Christmas Corners of My Home

A little peek . . .

at two of my Christmas trees.

Don't eat the candy canes!

Merry Christmas to all.

My assistant

This may be why I can't get things done!

Festooning the nest

A little corner of my 'studio'


bedecked with thrifted ribbons and beads.

We all like to festoon our nests.

My minimalist style

In our office-corner, which we 'redecorated' last winter, I've gone with a very spare style. Instead of four shelves above the drawing table, full of hard-to-reach and therefore seldom used books, I put just one Ikea shelf. The black boxes hold office supplies -- envelopes, stamps, paper.
I try to keep other items to a minimum. It's a perfect place for a posy or, like now, some foxtail grasses. (I must admit -- the velvet violets and little box of vintage stencils somehow migrated here just this week. It's usually just the boxes and one vase.)


I caught a glimpse of the contrast between the office area and the kitchen this morning. The light is so very different, as is the chaos-level. Really, if you saw my computer desk top and drawing table, you'd see some chaos there as well. At least the walls have that minimalist style that I crave. And I like the spareness when I'm 'at work'.

When I'm very very brave I'll show the room of fabrics and paper that is my quasi-studio. Now there's chaos!

Editing

I am in serious need of editing.



This is a pic of two shelves of my kitchen bookcase.

It's where all the extra stuff lands.

You know, when the seasons change and the little oil paintings of winter scenes have to come off the wall? Those are on the top of the jadite batter bowl. And the brown teapot, which did not sell at consignment: in front of the old wire flower frog, which used to be on top of the living room bookcase, which is now in the craft room.

And the stack of dessert plates, also failing to sell at consignment, is now under a bowl on the top shelf. And the clay marbles, the ME paper box . . . these were in other areas of the house and ended up here.



Here's the 'after' -- how I wanted the shelves to look. Pretty simple, just the green stuff and the two camellia pictures that I'm so fond of. I do think the bud vase should go, tho, don't you agree?

(The shelf edging may need some explanation: a friend gave me two cut-off pillowcases because she thought I could use the crochet trim. I tried it out here on the shelves and pretty much like the look -- except on the bottom shelf you can really see how it is just fabric cut off. And they are not wide enough. But I like the idea.)

Anyway, this is the story throughout this house: too much good stuff, landing haphazardly atop, next to, and under other good stuff. I sometimes feel like I'm a minimalist with a bad collecting habit -- I love all the stuff, but I reallyreally love a bit of spare and a bit more space.

And I used to be an editor. Apparently I need to be one again.

Projects of all kinds

Everything is lovely in blogland.

I love to show the beautiful amaryllis on my desk, so intensely red and purely white. I love to show projects and share recipes.



But sometimes reality takes over.

Sometimes a pipe bursts inside the bathroom wall at 9:30 p.m. and you both have to try to devise a fix-it plan and suddenly realize you have to run to the big box store before closing and wildly buy parts -- both 3/4" and 1/2" because who knows what size is behind the wall -- and some kind of torch tank thing and some flux and solder. And you make it to the store 5 minutes before closing.

Sometimes you stay up til 1:15, holding the lamp-with-the-lampshade taken off because the flashlight battery has worn down, as your husband cuts a hole in the drywall and finds the split pipe and solders on a shut-off valve pipe thing.

And when you turn the water back on, the freshly soldered piece shoots off from the water pressure. And he does the soldering again. And this time the valve doesn't close all the way and the water is still leaking. And so you keep the water turned off all night and hope other pipes don't freeze.



And you can't get to sleep, from all this home-fix-it excitement, and finally you do sleep and then sleep in way too late. And by the time you get up, husband has already purchased the additional pieces needed and soldered the cap on once and for all.

And you are grateful for your Superhero Wall-Destroying Man husband. And that you still have some of the bathroom's wallpaper stashed in the closet.





And I'm happy to have a project to share. My sisters and I trade ATCs on occasion, each of us taking turns in choosing a theme word. Because I was so very late in doing the previous ATC (oh, was I almost a year late???), we were all delayed in making 'Autumn'.




But here are mine, ready to go out to L and C. I really got into making a mini-quilt kind of card, doing handsewing and playing with color and texture. And this time I am only 2 months later than they were in finishing the card. Progress.

Corners of My Home

A new corner of my home. This is in the kitchen: an old pine chest of drawers just purchased at the consignment shop, immediately bedecked with some sewing stuff. The pipecleaner-button tree I made a few years back. . . . The short green tree is surrounded by red buttons; the green bobbins are a birthday gift (thanks, N!). The cones of white thread look like snow-covered trees to me. A new sewie corner. I love it.