"Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity"


~Plato

Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year..New House..New Table


The last two days have been
so relaxing and fun...
we've been creating and building!

Sweet husband had the
best idea...
he thought it would
be really cool to build my
parents a glass house in
their backyard as a
Christmas gift.


And he was right...it was a
great idea.

First you have to imagine a
very magical place...

a land where little children play
and there is no limit to their
imaginations...

there are trees to climb
mud pies to make
fairies to visit
and talk to

A place where every idea you
have is greeted with a very
positive response and every
question you have is answered with the
sweetest...most honest...loving answer
you could hope for.

OHHH and did I mention
all the food...ice cream and desserts
you could want.

Now you understand the home I
grew up in...well minus all the
ice cream and desserts you could
want...  that seems to be only for the grandkids!

 
Now you know why we wanted
to give them all a playhouse





It fits perfectly on the side of the house....
 I'm pretty sure it's quickly becoming known
as the children's garden

can't you just see the front porch and flowers
Nana and Papa are going to add....



Today
Mom and I went to the antique show and found lots of
cool things for the new house...

she found the table that's in the left hand corner
the iron piece that's above the doors
and she also found a chandelier that's not
hung yet.
And sweet husband made her the bench out
of her neighbors old headboard.
I promise as soon as we are all done
I will take pictures.

AND

What till you see what I found at the antique show...
i'm so excited about it...
it was on my bucket list of must finds

I was going to wait and show you tomorrow
but I can't wait....



It's a cargo/luggage cart....
isn't it perfect!



Even husband...who REALLY didn't like this one when he went to
pick it up...now has changed his mind and likes it.

And the kids have had a blast using it as a row boat,
nerf gun reloading zone, operating table, dining table...
well you get the idea...

It is my goal to please all the kids in this house!

Happy New Year
 to you all!







Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A return to white and simplicity

I am on a
quest....

I need a return to an
all neutral...almost completely white
serene..quite
elegant
simplicity.

Is that even a phrase?

ELEGANT SIMPLICITY

a place where everything is in order
the silver is out...maybe slightly tarnished and
the flowers are in the vase...not perfect but pretty
soft music in the background and candles glowing
the dinner may be takeout
 but it's a dinner shared with my family

I need a space where I can
clear my mind...my heart...and my soul



with warm matelasse blankets are at the ready in old french baskets



 old gravy boats are lined up in a row....chips...cracks and all


throw in a few feminine touches


 some candles


 texture



and lots of organization



 a place where I can breathe




i'm even trying to take some of my own advice that I give to others...
see those empty shelves
I tell friends if something is bugging you in your house
take it away
live with the space for a bit...
until you find the right pieces
Or maybe....
sometimes you just might not need to
fill a space at all.



 I hope that with the start of this new year...
there will be peace and serenity
in your home and hearts as well as ours.

It may take a little bit of work
but I think we can get there!


P.S. 
Thank you to all our friends and family
for the kind words, cards, flowers, 
support and love.
Lily was our faithful puppy for 13 years
and she will truly be missed.

God Bless you all
and
Happy New Year

Monday, December 20, 2010

Angel Wings

I've always wanted to find a pair
of carved wooden angel wings
wait
 let me rephrase that...
i've found carved angel wings
what I haven't found is a pair
 I could actually afford

well one day while blogging 
Kerri came across where some
of you guys are making them out of cardboard
and like a best friend would she immediately
told me the good news...
SOOOOO
 here is my labour of love to replicate a pair
of wooden carved angel wings
And I do mean labour of love...
it's taken me quite a while
to cut all of the pieces....
and a few blisters
 (no cuts thank goodness)


The first thing I did was
instruct sweet husband to
dig the really big train table box
out of our neighbors trash one cold morning...
have I ever told you all what a good sport he is.



Second step I drew an angel wing
on one side of the box than flipped
 it over to the other side of the box
and traced a matching wing.
Cut them both out and then
started cutting out the "feathers"
from additional cardboard boxes.


Many.....Many.....Many
feathers later
(and days...maybe even a  week or two later)
I was finally able to start painting it.


I started with a linen acrylic color mixed with a little water
and used a dry brush technique
I followed that with the same technique
and a white acrylic
Then a little brown mixed with the white
And then back to the straight white
It didn't take very long at all....

The idea was to give it the look of
old distressed wood.
But if that's not your thing...
try gold and brown
or silver and a little black
maybe even a cool blue with silver and white
What ever your style I think
you could make it work.




The Savannah Bird Girl
with her wings on



I'm thinking these might have to
stay up all year long...
 they turned out really well for
a free project!


I'm linking up to


At Between Naps on the Porch

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Our Holiday Home

Okay....
prepare yourself for a
llooonnnggg post!

Que the
eggnog,
Christmas music,
and
good cheer....

Here from
front door
to
back yard
is our
Holiday
Home


Our front door


The very tiny entry way



My favorite Christmas guys..I forget how big they actually are...
we had a little boy walk through the front door this weekend and
he almost didn't come in...the big nutcracker is a little scary I guess.
Maybe he needs to not be right in the front door next year! Poor Harold


The living room and part of the breakfast/dining area
The Mantle



Top left is our family tree..i've been collecting those ornaments for 13 years now..
bottom left is the two trees you see when you first walk in the house.
I decided long ago that the meaning of decadence wasn't diamonds
and chocolate to me...
but two matching trees....how positively decadent.





Four trees in one view...
well sorta...one just got cropped out of the picture

The new addition this year is the Department 56 Dickens's Village..
my Uncle and Aunt passed it down to me. 
I'm pretty sure it's going to be our new obsession..i'm already looking for new houses.
The kids and I had so much fun putting it up.  It already feels like a yearly tradition.
Love you so very much
Uncle Donnie and Aunt Janie..
thank you for letting us carry on the tradition


Dining room/breakfast area tree and Candy Garland in Kitchen

Clockwise...our daughter's tree..
didn't she do a good job putting all the ornaments on herself
Our son's room..
another view of her tree
The bathroom/tiki bar tree....
it resides in the bathroom for now because
 our puppy/moose doesn't know how to not destroy it yet



Views from the master bedroom...believe it or not
there are actually a LOT of ornaments on that tree..
it just doesn't look like it in this picture.
Perhaps I need more ornaments...
Target here I come



And finally
Night and Day pictures
from the glass house.



Thank you all for taking a tour of our house this Christmas....
now I must be off for there are

cookies to be baked
babies to be kissed
presents to be wrapped
birthdays to be celebrated
and
friends and family to be
held dear and close to our hearts

From my family
to yours
Merry Christmas


I'm linking up to

Christmas Tour
Of Homes
2010

and

Christmas Tree Party
Stop on over

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A Christmas Tea and how the glass house came to be...


I'm sure that all this time you guys
were under the impression that the
glass house was all my idea
and sweet husband built it for me
and me only out of the kindness of his heart.

Now while he did do it out of kindness and
I am the one who asked him to build it
that's not exactly how all that went down...



My daughter who was six at the time
really wanted to have a tea party and
invite all her friends.
We told her that was fine...what did she have in mind.
Talk about opening a can of worms...
If you think I have lots of projects and crazy ideas,
nothing compares to the littlest lady in our house.

She can out
Paint
Sew
Craft
&
Draw
me any day

For the tea party she tells me
she would like (as she brings out the cookbooks)
cake
cookies
tea sandwiches
punch
scones
lemonade
&
a chocolate fountain

all her friends to bring a toy to give to a child who's family can't afford one
(toys for tots)

I swear i'm not making this up

and
most importantly a candy bar
where her friends can choose there own candy

Now back to the glass house

She likes to look at blogs as much as I do..
so her and I are browsing one day before the party
and we come across the blog

and she is talking about a glass house
she saw in a store.

Well my daughter's eyes light up
and she looks at me and says...
now that is what I need to put
my tea party desserts in.

Great Idea...
now we just need to tell Daddy
He might be able to say no to one of us...
but he never can say no
to both of us begging.

And that is how we came to build the glass house...
all because of a 6 year old and a tea party


The Candy Bar



This week i'm in the midst of getting ready for this
years Christmas Party.

We decided to do a family party and
still collect toys for charity
but the theme is

"Christmas Movies On The Lawn"

everyone keep your fingers crossed for no rain!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Christmas Vignettes

Looking around the house I thought
to myself...guess i'll be missing this party
I have no vignettes around here.

But then I took a second look

WAIT A MINUTE

I think I might have one or two......

so here it goes


The nutcrackers in the mirror reflection is another vignette
but i've already shown you them.


Found this music stand yesterday at Goodwill
It is the inspiration for this vignette.
Barely made it out of the parking lot with it...
I had 5 people stop me to comment on it.
Glad I made it to Goodwill when I did...right place right time I guess




Does this count as a vignette???
Either way
I love this Christmas quote...








I'm heading over to the party
I can't wait to see everyones
Christmas Vignettes!

Make sure you stop by and check it out!


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