It's A Beautiful Morning

The Masters

Catching up on vacation ironing while watching the Masters pregame. 

Updated Dining Room And Living Room Pictures

The Summer Shuffle

The mirror from the foyer is now in the dining room.

I added a few old leather books to the living room.



It cost me a broken window but finally the trays that I have had for years are hung over the fireplace.
This is a close up of the mirror that I am contemplating for the foyer

So what do you think? Is it a keeper?

~ The Guest-Room Of Perfection ~

Good morning ladies. How was your weekend? I hope you are all safe and warm and surrounded by the ones you love as you as you make your way through this last week before Christmas.

Above is my tiny pink living room. Since this room is already pretty well filled with goodies that endlessly sooth my soul I only added a couple of Christmas touches. The stag needlepoint pillows have replaced the cabbage rose ones for the winter.
An old cut glass bowl with simple sparkly pink ornaments in it on my mother's end table in the corner finishes off my favorite room in the house.

This old, rag tag bough, with some left over pink ornaments from the dining room tree, fit on the banister that leads upstairs from that room. It is lit with white lights that must make an unusual site from the street. The opposite banister has colored lights and red ribbon on it. I know it sounds weird, but with Christmas magic, and from the entrance it amazingly works. Well it works from the inside anyway, hehe.....

You saw how many gran's we had here last weekend in the last post. This is the table I had set up for them in the foyer. It worked out well for them to do crafts on while the adults socialized in the back of the house. Come to think about it, I don't think they ever did get around to making the ginger bread house from the kit that was waiting for them. Oh well, I will take it up north with us when we go on Thursday and they can work on it an Mom's.


We did a fun thing this year that I will show you tomorrow. Today let's see the upstairs before I added the surprises that awaited our guests.

Our room got a good going over so our youngest son could have a place to store his things. We made up a bed for him on the sofa so our room was his place to stow his bedding, clothing and the like.

Our bathroom is action central when the girls start primping. They love to get into my makeup and jewelry. Last Saturday when we were getting ready for our big dinner party on Saturday night the hair, jewelry and eye-lashes were flying.

Just thought you might like to see my new pink and white monogrammed towels. John wanted to know where his towels were. I told him that upstairs linens are only monogrammed in the lady of the houses initials according to Emily Post. Bless his heart, he laughed and resigned himself to using his soft old green towels.

Come on in. I will show you around the guest-rooms that are ready for company. This is the Currier & Ives room. These C & I prints of the four seasons hang on one wall under this old plate shelf that holds red C & I transfer ware plates and a platter.

A C & I lamp shade tops the green glass bedside lamp.

The bathroom between two of the guest-rooms is freshend up for company.

Fluffy clean towels await their arrival.

A small sample of my collection of rose plates stand ready over the light fixture to welcome them home.

Even the waste basket got a bath in anticipation of their arrival.

The blue and white room with its diamond shaped checkered old quilt and matching pillow shams on the feather bed covered with a scalloped white spread is clean as a whistle.

One of these days I will get around to painting this chair white. The fabric on it matches the curtains that are stashed in the closet from our old house that need to be refitted to cover the windows in this room.

These are the windows that they will eventually cover;)

OK, moving down the hall to the last guest-room.

The hunt room.

This needle point chair is waiting to be piled with clothes.

The ancestor pictures hold sentry over the bed.

This little corner of the laundry room cheered me while the washer and dryer was buzzing.

I hope you enjoyed this visit and the tour of our guest-rooms. If you are hosting guests this Christmas at your house you might like to see what Miss Emily Post has to say in her book, The Personality Of A House, about The Guest-Room Of Perfection:

"The essential requirements of comfort for every guest-room of perfection, whether it be in a palace or in a little but well appointed house, include:

1. A bathroom of its own.

2. A delightful bed.

3. Plenty of light and air.

4. Choice of pillows.

5. A perfect dressing-table.

6. A good light to read by in bed.

7. Heat in cold weather.

8. Cross-ventilation in hot weather.

9. A sofa to rest on.

10. Situation as free from noise as possible."

Her book, first published in 1939, is one of my favorites.

Stop back tomorrow if you get a minute during this busy week to see the surprises that we had for the family when they got here last Friday and we will take a look at the downstairs all decked out for Christmas.

Blessings and much love,

Sue

~ A Flair for Living ~

A stack of books in my living room ready for reading.
One of the books in the stack is just like one of my favorite decorators.

Charlotte Moss has this same book in her stack too. This picture is from her book:

~ Charlotte Moss ~ A Flair for Living.

Weekend Recap

To get ready for the busy weekend I dismantled the Tablescape Thursday kitchen table and moved the bunny with my Sweetest Day roses into the foyer.
Dana and the boys came down to go to a birthday party on Saturday afternoon down here. Between the main event the boys watched a 3-D movie
and Dana fluffed up the mantel.
~
We did a little outdoor seasonal decorating, worked on Dana's computer generated house of the moment, and did a whole lot of Christmas shopping.
~
After a full day of Christmas shopping Dana and the boys headed home and John and I fought traffic jams and went across town to watch Luke play hockey. It was a very full weekend that I thought would leave me exhausted but surprisingly it did not and I am ready to go today. Oh, I even stayed up long enough to watch Mad Men in real time which is rare, I usually watch it via Direct TV on Monday afternoon.

Hope you all had a good weekend.


Hugs,
Sue

~ MacKenzie-Child's Lamp ~

Thank you Cindy at My Romantic Home for hosting another fun Show & Tell Friday.

Today I thought you might like to see this table lamp in our living room. The crazy color of the lamp shade dictated the wild wall color of this room. This whimsical, novelty lamp by MacKenzie-Childs is a good size to fit between two chairs in our bay window.
This is the base that has four fantastically painted dogs supporting the lamp. We like the whimsical nature of this lamp with the juxtaposition against our mostly traditional furniture and accessories to personalize our home and give it a more casual fun feel. The grandchildren love it and have had many a tea party on it using my Mother's old pewter tea set for their toy.

Don't you love Cindy's picture that she uses to tag participants in her Show and Tell Friday party? I just think it is so pretty. It reminds me of photos by Toshi Otsuki in the old Victoria magazine.
So, to see more of Show and Tell Friday or join in you might want to stop by My Romantic Home and take a look around.

Thanks for coming by and visiting, it is always good to hear from you.

Hugs,
Sue

Time To Get Busy

Hope you all had a good weekend. I never really think about Sweetest Day so I was very pleasantly surprised when John came home from work Friday with these pretty roses, a sweet card and tickets to see the play Legally Blonde downtown Saturday night for Sweetest Day. We worked around the house Saturday and then friends joined us for dinner and the play Saturday night. We had a very nice quiet weekend.
Now it is time to get my feather duster flying.

When I get behind with my house work I revert back to The FlyLady for guidance.


Today the plan is to complete the Monday: Home Blessing Hour.
Cull/toss old Magazines
Change sheets.
Empty all the trash.
Vacuum all rooms.
Mop kitchen and bath.
Clean mirrors and doors.
Feather Dust furniture.


Have y'all heard of The FlyLady? Any FlyLadie's around here?
~
If you are overcome with C H A O S (Can't Have Anybody Over Syndrome) you might want to check out her website.
~
I have used routines most of my life but around 2003 The FlyLady came into my life with her daily email reminders of BabySteps to help reduce and remove the CHAOS and disorganization in our homes. When I get side tracked I go back to basics with the FlyLady and before I know it I'm back on track. So, this morning I'm pulling out my Control Journal and getting busy.

Happy Monday!

~ Tradition ~

Time is short around here like it probably is at your house today too. Yesterday I mentioned that if I got a minute I would include Nolan's high chair to my children's Easter tablescape post. Since I am short on time, here is our babies undecorated bunny high chair.
These sweet bunnies have entertained all of our grandchildren when they were babies. Never mind that this is the most uncomfortable, impractical high chair ever made, it is cute and family tradition! Part of the tradition includes the family member that has on the most flexible belt when babe' is hoisted into the chair takes it off and we use it to strap in said babe'. Ah, tradition.

While photographing the high chair this cookie jar caught my eye. Some of you have commented about these bunnies and when my friends were here last week we were discussing them. Well, here's the deal. When Sheryl got home she e-mailed me that Fitz & Floyd was having a sale and that they had the Old World Bunny candle sticks included in the sale.


Off I went to Fitz & Floyd's website to check it out.



Not only were the candle sticks on sale, but most of the entire line was still available at deep discount.
Here is the teapot that is perched atop of the dishes that are all clean and packed up, ready to be shipped of to the winner of my first Giveaway that you can still sign up for.




Gentleman bunny candle holder.

Lady candle holder.

The canape plate.

Blessings & Happy Easter my friends.

Hugs,

Sue