Christmas Treasures

This year I decided to keep it simple when decorating for Christmas. We put all our ornaments on the tree, but for the rest of the decorating I went with a red and white theme. I did, of course, make a few exceptions for some of our favorite Christmas treasures...

The Pixies, peering down from the top of the china cabinet.

The winterscape that I purchased last year from a senior citizen craft fair at our church. I just find these irresistible!

Vintage angels that are supposed to spell N O E L, but mine spell L O O N.

Little Treasures

These might be my best garbage-pick ever. I don't really pick through people's garbage, but I live in a city with alleys (and I used to live in Chicago, too) and when people put things out in the alley, separate from their garbage, they mean for someone to take it. Especially in Chicago, where it is very difficult to move all your stuff! These, however, came from the house directly behind me on the other side of the alley. A young man moved into his grandmother's house after she passed away and he cleaned everything out. I spied the box when pulling into my garage and just knew it contained something good! I ran across the alley, kids still seat-belted (and hollering) in the car. I made sure the guy who works on cars next door was out of sight and I dragged the box into my garage. Later, after I sneaked it past my husband into the basement, I found these wonderful figurines. They've seen better days, but they're delightful none-the-less. They live in the winter village and brighten up our Christmas! I believe they're Barclay toys, just from looking around eBay.

Still Working on the Dining Room

The chairs have been painted and are in use and the table has been refinished.

Originally we planned to stain the table a dark walnut, but I had a change of heart early in the project. It's an old (if you consider the 1980s old) country-style pine table - solid and heavy as...heck. It has a lot of character, some probably added at the factory before shipping and the rest added by us. It really needed to be refinished so I thought we'd update the entire room with a dark-stained table and white chairs.

Well, after stripping off most of the old finish and looking at the beautiful color of the pine, I just couldn't change the color. It's so rich and orangey-yellow and gorgeous. So I bought a spray can of matte polyurethane and left it as is - warts and all (actually, stains, marker and some of the old finish and all). We LOVE the way it turned out, very rustic, very much like raw wood. I had to change some of my ideas for the room (the color of the chairs and curtains, for example) but I'm flexible and actually had wanted to go with a colorful room all along - I just thought it might be too much. I just love it so much. We're still working on the curtains and the china cabinets.

The end chairs were sold to us by a friend at his rummage sale (for $3 a piece) and I sooo wish I had a before picture of them. They were blond wood with a faux green marble vinyl seat cover. Underneath the chairs they say "Room 209" and they most likely came from a mid-priced hotel chain - I can so see them in the corner by the round table with the lamp. I spray painted them and recovered the seats with one of my thrift store fabric finds.

Close up of the fabric, a very small blue hounds-tooth pattern (more blue than this photo would have you believe):

Color in the Dining Room

We are in the midst of a dining room re-do this week, mostly involving paint. Here's a sneak peak of Paprika, Wildflower and Cinnamon (which I think actually looks more like Terra Cotta...)

Room Redo Done! (well, almost)

Above photo is sleepy-land for two children - the bed has a trundle underneath where the littlest of the three sleeps. The dear middle child sleeps above. The above photo also contains four of the patterns from the previous post - hand-me-down quilt from Great-Grandma's old "purple room", pink hand-quilted flower quilt on wall, pink thrifted dot throw and the Target dorm room rug on floor.

Below is the 7-year-old's world (she still needs a bed frame - that's why we're almost done). Here you see the purple floral quilt fabric used on bulletin boards.

Note: See how I made the bulletin boards here!

Below is the freshly painted baby dresser. I had painted it green for a former color scheme. Now it fits in with the "princess colors" of the updated room. Here you see the pink drawer pulls which were the final picture from the previous post.

Below is a close-up of the embroidered baby hangers my grandmother has made for all her great-grandchildren. We lost the hanger part on some of them, but we love them so, so much!