And yet more Christmas....

My pink and green living room is a bit more of a challenge for Christmas decorating, but in the past 4 years of living here, I have managed to find more than enough decor to create a "look" I can enjoy.
The pink angel on my tree is a card I received on my first Christmas 55 years ago! It has adorned a Christmas tree every year since. My Great Aunt Mabel was the sender - I'm sure she had no idea it would be cherished for so many years.
I was telling Sue about these sweet "sweatsuits" I found at my favorite store, TJ Maxx.

They are for Emma for Christmas - tho she'll no doubt get the green one ahead of time to wear to her Holiday parties! Their regular price is $44.00, but at TJ's $12.99!!! Now you know why I love that store! Time to start some wrapping now and get some packages under the tree...

More Christmas Spirit...

My favorite area at Christmas time is the family room. A roaring fire, my Santa collection and friends and family stopping by to celebrate the season.
Santa's taking time out for a game of checkers and a little nap....
Emma dreaming of Santa's all around....
A Mark Roberts Santa warming his toes over the fire........
and a small tree adorned with Radko and Old World ornaments to top off a table.... As Emma says as she goes from room to room "oooh more Christmas!" I thoroughly enjoy the decor of the season, but it's made even more magical through the eyes of a 3 yr old!

Cottage Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all!

We received a fresh coating of snow last night, so seemed the perfect time to dash out and snap a shot of my cottage - time 5a.m. Good thing I'm an early riser cause 5 minutes later the guys showed up to shovel. Some year I may get around to having icicle lights hung on the eaves and garland wrapped around the porch columns. Would no doubt be charming, but so far I try to keep the outside simple and let my 2 trees be the focus. A bowl of fresh pouporri, 3 crystal trees and a MacKenzie Childs bell (I've yet to hang) grace the pass-through in my kitchen.
Blue & white porcelain pieces with garlands of blue & silver sleigh bells decorate the tree in my office. One of the 2 trees in my front windows.
A touch of my Swedish heritage adorns a table (brought in from the patio...) The candles remain straight for about 10 sec., the chandelier is too large, and I see Emma's bright pink chair peeking out from a corner - ah well, that's how it goes around here! The covering on the table is actually a tree skirt my sweet mother hooked several years ago for me. A work of art I will treasure always.

C

Redo and t-day

Our Miss Emma is who we were most grateful for the Thanksgiving. Here she is modeling the Mayan crafted woven wreath. Who knew it was a garland?! Now on to the redecorating....

Having stripped the wallpaper in my office, I was in need of a quick fix before company arrived. Discovered a can of "Twine" paint, so rolled that on the walls for the time being. Since this was 95 yr old Aunt Norma's bedroom for the night (the chair converts into a single bed) it was important this room be presentable. Some day maybe I'll learn not to start these projects the week before company ..... For now the color works - actually turned out to be the same shade as the background of the pillows!This victorian shelf moved from across the room to it's new location over my desk (which actually is a sofa table, but works fine as a desk) You can see the reflection in the mirror of the "Thelma and Louise" painting, which use to hang in the family room. Also my screen saver which is from our trip to Lake Michigan. So pleasant to look at now that winter is on it's way! One might notice that the desk chair has lost it's Cousin Itt look.....decided the whole chair needed to be painted white and well, just haven't had time to tie those "rags" back on again!

One Thing Leads to Another.....

When Sue gave me the beautiful botanical prints one thing led to another and "art work" got shifted from one room to another.... This piece now above the piano in the living room was hanging over the couch in the family room....which now has.....

this arrangement above it, which still needs some tweaking, but fills the area....

My "boozing" buddies have moved from the family room also, into the kitchen above my small bar area.....
This landscape was above my desk in the office and lives above the fireplace now, which left a huge gap on the office wall.....
which had this adorable Morning Glory wall-paper. I say had because after the picture left I noticed I could see exactly where it had hung on the wall. I tried cleaning off the grime, but to no avail and besides I'm just not crazy about living with "busy" wallpaper, so....
at the moment my walls are bare of wallpaper in the office. That is the yellow backing from the wallpaper, which I spent yesterday morning scraping off! The window treatments are now in the wash and as yet I haven't quite decided what color I'm going to paint the wall, but I'm leaning towards trying white with a thin greenish stripe....We'll see when I find time to do it!

Botanicals

Thank- you Sue for my beautiful new botanical prints. They have found a home in the family room! Of course hanging them led to a complete overhall of all the artwork in the room...which led to the living rm, kitchen, sunroom and office....... you know how that goes! I am content with the results, tho I am looking at a blank wall in my office now, as that piece is now over the fireplace...... I love the prints - perfect for my little cottage!

Snow White

Sweet Emma became Snow White for Halloween

and she was definitely our "treat" for the evening!

She had thought she'd run upstairs at Nana's house,

but more trick or treaters showed up at the door,

so she hurried back down to pass out candy

Taking a break in between kids

hanging with the pumpkin...

This little guy wasn't moving fast enough for her, so she took the candy out to him! Had I know she was going to be so adorable I would have juiced up my video camera battery to capture her enthusiastic "come on kids", her putting the candy in their bags saying "there you go" and after hearing thank-you she'd say "you're welcome" Not nearly so cute in writing, but I'm sitting here smiling remembering her....