Last day of the Christmas tour….

Today, we will finish the tour of the Christmas decorations in my home. 

One of my absolute favorite decorations is my nativity.  It is made by Lladro and was collected piece by painstaking piece over many years.  My husband and parents were very happy during those years because they always knew what to get me for Christmas.  Isn’t it breathtaking?

Can you believe that this is in my kitchen?  But, the computer desk top is the perfect display space for it and in this house, the only room for it was in the eating area of the kitchen.

In front of the computer desk is the kitchen table.  Here is a picture of the table top.

I had a bright idea to put wreaths on the back of the kitchen chairs.  They are cute, but the dollar store only had three.  I bought them thinking I could find another later, but so far, I haven’t.  So, it looks a little funny….

This is what is on top of our fridge:

This is on one of the kitchen walls.

This is my favorite new Christmas decor.  I am going to have a really hard time taking this down afer the holidays – I might just leave it up for awhile.  It is hanging in the entryway over a coat rack.  This picture definitely does not do it justice – it is absolutely stunning.  It is handpainted by the very, very talented Jennifer Macneill Traylor from Gypsy Mare Studios.  For a delightful read, beautiful photographs and to see what gorgeous work she is creating, please visit her blog The Mare’s Tales. 

Couldn’t that be me, dressed all in my favorite color, being pulled along by my beautiful black Dancer?    Well, probably  not really, unless I wanted to take my life into my hands.  I am not sure she would love dragging something behind her. 

And, speaking of Dancer, you didn’t think I would forget her, did you?  This is the wreath on her stall, complete with horseshoe ribbon.

Ok, sorry for the detour.  Now to finish the rest of my house – this is down the hallway.  Since we do not have a fireplace or a hearth (what is it with not having fireplaces whenever we live anywhere cold where we could use them?  We had one in Montgomery, Alabama and Charleston, South Carolina, but not in North Dakota, Germany or Kansas. Sigh.) Anyway, this is where we hang our stockings.

Also in this hallway, I hung two yard sale picture frames that I converted to chalkboards.  On them, I put quotations from one of my favorite Christmas songs.  I wish my handwriting were better…

At the end of the hall is our bedroom, where I hung sparkly little reindeer from the dollar store over our bed.

To conclude the tour, let’s slip outside for a moment…  (Don’t you just love how on the night I go out to take the picture, the lights go out on one of the stars?)

I’ll leave you for today with a close-up of the swag I made (yes, made) using lots of ideas and suggestions from the blog world.  And, again, due to our lack of fireplace and mantle, my creative endeavor had to go outside.  But, more people see it this way, I guess. 

Christmas in the dining room….

As promised, the Christmas tour of my house continues in the dining room today.  In this house, the dining and living room are actually all one.  But, there is a lot of Christmas to see, so I decided to break it up into two posts.  Want to see the rest of the living room decorations?  Check out yesterday’s post.

This is the dining room table.  It has a gold colored table cloth left over from Thanksgiving.  On top of that are two lovely evergreen tree lace table toppers I got at the famous Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas store in Rothenburg Germany.  (Tired of hearing about Germany?)  The reindeer candle holders are new for this year.  I got them at Hobby Lobby last week at half price!  They were the last two….I am telling you ladies, this year, if you wait until the day after Christmas, there isn’t going to be anything left in the stores!  I love them.  I filled them with jingle bells from the dollar store.  Around them, I grouped a little crystal bowl filled with small ornaments and a floral pick from the dollar store and two larger ornaments on crystal candlestick holders.  I haven’t ever done this before, but I think I really like how it turned out.  What do you think?

This is the buffet….

This is a close up (albeit a blurry one) of the gorgeous ornament on the first shelf:

Here is the china cabinet.  I have a collection of green glass in there year-round, but toss in a few sprigs of red berries and it looks very Christmas-y.  I also added some sparkly gold ornaments from the dollar store and a few Christmas decorations I had and ta-da!

Tomorrow, I will show you the kitchen and some other miscellaneous things (including my most favorite new Christmas decoration).

Christmas time is here….

Since you haven’t heard from me in over three months, I thought I might ease my way back into your good graces with a Christmas post.  I have always, always loved Christmas.  I get totally wrapped up in the fun and excitement of the season.  When we lived in Germany, I was in heaven – those Germans really know how to elevate the holiday season to a whole new level – Christmas markets – hot spiced wine – beautiful and unusual decorations.  I really have to exercise self control not to start decorating the house or listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  My husband, on the other hand, is the opposite.  I think every year he says “we don’t really need to have a Christmas tree this year, right?”  What?!?  I never really know if he means it or not, but needless to say, this is our 13th Christmas tree.    I am not even sure why he complains, since the output he expends in decorating for Christmas is very, very minimal. 

No matter – I am up to the task.  And, this year, despite our house being one of the smallest since our very first apartment, I have really gone overboard with the decorating.  I just can’t seem to stop.  Seriously, I think I have added something to the decorations every day since Thanksgiving!  And, the shopping – my goodness!  Seems like everyone is having sales this year before Christmas and I have been taking full advantage.  So, come on in, look around and soak up some holiday cheer.

This is the view coming in the front door.  Don’t you just love that beautiful golden deer?  I attended a Holiday Table Display at the Wichita Arts Center back in November and I saw this deer decorating one of the tables.  I had to have him! 

Here is a shot of the tree.  Sort of blurry, but you get the idea. It is very traditional and filled with a variety of ornaments we have collected along the way.

And, here is one of our favorite ornaments.  It is a glass santa made in Poland.  We bought it at a Christmas Market booth in Strasburg, France.  The picture doesn’t even do it justice.  The detail is amazing.

And, speaking of Santas, here is my Russian Santa collection. 

The German Christmas village:

And, the German Christmas Market display:

And, here are two close-ups:

This is the pyramid from Germany:

Here is the picture hanging above it – a depiction of the Strasburg Christmas Market.  I love this picture – sorry about the glare from the flash, but it was too dark to do without it.

I have two poinsettias in a basket on the table beside the couch.  They were left over from the Thanksgiving decorations.

That’s the living room.  Tomorrow – the tour continues in the dining room.

House Tour, part 2…

You have already seen the living/dining area in our little house.  Now it is time to introduce you to my little bathroom.  This is the bathroom right off the master bedroom and my husband decided it could be mine, while he would use the larger bathroom in the hallway.  I am delighted with this arrangement – I now have my own little domain!  It was bland and dirty (50 years worth of dirt in the grout between the tiles on the floor) when we moved it.  I spent hours scrubbing with baking soda paste and it made a big difference.  I also chose a very bold paint color called Eucalyptus Leaf by Behr (available at the Home Depot).  [apologies in advance - these are not professional photographs - not that you have come to expect "professional" when it comes to the G.E. blog]

This is the shot of the bathroom from the doorway.  The shower stall is to the left, but that is about it…it is very small!

This is the wall across from the toilet.  You can barely see the little wire shelf underneath the towel rack in this photo.  It makes a tight space even tighter, but I had to do something because the only storage in this bathroom is directly under the sink and in the medicine cabinet.  I just needed a little more than that.  What were two people supposed to do in this bathroom?

This is a little watercolor of the Spanish Steps in Rome that we purchased from a street vendor during one of our many trips to that fair city when we lived in Germany.  It is really cute and it “matches” the aquas and browns used in this bathroom perfectly.  This photo really doesn’t do it justice.

And, finally, a word about the window dressing….my husband warned me that he did not want me spending a lot of money buying “curtains and stuff” when we moved into our new house.  Well, to me, that is just one of the costs of moving…it seems like nothing you had in your old house works in your new space.  But, after having read and received inspiration from many thrifty home decorating blogs, I came up with an inexpensive solution.  These are two kitchen hand towels, folded over and clipped to curtain rings and then threaded on a $9 cafe rod.  I am sure interior designers all over the world experienced a sharp pain in the back of their collective skulls the moment I installed this bad boy – it isn’t going to win any design awards, that is for sure.  But, it was really easy, it does add some color to the bathroom, it does help to “finish” my windows.  So, it is good enough for me.  Plus, in my own tiny realm, I am queen and what I say goes.  [And, when I get around to the kitchen tour, you will see this "technique" again.]

My dream tv stand…

Before we left Montgomery, I tried to talk to my husband about purchasing a piece of furniture that could be used as a holder for our big screen television and assorted audio/visual accouterments.  After I went out scouring the town for our choices, he refused to consider purchasing anything.  He thought we shouldn’t spend the money so close to our move.  When I pushed him on where we would put the television (because I know this is an important subject to him), he said that we would make do with something we had for a while.  So, the tv is sitting on a sofa table and the cable box, blu-ray player and stereo components are sitting on the ground. 

Obviously, this is less than satisfactory.  So, almost as soon as we had this set up, he started talking about buying one of the cheap, plastic entertainment centers that I really hate.   We were stymied – he wanted to buy something cheap and temporary – I still wanted to look for a piece of furniture we could be proud to have in our home.  I spent an entire Saturday going to antique shops here in Wichita, but I didn’t see a single thing that would work. 

I found something great (and cheap) on Craigslist – and although I sent the seller an email the same day that the listing was posted, it had already been purchased by someone else. 

I found a buffet at World Market that was reasonably priced, the right dimensions and ok for the purpose, but somehow, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it.

Then, on a whim, I searched on eBay.  Guess what I found?  The absolute perfect piece of furniture for my purpose.

Maybe this isn’t your style, but I ADORE it.  It is a French antique and it is very similar in style to a china hutch/buffet we bought in Germany that we love, love, love.  See…

The only problem is the price – it is about $600 more than the upper limit of what I had hoped to spend.  (So, it goes without saying that it is about 4x more than what my husband would have liked to have spent.)  Also, it is located in New Jersey!  The seller is an antiques dealer and he offered in the listing to help arrange for shipping.  How much would that be, I wondered.  I tried, but I just couldn’t get this out of my mind.  So, I emailed the seller and explained that while I loved the piece, it was already over my budget.  I asked how the shipping would work….he replied and offered to do it for $100.  Basically, it sounds like it comes on a moving van whenever the company has one going by my area of the country.  That could take anywhere from 30 to 60 days…but, $100 is a good deal.  The shipping company is fully bonded, licensed and insured.  The seller has a 100% positive feedback rating. 

I have emailed my husband to lay out my case and have broken into a cold sweat awaiting his reply.

Copper is content…

In the photos from yesterday, I neglected to take a picture of the little reading nook in the living room.  Here is Copper enjoying it last evening:

Sleeping dogs sure are cute!

Hello Wichita…

I am not dead – just overworked.  Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I now have so much to share, I should be able to do a post every day this week to make it up to you.  I thought I would start out with some photos of the new digs.

Here is the exterior – no one said government housing was exciting from the outside…

The houses on this side of the base are 50 years old.  And, I must admit that when I saw the inside of the home, it was not as bad as I had feared.  And, I am doing my best to give it personality and warmth and make it our own.

Here is a picture of the living room:

I am sitting in the reading chair in the corner to take this picture.  Notice that I painted the walls in this room a peanut-buttery color.  I just couldn’t stand all off-white everywhere I looked.  I think it really warmed up the space.  I would have liked to keep on going, but the big china cabinets were already placed in the dining area and I just couldn’t move them.  Note: I did this painting while my husband was gone for a week.  I knew that he wouldn’t want me to do it (mainly because of the hassle of having to repaint everything to off-white before we move), but once something is done, it is done.  So, I did it.  To try to make the repaint easier, I did leave a tape line at the bottom and at the top of the wall (kind of like a fake molding), but that will mean that we can just slap the off white up there when we leave without having to worry so much about edging.  (I hope!)

Here is the view of the other side of the room – the chair I was sitting in to take the first shot:

Hmmm….I can almost hear you wondering about that lovely entertainment center.  Remember the argument I had about it with my husband before we left Montgomery?  (Read about that here.)  Almost immediately, my husband started talking about going out and buying some “cheap, plastic tv stand” to put all of the electronics in/on.  I almost flipped!  I reminded him about how he wouldn’t let me buy something in Montgomery and that I knew he was going to want something right away in Kansas.  So, we made do with this sofa table we already have.  It isn’t a permanent solution and at least it buys me some time to look for something else.  Sheesh!

Here is a picture of the kitchen.  I will need to show you some more in here later, including my ingenious window “mis”treatment (to use a term coined by one of my blogging idols, The Nester).  But, for now, this is all I have:

The beautiful linoleum floors in here have a definite pink hue to them.  My grandmother would love them, but I hate them.  So, I am just choosing to pretend that they aren’t even there.  I am not decorating around them or trying to find things to match them.  I am just setting up my kitchen as if the floors were taupe tiles or slate.  (I wish!)  I also wish I could paint these cabinets white and add knobs (but I really, really cannot).  I could paint in here, and I still might, but going around all of the cabinetry is quite a challenge.  Especially when I would have to do it again in two years.  So, laziness might win out on this one.

Here is our truly lovely backyard:

And eating area on the back porch – we have used this already a few times.

Copper loves it back here because squirrels and birds come on to the ground to pick up seeds they dropped from the feeder in the trees and Copper can stalk and chase them to her hearts content. 

Of course, sometimes it is absolutely too hot to be outside for more than a millisecond.  I am very surprised to find the great plains are so hot!  All last week we had highs in the lower 100s and lots of humidity too.  I thought I was going to get a break from some of that by leaving Alabama.  So far this week, we have had a cold front from the north, bringing our temps down into the 90s and it does feel much, much more reasonable.  Weird.

Well, that is all for now.   I will be back tomorrow with more pictures of the house and I hope to get some pictures of the new stables too.

More yard sales…

It is time for the weekly edition of other people’s trash to Mandy’s treasure!

Despite the fact that I am suffering from a summer cold (hate those!), I managed to get out of bed on Saturday morning and head over to a neighborhood yard sale.  If it hadn’t been a neighborhood wide event, I probably would have skipped yard-saleing this weekend.  I also had to make an appearance at a barn work-day, so I couldn’t spend the day lounging in bed as I would have liked.  As it was, I got a late start (after 7:00!) heading to the yard sales and I was worried that I might have already missed out on everything. 

I hit many, many sales – I think eight or nine in all.  Sometimes I found a few things, other times I did not.  I did not find the elusive belgian waffle-maker, but never fear – I am sure persistance will pay off in the end.  Here is what I did find:

Two gold plastic chargers for $.75 each.  I use these alot during the holidays as underplates at the table or candleholders.

A set of ceramic pumpkin salt and pepper shakers and a little ceramic lidded pumpkin designed to hold a tealight inside.  This will go great in my fall decorations and I LOVE all things pumpkin.  $.75 for all.  This was also the sale where I gave the cutest little girl one dollar for the tiniest, yet tartest cup of lemonade.  I am a sucker for cute kids selling un-palatable drinks.

Costume jewelry set of pearls for $.75.  I love pearls - but already have several strands.  I am thinking of giving these as a gift or using them in some other creative way.  Wrapped around a package?  Especially a wedding shower gift?  If you have any other great ideas, be sure to let me know in the comments section.

This cute little lamp for $3.00.  I have been on the lookout for cute little lamps – now I have two.  (I found a little pineapple one last weekend.)  I feel a change of lampshade coming on, but the base is cute as is.

How many of these cheese servers are out there?   I have seen them many times in the past and on many of your blogs.  Of course, I bought it for the glass dome (the wooden base will probably be trashed).  There are so many cute uses for cloches out there.   Now I have one to use when the inspiration strikes me.  $2.00

These little sherbert dishes were only $.10 each.  In my best blog-stalking, copycatting mode, I plan to use them to create pedestal dishes the way I have seen many of you more creative bloggers doing.  Now I am on the lookout for cute (paintable) dishes. 

This pair of paintings was $2.00.  I bought them for their gorgeous frames:

I wasted no time in popping the paintings out and covering them with chalkboard paint.  Now I have two of these:

Some of you might remember this – I picked it up a few weeks ago for $10 at a yard sale.

(sorry about the fact that this picture is so huge compared to the others in this post – I must have been feeling generous when I took this one!)

I removed the mirror and covered the painted back of it with chalkboard paint (I am hoping this holds up).  I removed the hardware, lightly sanded the piece and spraypainted it a light green color. 

It looks good from far away, but up close there are two spots that look like this:

The paint is all buckled and crackled.  This didn’t happen until I applied a top coat of poly.  My other foray into spray painting yard sale finds was a valet for my husband.  I did many light coats of a brown spray paint.  It wasn’t until the very last coat (no poly involved) that this happened:

Has this happned to anyone else?  Can anyone help me?  You all make spray painting look like a cinch. 

Oh, one other thing – I found this sitting out by the road on trash pick up day.  I thought it would make a nice printer stand in my office.   Of course, it needs a fresh coat of paint, so I need to be schooled on my painting skills before I tackle it.

Of course,  I am linking my finds with the fabulous Southern Hospitality blog’s .  Man, she found some AMAZING stuff this weekend.

Why men are difficult…

Here is an example of why I think men (read: my husband) are so difficult. 

Like many of you, we have a large, flat-screened television.  When we (read: my husband) were contemplating purchasing such a huge piece of electronics last year, we (read: me) pondered where in the world this monstrositylovely piece of technology would sit.  We have an armoire for our older, much smaller television.  It has doors that close so that you can close away the TV when you aren’t watching it.  It has shelves in the bottom for the various accouterments of television watching: DVD player, amplifier, cable box.  All of the electrical cords connecting these various things are hidden behind this armoire.  But, alas, this armoire was way too small to hold our new television.  This was such a big problem, that it kept us from buying the new TV while we still lived in Germany.  But, when we moved to our new house in Alabama, we had an extra bedroom and decided to turn it into the “Man Room.”  The old television in its armoire went into the living room and the new TV was placed on top of a dresser.  The components sit on a wicker shelf to the side.  The horrible mass of cords strings between them.  But, this is the Man Room and in the MR, anything goes.  I am not allowed to dictate design in there.  That is why there is a collection of horrid Norwegian Trolls on a shelf.  It is also why sports banners hang on the wall instead of art. 

We are getting ready to move again – this time, into a much smaller house.  We will no longer have a Man Room.  The big television will have to go in the living/family room and the trolls and sports banners will have to remain in boxes.  So, the problem of how to appropriately display this television has reared its head again.  I will not have this in my living room (and truthfully, my husband doesn’t either):

For some reason, I really hate the things that are designed to hold these televisions.  They are too low (in my opinion) and they look like TV stands.  They aren’t versatile at all.  And, with all of the moving we have to do in the military, versatile should be our middle name.  I have always wanted to buy some type of sideboard/buffet/credenza that could be used as a television stand.  But, it would have character and be a nice addition to our home.  It would be something that could be used in a kitchen/dining room/foyer/bedroom/hallway if we ever move to a house that has a built in place for a big screen TV (also, not my favorite).  This piece of furniture needs to be wide enough to hold the TV comfortably and deep enough to hold the components inside.  So, it needs to have doors on the front, not drawers.  Well,  I have been looking and this is apparently a difficult thing to find.

I would love to have this lovely lift cabinet, but it costs over $2K and I hoped to find something for less than half of that.

Maybe something like this:

Or this:

 

They are all over the Internet, but I think it falls into the “you see them everywhere until you need one” category.

The other day, during a discussion about our new house, my husband announced that when we arrive in Wichita, he is going to buy a television stand.  Yikes!  This sent me into a frenzy of shopping.  We went to the Montgomery Antique Mall (where I could swear I found the perfect thing a few weeks ago, but of course it had been sold).  Then, I went by myself to two other antique places and several other stores that have nice wooden furniture that isn’t old, but is made to look like it is.  I found two items that weren’t exactly what I had in mind, but would work for the purpose and that I would happily have in my house.  I came home to show him the pictures I had taken of these pieces on my cell phone.  (I would show them to you here, but I don’t have a way to connect my cell phone to the computer to download the pics.) 

He barely even glanced at them before he said, “I don’t know why you are out looking at furniture right now.  We are getting ready to move.”  What?!?  As if we haven’t had multiple conversations about this subject.  Men are so frustrating.

I was tired from going from store to store, irritated that it was so hard to find what I was looking for, developing a sore throat – so, in other words, I might not have reacted well to this. 

Of course, he didn’t understand why I was upset about it. 

His argument: we should wait until we get to Wichita and see how much the move costs (it always costs more than you think it will) before we commit funds to new furniture; we should just buy something temporary (i.e. the stupid TV stand) because we will only be in this house for two years and then you never know; we shouldn’t buy something that just has to be moved right away

My argument: we shouldn’t waste a few hundred dollars on something temporary that I hate, we should spend a little more to get something we really like and that can be used elsewhere in the house if we need to in the future; true, we don’t know how much it will cost to complete the move to Wichita or what else we will need to buy for the house when we get there, but that doesn’t change the fact that we will still need to put this tv somewhere; we might as well buy it here and have it moved because then, when we are unpacking, we will already have a place to put the TV and all of the other components, plus, here we have friends with trucks who can help us to get this to our house in time to move

Right now, it is a stalemate.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

A yard sale with benefits…

Rain was forecast all weekend – so, not the best time for yard-saleing.  However, a local church was having an indoor yard sale – with the proceeds to benefit missions.  I ask you, what can be better than great deals for oneself while at the same time benefiting others?  I set out early this morning quivering with delight at the thought of treasures to be discovered.  I was vaguely disappointed in the selection, but managed to come away with a few finds nonetheless.

I found this little pheasant salt or pepper shaker (I am sure once part of a set).  I thought it might look cute as a part of a fall/Thanksgiving themed table.  Plus, my husband likes pheasants – well, he likes to kill them and eat them.  I have never eaten a pheasant, and anyway, I prefer the porcelain kind.  I paid $2.00 total for this little guy, a canning jar  for my grandmother-in-law and the framed picture below.

This olive picture will work perfectly in my Tuscany themed bathroom.  I even have an olive oil soap/lotion dispenser set that looks as if they were made to go with this picture.  It is in such good shape that I don’t even have to do any work to it to start using it.

As  I was checking out, I saw this old metal flower frog sitting up by the register.  I asked if anyone had already claimed it – the kind lady said she didn’t think so and went ahead and sold it to me for $2.

And, finally, on my way out the door – this little lamp caught my eye.  As I have been reading about the benefits of lamplight vs. overhead lighting in beautifying a home,  I have been on the lookout for little lamps that can go in unexpected places (i.e. the bathroom, the kitchen counter, even a bookshelf).  Please visit the Nester’s blog for more information on lamps and how to use them.  I also watched a little video tutorial online today (http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-a-lamp-with-household-objects-208624/) and am inspired to look around my house to see what I might have to use – or to keep my eyes open for lamp worthy items at future yard sales.  It came with the cheesy looking green shade, but I think using one of the left over black and gold chandelier shades I found last week (10 for $3.00) will give it a sleeker more modern look.  I am even contemplating spray painting the whole thing – maybe flat black.

One of the things I am scouting for as I hit these sales is an old style Belgian waffle maker.  My mom makes delicious waffles for our family whenever we get together and I want to be able to do the same thing.  However, the cheap version I bought at Target just doesn’t work well.  I noticed one of you bloggers out there found one at a thrift store – I am so jealous.  So, imagine my excitement when I saw one peeping out of a box full of junk.  I ran over and grabbed it up, but it was not the deeper-welled Belgian waffle style – and I decided to put it back and wait for the right one to come along.  I have faith!

This sale also had something else that I really want – cardboard shoe holders.  I bought some of these years and years ago (like maybe 10+) to hold shoes and they have been doing their duty ever since.  If you want to see what I am talking about, look at this postwhen I re-organized my closet.  There were two of these (in green, no less!) but they already had someone’s name on them.  Drat!  It gives me hope though that I might be able to find some more – I have looked for them new everywhere, but apparently, they are no longer being produced.

On Friday morning, I stopped in at a small garage sale on my way to the stable and found this:

It is one of those plastic jewelry holders with clear pockets that fastens onto a hanger and lets you see all of your jewelry at a glance.  I really need one of these and have been wanting one ever since my friend Becky mentioned it to me last year.  Now I need to find another one that I can send to her!  For $1!  I am not going to tackle this project until after our move in June – no need to get all the jewelry out of boxes and organized only to have to put it back in boxes in a week.  So, stay tuned. 

I am getting rather excited about the challenge of fixing up my new house.  And, it will be a challenge as we will be living in the rather old-fashioned and unexciting government housing.  So, stay tuned for before and after pictures to come in June.

And to get some really great ideas about what you might be able to turn from trash into treasure, please check out the blogs listed on Southern Hospitality