New Year Resolutions

Do you make New Year Resolutions? Last year mine was to make my bedroom more luxurious. Amazingly it was a New Years resolution I kept! I not only repainted my bedroom furniture but I bought myself a memory foam mattress pad (best thing I ever bought) and a down comforter. I've now had a year of very comfortable sleeping. This year I'm taking it one step further. I'm going to try to relax more and allow myself more leisure time. This is not going to be that easy because I usually get up on Saturday mornings, have my coffee and get busy cleaning house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, gardening, cooking meals, working on whatever current project I have going on and the next thing I know it's Sunday evening and I'm exhausted. I'm going to try to take more time to have breakfast in bed, read out on the patio or just take a walk once in awhile. Doesn't that sound like a good resolution. Much better than the "I'm going to lose weight" one.

The camellias in front of my apartment are blooming already. Isn't that shade of pink beautiful! (click on the photo above to smell them....just kidding but you can see them better if you click on the photo)

More Blue and White Plates!

All of these beautiful plates are gifts from Mary ~Little Red House.
Thank you Mary! I love every single one of them!

I hope every one had a very Merry Christmas. I've already taken down my tree and all my decorations. Once Christmas is over, I'm so tired of it all. It always looks so clean when all the decorations are gone!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

I may not be posting every day over the next week or so. I'm off of work for two weeks and will be busy painting furniture and my kitchen!

It's a frosty morning in Northern California

Frosty photos from some of my favorites, originally uploaded by Romantic Home.

It 's a cold, frosty morning here. It was down to the mid 30s last night. I just hope it didn't kill some of my plants last night. I meant to cover my azaleas and gardenias and I forgot!

The frosty photos above are from other Flickr members. Aren't these photos gorgeous!

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!

If you are a Gilmore Girls fan, the title of this post may ring a bell. I (like Lorelai Gilmore) am a huge coffee lover! The little espresso cup above is new. Last week my group at work went out for our annual department Christmas lunch. After lunch we ordered coffee and one of my coworkers ordered espresso and it came in this adorable blue and white cup. I bet you're thinking I stole this aren't you? No, I didn't..I would never do that! My coworker suggested that I tell the waiter I love this cup and he will probably give it to me. He said his father-in-law does it all the time and he's always getting free things from restaurants. I'm not that bold! At all! So, my boss asks the waiter if I could have it! What a nice boss, huh? The waiter goes to ask his manager and comes back and says we can have it for $16. No thank you! I like it, but not for $16! but before I could even get that out, my boss tells him to wrap it up. This little cup and saucer was a gift from my boss.

The cappuccino cup above is from the Macy's Martha Stewart collection. I just bought one and figured I would go get a few more...I still need to do that. I usually drink my coffee black but every once in awhile I like a good cappuccino. I used to have a coffee maker that had a regular coffee pot and an espresso maker. The problem was the machine would run out of steam before I could get the milk foamed. I recently found a much better (and less expensive) way to make cappuccinos...
A stovetop espresso pot and a aerolatte battery-operated milk frother. I heat my milk in the microwave and froth it with this handy little device. You can't believe the amount of foam you can get with this thing....so much better than my old espresso maker! I usually like Peet's Italian Roast Coffee but this Trader Joe's is pretty good and a lot less expensive.

21 years ago

21 years ago a very special person came into this world.

Happy birthday Vince...I love you!

My New Free Dining Room Chairs

click photo to enlarge

About a week ago, my daughter and I were coming home from shopping and noticed these chairs sitting out on the curb in front of someones home with sign that said "FREE". I slowed down to look at them and once I saw how dirty they were I almost left without even getting out of my car. I decided if they were painted white they would be better than what I had so I threw them in the car. This past weekend I primed them and recovered the cushions. I still need to paint them but I wanted to share the transformation with you. I didn't want to spend any money of fabric so I used a fabric shower curtain that I had bought awhile ago and never used. It was just large enough to cover the 4 chairs. Are you ready to see the "Before" picture....

Wow, Lucky Me!

I'm always amazed at the wonderful friends I've made through blogging! I really wish we could all live closer together in a wonderful neighborhood. Can you imagine how much fun that would be! Anyway, I wanted to share some of the wonderful things I've received from some friends I've made through my blog and through Flickr. The beautiful napkins above came from Angela ~Cottage Magpie. She saw my post I did about losing out on some lace napkins on eBay. She had bought these at a thrift store and wasn't using them so she sent them to me. About the same time I finally won a bid on eBay and they are almost identical to these. Now if I have a big party I'll have plenty of matching lace napkins!
Yesterday I received a package from Debbie (also known as "Debbie without a blog"). You remember Debbie...I showed you lots of pictures of her BEAUTIFUL home, here, here, here and here. Well, now Fifi is going to Debbie's home soon to photograph it for Romantic Country Magazine! I'm so happy for Debbie. She sent me these beautiful vintage Christmas ornaments above and they came with the big giant peppermint bark candy bar below. The candy bar was tucked into this adorable fabric envelope and that was put into the beautiful red bag.

I met Sue through Flickr. We did a teacup gift swap with each other a couple months ago. It was so much fun that we decided to do an Christmas ornament swap. Below are the ornaments she sent me. They are so beautiful!
Below is another gift I received. This one was to me, from me. This is my early Christmas gift to myself. I figure since I don't have an husband or boyfriend I need to make sure I spoil myself once in awhile (okay...I probably do this a little too often.) The best part of NOT being married is that I don't have to justify my purchases to my husband...that is THE ONE thing I hated most about being married! If I want it, and I can afford it, I buy it! I really didn't NEED this chafing dish. I actually have one that has never been out of the box but it's not nearly as beautiful as this one. I saw this at Marshall's last month and I put it on layaway and I finally picked it up yesterday.
I'm in a supper club and we are meeting at my home on Saturday. We're doing appetizers and a cookie exchange. I'm going to make Swedish Meatballs so I can use my chafing dish!

Karla's What do you Love about your Holiday Home Party

I'm joining in Karla's Party today. For those of you who read my blog regularly, I'm sorry to say you have seen most of these pictures of my Christmas decorations already. I did add a couple new ones though.
I love the warm glow of the Christmas lights on my bed.
On the other side of the room I have a small tree and Santa...a pink Santa!

The warm glow from my chandelier draped with pine and ribbon.
These was the first Christmas decorating I did before we got our tree. I've since changed things a bit on the coffee table.
I painted my miniature pumpkins white and added glitter. Now they look more like Christmas and less like harvest time decorations.
I have a new love...vintage ornaments. I've filled this large glass jar with some that I found this year at a thrift store.

My staircase is draped with pine garland, lights, poinsettias and ribbon.

I love blown glass ornaments. I buy my kids a special ornament every Christmas. This cupcake is my 15 year old daughters.
Below are some more vintage Christmas balls mixed in with some new red ones.

Here is my dining room all decorated for Christmas...

My little Christmas village. This was a gift to my son when he was little. Someday he will have this in his own home. I don't think his college roommates would appreciate it now.

A little bit of red and green in the corner of the living room.

Our Christmas Tree...


A Victorian kissing ball in the kitchen...

I hope you all enjoyed coming to my little apartment for the party! Thank you Karla for hosting this!

Groupings

I put some faux sugared fruit under my cloche and put it on top of my favorite cake stand. I just hope no one lifts that cloche up...there will be fruit rolling everywhere! I also bought some meringue cookies for my large glass candy dish.

(Click each photo to enlarge)

I like the glass jars all grouped together. Now that I'm looking at this I should probably add another jar because the design rules say you should have odd numbers! Or does that tureen make it an odd number? I'm sure that's not the only design rule I've broke, I think my home is full of design no no's. I just decorate with what I like.

Do you ever watch that show on HGTV, "Designed to Sell"? The mother/daughter real estate experts, Donna and Shannon Freeman crack me up! I'm sure if they walked in my place they would be saying...OH NO, YOU HAVE WAY TOO MUCH STUFF GOING ON IN HERE!

Kitchen Plates

I still haven't painted the kitchen but I think I have the color picked out. It a soft gray-blue and I'm going to paint the cabinets white. They're a beige color now and they just look drab and I'm going for fresh and clean! I'm off work for 2 weeks at Christmas so I plan to paint it then. Around the soffit area I'm going to hang blue and white plates. Here's what I have so far. I still need about 7 or 8 more so the hunt is on!

Above is a Victorian Kissing Ball that I made last Christmas. I put it on my blog then but my camera was not working very well so you could barely see it. I used a styrofoam ball that I covered with moss and then pushed in some red and green faux hydrangeas and attached some ribbons. I have it hanging in my kitchen this year.

My Baby Girl is 15 today!

Lauren, my precious little girl who I love so much, I wish you the best birthday ever!
Love, Mom

Over the top!

My daughter told me last night that my Christmas decorating was now over the top which is her dramatic way of saying it's too much. Funny thing is, I don't think it is...not even close to too much! I guess that's the difference in our personalities. When I was her age I had a full size Christmas tree in my bedroom. I still remembering decorating it with my best friend while listening to my Beach Boys records. What prompted her comment is when she saw me decorating my bed. Okay, maybe that is a little extreme but I love how it turned out.
I just have a little Christmas tree on my dresser. If I had room in there, I would have a full size one. I think I'm finally done with my decorating but not because of Lauren's comment, because I don't have any more decorations left to put out!

Even More Christmas Decorating

Someone left a comment the other day that they were surprised how much red I have in my Christmas decorations. I love blue and white and I really love blue and white Christmas decorations but my home hasn't ALWAYS been blue and white. When I first started collecting my ornaments my home was hunter green so the traditional red and green looked great. I have too many ornaments now to change everything to blue and white. Maybe if I were rich I would do it but I'm not so I'm sticking with the traditional red and green. I have more red this year than in the past and it all came from this one amaryllis. I usually buy white amaryllis bulbs to force but this year I planted a red one. I then had to put some more red around my home to balance it out so that's why I have those red ribbons on the tree.
I love white Christmas decorations too. Last night I poured some plastic "snow" into this jar and put a few ornaments in it. I really like the way it turned out. That angel has been on my coffee table, my Christmas tree and now in the jar. I may have to go back to the store and get more of those. They were only $2.99 in a little antique store in Santa Cruz.
My mom bought this Christmas village for my son when he was little. That's another thing I will lose someday when he gets a place of his own.
I'm sending out Christmas cards this year. I found these at Marshalls. They are so pretty with all the glitter on them.

More Christmas Decorating

Yesterday on my lunch hour I went to the thrift store and found some old ornaments. They're dated 1972 on the box. Hmmm I was 12 years old, I remember that Christmas. I got my first pair of skis! Any way, I thought they would be perfect in my beverage dispenser. I have to thank Tracy for this great idea. I turned the spout to the wall so it just looks like a beautiful jar now.
3 boxes of ornaments for $1.99 each. I had enough to add to the red balls that I have in my tiered dish. Every time I put pictures of this piece on my blog someone asks where I got it. When I was a kid we used to go to Disneyland every year (sometimes twice). My mom found this tiered dish at a shop that was in the New Orleans area of Disneyland. I was only about 5 years old but I remember how beautiful that little shop was. They had ceramic lemons in this on display. I've always loved this tiered dish and a couple years ago my mom gave it to me. It brought tears to my eyes because I know how much she loved it. I will always cherish it! It's a great piece to decorate with each season.
Here is one of the ornaments I bought a few years ago for my daughter. At that time she LOVED cupcakes.

My ex-mother-in-law gave me this ornament in the early 80s. The little lobster trap with the seagull I bought on my first trip to Martha's Vineyard in 1987.
This is a Santa that I bought a few years ago. I loved that he was blue and white.
And some cute little snowmen...
Santa on a rocking horse...
I just love unpacking all my ornaments each year and remembering who gave them to me or when I bought them. I still have the very first ornament I ever bought when I was 18 years old.

Our Flocked Christmas Tree

I was so surprised that many of you left comments saying you never heard of a flocked Christmas Tree. I guess it must be more common for states that don't have snow to do this. I decided to get the flocked tree so I could share it with those of you who have never seen one. Basically it's a spray on white fluff that hardens on the branches and looks like snow. It's a little hard to see in the photographs. I should have taken a picture before I decorated it.
You can have the tree completely covered with flocking so that it's all white and you don't see any of the green. I chose to have medium tips done. It's sort of a light dusting of snow. The guy at the Christmas Tree lot did a great job.

I bought the tree Friday night and he told me that I can pick it up around noon on Saturday. You have to wait for the flocking to dry. Well, wouldn't you know our temperature dropped down into the high 30s on Friday night so when I went to pick up the tree it was still wet. He told me to come back in the evening. I went back about 8:00 pm and it still wasn't dry! Finally I was able to take it home Sunday afternoon.

This is the most beautiful tree I've ever had (of course, I say that every year). It is LOADED with ornaments. In fact I ran out of branches and didn't even put all my ornaments on it. This year I used three different ribbons cascading down the tree. A gold, red and a gold & red patterned one.
I love the old world style glass ornaments so every year I try to buy a few more. Also every year I buy my kids an ornament so someday when they have a place of their own they will have a good start on decorating their own tree. Then my tree will look bare!
Along with the ornaments I have nests snuggled in the branches.
I'll have some more Christmas decorating pictures this week!