Winter Decorating

Not much creativity has been going on around here lately.  All the "lovely" paperwork, signatures, scans, faxes, e-mails, copying and mailing has taken over for the time being. So, before I change all this up for Valentine's Day or pack it up, I thought I'd share a few winter decorations I put up after Christmas.

 Oops, a heart snuck in from Pottery Barn.

The Paperwhites that should've been started before Christmas have really come to the rescue afterwards.

 Glitter birds and music stars from PB.  Hey, it's helpful to have a daughter with a discount.

 Thrift store candy jar without a lid is perfect for this.

My baby's mittens from a long, long, time ago.

 My girls used to ice skate on a pond in our back yard when we lived in Massachusetts.

Doily's from Ebay for my DD1's wedding two years ago.

 Thrift store plate and frame, snowflake from Target.

Paperwhite candle from PB, garage sale silver tray and pine cones from all over the country. Yes, I save them and have a box labeled PINECONES.  DH knows to never put it too far out of my reach.

This post has been included in Friday's Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense. Check out the other participants!

Floral Fridays

{country living}

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.

Anonymous

Happy Birthday Baby

Yesterday was my baby's birthday.

She turned 23!

I was sick yesterday and so she had a pretty low key day.  Her Dad is out of the country, but we had a long Skype conversation with big sister. We still managed dinner, birthday cake and a movie at home.  Happy Birthday Sweetheart!  

Seam Ripper Sunday

Can pretty pincushions make mending more enjoyable?  

{bluegirl}

{2mayboys}

{SuzannaDuda}

{LeandaXavian}

1. mini pincushion of happiness, 2. Untitled, 3. A little zipper flower house/pincushion, 4. p i n c u s h i o n, 5. My favorite pin cushion..., 6. On Pins and Needles, 7. Pin Cushion, 8. Pink Ranunculus Pincushion, 9. Pyramidal Pincushion

Maybe, but looking for pretty pincushions can derail your progress altogether.  Oops!  But, I did learn how to make a mosaic with links from Flickr.  So that's something.

Floral Fridays

Sweet peas for us warmer weather folks and berries and pine cones for you all that are still FREEZING!

HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND!

Pantry Possibilities

Isn't this the cutest pantry?

 I love all the color.

{all pictures country living}

So, this is what I have to work with. Certainly not a Butler's Pantry, but it is huge! And look at all the wasted space above the shelves. The contact paper is going to go, that's for sure. I've never had a pantry this big. I may have to work with what I've got and rework the shelving at a later date. But, oh the possibilities. . . 

In the Dark

Last Friday we had the inspection on our soon-to-be new house. There was a lot going on that day.  Inspections from the House Inspectors, Termite Inspector, Septic Inspectors, both realtors, DH and I.  It all went fairly well, with no big issues. I'm sure as I live in it, I'll find things that need to be changed.  The one thing I realized was that the bathroom and kitchen lighting has some problems. The first floor ceilings are 10 feet high. Which I really like except for when there are only can lights. That doesn't work very well especially over the bathroom sinks. My makeup application will be pretty scary until something gets remedied. Can't you just see me walking out of the house with bright purple eye shadow on or liner that's makes me look like it's Halloween?

See what I mean? There are a few solutions, but even as I look at this photo, I realize that one idea I had may not work.  I would like sconces, those would have to be installed in the mirror since the left wall is a medicine cabinet. Something like this beautiful bathroom below. Hopefully that can be done after the mirror is on the wall. 

This picture makes me want to paint my bathroom this beautiful blue.  Wait, my current bathroom is this color.  I guess I just like blue, what can I say?

Here's the other sink. There is no side wall for a sconce here at all.  I was actually thinking of hanging pendants in place of the can lights. You can see below several bathrooms that use these. You don't really see the light strips used anymore, at least in decor magazines.  

all photos from My Home Ideas

Looks like I need to do some pendant light searches.  The kitchen also has this same situation.  There's just no makeup application going on in there.  Although, there is great natural light.  Hmmm. . . 

Floral Friday oops Saturday

{country living}

Winter white beauty.

Have a lovely weekend.

Landscape Inspiration

 I LOVE this setting.

 Gravel will be for mulch and decomposed granite pathways.

Grasses are beautiful when they are blowing in the wind.

 I don't love this fountain, it's too contemporary for me, but I do love the setting.

There is a lot of pea gravel planned.

I love the crazy mix of materials here.

We're hoping to have an outdoor fireplace, someday.

This may be a little lush for our new area, but some of the plants are the same.  I love the pathway.

I love this fountain.

All photos courtesy of Sunset Magazine. I've spent quite a bit of time going through all my gardening books and the internet looking for ideas to give our landscape architect. These are the photos I found today at Sunset. There are others in books, that maybe sometime I'll have to scan. We need our property  to seriously conserve water and be low fire hazard. There will be no grass. Buddy won't care. He prefers the gravel in our side yard now better than the grass. This way we won't have to keep repairing the burn spots or spend a lot of money watering it.  We will have to have a protected area for Buddy so the local critters won't be able to get at him. That would be bad, very bad.

New House Inspiration

I love the blue beadboard interior of these bookshelves.  

I'm going to have to find a spot for this beautiful bulletin board from Lonny.

I love the neutral coziness of this dining room.

Kathryn Ireland via Cote de Texas

Neutral with a touch of blue and gold from Southern Accents.

My new kitchen is not white. It seems that I have only saved pictures of white kitchens. I've search high and low for kitchens I like with stained cabinetry. I'm sure there are some, there has to be. I just couldn't come up with one right now. I love the mix of woods and white in this kitchen. I like how the table comes off of the island with the beautiful wing backs around it. I love the checked valances and the blue walls. I can at least paint and make curtains. If you have any photos of beautiful stained cabinet kitchens please forward them along, would you? Thanks, ever so much. 

I love the combination of pink with this brown.  My new house is painted brown.  I really like it, but I don't really decorate with pink so I may not go this direction.  It is so much fun, though. This photo is from Veranda, or Southern Accents, I believe.

Belle Notte

I love this color palette.  One bedroom is this gray and we're planning on using gold and creme's with it. 

Country Living

I'm not giving up my craft room. I may have to share it with my husband's office, but it's a big room.  I wish there was this much sun pouring into it, but I'll lighten it up and it will be perfect! There's a huge closet in that room. I'm going to research Elfa products to organize with. As you can see there is a lot of dreaming going on over here. There is more to come, including landscaping ideas! All I can say is cha ching! We're going to have to do things slowly.