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!

Our Bungalow Is For Sale!

Hi again, sports fans!

Yesterday I blogged about our new art ledges:

While photographing said art ledges,

I took a few more snapshots of our living room.

Let’s have a quick look-see, shall we?

First up, my awesome red + white target artwork:

My friend, Alan, made it.

He has a new biz called Boxcar Home,

so look for him at pop-up markets in + around Chicago.

He + I may do one together, later this fall — stay tuned!

https://www.facebook.com/BoxcarHome/

Exciting, no?  But back to our living room!

The top of our sorter is currently sporting my old RedBird sign.

I stenciled it on an old plank from a cupboard,

which we found in the basement of our brick bungalow.

And look at that wonderful butter churn that G.O. bought last Sunday!

A couple of close ups of our sorter’s original gray paint:

Here are a few photos of the sorter’s cubbies.

Our dad caught this foul ball at a Cardinals game in the late 50’s.

The display stand is from Land of Nod.

I super love this miniature yellow ware bowl,

+ the small ‘pineapple’ patchwork ornament that my sister, Kathy, made:

Just a few of my dozens of books,

with the cutest blue + white floral bowl, ever!

I snapped some of our other living room happiness,

including this framed photo of my parents:

I bought that sponged frame at a folk art show, years ago.

My parents are seated on my old twiggy bench,

on the patio of the house we built on a riverfront lot.

Yikes.  That was 2 houses ago!

We just listed our most recent past house!

Disclaimer: we accepted an offer earlier this afternoon.

It’s been sold!

At Last, Art Ledges!

Jeopardy! was just on, + I didn’t get Final.  The humanity!

But let’s not dwell on today’s heartbreak;

 let’s discuss my new art ledges from IKEA, instead:

We have 4 of them on each side of that huge sorter.

I’m such a fan of art ledges — we had them at our old brick bungalow, too:

Art ledges are right up my decorating alley,

as they make it super easy for me to endlessly arrange + rearrange all my stuff!

They’re perfect for G.O., too,

as we don’t end up with Swiss cheese nail holes in our plaster walls.

But why, you ask, did it take us 10+ months

to hang art ledges here at the Dutch colonial?

  Well, here’s why  — I suffer from CDI.

Chronic Decorating Indecision

Let’s go back in time, when all this indecision was taking place.

I sit here, on our new-ish couch, while simultaneously watching Jeopardy

+ pondering where to display all my groovies.

Here’s my view while doing all that watching + pondering:

Disclaimer: I plopped that tall black ladder there just this morning,

so imagine this as an empty, blank space.

I just knew that it would be perfect for an epic gallery wall!

Here’s proof, all from Pottery Barn:

Yumm-O, am I right?

Yes I am right, but for some reason I just couldn’t commit.

Then, 0ne day, out of the blue,

I was struck with the idea of flanking our sorter with art ledges.

Perfect!  I love symmetry!

View from the front door. Our poor Eames-style recliner needs some TLC!

Let’s have a closer look-see at just a few of my groovies, shall we?

On the lower left side, I’ve incorporated some ‘leaners’.

Beatles Revolver LP . vintage map of St. Louis . folk art measuring stick, made from an old window sash (by me)

Now let’s view the lower right side, with its own leaner + a vintage child’s chair.

I’m sewing a cushion for it, for my biz — but I kinda like it here.

Perhaps I’ll keep it.

Cubist painting of Susie, our late great Dachshud by David Holsted of Harrison, AR . photo of our grandson with Susie . President Kennedy window cling

A framed map . Blackhawk statue in Oregon IL . Hogue Hall (now demolished) at my alma mater, Greenville College . vintage metal weather vane arrow.

Vintage letter cards . corresponding dictionary pages for ‘Oh’ (for G.O.) + ‘Kay’ (for me) . another vintage metal weather vane arrow

Close up of a print of my beloved Busch Stadium, from an etsy seller

Oh, how fun!

So many groovies, so little room left in this blog post, though!

Perhaps I will share more on another day — stay tuned!

Oh, + happy Labor Day weekend!

Our Dining Room Gets Its FALL On!

 I recently came home with a carload of mums, kale, pansies + pumpkins,

+ next, I added FALL to our front porch!

It was such a huge morale boost that I opted to do something similar inside!

I started with our dining room:

This pair of black urns with the white pumpkins

were flanking our front door, just this morning!

Now they are looking swell inside, accessorizing our pine farmhouse table:

I have had this old Rockford, Illinois wooden box for years:

Why yes, I DO love red stripes!

KATHY + CINDEE oil painting by me, graduate school, 1978

Our bungalow doesn’t have a lot of wall space for large canvases like this,

so I’m using a vintage wooden easel to display my painting.

Here’s a similar look from Ellen Degeneres’ house:

Back to our house — here’s a close-up of that accent wall.

G.O. + I stenciled it together, + we love it!

That pretty wall color — Beeswax — is so warm,

+ it happens to match all the yellow ware that I love to collect.

Here are my tin quilt stencils, marching across the hallway door:

 

Don’t you love our art ledges?  I do.

G.O. made them with an old door casing from our house:

I like them because I can switch things out whenever I please.

G.O. likes them because we’re not driving 100’s of nails into our walls!

Right now, I’ve got a lot of fall stuff displayed with photos + artwork.

Yumm-O for our orange mercury glass votive cups:

Some old glass ware for some sparkle, inside a handmade basket:

Our dad caught this foul ball at a Cardinals game in the 50’s:

Next up: our living room gets its Autumnal make over!

Stay tuned!