Favorite Whites

First of all, I'd like to apologize to all of my blogging friends for not "making my rounds", as regularly as I normally try to, and to my readers for not posting last week. I've got something big in the works. I wish I could share the news with you right now, but for the time being, I've got to keep a lid on it. Look for an announcement in the next week or so. Since I've been unable to work around the house, I thought I'd share some of my favorite white things with you to celebrate another White Wednesday.

This is part of the vignette that I arranged on the shelf of the recycled dresser mirror that I posted about a short time back.



It's quite simple....just an apothecary jar filled with seashells, a small architectural fragment and a little milk glass sugar bowl that has lost its lid.

This is my take on an "artsy" shot of a sconce that I revamped some time ago. It was one of those gold 3-armed syrocco pieces that I spray painted white and then sanded a little of the paint off to reveal some underlying gold. I added some crystals to it for good measure and did a similar treatment on a mirror to hang above it.


This is part of what is probably my favorite vignette in the house...one that sits atop an old piano. This little cherub is watching over a small bouquet of white roses.


This rose is part of an arrangement in a large crystal vase...also on top of the piano.


Don't ask me why I included this...It's just a piece of moulding on an Art Deco style dresser that I painted white, but I like it, so here it is...


Here's another of my cherubs. This one is an inexpensive garden statue, but I rather like the perch I created for her. It consists of an old rusty standing ashtray that I found in a freebie pile and topped with a small round vintage vanity mirror.


And finally, a crusty old urn filled with spools of white thread.


And a close-up of the thread. Isn't it funny how some of the simplest things can be quite beautiful?

Again, my apologies for leaving you with a "quickie" today. I think you'll understand when I share my news in the very near future.

Until next time,
Sheilla

I'll be linking up with "White Wednesday" at Faded Charm. Come on over and check things out at Kathleen's fantastic blog!

Cherubs

I love cherubs. They tend to occupy many little niches of my home. Recently I visited a truly gorgeous blog, Miss Gracie's House, where I was inspired by her beautiful sepia photography so I thought I'd try my hand at some sepia tinting and show you a few of my cherubs....in sepia.

This cherub greets you from my front porch.

This one is just above the front door...

Many cherubs reside on top of my piano...

Here are a few of them...

And a few more...

And another...

These cherubs are on one of my pillow covers.

This one is a recent find I'm not sure exactly where she'll wind up yet.

I hope you've enjoyed meeting a few of my "little beauties".

Until next time,

I'm linking up with "White Wednesday" at Faded Charm. Come on over and check things out!

One Thing Leads to Another...

A short time ago, I purchased a long-coveted sofa from a friend of mine, and realized that with the new addition, a new scheme in the living and dining areas of the house would be necessary.

Fortunately, I had a “look” in mind, based on a vignette that I already had in the house and wanted to expand upon.
I love the crisp romance of the black and white photo and the serenity of the white busts and cherubs that occupy the top of the piano, and knew that I wanted more of this look.

In anticipation of the arrival of the sofa, I began to make a few minor changes, the most important of which was the hutch display. In keeping with my craving for white, I removed my pink flowered dishes and replaced them with the white ones that are trimmed in gold.

Unfortunately, the bright turquoise background of the hutch, which had offset the pink and white dishes so beautifully, clashed miserably with the white and gold ones.

I thought about a color for the background, and decided upon a smokey gray; Something understated, but not white, as I wanted the dishes to stand out. It turned out to be a good choice. Good enough, in fact, to become the basis of my new color scheme.

Since I painted my walls a lovely pale shade of robin's egg blue last year, I've decided to stay with it. In keeping with the new direction, however, I'm planning to change the trim color from pale pink to pale gray. The photo below some of the fabrics and accessories that I've been gathering for use in the room.

As you can see, I've chosen a palatte of robin's egg blue with some grays along with silver and gold. All of this with a very healthy dose of white. I've chosen some formal and informal fabrics as well as modern, traditional, and vintage ones. I think it's going to be a fun mix. Now to figure out the guest/sewing room.... Stay tuned to see how it all comes out!

Until next time,

All Around the House

Welcome back! My last post took you onto the porch and through the front door of my house at Christmas-time. I like to sprinkle Christmas all through the house, though, so this time

we'll do the "grand tour" of my little cottage.
While not always in keeping with the color scheme, I love to sprinkle vintage Christmas decorations such as the 1950's Santa cutout (above), throughout the house. I think the vintage touches take a bit of the edge off a themed decor and lend a warm, cozy feel to the place. Over the last couple of years I've started

collecting vintage reindeer. They remind me of a set that my family had during my childhood. These are displayed on the chest that I featured in the Chest of Drawers Redo post.

Another collection that I like to scatter around the house is mini Christmas trees.

I've tucked at least one in just about every vignette in the house including the one here on the sofa table, where I've concentrated my blue decorations. By the way, that's my darling

Lucy, all decked out in her holiday clothes perched up on the edge of the sofa.

As I mentioned earlier, my house has an open floor plan, so the sofa doubles as a room divider to the dining room, which is one of my favorite places to decorate for the holidays.

The hutch is home to many of my vintage treasures. This little Santa Claus is one of my favorites.

The photo above shows the antique cast iron stove doing server duty for the punch bowl at my Christmas open house.

While the hutch and stove are large focal point pieces, I think sometimes it's the small touches that tend to add the most charm. For instance, I like to use touches of greenery, whether real or artificial wherever I can find a good spot. My sconce is shown here with a

garland of artificial foliage accenting the candle base. The candle chandelier, which hangs over the dining room table is one of my trash to treasure pieces. I literally rescued this

outdated brass chandelier from a trash heap and revamped it with a coat of white paint and some crystals. For the holidays, it also gets a touch of greenery.

A couple more of my flea market "fixer-upers", this mirror and triple sconce seem to also lend themselves well to a bit of festive foliage. I used some fresh clippings from the woods here.

Moving on, you'll see that I've decorated the kitchen in a more whimsical style. This handmade Raggedy Ann is made from wood and buttons. She's right at home perched on a shelf along-side a little rocking horse and some primitive Christmas trees. An assortment of vintage red-work linens is displayed on the towel bars below.

Futher indulging the child within, this shelf is home to a collection of tattered but much-loved old Raggedy Ann dolls.

Here are a few more of my vintage dolls.

Finally, we arrive at the smallest room of the house, the bathroom.

I like to keep a bowl of fresh face cloths handy, and around Christmas, they're jazzed up a bit with the addition of a few glass ornaments and some silver napkin rings.

The vanity tray also receives a holiday makeover. The red bottle brush Christmas tree is one of my favorite decorations.
I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my Christmas cottage. I'm already getting excited about Christmas 2010! Just a couple of weeks ago I picked up a 1960's aluminum Christmas tree at a yard sale, so you can be assured that next year's decor will be quite different! For me, putting it all together again in a new way is part of the fun of the holidays. I hope that perhaps you've gathered an idea or two that you can use in your own holiday decor. I'd love to see what you're doing, so, if you don't mind sharing, send me your photos and they just might wind up in a future blog post!

Until next time,

Christmas in August

On my way to the post office I passed a sign at the elementary school for a Christmas in August dinner. “What a great idea,” I thought, as I drove by. Since Christmas is my favorite holiday and I really can’t get enough of it, I thought I’d do my own little Christmas in August celebration here on my blog, and share some photos of last year’s holiday décor.

Welcome to my home at Christmas Time!

For Christmas, I dressed up the plant stand in some festive greenery. Last year my fall plantings were still holding up in December, so I incorporated theses into the display along with my white pumpkin from Thanksgiving. I really liked the greenery cut from the woods behind the house tucked into the planters with white Dusty Miller.

I dressed my cherub girls up in red hats and plaid scarves, to take the chill off, and decked the neary planters in poinsettas and fresh greenery. My favorite outdoor decoration, however, was a Charlie Brown Christmas tree

that I dug from the woods myself. You can get a peek at it in the top photo. But enough of outdoors... come on in out of the cold and have a look inside...

Because my cottage is small, I like using a four foot tree on a table top in order to save space. This tends to keep the gifts safe from curious pets as well! For my tree and the area around it, I chose pinks, whites and golds as a color scheme.

The ornaments are mostly vintage glass with some handmade and "non-ornaments" mixed in for good measure. The pink pears were originally green plastic that I covered with pink glitter. I also repurposed other items such as skeleton keys and small teacups as ornaments.

But what's a tree without lots of presents underneath? One of my favorite activities leading up to Christmas is wrapping gifts. I like to keep them in the same color scheme as my tree. For the gift on the right, I used wedding

paper in a white lacy print with a bow made from white and gold wired ribbon. The one on the left was wrapped in the same paper and embellished with vintage metallic ribbon and a reindeer ornament.

In keeping with the color scheme, I also used some solid pink and white giftwrap along with a pink roses print. The package in the foreground on the right was wrapped in wallpaper! You might recognize this chair and the table that the tree is on from my summer porch arrangement. I like to bring it in for the winter and use it in my Christmas décor. I made the "Joy" garland hanging on the chair from letters cut from cardboard and covered in wrapping paper.
The picture above shows the bookcase in the corner of my office near the tree. It houses part of my collection of dog figurines and has been dressed for the holidays with a tiny tree of its own, which is nestled in a teacup.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my Christmas house so far, but we're barely through the front door. I hope you'll join me for my next post, and I'll show you the rest of the place.

Until next time,