Better late than never Christmas tour.

I'm incapable of getting my Christmas act together until all the holiday house tours

in Blogland have come and gone.  I don't make big changes in the way

I decorate for Christmas from year to year, but I felt the need to publish a post

 to pull my blog out of the toilet, so to speak.(I'm referring to my last post.)

Sunshine and days off rarely coincide, so here's our dining room
on a gray winter day.  I had to take dozens of photos just to get a few shots
 with all the chandelier lights shining. I got my workout going up and down
the chair to screw in one temperamental light bulb and then hightail it
back to my camera to quickly snap a shot before it flickered out.
   So there you have it.  All 250 watts burning bright.

Total calories burned during my chair stepper routine = 250 (I wish!)

The chandelier crystals take on a new persona at night
when they catch the rays of the 24/7 light show next door.
Red and green and flashing all over.  :o)

An old quilt is my table dressing for the season.

I added some glittery wood snowflakes to my autumn acorn garland.

Green trees in teacups and an angel in a birdcage?
There is no logic involved in Christmas decorating.

I retired my sheet music wreath and resurrected "swamp thing"

with a piece of pine garland and red berries. The Swedish candle holder

was a thrift store find.  Score!

Red white & blue brighten up this corner of the room.

I keep the buffet top simple so I can easily move everything
 to make way for Christmas goodies.  We need lots of room for goodies.

I made little gingerbread houses to decorate the kitchen shelves,
and as of today there have been no uninvited guests
nibbling on the walls.  Whew!

The red and white mugs were a World Market find this year.
I also found a cookie cutter at WM for mini gingerbread houses
that will make assembling the houses so much easier next year!

Since I still haven't replaced our living room furniture (no big surprise),

I spruced up the sofa with a fun new throw from TJMaxx.

A round red placemat from Target brightens the basket on the wall.

On my to do list for several years was to make a big chalkboard (3 ft. x 4 ft.)
 to hang over the sofa.  It only took a few hours and cost around $10 to make.

I wonder how long my chalk art will last when our grands arrive?

The only thing I've yet to do is assemble candles and votive cups
for the luminaries we line our sidewalk with on Christmas Eve.

Our son-in-law Jeremy has taken on the duty of lighting
 the luminaries each year, which is not an easy task when it's
cold and windy.  I'll be watching from the nice warm house.

It was a difficult year for us at 911, but as 2017 draws to an end,
I realize how truly blessed we are.

We love you Santa.
  It wouldn't be Christmas without you.

Thanks so much for visiting and Merry Christmas

from our house to yours!

Vickie

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Welcome!

Let me turn the music down so we can visit.  I've got speakers wired into
our kitchen so I can play all my favorite Christmas tunes while I bake.
I think it's my favorite place to be at Christmastime.

You've seen the wall above numerous times, but this winter it feels warmer
in the room with the stenciled wallpaper.  Our big window faces north
 which tends to give true whites a chilly bluish cast during the winter months.

 

Since our kitchen wears red and green all year long, decorating for Christmas

takes just a few minutes.  I keep the few things I put out in a small basket
 on a little used upper cabinet shelf, so I don't even have to leave the room to decorate!

 

I moved this set of coasters way up high and out of reach of little fingers.

There are only 2 smiling faces left and I want to preserve them.

Do you hear that Maggie, our little climber?
Future firefighter perhaps?

Note to self:  Hide my ladder.

It's nice to be able to add small pops of color on my open shelving.
The ( Holt Howard?) salt & pepper shakers I've had forever
are a favorite of mine and that's why they're on the high altitude shelf. 

I finished painting the remaining kitchen walls a slightly warmer white

as you can see under the bakery sign.  Leftover kitchen "greens" and a pine cone wreath
decorate the space above the coat rack in the back entryway.

I've now got enough Santa nut cups to fill my sterilizer cabinet.

The reclining elf-on-the-sewing-machine-drawer-shelf is joined by
 vintage mushroom candle holders that I found on clearance after Christmas last year.

This is the room where we coffee drinkers like to hang out,
the kiddos eat breakfast and lunch, and the cooking happens,
so a few holiday accents bring a festive feel without taking up valuable space.

FYI, the chalk painted table and chairs finished with MMS clear furniture wax

are holding up nicely, and clean up easily with a mild vinegar and warm water solution.
Kid tested, grandma approved.

One tiny change here is the red & white crocheted romper pot holder

on the wall above the green scale.

Once again, the boss man keeps an eye on what's happening below.

View from the dining room before the baking starts.

Now it's time to crank up my Christmas tunes and bake some cookies!

This year's Christmas selfie (gift bought for one's self) is the set of 3 bowls
for only $5.99 at Walgreens, of all places!  I could not resist.

For years, I've marveled over the pretty gingerbread houses
and beautifully decorated cookies displayed in Scandinavian kitchens,
so today I made time to bake and decorate my own.

OMG.

They are way more labor intensive than one would think,
so of the 5 dozen cookies my recipe made, this is as many as my
stiff slightly arthritic hands could decorate at one time!

Unfortunately they will not be hanging in the windows and strung across shelves.
  They will be locked up tight in covered containers.

Have you read KariAnne's story about her disappearing gingerbread men?
(If not, click on her name for the lowdown.  Let me tell you, it's all
 fun & games when you're reading about somebody else's house.)


 Much to my horror and dismay, we discovered a pair uninvited guests
  stirring in our house this holiday season.  Eeek!!!!
  Let's add a few more !!!!!!! to let you know how I really feel about them!!!!!


 They've now been "escorted off the property", so to speak, and I don't think I'll be
 inviting them back in any time soon for biscuits and tea.

To all creatures, great and small, Merry Christmas!

Vickie

Do you remember the rhyme from your childhood that goes like this....

Group:  Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

   Mousie stole the cookie from the cookie jar!

Mousie:  Who me?
 Group:  Yes you!

 Mousie:  Couldn't be. 

Group:  Then who?

 Mousie:  (insert name here) stole the cookie from the cookie jar!

Repeat until everybody in the bus has a turn.

I'm joining:
The Essence of Home  Share Your Style

Warming up the white.

Back in the days of big permed hair and stirrup pants, nearly every room

 in our previous house sported either a stenciled border, stripes, or a faux painted finish.

After spending 30 plus hours on a ladder stenciling faux wallpaper

in our former dining room (almost 30 years ago!), I swore I'd never stencil another wall.

Famous last words.

As you know, I haven't been happy with the sterile whitish walls in our kitchen,

so when I came across this Laura Ashley wallpaper.....

......I was inspired to find a stencil in a similar pattern.

With my indecisive nature, I was afraid to buy wallpaper online

for fear I wouldn't like it once it was up on the wall, so faux stenciled wallpaper

seemed like the way to go.  I've read a few tutorials on rolling the pattern on

with latex wall paint which seemed so much easier than the painstaking

method of applying the paint with a stencil brush. 

Well.

It was not quick and easy.  It was a big sticky mess.

Perhaps if I'd actually followed the tutorials I'd have been

more successful, but as usual, I jumped right in with 

the supplies I had on hand.

I started willy-nilly on this wall with no real plan in mind.

Had I not been delirious with a fever at the time, I would have started

in a more inconspicuous spot, but that's all water under the bridge now.

The latex paint bled through in multiple places and in some areas

the paint barely showed up at all.  The stencil is small (11 x 15) so there was

plenty of down time between each panel to nap with my head on the table

 while I waited for the latex paint to dry.  Zzzzzzzzzz.

Fortunately, the design matched up when I got to this side of the room.

Unfortunately....

The stencil did not bend into the corners, so I had to cut 3 different stencils

to fill the gaps and then hand paint the rest- into the corners, around the window,

 up against the ceiling, and on top of the baseboard heater.  Very time consuming!

(As you can see, I needed plenty of caffeine to get me through the process.) 

 I was convinced I'd be sanding down the wall and repainting it white again,

so I just grabbed a round artist brush and haphazardly slapped on the design.

I was getting weak and my care factor at this point was close to zero. 

I was on day 3 and I just wanted to be done!

When I finished, I took a deep breath, stepped into the dining room to critique my work,

 and the F word  came to mind.

Farmhouse!

Maybe it was the fever, but to me it looked like faded old farmhouse wallpaper.

It's hard to get a good photo against the big window, but I think you get the picture.

I had originally planned to stencil the wall to the right also, but there are way too many

corners and angles to contend with, so I'll be content with one accent wall.

If you're considering stenciling a wall, here are a few tips I learned along the way.

Number 1

Use spray adhesive on the back of your stencil.

I didn't and I'm pretty sure that contributed to the paint bleeding through.

Number 2

Use a foam roller.

I used a small fuzzy wall roller on the first half of the wall,

and the coverage was splotchy.  I switched to a foam roller for the second

half and the paint went on much more smoothly.

The stencil I used can be found here.

I could spend countless hours touching up all the boo boos on my stenciled wall,

but it's a very subtle design and the imperfections are hardly noticeable.........

unless you're looking at a photo of the wall.  :o)

Thanks for visiting and Happy Easter!

Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:

Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday

Thoughts from Alice Sundays at Home

The Essence of Home Share Your Style

I need to vent.

As a middle child, I tend to avoid conflict, and my blog

most definitely would not be the place I'd choose to publicly vent my frustrations.

 On the other hand, it's the perfect place to show off my new vent.  :o)

I first saw it at an antique shop I visited in October, and I was shocked to find it

still in the same spot on the floor when we stopped back in December. 

(No, I did not hide it behind other merchandise.)

 With the discount I asked for, it was only $25, so I bought it

 and stashed it in the basement until after the holidays.

 

The wood was originally almost black, but my assistant

sanded it down to the pretty wood tone it's sporting now.

The only other change in the kitchen is that I switched out my beige buffalo check shades
  for my red & white table runner valances before Christmas,
 and they'll remain hanging on the windows through the summer months.

 Of course, now I've got to rearrange the plates hanging on the soffit,

but there's no need to vent about that.

We've been enjoying a few spring-like days up north,
as you can see by the sun streaming through the dining room window below.

Enough playing around in the kitchen.

  It's time to get outdoors and feel that sun on my face!

Thanks for visiting!

Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:

Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday

The Wicker House Create - Share - Inspire

Autumn kitchen.

  I took a week off work (and blogging) to act as girl Friday for my hubby

who had surgery a week ago.  I'd say he's well on the road to recovery

since he was able to put down his crutches to hold the kitchen chandelier

out of the way for the photo below.  It wasn't on his list of exercises,

but I think it falls under the category of occupational therapy.  :o)

I spiced up my shelves with a few seasonal accents.  The sweet pie bird was a gift

that I've yet to use for pie baking.  I've got a freezer full of apples, so this may be the year!

Yummy caramel and cinnamon flavored coffees fill the basket on my mug rack.
If you're trying to cut down on coffee consumption,
do not buy a Keurig!

I had my own list of things I hoped to accomplish this week,

 and finishing my Scandinavian inspired buffalo check fabric shades was one of them.

  They're made from a 102" long tablecloth, so there was more than enough fabric
 to make unlined shades for both windows.  They add warmth to the kitchen
 but still allow sunlight to filter through.

This window is 90" wide, so finding a curtain rod that didn't sag in the middle was a problem.

I bought inexpensive metal electrical conduit that's lightweight, but sturdy, and cut it to length.

  After I hung the shade, I ran a strip of double-face tape along foam pipe insulation and

rolled the shade around it for support and then tied it in place.

In keeping with the season, I found some Frankensteinish bolt thingies

to pop on the ends of the metal conduit.

Colors of the season.

Last fall I found the cookie dough pail in the perfect wood tone to join my
green ice cream maker on top of my pantry cabinet.  15 pounds of cookie dough.  Yum!

I bought the picture years ago at a friend's garage sale.  The print has buckled from
 water damage, but it's such a lovely image.  I'd love to walk along that lakeside path!

   I usually display the thrift store embroidered wine bottle cover with the yarn embroidery
 facing the wall, but the color is welcome this time of year.

  Green and orange have long been 2 of my favorite colors.

Harvest baskets.

A gloomy Halloween seems to be the norm for us.

Bite marks from a grandchild, or are there more sinister

forces present at 911?

My work station for this Halloween Eve.

I'm not normally the candy giver, but this year (unfortunately) the duty falls on my shoulders.
 All I have to say is brrrrrrrr!!!!

 

The infinity scarf was a quick waiting room project last week.  It looks much better hanging

on the hook than it does around my neck.  Apparently twisting and looping one of these things

 into a fashionable accessory is an art I've yet to master.

  The vintage Red Cross bag was just one item in a box full of vintage goodies

 sent to me by blog friend Linda (Itsy Bits & Pieces).  Thank you so much, Linda!

The time has come to turn our clocks back for Daylight Saving Time.
On Monday I'll be driving home from work in the dark.  Sigh.

It's very hard to motivate myself to go for a brisk walk in the cold dark night
after dinner.  I do believe with the cold rainy night that's forecast tonight,
 I'll have plenty of calories from candy bars to work off.  oink oink

Thanks for visiting and Happy Halloween!

Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Tweak it Tuesday Cozy Little House
Make it Pretty Monday  The Dedicated House
Share your Style  The Essence of Home
Let's Talk Vintage  Bella Rosa Antiques