decorating — Page 14

Patina, Flowers, Light & Nasty Women

November 1, 2016 at 9:28 am by Claudia

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Late afternoon still life.

I am still taken by surprise when I see that table and its patina. What a treasure we found!

This is the scene in the cottage this morning:

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And they go all the way to the front door. It was to go below freezing last night and as I obsessively scan the Weather Channel app on my phone, I look ahead 15 days or so to see if it’s worth trying to save the plants. And it is.

At some point, I’ll give up. In fact, I forgot to cover the geraniums that live in the barrels last night. I could kick myself. They may be gone. I’m afraid to look.

But these beauties are still budding and blooming, so in true tag-team fashion, Don and I bring them inside around 6:00 and they’ll go back outside later this morning.

By the way, I straighten that little red lampshade about ten times a day. Oy.

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Frost is covering everything this morning, but the sunlight is warming up the living room, slowly but surely. One of my favorite things in any house I’ve lived in, but especially in this many-windowed cottage, is watching the play of light on the walls and floors and furniture. I think that’s what keeps me sane in the winter. That bright winter sun.

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved reading the Sunday New York Times. When I returned to my parents’ house to live for a couple of years after college, I would look forward to Sunday morning, when I could buy a copy of the Times and read it while sitting in my dad’s recliner. Since then, wherever I’ve lived, east coast or west coast, I’ve tried to keep that habit going. There have been times when I couldn’t get a copy or was just too busy to find the time to buy one. But lately, we’ve been grabbing a copy every Sunday.

Happiness is the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

I read the latest edition of Louise Penny’s newsletter this morning. She wrote about Michael. I cried.

Those of you who are friends on Facebook have already seen this photo. I want to share it with all of you today because I love this t-shirt (it came in the mail yesterday) and we had such fun taking this picture:

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Oh yes, we do.

Vote. Nasty woman or otherwise.

Happy Tuesday.

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Cottage, Leaves & The Cubs

October 20, 2016 at 9:52 am by Claudia

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Gosh, I love this photo!

And I love our house. Yes, there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not muttering about the lack of storage space or wishing we had a mud room or another bedroom or a garage; but when I see the light pouring through the windows and the wood floors and the colors and our favorite things, I smile.

I’d like a new sofa and chair for the den. The floors, after 11 years of playful dogs, need refinishing. All the walls need repainting, which I have been successfully avoiding for about three years because I hate painting. I’d like a dishwasher that works. A vintage stove.

These are all wants, however, not needs. The truth is, it’s just fine here as it is. It’s our haven. It’s got a lot of personality, color, quirkiness, and vintage. Dare I say that’s a good description of Don and me? Even down to vintage?

Ahem.

For those of you who don’t use Instagram, this photo has become quite popular:

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We were raking leaves, which is a big job around here. We rake them onto a tarp, carry the tarp over to the edge of the woods and dump them.

Don decided to fall backwards into the leaves. Twice.

I have to say he made me laugh out loud, that scamp!

I didn’t watch the debate last night. Instead, we watched the Cubs vs. Dodgers game. But I followed along on both Huffington Post and Daily Kos. Both sites were live blogging the debates. So I knew what was going on and read choice excerpts to Don while we watched the Cubs stage a comeback.

I sort of like ‘watching’ a debate that way; at least, during this election cycle. I simply can’t stand to hear his voice or watch him anymore. Good to know, however, that there continues to be no depth to which he isn’t willing to go. Good to know.

Remember, we evicted him from our heads as of yesterday.

Happy Thursday.

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Decorating and Flowers

September 27, 2016 at 9:03 am by Claudia

This is why we wanted the table in front of the window:

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The afternoon sun covers everything with its golden glow – especially the vintage table.

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I have to stop in my tracks when I see this. It’s so beautiful.

We really love this new look in our living room.

I’ve always loved to decorate, starting with my Barbie case and various shoeboxes when I was quite young. I still love to decorate. I just don’t feel the need to constantly decorate. I have a good eye and, thankfully, so does my husband, which enables us to create spaces that we truly love on a very tight budget; often on no budget at all.

Usually that means that once a room seems finished, we’re fine with it for any number of years. Yes, a piece of pottery or two is added. Or a basket. Or, my favorite, bookshelves filled with books. It’s really only when a new piece knocks our socks off, like the vintage table, and we know that we have to reconfigure everything in order to have it in our home, that we do a major rearrange like we did on Sunday afternoon. Or when we repurpose a room, like we did when we changed the guest room to an office/studio. Otherwise, we tweak here and there, but that’s about it.

So, I love decorating, but I’m not thinking about it all the time, not by a longshot, and I choose not to talk about it all the time on this blog, even though I know that kind of post is very popular. My eyes would begin to glaze over and then what good would I be?

I don’t decorate for the seasons. I can see the seasonal change right outside our windows. Creating new vignettes is not my thing. Once I have settled on an arrangement it usually stays that way for a while. (Although I am currently drying some hydrangeas from the garden to replace the ones in the vintage ice cream maker which have been there a long time and are quite dusty.)

I will say that we have become ‘experts’ in dealing with a small space. After all, I’ve lived in three studio apartments, one of which was so tiny that I could barely move. Frankly, I’ve never lived in a large home. Never. I’ve only resided in studios and one bedroom apartments and homes that are less than 1000 square feet.

My childhood home? Two tiny bedrooms downstairs, an attic bedroom upstairs, a microscopic kitchen and dining room and a living room that was not much bigger. Only one bathroom for many, many years. Filled with two adults and four children and a dog. I learned at a very young age how to cope with very little space.

I am getting the urge to shed some of the stuff I have stashed here and there in the cottage. No, not my pottery or my beloved collections or my books. But closets need to be sorted and those spaces need to be used more effectively. Containers need to be purchased and filled with things we want to keep and put in our storage space. I’m getting geared up to begin that process.

Starting with the dreaded closet in my office. I need to be ruthless. And then I’ll move on to the closet in the den. I’m looking forward to it!

Okay. Flowers.

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