an unexpected but perfect scarf

scarf - j.crew, coat - gap, shirt - madewell, jeans - ae, boots - dr. martens

While casually perusing J. Crew the other day I came across this scarf. I was already wearing a scarf and have plenty at home but I couldn't help but fall in love with it. It was festive without being too "merry christmas-y." Not to mention the fact that it was terribly soft and on sale. It was a done deal the second I saw it. 

I've also been wearing my Dr. Martens a lot lately. I sort of forgot about them until two weeks ago when I recovered them from the shed. They keep me so warm and the have the best traction, which comes in very handy around these parts. You see we live on a mountain but don't own a car with four wheel drive. Why you ask would anyone be so dumb? Well, about three months before we moved here we had no idea that we would be leaving California. We lived in a sleepy little "stepford wives" type town and decided that since we rarely have to drive over ten miles to get anywhere we should just trade in our current car for a zippy little Mazda 2. And so we did. Huge mistake. 

Most of the time it's fine but the moment we get snow and especially ice there is no way we are getting up to our house. So what we've learned to do is to park our car at the bottom of the mountain and walk up. Last year we had to do that several times with a newborn. Once we did it in the middle of the massive snowstorm and Birdie cried the whole way up in her stroller and I fell half way up and made the rest of the trek soaking wet and bruised. So yeah, living on a mountain isn't too glamorous, though I still wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Actually we were coming home last night and got stuck taking the short cut to our house (there's two ways to get up here). I stepped in and used my years of experience spent watching my parents get out of the most horrifying snowy situations in Russia to back our car down an ice rink, essentially. Finally about half an hour later alternating between going very fast and incredibly slow I got us to our driveway. We all breathed a sigh of relief. We were home!!

So to any of you fellow mountain dwellers - invest in a pair of Dr. Martens! They're great for climbing icy/snowy mountains!