Post-Christmas Paring Down

Funny thing.

This November found me a little down in the dumps.

To try + boost my morale a bit, I opted to decorate for Christmas earlier than usual.

Exhibit A:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:

I totally know that Dachshund Santa is tacky, but how could I resist?

He’s almost as cute as Chloe the Dachshund!

Everything else is vintage + simple + natural, so I tell myself that things get balanced.

Exhibit B:

I’m keeping those darling vintage pitchers + tiny bottle brush trees out for a while.

Look!  There’s Chloe’s predecessor, Susie the Dachshund,

with our very young, very adorable grandlad (who’s now 11.5!)

But I digress.  Back to my holiday decor.

Away it all went, almost the minute Christmas was over.

How unlike me, Queen of Procrastinators!

 But isn’t it always great to see how spare the house looks after the holidays?

Take our sorter + art ledges.  Please.

You might recall that I was inspired by this photo to turn my books around:

I really like the way it keeps things looking a little less busy,

so my books are staying turned around, at least for now.

I also purged about half the stuff that had been on my art ledges:

They look great!

I hung our vintage map of Illinois on the front of the sorter:

We bought it at a pop-up antiques market in Grand Central Station

during our first visit to NYC.

Among all this paring down, perhaps you noticed one new item in our living room.

It’s an ottoman!

I’ve had it about 20 years or so.

It came with a matching chair + 1/2 (a.k.a. “Grandmother’s chair”),

which I sold about 10 years ago.

Its new upholstery will be a heavy horse blanket I’ve had forever, too.

I think it adds yet more texture + a little pattern to our room.

My plans are to attach it with some off-white twill tape + dozens of upholstery tacks.

(Sooner than later, I hope.)  I told you I was the Queen of Procrastinators!

Stay tuned!