The Most Wonderful Time of the Year !!!

I love decorating our home for all seasons, but none more than for the holidays.   We had the whole family together for Thanksgiving this year, so the Christmas decorations came out a little early.

Our house is built in an "H" shape with a front courtyard surrounded by a gallery hallway on the left and the dining room on the right.   In the back is our master bedroom and a breakfast room that both overlook a pond filled with wildlife all year long.

I love the courtyard for lots of reasons, but one of my favorites is when we put up lighted Christmas trees and we look out at twinkling lights during the dark part of the year.   Over the past three years we've trained an ivy trellis on the north facing wall of the courtyard.   It is pretty in the winter, cool in the summer and we're known in the neighborhood as "the house with the trellis".

 

Speaking of the pond out back, here's what we looked out at earlier this week when winter dusted the ground over night:

One of my favorite reading spots - These french blue chairs sit at the perfect angle for reading or watching the beautiful water fowl that call our pond home.

And the pretty sunset reflections late afternoon.   You can see our new fire-pit in the center of the seating, but it was a little too chilly even for a roaring fire!

Please, come in the front door --

Our antique French vineyard table is the perfect size for displaying all the cards we love to receive from friends and family.   For cards that are single sided, I used the branches of a small tree to hold them.   It's a beautiful reminder each day of how lucky we are to have so many wonderful people to love!

Our three polar bears have made us smile for several years now.   They came from the most wonderful Brenham, TX store called Beadboard UpCountry and its amazing proprietress Mary Ann Flaherty.   She had them in her store window one Christmas and they just had to come back to Delaware with us.   They are handsome pieces - the largest standing about 18" tall.   They are all you need on a table!

Our pretty mantle is done in monochromatic metals this year.   The mantle came from a 1700's tavern that was being "modernized"!   Yikes, can you imagine parting with it?   Anyhow, our friend and designer Janet Davis found out it would be available and she procured it for us, with a good deal of effort since every other designer wanted it too.     I got the bottle brushes from World Market and they remind me of something my mother would have used in the 60's.  

 

Our tree is a beautiful 12 foot beauty from NDI.     It looks so real, but no falling branches, needles or allergies!

And here is a perfect little "chippy" bowl stand that we understand came out of an old dentist's office.   It is the perfect container for a perfect white poinsetta

 

This little beauty came from a tiny glass store in Bellagio, Italy.   It's a Christmas tree ornament, but it is so beautiful I like to leave it by itself.    Can you imagine glass blowing such a piece?

 

Above our family room doors and windows is a transom just pefect for displaying my Santa
 collection.   Each has it own little frame.



I'm looking forward to adding one special new addition this year - antique store here I come.

Here is our very "girly" sofa all wrapped up with sparkle.   The pillows are actually comfortable!

You can get a peek at the dining room from this angle.

Sorry the lighting is bad on this picture, but the lights and greenery look so pretty atop our pumpkin pine blanket chest with antique botanical prints above.    The mats for each of the prints was hand painted in France!   





This special Santa has graced out home for many years.   he is a very special gent indeed.

Here is an antique window from London.   Our seaside village often has the beautiful Kalmyr Nyckel tall ship in port and this window reminds us of the Kalmyr.

My folk art painting of our village Lewes

One of my favorite Santa paintings - it sold at a charity auction to help homeless folks.   But I still miss him and enjoy this print!

This is my wish for the happiest holiday season and healthy new year!

Resolution #1:   blog more often - it's fun!

Ahhh, the garden is finished

When we moved into our new house in April of 2011, we knew the odd-shaped lot would require creative garden design.   The combination of input from our Landscape Architect son Todd, coupled with many "pinterest" clips and the talented local Landscape Architect Paul DeVilbiss, resulted in a lovely combination of special garden rooms, making up a beautiful vista from our porch.

This is what the space looked like not so long ago:



Lots of builder-supplied sod and a lonely grill.

This is what it looks like after many weeks of hard work:





Nothing like French Blue chairs to enjoy the pond

From a former unused walkway to a hammock waiting to happen!

Many delicious meals have been enjoyed here

This very special urn is from Terrain at Styers in Brinton Lake, PA   





 Thank you talented and hard working people for giving us such a beautiful place to live.  

What a difference a "shade" makes

Our new house has a wonderful spacious master bathroom.   Lots of tile, lots of cabinetry and mirrors, i.e., lots of hard surfaces that make the space a little sterile.   I knew I wanted to add some beautiful fabrics to the space but couldn't find the perfect pattern - the color in the bath is Benjamin Moore "Tidewater" - not green, not blue, but a very soft clean hue.   We have a Dash and Albert shell motif wool rug on the floor that has lots of color possibilities.

Here's the before of the bathtub elevation.   Note the pretty chandelier - we found it in a church thrift shop for $35.00.    Not sure why we didn't turn it on for the "before" shot - oh well.    It was in pieces in a box and we figured we'd have to spend a ton of money finding missing parts.   Guess what:   THIS is what was in the box!!

To the right of the tub is a glass shower, and to the left is an enclosed toilet room.   The vanities are opposite the tub wall.   We opted for a privacy window since the home next to us is close and we wanted light, but not shades or shutters closed all the time.

I finally decided on a fabric by Kravet -  Ikat Fabric Bansuri Ranjani 54" Echo Spa Blue.  Now I know what color to call the bathroom - "spa blue".   I searched for the fabric name and low and behold, it was available on E-Bay, as a second with a very minor flaw, for less than half of the retail price.   So for less than $100 in supplies, and a relaxing Sunday afternoon of sewing, here is the window with a London Shade.   If you look closely you'll see a great round table holding bath salts and candles.   It is from World Market and the carving and texture are beautiful.   Only $129 on sale right now.  I'm ordering another for the living room.   The teak tub tray is from Ikea (who knew?) and it's kept my Kindle out of hot water more than once....  

I think the stripe in the pattern added a lot to the London Shade.   There are lots of good instructions for how to make the shade if you just Google "London Shade".   This one took 5 yards and the window is about 4' x 4'.   I didn't line it because I wanted as much light as possible.    It was very easy to make, and with the help of my handy husband who cut a mounting board, it was a snap to install (well for me that is, I don't think getting the brackets installed was a snap for him!!)
 
I hope you'll tackle this kind of simple window treatment.   I had gotten an estimate of over $1000 to have the shade made (it would have been operational - this one is fixed since I never intended to use it for privacy).   So watching old movies while sewing straight seams was well worth the time.   
 
 Good luck!  



Birth Paintings - a very special baby gift for special babies

Several years ago I was having trouble deciding what gift to get a very special friend's new baby.    It was baby #2, same sex, so there were few things the baby needed.     I decided to give something that would be unique, lasting, and personal.    Hence, the beginning of "Birth Paintings".

Here's one of the first.   Pardon the terrible photograph (I got better as time went on).   This was actually for Patrick's grandmother - but she promised to loan it to him when he got older.

And a few others

So if you have some interest in simple art projects, (or if you don't, I do commissions!) don't hesitate to be inspired to tackle Birth Painting gifts.   They're special when the arrive, but I still get comments about the very early pieces.

Have fun!

If it's January - it's Undecorate Time

One of my favorite decorating projects all year has to be Christmas.   When talk of turkey and Thanksgiving begins, I also dream of all the treasured decorations just waiting to come out of hiding.   This year our son and his wife who live in Chicago were with us for Thanksgiving, so that's the only excuse I needed to decorate early!   

I blogged about the first holiday season in our new house below.

Anyhow, I guess my second favorite decorating time is when the holiday decor comes down, and thoughts turn to warm fires and old movies and generally uncluttering the rooms.   It's a lot of work to put it up, but why does it always seem harder to take things down?    Down they are and here's how things look today.

Here's the view of our pond from the breakfast room table.   Each morning we get to watch the sun come up, ducks wake up and get their morning swimming done, and generally enjoy the beautiful sunrise reflections off the water.    It is the most peaceful home we've ever had and we LOVE it.

We knew it would be nice to live on a small pond.   We had no idea how much entertainment the blue herons, ducks, geese, turtles and fish would be.   Our biggest challenge is keeping Miss Bella from barking at them!

 It was nice to have the Christmas village, Santas and snowmen in the Welch cupboard all season, but having the cupboard a little more bare, so that it can show off the patina of the beautiful wood, is nice too.    I am still very happy that we elected to leave wall hung cabinets out of the kitchen, opting instead for shelving made from antique  barn timbers.   A combination of granite and zinc colored silestone is just perfect.   Often when it's time to fill plates and fill glasses with drinks, we feel like restaurant cooks just taking oft used items off open shelves.    Sure is efficient



Although the lighting could be better, this is another view of the kitchen island, antique French chandelier and view from the breakfast room.  

Here's an interesting gift I received as a housewarming.    It's the box I'm using as a pedestal.    Do you have any idea what it is?    Would you believe an antique Chinese "rice box".   They used these boxes to measure and apportion rice.    It's wonderfully chippy --  Brooke would LOVE the patina on this treasure.   I decided to display some sparkly pinecones in a beautiful Simon Pearce bowl.    The color of the glass in that bowl is amazing.

Here's another shot of the rice box and our late 1800's mantle decked out with olive tree topiaries, apples and a couple of angels that our younger son gave me the first Christmas he had a job!   They are treasures that move around all year.

Pardon the glare, but this photo shows our front door and entry with the French vineyard table that now hold a vintage cheese box which is filled with shells. The pretty wide plank floor shows up nicely (as does the fur from our precious Peke).

Here's a shot of the zinc cheese box that holds shells collected from the area. You might also notice our french door is open - yep it's January 12th in Delaware, but it's 60 degrees on the porch

We finally finished papering the mud room, and here's a little fisherman who stands guard for us:

You can see the french ticking stripe paper which is so perfect in this high-use room.   We used the same silestone countertop in the mudroom as in the kitchen since they're close together.


Well, that's all for today.   Happy undecorating!

Christmas in Breakwater

This is our first holiday season in the new house.    It has been so much fun deciding where to put all our decorations and collected treasures.    The tree that looked just fine in a past home looks a little Charley Brown in this one - but since we had a lot going on this year, the tree had to suffice.   Next year we'll be looking for a 10+ footer!

Frosty lighted courtyard, as seen from the front door





We used some existing lighted Christmas trees to fill the courtyard.    The lights come on about 4:30 and they fill the courtyard and adjoining rooms with gentle light.    This will no doubt be an annual decoration.   I intend to leave them up through January.

Three polar bears greet visitors - they are enjoying their "ice rink" on the vintage vineyard table.   These came from Beadboard UPCountry in Brenham, TX and are a treasured part of the holidays at our house.

The living room with our too-little tree in the corner.   Look out next year!

I got this wonderful reindeer at a store in Chadds Ford, PA called la Maison Home.    He's beautiful in his snowy pen

The dining room has had lots of good use this season.   Notice the reindeer on top of the armoire - he came all the way from a Paris flea market and John has a story to tell about transporting him on the metro.

Here's the Santa John forgot to give me one Christmas.    We had seen him at an antiques store and John stomped his foot and said "too expensive" and off we went.    He snuck back up, paid "too much" for Santa - hid him away and forgot he was in the basement til New Years Day!!   Santa had a small part in the decorations that year, but each year after has a special place of honor.

The three wise men on the coffee table are from our first Christmas in La Porte, TX in 1968...

The Welch Cupboard with Santa collection.   This piece of furnture takes on lots of purposes - but none prettier than the holidays



The Byers Carolers sing away all day long!

We wish you and yours the happiest holiday ever, and a prosperous healthy new year!!