Merry, Merry!

I've obviously slowed down on projects now that the Christmas Season has arrived (and that I've gotten married!)  But here are a few shots of the Christmas decorations. These are items I've collected/created from previous homes, so now I have to make everything fit in my 'forever home'. It will be a process... 

The Tree: Fake... but a good fake! The ornaments are mostly from my parents. They collected them throughout the years from friends and through their travels. It's a wonderful trek down memory lane. 

Because it's still just me, there aren't many gifts under the tree, so I've filled it with toys and figures that make me smile. Somewhere in the still unopened boxes, there is a train set to run under the tree...

My mom was a Textile Design (read: Fashion) major at Carnegie Mellon (at that time Carnegie Tech) and she made the Three Wise Men which hung in our dining room. I loved them as a kid. More than the tree, they said "Christmas" to me.  Sadly, they were ruined after they moved to a bigger house in the 80's. But the memory stuck with me and I created these after my mom passed away from a picture my dad took in the 70's.  They got a little wrinkled over the year... gotta iron those sometime!

Note the Menorah on the mantel. My great-great-great grandfather was Jewish when he sailed from France to America for the Gold Rush. He eventually married a Catholic, but I like to keep that bit of family history alive.  

Note the carolers on the silver chest. My mom had dozens of them around the house. She continued to add to her collection until she died. The brass tree was on that very chest in her home. I have yet to find candles for it. But it always added a lovely glow to the room.

Gotta have some greenery! I need to add ribbons and berries to make it more festive.  

The Santas! Again, from my mom's collection. Each of the four kids took some--you can imagine how many she had. Most of them are Russian/Eastern European. All are very intricate and beautiful.  

I didn't get a chance to finish the downstairs den this year. That will be something for Frederic and I to work on next Christmas. Also, nothing on the front of the house--with the exception of a wreath. Again, I didn't feel like climbing on the roof... again, that's something for Frederic to do! ;-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A Little Decorating

My new Master Bed came in this weekend... finally. The original time frame was between noon and 6pm on Saturday. Nice way to screw up a weekend. Living Spaces called the day before saying that it would be delivered between 3 and 6pm. Even better...

Around 5:50 pm I was pretty worried and called. The service rep said she would call the driver and to hold on... she came back on and said, "I can't get in touch with him, let me call the dispatcher." She couldn't get in touch with him, either. My belief that I was going to sleep on the new bed that night was rapidly fading... 

Around 6:30 the driver called and said he was on his way, but he had a couple of stops. At 7:35pm he finally arrived.  The bed is big and somewhat complicated, but they got it all set up within 20 minutes. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I love the bookshelf at the base of the bed. 

Eventually, I'll put stuff in there.

Yes, it takes up a big chunk of the room but it's SO big and SO comfortable! I usually am very close to the edge of the bed when I sleep. When I went to bed, I thought I was closer to the middle, but when I rolled over and tried to reach the other side, I couldn't (even with my freakishly long arms!) 

I also worked on the upstairs guest room. I moved my old queen-sized bed into the guest room and am going with blues for the room. The art on the walls are gifts from a friend who purchased them at the opening of Toontown in Disneyland.  They are the conceptual drawings of the attractions. (I'll try and post closeups later.)  They have a lot of blue in them, and that helped my decision on the color.

Good shot of the rug and the new quilt.

FYI: The plant is real.

I need new nightstands... and bigger art, but that will do for now.

I swear that picture is hung straight!

I'm ready for guests, so stop on by! Well... call first. 

Future Projects: 

• Nightstands for the guest room
• Paint for the Master Bedroom
• Paint the entire house (it was painted just before I bought it and their palette is far more green than mine.