The day after Thanksgiving I like to start slowly pulling out my Christmas décor. Although I have been gradually introducing more natural elements into my décor there are some old favorites that I wouldn’t dream of leaving out each year.
These vintage bottle brush wreaths are a perfect example. Each of the wreaths on this stack was gathered from a different place over the past 20+ years and each has a story.
Three of them were picked up at yard sales, the one on the bottom was found in my mother’s attic among some forgotten Christmas items and my favorite, the one in the middle is one I picked up for 10 cents at a church rummage sale.
The back of the wreath is a darker pink than the front which has faded to a soft peachy pink. The faded colors and crumpled bow just make me love it more.
Yep, I’m a sucker for vintage Christmas. I think it brings out the kid in me. How about you? Do you have any treasured old decorations or ornaments?
Now that the temps are dropping, I have a good cold weather tip for you.
It has been over two weeks since I last posted but I do have good reasons for my absence. I can’t share all of the reasons just yet but I promise to soon. Following my last post I was busy preparing for a local holiday shopping event where I was a vendor. Whew! It was an amazing show and I was extremely happy with my sales. The venue was an art gallery and they do it up right so I always enjoy selling and/or shopping at the annual event. The down side is that it takes several days to recuperate from exhaustion! But it was a happy exhaustion.
Many of you will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your home and you may or may not have your holiday table planned. Today I want to share a last minute idea for your Thanksgiving table. My love for baby boo pumpkins carries on through Thanksgiving and they will make a special appearance at the family gathering.
Your Thanksgiving guests may be expecting sweet potatoes, but they won’t be expecting them to be served in cute little baby boo bowls.
I mashed these sweet potatoes with a fork and topped them with a dollop of marshmallow Fluff that I toasted under the broiler till golden brown.
I’ll show you the simple steps to preparing your “bowls” but first I have another dish that serves up nicely in them.
Filled with and set on a bed of wild rice.
Finish off the look by topping with the “lid.”
To prepare your baby boo pumpkins, simply score the top with a knife in a circle.
Next, cut through the scored place to remove the top.
Scoop out the seeds and guts, scraping the inside with a small pointed spoon, fork or knife. Rinse, pat dry and fill.
Before I show you my drastically improved desk space in Part 2 of my dining room reveal I would like to share a few shots of my ironstone collection.
You may remember the “Bethany” plate. Most of the pieces were great bargains that I picked up for just a dollar or five. The smaller pitcher was gifted to me by my mom several years ago and the little creamer sitting on the oval dish belonged to her as well.
I still have room for a few more items!
Just to the left of the buffet and hutch is where I sit as I write each blog post.
This is what it looked like before.
Yikes! It looks so much worse than I remember.
Seriously?
The tangled mess of wire was such an eyesore. I tried numerous ways to keep them tucked away neatly but they always eventually got out of control.
So when I started making over the dining room and desk space I was determined to end the wire octopus. The armoire became my solution. I’ve had it for years, sitting in the living room. It held our television and kept it concealed when we weren’t watching it. But last Christmas our kids gave us a flatscreen TV. With the armoire now empty, I knew it would be perfect behind my desk.
The doors don’t shut completely and a few wires show behind the desk but it’s SO much better than it was. I added a metal basket to the side for holding jars with pens and pencils.
I placed 2 doors on top of the armoire that I had removed from the hutch. I feel like I’m getting more décor bang that way, by allowing my ironstone to be fully exposed while at the same time having a great backdrop on top of the armoire.
I hope you enjoyed a peek into one of the spaces in my home that I love and use the most.
And here’s this week’s tip on A Little Bird Told Me. Have a productive week! :)
I decided to show you the dining room reveal while it’s arrayed in its fall glory. Along with all the other rooms downstairs, the dining room got a couple of coats of Benjamin Moore Crystalline to brighten it up and bring more cohesion between rooms.
It was previously (and for several years) this pumpkin color.
A little bit different now, huh?
The change I was most eager to make was to move the chippy old hutch off the top of the corner buffet…
and place it on top of the longer, more suitable white buffet.
I love it in its new home. Along with moving it, I purged the brown transferware, leaving only shades of white ironstone.
The architectural header made the perfect topper and a day at the orchard last week yielded my ever favorite bittersweet.
I flanked the hutch with a pair of Italian sconces. I love their elegance in juxtaposition with the rustic farmhouse hutch. The sconces are each located right next to a window so their dripping prisms really sparkle on sunny days. When I show you my entry hall you will see where the sconces previously hung.
I love how much lighter everything feels now. One of the things I still want to do is make over the dark trestle table and chairs. That will have to be a 2016 project.
At the opposite end of the room sits my desk. I will show you what I did to make that area so much more appealing in part 2.
This week in “A Little Bird Told Me” I am sharing a tiny tip that made a huge difference in my life.
Anyone who suffers from debilitating migraines should really give this a try!
As I sit at my desk and write this post, I’m watching yellow leaves float by the window. George Winston Autumn is playing on the cd player and the most wonderful smelling fall candle is burning next to me. I want to hold onto this feeling.
I have been bringing fall to many areas of my home. I’ve concentrated mainly on the kitchen and dining areas because we spend so much of our time there.
I love repurposing frames in unique ways. With that as my inspiration for the breakfast nook table I started with a very old chippy green frame. Using it as a tray, I placed the items I gathered inside the frame.
You may recognize the tall skinny birdcage that was a recent flea market find. It adds some rustic texture and height.
This set of dishes belonged to my mom. We ate every Thanksgiving and Christmas meal on them as far back as I can remember. The color was perfect with the frame and the wonderfully gnarly green pumpkin.
The flourishes in the frame are echoed in the vines of the dishes and the raised squiggly veins on the pumpkin. I have to confess, that was a happy accident. Don’t you love it when it works out that way?!
I added the faux berries for a pop of color and a baby boo pumpkin tucked in a berry bowl with a little Spanish moss for a bed.
Switching gears now, I would like to share my weekly segment that I call “A Little Bird Told Me.”
I’m a big believer in using and repurposing what I have to create a whole new look with each new season. Storage can become an issue if one buys new things every season, not to mention the fact that it’s not a budget friendly way to decorate. But that’s only part of it.
I find that the challenge to make do with things on hand causes me to be much more creative. For my dining room table I got out an old half door that I sometimes use as a vertical backdrop.
Inspired by Stone Gable’s centerpiece found at her lovely fall home tour,
I decided to use it horizontally on the table as the base for my fall vignette.
One of the keys to making one-of-a-kind vignettes is to have plenty of unique containers that can be swapped out from room to room. I like to have a mix of new and vintage. The metal basket that now holds baby boos was previously filled with candles in the bathroom. I borrowed the granite ware bucket from my kitchen window.
This big old funnel has held baby boos in past years, so this year I filled it with
cotton stems for an entirely different look.
A little unexpected sparkle among all the rustic elements.
A nest makes an appearance in every season at my house. If you missed my two other baby-boo-inspired looks, you can see the fall neutrals here and the vibrant fall color display here.
Thank you for coming by!
