Merry and Bright

Even though we always go home to the US for Christmas, we still like to get in the spirit at home and decorate the house a bit and I always send Christmas cards. We use Tiny Prints for our photo cards. Sometimes I have photos of all of us, but this year I chose two photos of the girls. I always find styles I like from their selection. This year we bought a small tree and put it on a table. It's just about the same height as Lois and fits our favorite ornaments perfectly. Lois actually carried it home herself! 

Looks a lot like Christmas

This year we have our very first real Christmas tree as a little family! In the past we've put up 2 very small synthetic trees, in part because we're usually away from home for Christmas, and because we don't have a whole lot of ornaments.  The little trees have always been nice, but I was hoping for a real tree this year.  About two weeks ago, though, I pulled out the ornament box, and well, it didn't have many ornaments in it.  It was a very small box, much smaller than I was expecting.  I've been collecting ornaments here and there the last few years to build up an amount that might fill a tree, but I still didn't have very many (I swear some are missing because I feel pretty certain we have a lot more).  So I told Andrew that maybe we'd wait till next year to have a tree. I like to pick ornaments one at a time, or a few at a time at the flea market, or get them on sale at Anthropologie after Christmas. So I decorated the two little trees and called it a day. I packed up the rest of the cute ornaments and put them back in their box to be stored until next year, which made me a little sad because we're staying home this year.  I was sad, that is, until Andrew walked in door with a Christmas tree!!

He was wearing a big o'l smile, ear to ear, a smile so big and one I've only seen on him a few times.  He smiles a lot, but I'm talking Joker big.  He was so excited to bring home a tree.  He said we have to have a tree for Lois's first Christmas (well technically her second, but she was just tiny last year, and we weren't here for Christmas anyway).  We put the tree in the stand, and I got out our little ornament box and decorated the tree.  It looks so beautiful.  I love it!  It doesn't even really matter that the ornaments are a little sparse--with some tinsel, candy canes, and christmas cards stuffed in the tree (a family tradition), it looks just right.  And I think I'll go to the flea market this weekend to see if I can find a few more vintage ornaments.

I took these pictures with our new camera and lens, not my iPhone for a change.  The camera is awesome!  Initally I took a few pictures and thought they were pretty good.  I put them on my computer and made some adjustments in Lightroom.  Later, though, I checked out Greg Miller's blog when I was doing a few minutes of blog reading.  He's one of my favorite photographers, and I'm always so impressed with his pictures.  I saw on his blog that he just posted about decorating his tree. I love the pictures, and decided I should have another go at mine. My post inspiration pictures are much better, I think, than my first attempt.

We don't have many Christmas presents yet, but the best thing under the tree yesterday was a cutie named Lois, all wrapped up in her Christmas dress. As usual it was hard getting pictures of her, but this one turned out pretty well and is one of my favorites.  I love how her arm is showing and still looks really chubby.

After all that work, some hot chocolate with whipped cream was in order.  It was a festive afternoon.

Come On In

Welcome to our little bedroom. Warm colors; late afternoon light. It's cozy in here. Right now it is anyway, thanks in large part to this wool blanket I bought recently at a local antique shop. I love the colors--yellow, orange, red, dark green, and navy blue. It warms our room right up and looks perfect for fall.


And this is a bedspread I've had for years that also looks nice and fall-ish. I use it all year, but it looks especially fitting now. I think my mom gave it to me.


There's Mr. Hoots peeking up from the bed (another great repurposed sweater treasure from Lorigami). And here's the shutter headboard that I'm, well, bored with. But it actually looks good with the other things in our room right now. And hanging on the shutters is this very interesting, worn out, folk art kitty. I found it at the flea market the weekend before last and loved it. When I saw the heart in its chest and the fish in its belly, I laughed and thought it was so cute. There's also a bird on its back. It was $8. At first I sort of thought I was crazy for buying it. It doesn't have the same look or feel that I'm normally drawn to, but I love it. I asked myself if John Derian would buy it. I love his flea market style. I thought maybe he would like it. Oh, yes, and Andrew likes it too. $8 well spent. Maybe. Mr. Kitty is quite worn out.

I love the embroidered pillowcases on our bed. Lisa gave them to me when she found out I was preggers. They have three little lambs jumping over a fence. Momma, daddy, and baby.

And this is the little corner of our room that I see from the bed. A few of my favorite things: a very sweet framed note, an "L" that Lauren gave me, a silhouette of a little girl that I bought in a thrift store in Zurich, a very small family photo, and a black and white photo that I've always liked.

Our lady head vase holding my wedding bouquet, which is quite dry and crisp after 6 years.

My favorite plant stand. I had to avoid the top or else you would have seen the saddest half-dead plant ever. I keep trying to revive it, but I think it's just time for a new plant. Looks like that glass could use some windex!

One of my favorite pictures of Lois, her 3 month birthday picture, beside the bed.

More family pictures. That's my mom there in the little picture (a very old picture, one that she thinks is silly that I have framed), and a picture of my nephew, Cash. Andrew's side of the bed still looks a little bit like this (except now he has a collection of glass telephone insulators along with his other things).

An old box for holding jewelry.

Mr. Hoots on the orange velvet chair. I wanted to have this chair reupholstered, and still do, but right now, it looks good in its burnt orange glow.

This wire card display is next to my bed. I keep all of my cards and like to read them every now and then.

This soldier stands guard and protects me while I sleep. I had to take his sword away though because it was dangerous. (Really, though, it just fell out and I was afraid Lois will get a hold of it, so I put it away.) I love this lamp. I've had it for a long time, at least 10 years or so, and it's always been in my room. I don't remember buying it, so that likely means my mom gave it to me. The lampshade is painted black, which is why it looks streaked.

A pedestal bowl of seashells under the window. I should probably switch them out for something more fall-ish, but they still look pretty.

And one of my recent little pillows. This one I'm keeping. I think I'll add a door and some smoke (buttons) to the chimney like I did with the other one. Home sweet home.

Hope you enjoyed the tiny tour. Our room looks better to me in pieces than it does as a whole, so it's still not quite where I want it to be, but at least I like being in there right now. Maybe one day it will feel just right.

My Style

What a goof I am! I just realized a day after I wrote this post that I think Lauren meant for me to show a picture NOT from my place, but from some other random place that expresses my style. Oh well, I already wrote this ridiculously long post about it, so I'm leaving it!

Lauren of Dear Golden tagged me to choose one photo that bests describes my design style. A fun game of tag! It's hard to pick one picture, but I think the one above would have to be it, for now anyway. This is the wall in front of our sofa, so it's what we see most of the time when we're at home. It pretty much sums up everything that's important to me in my design style--surrounding myself with things that are old, personal, and warm. What to call it, though--my style--I'm not really sure. What would I call it? "Flea market country" maybe, but I hesitate to use the word "country" because it seems to have such a bad reputation these days. I think it conjures up images of stenciled chickens and old teddy bears--poor "country" it's gone "rooster chic" as Decorno put it. Whatever you call it, it runs in my family, starting with my grandma. If you went to any one of my family member's houses, you'd notice we're all related just by looking around even though we all have our own personal style. I still don't really know how to incorporate Andrew's style more with mine, but one day maybe we'll get there. Lucky for me, he likes my style as it is.

In general, I like old things that make me wonder about their past lives--old painted furniture, old oil paintings, old rusty wrought iron, old wicker, old linens. Old things just have a lot of character to me. Like the painting above, I bought it for $15, I think it was, at a flea market near my mom's house in McDonough, Georgia, and it's one of my favorite things. I wonder about the person who painted it, where that little stream is--if it's a real place or just a place in the painter's imagination--I wonder what time of day it was supposed to be. Sometimes it looks like morning, sometimes evening. I wonder where it was that the frame got all scratched up. In some box in a garage for years? I also like that the water makes me think of my mom who loves the water.

I also like spaces that are personalized. My nephew's silhouettes are on this wall, and a few of the paintings are by my uncle who's an artist. Every year he paints something for all of us for Christmas. There's a little winter scene on the wall (just above the bar) that he did one year. Also, Connie, one of my grandma's closest friend's, paints a version of the Madonna every Christmas and prints copies of the original and mounts them on her Christmas cards. I have quite a growing collection now and have this one, above, framed on our wall.

I also like framed letters. It doesn't get more personal than that, does it? I just have this one note from a friend in high school framed right now, but I keep all my letters and cards (lots of others from high school, which are really funny to read), so I have plenty to choose from if I ever do get around to framing more.

And family pictures--I love lots of family pictures, but, for me, I only like them displayed on dressers and tables. I don't really like family pictures on walls unless it's one whole wall dedicated to family pictures. I think I get this from my mom and grandma, too--that's just how they do with family pictures.

Lastly, (gosh, I'm going on and on, aren't I) we always try to bring something home from our travels to remind us where we've been. There are little things here and there all around our apartment that we've brought home. The little girl silhouette I got at a thrift store in Zurich. She's cute and now reminds me of being there.

My mom is probably most responsible for my style, in large part because she gave me so many things that I have, like the painting above, another one of my favorite things.

So I think that about sums it up! Lois' room is my favorite room in our apartment though. I like it more than our own bedroom. Enough about that, though, now I guess it's my turn to tag, so I tag Lisa and Caroline to show one picture (or some pictures!) that best describes their design style. Hope ya'll don't mind!

For Baby From Connie

On Saturday I brought in the mail and set in on the table in a pile without really looking through it. Then I headed to the baby room to put some things away. While I was in there I was looking at some of my favorite cards and thought I should get some frames for a few of them for the baby room. Specifically I was looking at the Beth Mackenzie card. Then I went back to the mail and found a package from Connie mixed in the shuffle of everything. I was excited to see the package because she always sends me the most thoughtful things. In the package was this old book and another Beth Mackenzie card! Connie said she's had the book for 41 years. It will be perfect for the baby's growing collection of books and now I think I'll frame both Beth Mackenzie cards together. Thanks Connie! (Click on the picture to read the card.)

Happiness Is . . . Finding Beautiful Cards

A few days ago I bought some of these beautiful cards on etsy, which I originally saw on Poppytalk. I think they're so pretty and so sweet. You might wonder why in world I'm buying Christmas cards when I make them myself. Well, I'm a bit of a card junkie, and I don't always send out my own cards anyway. I send out some, but I like so many cards, I can't resist buying other cards and sending them out as well. I just love cards! I keep all the cards people send to me.

Here's a my rickety, old, paint chipped metal card rack that my mom bought for me at a flea market. It's filled with all sorts of cards. Every now and then I read through some of the good wishes and kind words that live on my card rack and think about how grateful I am for receiving them. I have a few boxes full of cards under my bed too, which are mostly from my mom. I started collecting her cards first. I also have a drawer full of blank cards yet to be sent--cards I just liked so much and knew would be perfect for someone, someday that I had to buy them. And when I buy a pack of cards, I almost always keep one, just for the sake of keeping it. I try really hard to send that last one out, but usually never can.


I'll definitely keep one of these "happiness is" cards. The card reads, "happiness is a fresh blanket of snow." And what a cute, curious bunny that is! I just want to pat its little cotton tail. I also like how Erika describes the card: "When snow is falling in the woods, and you can hear it. When all is quiet, and animals don't even know you're there. I imagine a tree somewhere that's been decorated for this time of year. The colors are inspired by memories of childhood--going to bed when it's snowing heavily, cold winter days, blankets of snow on trees and on the ground, looking into my backyard forest. One of our favorite books in the house is this darling little newsprint book by Charles Schulz called Happiness is a Warm Puppy where the characters of the Peanuts cartoon tell what happiness means to them. "Happiness is a good climbing tree; happiness is a night light; happiness is . . . happiness is a blanket of fresh snow . . . this is what happiness is to me this time of year."

This card makes me happy. It also makes me happy that now we're at my mom's house in Atlanta for Christmas, and soon the cards should arrive here in the mail. I think it will be too late to send them out this Christmas. Lucky for me, then, I get to keep them until next Christmas.

The Plum Tree

Last weekend my mom and I stopped into my favorite McDonough (south of Atlanta) antique store--The Plum Tree. Cindy and Dawn are so good at making everything look its best. Every inch of this shop is filled with treasures! Here are a few pictures from The Plum Tree. Every week they update their store blog with pictures of new merchandise, so check it out. Probably my most favorite thing in the shop right now is this old metal leaf and flower wreath. I love it.






My Plum Tree purchase: a chicken feeder that I'll use to display cards at craft shows.