Happy New Year!

I took down some of the silver to leave more wintery setting. I left the heavier over mantel shelf. Happy New Year Everyone! Project of mantel shelf is here on my Projects Blog.

Table setting for Christmas!

Playing with my tablesetting for Christmas dinner. Silver, shells, birds, paper roses (I made from coffee filters) crystal and dishes! I used a few carnations to fill out arrangement until I can make more roses!

Plates (white with silver stripes are from Target.

Christmas Mantel decor

I did a symmetrical setting this time, but you will see some asymmetry as that is my favorite style of vignette. This is the center of the fireplace mantel with the mirror behind it. This part shows the right side and then the left side of the mantel decorations.

This last picture shows the whole mantel. The mantel has a shelf cover over the original shelf so that I could attach nails, staples to it for the greenery without damaging the wood underneath. In reality I could lift that dark mahogany stained over shelf off with all the decor and restore the mantel underneath to its original non-holiday status.

Link to post where I showed how this top mantel shelf was made and applied click here. And on my Home Projects Blog (where I post my projects in more detail) are more instruction and pictures click here. Thanks.

Shell decor even at Christmas time!

I love my shells and have decor showing them off around my home. They fit right in with mercury glass and Christmas decor too.

The starfish below are from Lillian August and are silvered.

Christmas tree 2008

AS you walk into my Living room and then to the left you will see my tree up.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Happy Holidays!


View into the dining room

back into living room

Winter feeling and Christmas decor 1

Here are a couple of starfish I picked up at Lillian August in CT at Thanksgiving with silver on them. I could have bought them all they were so pretty! I have the smaller one in the dish with my other shells (Target for the table) and some silvered beads. The two white dishes are milk glass with a silver plate bowl in between. I got two paper houses this year (my hope is to expand the collection and make some). I had the trees in my collection (always pick some up and add snow). The one on the left is from a local gift shop and the one on the right is a $9 find at Cracker Barrel. They are approx 8" in ht. I like that scale. They are placed in my bookshelf.

In my china closet/used as bookshelf, I also placed a recently found cone silvered tree from the dollar store!

I picked up these two items recently for the deeper pewter color. The small tree is from Cracker Barrel ($3).

This is a collection of a few trees. I like to see them like this, reminds me of looking out my aunt's window in Nova Scotia as snow was falling, there was woods across the street from her home and I would just sit and watch the trees fill up with snow. So, now I love to make containers with trees placed around my home for Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas around here! This is a faux palm in front foyer.

Christmas is not that far away!

Here is a close up of my mantel shelf. I had some white poinsettias, but they were too white and no realtionship to the mantel shelf with glittering silver, so I added a few silver pieces and some light green (love that color with silver, I plan on getting more of that color for next year!) I am NOT finished with the mantel area YET! Lots of tweeking to do!

A small paper house I bought, I had my eye on it for a year in a German gift shop. This year I decided it would come home with me! The little bottle brush tree with silver balls is from the same shop. There is a set of Christmas lights in the cabinet. I want to add rope lighting for a more permanent installation later on. I plan on making more paper houses (for next year, this year is too full of projects already!) and this will be a model. My china cabinet is being used as a bookcase in my living room and that is where I decided to put some Christmas lights and the house. LOVING IT!

Mantel shelf for CHRISTMAS!

Worked on our Mantel shelf for Chirstmas! (That is a link to my Home Projects Blog).

Yes, already working on Christmas decor because some things have to be worked on early to prepare for decorations. Here is a picture as a teaser.

I love the atmosphere at night with mood lighting!

Our guest room gets new closets

DH finally is finishing up our guest closet.
Click here
for that link to see the PICTURES!

Cloche for my shells!

I got a wonderful gift from my friend Judith yesterday! What a special week for me! I had this wooden stand made from a candle holder and a cheese board. I had the short cheese/cloche on top, and I tried the new etched glass one that Judith gave me. Great fit! This one is taller, so I will be able to display something taller in it now and with the etching on the glass it makes whatever I put in there more special! She has been teaching me how to take better pictures. She is such a wonderful gal! Thanks Judith, I just love it!
(Also in the picture is a small jar with lavender from my yard, and dried leeks in the tall jar from our vegetable garden)

I moved the cloche to the guest room and added a bird on a stand from Pier One and will add more shells.

Pumkins! Mercury Glass

The mailman brought me a package this week. I didn't order it! It was a wonderful gift from my friend Chris! It was such a wonderful surprise I had to call her right away to tell her how excited I was! It was 3 beautiful mercury glass-style pumpkins from Wisteria! I thought it would be a great opportunity to photograph them this morning as I was preparing to have some tea and a scone (baked date & pecan yesterday) Thank you so much Chris, I love them!

I introduced these treasures to my tea set. I also ran out into the yard to pick some dusty miller and magnolia branches to have greenery on the tray. I do not do much for fall decoration, but Chris really got me excited about those pumpkins!I just had to have them pose in a few ways for me!Here is the picture including my strawberries and scones. They sure were good! But somehow the setting made them taste even better!Thanks again to Chris who made me feel extra special this week for no reason! And she always is such a great friend!

Other tea time posts link here.

My RL Polo knockoff linen part 2!

Ralph Lauren Linen Part I link for reference

Master Bedroom. Trying out the other pieces I have gathered to pull this room together.
This morning I was playing with the faux books I got at TJMaxx yesterday. I wanted to 'age' them a bit and put a layer of wax on them so they would have a dull sheen and be protected. I wanted to use them as a lift for my lamp. This shot shows the side of the book that would be the pages. There was only solid gold color on this part, so I dry brushed some steaks and made lots of pencil lines! I also put black paint on the deeper parts of the texture (has light texturing on the cover part) and then lighter sepia brown on the raised parts and in the corners to show wear type markings.
This picture shows the cover and how the black and lighter browns made the book seem like it ahd deeper texturing. ($9 each at TJM).
This picture shows the lamp and some items I gathered to make a vignette on the night stand. This is a buffet table I had and it just slid in this spot (44" wide). I had this mahogany candle holder for years and just waited for the right moment to use it. DH drilled a hole in the metal piece that holds a taper candle and inserted a thick copper wire for me. I wanted to mount a real shell on it.
This morning I picked up a real starfish that I wanted to put on the table and decided it would fit on that wire! This picture shows a standing a bit further back to show that night stand with a bit of the new bedding I am making (RL knockoff) to see how they looked together. The bed is not made, I just put everything on the bed quickly to take a picture and a feel for how all the parts go together.
The bedding is not complete (the bedskirt is the old turquoise one) will be replacing it. This gives me a view of what prospective homebuyers will see as they approach this 'staged' Master bedroom.