Reliant (ST: Deep Space Nine)

- Darth Vader's tie fighter (SW)

- The USS Enterprise's shuttle Galileo (ST: the original series)

- Klingon Bird of Prey (ST: the original series)

- Death Star (SW)

- Darth Vader (SW)

- X-Wing fighter (SW)

- Millenium Falcon (SW)

- The USS Enterprise (ST: the original series).

I'll show close-ups of each of these in tomorrow's post and describe what they do (they do stuff!). Because these only work if they plug into non-LED lights, I have to make sure I a) carefully preserve at least one string of old lights) and b) distribute that string of lights evenly across the tree so that these ornaments aren't all clustered together. So much work!

Mom also made us this gorgeous blue and gold tree skirt and matching stockings:

I love the dragon brocade fabric, and the blue velvet. My stocking has the lace trim at the cuff. I also like the little black bead spider and gold embroidered web on each one (after the legend - I like the assorted legends around Christmas traditions).

This is the tree all lit and decorated:

I do believe Inigo is satisfied with it.

He likes to sit on his post next to the tree:

He hides his head under the edge of the tree skirt - I know he wants to play, but we don't encourage him.

I've had to move a couple of ornaments already because he discovered they make a nice noise when he whacks at them:

He also likes to climb from the post to the front section of the shelf, by creeping under the tree.

The tree shakes a bit (he is not as small as he thinks he is!), but it's stable.

Tomorrow: More ornaments!

Dinner Out and Lunch & Shopping with Mom

As I have spent a good portion of my days this week either in my robe or in my "at home" clothes, I'm going for any excuse to put on a "real" outfit. I have a feeling I'll be doing the casual uniform a lot!

Last night, L and I met Casey and Nick at the pub for a few pints and dinner. We walked down, so I picked warm but comfortable pieces:
Hee, see Inigo on the left? He wants dinner too!

This is my olive leather skirt (last seen here), a long-sleeved purple tee and this t-shirt that I wear a lot.

My lovely (and practical) Miz Mooz boots.

Because it's a little chilly out, I did some outerwear stuff:

The olive-coloured hat is a somewhat structured fuzzy angora thing - I found it in a vintage store years ago and always forget to wear it. I'm also wearing my purple scarf and grey fingerless gloves, along with my swag leather jacket.

Hat (Boutique "Katy", vintage), scarf (Fairweather), gloves (Parkhurst), jacket (swag from old job). Long tee (Press), tee (Lisa International), skirt (Danier Leather, thrifted), boots (Miz Mooz), necklace (Foxy), earrings (gift from L).

Today, Mom and I are going to wander down the avenue to another pub for lunch...do a little shopping, get caught up before Christmas. We're walking, so again, I had to base the outfit around the shoes. I totally forgot about these (have I mentioned I need to clean out my closet??):

I got those in the summer at Value Village for cheapy-cheapy ($15), last seen here. I did tones of grey to match the cloud in my head (I am still sick - the hacking cough starts soon).

I am not picking my nose, I'm trying not to sneeze:

The top is cream/grey striped, the tee is multi shades of cream and grey, the skirt is a grey/black herringbone, and the tights are sort of a bluey-grey. Oh, and a first wear for this little thin silver headband - picked it up at Club Monaco some time ago for about $7.

I promise I am wearing my yellow leather jacket (this one) to offset all the grey.

I am so ready not to be sick anymore:

My hair is fading out to a nice colour.

Long-sleeved tee (Majestic, gift from Caro), tee (Plum, gift from L), skirt (Mexx, gift from Celia), shoes (Stonefly, thrifted), necklace (Claire's), earrings (Aldo Accessories), headband (Club Monaco).

Shopping in the Rain - and a Book Blurb

I met Cat and Caro downtown for a quick shop - I also had to get going on some of my Xmas shopping (I'm kind of doing it in dribs and drabs this year) out of the way.

Unfortunately, as I learned from my run/walk this morning, it was pouring out. So I had to dress for the weather:
Combat boots! Like the funkadelic stylings of Rad over at The Cohabiting Closet and Ann at Fashionable Academics, I love the boot/skirt look too. And it turns out, these babies were pretty close to being waterproof (I shouldn't have stepped in that big puddle). They were last worn here.

I last wore the dress here.

I hate carrying an umbrella - I'd rather have my hands free - so I dug through the chest to see what hats I had. I grabbed this fuzzy cream cloche (I picked it up about a year ago in a thrift store) and my cashmere scarf for a fun pattern mix.

I'm also wearing long nylon gloves.

Tossed on my red wool/cashmere coat and I was ready to go!

I did get a bunch of little things, but I need to still do more. Gah! It never ends!

Dress (Papillon), belt (NYC), boots (Penny Loves Kenny), coat (Planet), scarf (Club Monaco).

I have been good and read a book! It's "White Witch, Black Curse" by Kim Harrison:

It's the next one in the series after "The Outlaw Demon Wails" (blurbed here). I was in the mood for some escapism.

Stats: 504 pages, hardcover (I bought it second-hand for $5.50). Started November 21, 2010, finished December 12, 2010.

Blurb: These are currently my favourite vampire, sorta-sexy, sorta-funny, female-driven adventure novels. I've read a bunch of Anita Blake books (by Laurel K. Hamilton), and a few of the Sookie Stackhouse books (that "True Blood" is based on). Harrison's books have a lot of heart - the characters are tough, but struggle with love and relationships; they swear and beat up bad guys, but sometimes the bad guys are...not so bad - it's not all black and white, in life or in magic. If you ask Megan nicely, she might show some of the awesome doodles she's done of the characters.

Lazy Monday - Striped Legs

Gah, I'm still sick, but I am refusing to let this stupid thing beat me! I went for an hour walk this morning, then walked to the grocery store (I love delivery!), and poked around in a thrift store (no shopping for me, says Santa L).

And this is what I wore: I tend to wear this sweater around the house more than as an "official" blog outfit. These are the last two times I wore it.

I love these stripey tights, but when I put them on today, they had a gigantic hole in the bum! It feels weird, but I can still wear them, haha!

I also dyed my hair this morning! It's much redder.

Sweater (Jana), skirt (Armour Jeans, consignment), tights (Hue), boots (Aldo, consignment).