Oh I Need A Little Christmas

 Just this very minute

 

 I need a little Christmas....right now!

I didn't think it was going to happen. 

 I questioned if all this would get up.

But it did.

 Christmas Mantel 2019.

I'll share other photos of it at night.

 My sister gave me this tree a few years ago. 

It has yellowed over the years.

Just makes it look more vintage. I think.

I hope.

 

I could not bring myself to take the frames down off my mantel. 

I have had them up for a couple of years and just decorate around them. 

I just like the way they fill out the wall. 

I did manage to finally gold leaf this small vintage frame. 

It's been up here for two years in a dingy brown.

Now it's finally a crusty gold leaf. Much better.

Now it fits right in with the other vintage frames.

I love bottle brush trees. Can you tell?

The tree. 

This little tree I've had for several years and sadly this is 

the first year it's gotten fully decorated. 

I've just done lights for the past three or four years. 

A shame cause I have many beautiful vintage ornaments.

I'll share more tomorrow.

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Open House Sunday

Oh My!!!!! A pink Spanish Bungalow!!!

 built 1928   1,524 square feet

I ran across this home the other day on Zillow and just fell in love.

This house might tempt me to sell mine and move in to this one.

This house has been totally redone and is staged to sell. 

They bought it last year for $85,000 and are now asking $329,000.

 An earlier photo on google maps shows it used to be white and very very run down.

 It's in the Lincoln Terrace neighborhood which is east of me - over by the medical community and the state capitol. This area of town has many beautiful homes, many many of them still to be fixed up.

 I just love that they chose to paint it pink. And just the perfect shade of pink too.

I'm going to have to do a drive by to see in person.

 I'm rather amazed that this house is staged all in shades of pink on the inside as well. 

The placement of furniture is not good in this room but I'm sure it was placed in a way to show off how much room there is. I love everything about this room except the unfortunate vent in the ceiling. I would have found a way to avoid that.

That's a new mantel. I wonder what the original looked like.

All the finishes in this house are very modern but feminine. 
So of course I like them even if they are more modern than I usually like.

 Odd placement of furniture...but we'll let it slide. 

Of course room needs a rug. But lets just focus on the house.

 I am not fond of the dining room light and it's hung too high but that's an easy fix. 

The dining room furniture is all wrong but I'm sure they were doing the best they could with what they had available.

 But imagine this room with a white tulip table or even this table but with white modern chairs.

 Looking at these photos made me remember when I first move into my own vintage cottage and I had so much open space. I truly need to get rid of things. I need more open space.

 Pretty little office.

 Always love when there are big french doors to another room.

Gosh! I'd love to decorate this house!

 Hall is same as mine but mine does not have all that storage. 

This house is only about 100 square feet bigger than mine.

 Ok, let's see what you think about the kitchen. I

 love the choices made but I don't know that I could live with them.

 That backsplash! Ok, it's pretty wonderful but I could not live with it. 
Nope...I'd need a white tile backsplash. 
Although I love how this mimics the Spanish vibe of the house.

 A young woman would love this though I think. 
I do like the appliances chosen.

 So fun..So pretty..but I just couldn't. 
Well, I could for a while but then I'd want it more neutral.

 Bedrooms do not have furniture in them.

 But this!!!! Oh...my I love this sooooo much. Except that toilet. That is the kind of toilet my bathrooms have and I hate them. I keep thinking they will get changed but so far it has not happened but it will...it will. 

But that tile!!!! Oh...my goodness that tile!!! It's looks like a birthday cake!

I'm in love. I had to look it up after I saw this and it's an

Annie Selke tile

Just scrumptious.

 Oh...how I love this tile.

 Yes all of it. Around the windows too. I want to redo my bathroom and when I do...

its going to have lots of tile.

little side porch - so sweet. I can imagine the weenies running out there to see what I am doing.

 A cedar pergola on back. Just right for this house.

 It's pretty on the backside. If I had this house I'd have fun planting cacti around it.

There is a house in my neighborhood that's yard is all cactus. 
I hate it.

It does not go with the house. 
The house is an English Tudor and it simply does not go. 
But this house would look nice with an arid landscape.

Looks like the house next door is Spanish in style too.

Good thing I can't afford to move...this one would be tempting. 

See full listing here.

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The Turquoise Cabinet

Well, I finally finished painting and distressing my little cabinet in the living room.

I bought this like three years ago with the intentions of painting and it's taken me this long to get to it.

I might distress it more. I tend to not like things in my house super distressed so not sure.

My intention was to distress it more but the paint was stuck so tight it was taking tons of sanding 

and I just said - "that's enough"

I sanded for like 5 hours one day and still wasn't done. 

I sanded so much that I sanded my finger print off on my index finger and was not 

able to open anything by touch on my iphone!

For three days!!!!!

Super annoying.

Did you know that some people because of jobs they have had have no finger prints?

Yep, they wear them off.

It can be a job that you work with paper a lot...like a secretary or an accountant.

So for a few days I was afraid I'd removed my identity!

I still had two hours of sanding to do...but the rest I did with a rubber glove on.

That's the before. Ick. I am not into those kinda colors at all. 

Mom loved it and I would have given it to her but honestly, she does not have room for it anywhere.

I already gave her one sideboard I bought several years ago that was black and 

she didn't like it that I was going to paint it and said she wanted it. So I gave that one to her for 

her soon to be (I hope) breakfast room.

 

This photos shows up close the finish. The actual color is somewhere between this photo and the first photo. I don't know why I couldn't get the color to photograph more accurately.

 

I am fully aware that Fall is over and everyone is on to Christmas but with all I have going on at the moment I decided to go ahead and post this while I had a chance and then post again later decked out for Christmas. I can't wait to see it with my Christmas things on it. I think this photo shows the color most accurate.

It's brighter than I intended but I do like how cheery it is.

I used Waverly Chalk paint because it was cheap and I'd read good things about it. Plus you can buy in the middle of the night at Walmart which is how I like to shop. I was very happy with the quality of the paint. I mixed the color using blue, yellow and white plus a little brown craft paint thrown in. I might distress it a little more. I might tone the color down a little more with a wash and or I might leave as is. I have not waxed it yet. I'm waiting to decide if it's done or not.

 I picked up this adorable pillow at Michael's in October. I could not resist it. Michael's has been having incredible sales. This pillow I think cost me $9.

Now if you think I've been ignoring Christmas...I have not.

I have decorated two trees so far .... just not for me. 

I decorated a 9 foot tree for a client last week. What a chore! Just cause it was so tall!

She had great ornaments and enough of them. I was worried she wouldn't have enough.

My friend Toni who is a designer I worked with at the store and who recently quit same store because of crazy management came along and thank goodness she did because it took the two of us 6 hours to do the tree together. I also did the mantle.

I wish I'd taken photos but I was so tired and ready to get out of there I totally forgot. Plus the whole family had gathered for a pre-Thanksgiving night and I felt like I needed to get out of the way.

It was beautiful though. It was a Balsam Hill tree and she had all Balsam Hill ornaments in clear glass, white, cream and gold. Very tasteful. But not very creative for me. It's like you couldn't screw that tree up...with it's monochromatic theme. 

Very tasteful

Then on Sunday my BFF, David wanted me to come over and help him with his tree.

I had helped him shop for ornaments last month...making him buy way more than he thought he needed and keeping him on track with his theme. He was all over the place.

He wanted help finishing the tree up. When I got there I was like "Where are the rest of your ornaments?" He was like "I saved them the tree is full."

"Oh, no"...I said..."You need way more." I had told him you have to tuck the ornaments into the tree as well as on the branches. So he retrieved left over ornaments. About 150 and we went to town. 

Then several trips to the store for ribbon and floral picks completed his tree and he was happy.

It then looked as a tree should. He was happy. I was happy. I went home. 

I still could have put another 150 more ornaments on this tree.

This is David's first tree in his first house.

My first tree in my first house was like 3 feet tall with ornaments I made.

Still no tree up at my house however. 

Thanksgiving I spent with Mom and Peggy. That's my Mom, Alice in the floral top on the left. We ate at Ingrid's Kitchen. They have a huge Thanksgiving buffet every year. Peggy is an old family friend.

We spend every holiday together.

I am still caring for my sister's little Isaac who had back surgery a week and a half ago.

He is doing great but is a handful. He's very smart and strong willed. He has figured out how to get out of his crate. Which is exasperating! But I really can't complain. He's super sweet and all the weenies get a long just fine. It could be worse. 

I just feel like I'm practicing the fine art of dog juggling.

It's hard making sure he doesn't run out the back door on his own. He wants to so badly. But he's not allowed to yet.

That above is Maisie, I rescued her two years ago.

She's about 11 and very scrappy. She acts like she is 3. She loves Franklin and Franklin loves her.

She's very independent. I'll write more about her later. She came from a situation where she was living in the backyard and never got to come inside. Her name was Heidi at the time but had been also Fiona and Fifi. She'd been in rescue situations a couple of times. 

I renamed her Maisie because she didn't know the name Heidi at all. She learned Maisie immediately.

It took a year for her to feel secure here. She's a happy girl now but she had anxiety at first.

Well I tell more about her later.

Next week Isaac goes back to back doctor. I know he's doing very well. He is walking fine. Doing everything fine but I have to make sure he doesn't over do. He is not allowed to run or wrestle with the others. Not sure how long he'll stay here. He seems ready to go home but he gets better supervision here than he will at my sister's. 

Sorry, to go on so....can you tell I'm alone a lot these days?

No one to tell all to.

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