Dreaming of a White Christmas

Winter Wonderland from some of my Flickr Favorites!, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

Every year I hope that this will be the year that we will get snow. It's only snowed here twice in my lifetime, but I was only 1 year old the first time so I don't really remember it. I've just seen the photograph of my mom holding me in front of the snowman in our front yard that my brother and sister made. The second time it snowed I was a sophomore in high school. I'll never forget that day. I woke up and walked from my bedroom to the kitchen and as I passed by the window I saw white out of the corner of my eye. I still remember running up to my parents bedroom screaming with excitement! It was so much fun to go to school that day! Oh how I hope that we get snow this winter!

Tomorrow we're going to cut down our Christmas tree! Last year I wanted a big fat one and this year I want a tall, skinny tree. I'm thinking of getting it flocked this year. I went by a Christmas Tree lot last night to ask them if they could flock a tree that I didn't purchase from them...of course they could for $4.00 a foot! They said it takes 24 hours for the flocking to dry so I would be able to decorate it until Sunday...I don't know if I can wait until Sunday, I'm so ready to have it up NOW! I guess you'll all find out Monday what I decided to do!

Amazing Apple Cake Recipe

The other day on Mary's blog she put a link to author Carolyne Roehm's website which is where I found this amazing apple cake recipe! I made it last night but I didn't get a chance to take picture of mine so the photo above is from Carolyne Roehm's website. Click here to get directly to the recipe. It was good last night but I had a another piece this morning and it is so much better the next day. Wow, honestly, it's THE BEST apple cake I've ever had!
Judy: I'll bring this Saturday morning when we cut down our Christmas Trees!

While you're at the website make sure you browse around. There are so many beautiful things to see! Everything is so beautiful! I now want every one of her books! I just LOVE her style!

Dinner in a pinch

Last night I came home from work and realized I forgot to take some meat out of the freezer for dinner so I was forced to be creative with what I could find in the fridge and pantry. I was surprised that I was able to make this yummy pasta!
Notice the 3 types of pasta? That's because I had a little bit left of each kind but not enough of each to use only one of them.

Here's how I made this (sorry I don't measure anything). I sauteed 1 diced onion. Added some left over cut up chicken breasts from the night before. Threw in a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup. Added some white wine and chicken broth to thin it out. Steamed some broccolini and added that. Tossed in the cooked pasta. Seasoned with some salt, fresh ground pepper and red crushed pepper and tossed in some Parmesan cheese. Topped off with some fresh parsley. It was easy and so good. I'm going to be making this again!

Christmas Coffee Table

I've made some changes to my coffee table. I've moved the crystal candlesticks from the dining room table to the coffee table. The chair in the background has been waiting forever for me to make a slipcover. I just have a coverlet on it to hide the hideous floral pattern. There's just so much to do and not enough time ( or money.) Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, I've painted my miniature pumpkins white and sprinkled them with glitter. I wish glitter would photograph better...you just don't see the sparkle in the photos!
A silver tray with white candles and the crystal candlesticks make it all sparkle!

It's All About Christmas Decorating Now!

I started decorating for Christmas! I've draped the banister with faux pine and added some clear lights, green and white poinsettias, red berries and green velvet trimmed ribbon.
I use the same pine garland every year but try to change what I add to it. I think this year's is my favorite yet.
The flowers, berries and ribbon were all on sale at Michaels, 50% off!

We'll be getting our Christmas tree this weekend! I love decorating the tree!

Souvenir Plates

I once heard that if you have 3 of something then you have a "collection." As of yesterday on my lunch hour trip to the thrift store, I now have a collection of blue and white New England souvenir plates. Yes, this born and raised California girl is obsessed with everything about New England (except the cold winters and humid summers of course, which is why I'm still in California!) I found this New England covered bridges plate yesterday for $3.99. It joins my other two plates below.
After I came back from my trip to Martha's Vineyard (Summer 2006) I was constantly doing eBay searches for "Martha's Vineyard" I bought some really old postcards and this plate. I just love this plate!
This Boston souvenir plate was my first. I bought it at the flea market after my very first trip to New England in the late 80s.
I would love to add to this collection. I wonder if there was one made for Nantucket? That would be a great find! eBay here I come!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I may not be posting again until Monday.

UPDATED: There is a Nantucket plate on eBay but it's up to $25 and it still has 4 days left!

Finally!

Finally I started painting my tiered table! This is just what it looks like at the first step. I still need to do some more work on it (distressing, glazing, etc.) but I thought I'd give you a sneak peek!


Sunday I went to Calico Corners to look for fabric for the bergere chair (click here). When I walked in there was a whole wall of blue and yellow fabrics....it took my breath away! I found some samples to take home and the sales clerk told me that they do upholstery there. She worked up a quote for me....do you know how much they want to upholster my $35 chair? $910.00 I could not believe that! I could buy a couple chairs for that price! The fabric was only $15 a yard so most of that was labor. Get this...they wanted to charge me $60 to pick it up and bring it back to my house! The store is 1.4 miles away from my home! They strongly suggest you not bring it in yourself...well yeah...when they can make that much profit on it I can see why! The upholstery guy I found on Craigslist said he will charge me $175 plus fabric and I think he said it will be about 4 yards of fabric so for him to do it will be $235. I've seen samples of his work and he's good! Not a bad price but I'm thinking of doing it myself! I haven't decided for sure...I may be getting in over my head. I just bought this book below yesterday and it has really detailed instructions. Worst case I screw it up and use the material to make pillows! I'm leaning towards white paint and light blue linen fabric. My sofa will be slip-covered (hopefully sometime soon) in white...I'm so ready to cover up that navy fabric!

More Birds!

Thanks Debbie for pointing out that I forgot to include my blue bird plates in my last post! How could I forget these! They are my favorite!

I sure wish I could find more. To see my original post about these click here.

Decorating with Birds, Nests & Cages

I love birds, nest and cages and I have quite a few throughout my home. The bird above was a clip-on Christmas Ornament but I think he's too pretty to just bring out at Christmas. He sits on top of my plate holder (which I use to hold dishes because I don't have enough storage).
Below is a birdcage I bought at Walmart for $3. It's in my downstairs powder room.
A bird nest on my bedside table...
A birdcage on my dresser...
A bird in my backyard...

Birdcages on top of my refrigerator...

Little white birds from Target that are salt & pepper shakers...

A nest and a bird in my living room....

Another birdcage sitting at the top of my stairs...

A vintage birdcage on a stand which has a real finch in it...

And, you've seen my birdhouse table a million times. This is an old picture, it's now been moved to the other side of the room!

Confession

Yesterday I told you that I had a bad case of the "I wants"...well to be honest my spending lately feels like it's out of control. I'm not going too crazy but I have been buying a lot of little things. I've shown you before these crystal candlesticks that were a gift from my brother when I was in my twenties (pictured above.) I bought these bobeches to dress them up. They are actually acrylic but they look like crystal. The really add a lot of bling to the candlesticks. They just sit on top of the candlestick. I just love shiny crystal things lately. The other candlesticks were thrift store purchases awhile ago.
EDITED TO ADD: I bought these bobeches at a store in California called The Eclectic Touch which is located in the Willow Glen area of San Jose. I did a Google search and found some on eBay (click here)
Sorry for the blurry photos. I was going to retake some new photos last night and forgot to do it!
I also bought this Christmas ornament. It looks much better than it showing up in this photo. It has glitter which you can't even see.


I've also been going crazy buying bulbs to force indoors. I've planted two amaryllis, a bunch of paperwhites and some hyacinths. I have some more amaryllis to plant this weekend. My home should be in full bloom around Christmas! I'm going to buy more bulbs to force indoors for after Christmas. In January I'm so ready for Spring so it's nice to see things blooming indoors.

Image from www.whiteflowerfarm.com

I have a bad case of the "I WANTS"

When I was little and I would ask my parents for new things (toys, clothes, etc.) my mom would tell me that I have a bad case of the "I wants". I guess I still have it! Here are some of the things I'm dreaming about....

These goblets from Macy's Martha Stewart Collection. Aren't those beautiful! This beautiful Reed & Barton flatware available on Amazon.com! Service for 12 on sale for only $120.00 (Retail $249.00) what a deal! Do I NEED it? No, not really... but I WANT it! Got to love Amazon.com! We get special recognition awards at work and I always take the Amazon Gift Certificates. I'm saving them for these! The gift cert. are for $5 each...it's gonna take awhile!

A large cupcake cake pan from Sur la table. How fun would it be to take this cake to a party! Think of all the cute ways you could decorate it! I'm thinking of pink frosting with sprinkles! I have to have it!

These chocolate dipped strawberries are Christmas ornaments from Sur la table! I buy my kids an ornament for Christmas every year so I'm going to get one of these for my daughter because she loves chocolate dipped strawberries.

I posted about this wicker cart before. I would love to have this to take to the flea market! This one is from Victoria Trading Company.

Okay, if I want to buy some of these things I need to either:

a. win the lottery

b. marry a rich man

c. get rid of my monthly car payments

I choose "C".....YEAH I'm happy to report that I am making my last car payment next week!!!! Whooohooo more money to help my bad case of "I Wants".

( I put links on all the products above in case you have the same "I wants" that I have, just click the highlighted text)

Be sure to look in the comments of my post yesterday "What's on
your coffee table?" to see other bloggers that are joining in. I found
some good ideas from them. It's not too late to join in just leave a
comment on that post.

What's on your coffee table?

One of my readers asked to see what's on my coffee table. I struggle with decorating my coffee table and I end up changing the things on it fairly often. I usually have flowers, either silk or fresh, decorating books and candles. Sometimes I have a lace tablecloth on it like in this picture. The table itself was free from a friend. It was the very first piece of furniture I painted white and I really didn't know what I was doing. I just sanded it and painted it but I guess I didn't get all the varnish off so now the white paint is chipping off but not in the good shabby chic way. I really need to redo this....it's on the list. My mom bought this silver and crystal piece at the flea market and then ended up giving it to me. It has a candle in it now but I've also used it as a vase for small flowers.
I showed you this piece that I bought at a thrift store awhile ago. I use it to hide the remote control.

To all you bloggers out there....let's see your coffee tables!

Thank you for all the kind comments and emails yesterday. Wow, you are all so kind! I'm doing much better today!

A message from Beau

Cindy's not feeling well. She has a really bad cold and she also had an accident with a butane candle lighter on Friday. She was refilling the lighter with butane fuel and when she was done, she clicked the lighter to see if it would work but she didn't know that some of the fuel had dripped into her kitchen sink and there were a lot of fumes so when she clicked the lighter it exploded into a huge fireball. It could have been so much worse. She burned her hands and her singed her bangs, eyebrows and eyelashes. It's amazing she didn't burn her face because the flames shot up into her face! She has really short eyelashes now....do they grow back? If not, we'll have to get her some fake ones! She went to work today even though she's not feeling well because of her cold and the blisters on her fingers. I wanted her to stay home but she wouldn't listen to me.

What could this mean?

I just ordered this book from Amazon because this single mom on a budget could use some more spending money! I plan to go to estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets and find some nice treasures to sell! I'm not sure if I'll start my own website or use eBay so any suggestions would be helpful!

A handmade gift for mom

My mom and dad are very proud of my art or should I say my attempt at art, I've never had any formal training. I started drawing topiaries a few years ago and my dad shows EVERYONE one of the drawings I gave him. It's still a nice feeling to make your parents proud even at my age!

Anyway, when I saw this great idea to put art on a pillow on Kari & Kijsa's blog (click on their name to see their gorgeous bunny pillow) I knew it would make a great gift for my parents. I had so much fun picking out fabrics and trim to coordinate with the topiary and my parent's home...I almost felt like an interior designer!

I hate sewing zippers so I overlapped the fabric in the back and used ribbon to tie it together. I used a down/feather pillow insert inside so it's nice and soft and squishy.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out so I'll be sending it off to my mom for her birthday (Nov. 17th). Thank you Kari & Kijsa for this great idea!

And last week, Mary from Little Red House gave me a Community Blogger Award! Thank you Mary. I'm supposed to pass this on but it's so hard to pick just one blog that has inspired me...there are just too many (just look at all of them on my sidebar!) But, please go visit Mary's blog, you won't be disappointed. She has the best dish collection ever! Lots and lots of beautiful dishes!

The $35 Bergere Chair

I got the $35 chair from Craigslist. I felt very fortunate to be the first person to contact him because there were numerous others behind me. It's very tattered and torn and it looks very out of place in my home right now but hopefully soon this diamond in the rough will sparkle. Here is a closeup of the carved roses at the top. I plan to paint it white (that shouldn't shock anyone) , antique it and then have it reupholstered. It also has carvings in front below the seat.
I never thought that picking fabric for a chair could be so hard. I'm so confused on what I want to do. Here are some fabrics I've found online.

This one is very similar to what's on there. The original fabric is silk but I don't want to use silk because I don't think it's practical with kids and a dog in the house.

Here's another possibility perhaps with a coordinating fabric.
Here's another one that's very similar to the original.
This is pretty too but maybe too light. I would actually love to do the whole chair in white linen but I know that's not practical.
Here are some chairs I found online that I'm using as inspiration pieces. I love the idea of using different fabrics on the chair like this (except in blue's). I would love to find a toile like the one below in blue. Isn't this chair gorgeous. I just love French Country!
Another lovely one...Below is one in blue and white but I don't really like this...I think it's too busy. I don't know what it is but there is something about it that doesn't seem right to me. This is my "what not to do" inspiration picture.

When I was looking for inspiration chairs online I realized what a great deal I got. Most of these type of chairs were $1,000 to over $2,000.

Flea Market Finds and a Tour

Saturday I went to the De Anza Flea Market. It is located at De Anza College in Cupertino on the first Saturday of every month for those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I only bought three things and they all came from the same vendor. I bought the cute little tea pot above for $8. I put in on a dinner plate with the lemon so you could see how small it is. It was made in Germany.
I also bought some vintage ornaments. They were $5. I spotted this old loose powder jar as we were leaving and I had to have it. I think it was $6. It has a built-in mirror under the lid.

Okay, on to the tour of the flea market. This flea market used to be a lot better than it is now but there are some good vendors left so here are my favorites... (click photos to enlarge)

This chippy old bed was beautiful.
but I really loved this bed. There are a lot of vendors selling orchids so you can get some really good deals. The ones below were between $8-$10 each. I really wanted to buy one but I can't seem to keep orchids alive. I'm really good with other plants so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
This is one of my favorite vendors. They redo chandeliers and furniture. It's so beautiful!



I really loved the old beds on the left. One is white and the other is black. I'm redoing my daughter's room with black furniture so it's nice to get ideas from this vendor.


This vendor is a mother/daughter team. They have some nice things too.

Lots of vendors selling pretty glassware...
And statues, fountains and birdbaths...

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the De Anza Flea Market!

Napkins

I finally won a bid on eBay for some linen & lace napkins. I love them and the best part is they were only $11.99 including shipping for 9 napkins. I can't believe I was the only person who bid on these!
Today it's supposed to be 84 degrees here. Everyone was commenting yesterday how nice the weather is. I can't stand it because to me it should be cool in November!

I went to the flea market yesterday and I took my camera so I'll have some pictures to share with you this week. I only bought a few small things...pictures of those to come later also.

I'm going to finish stripping my tiered table today and I'm making a birthday gift for my mom so I better get off the computer now and get busy!

Debbie's Sunroom...

First off, before you see Debbie's beautiful sunroom, I have to tell you all....I bought the chair! $35 whoohooo! It does need to be upholstered though. I had planned on doing it in toile but now that I see it, I'm not sure. It has carved roses at the top of it. They are so beautiful! I'll take better pictures of the chair next week to show you. Okay, on to Debbie's sunroom....

Debbie, your house is so charming. Thank you so much for allowing me to put your beautiful pictures on my blog!