living room — Page 2

Saturday Art Work

January 25, 2020 at 11:03 am by Claudia

I have been chatting with Don as we had our second cup of coffee this morning and I’m running late! The good news: I slept a bit longer this morning. It’s amazing how much difference an extra hour makes. I have never been one of those people (lucky them!) that can function well on too little sleep. Nope; even when I was a kid. I can get by for a day or two, but five? No and no and no.

Oh, and I got frustrated with trying to reapply my nail polish yesterday, most likely because I was so darn tired, so I took it all off. I’ll get back to it one day.

Living room art, part 1.

Our vintage lithograph of the RMS Aquitania. The Aquitania was part of the Cunard line, built in Scotland and launched in 1913 on a trip from Liverpool to NYC. It was an luxury ocean liner but was conscripted for use during both World Wars. In fact, it was due to be retired in 1940, but then WWII broke out and it was enlisted once again. It was officially retired in 1950. It was part of Cunard’s 3 ship fleet; the Mauretania, the Lusitania, and the Aquitania. The Aquitania was the last of the four-funnelled ocean liners. You can clearly see the funnels in the lithograph.

We found this in a local shop and Don fell in love with it. I fell, too, but he was the one who talked me into buying it. I’m so glad we did. The brass plate at the bottom says “Cunard Line.” It was made by Cunard for travel agencies advertising the glamour of transatlantic travel. Since the Aquitania was only used for the war effort after 1940, we can safely say this is, at the very least, from the 30s.

Finding this piece finally solved my problem of what to hang over the piano. I tried several solutions but this one took. The frame matches the color of the piano, it’s substantial, we love the colors and it makes us happy. It doesn’t hurt that the blues are also in the McCoy and the red is in also in the lamp shade.

Next to that is my Hymns board, found not long after we moved here in a now-defunct antique shop in Beacon. I had always wanted one and I especially loved that this one was an off-white. I don’t display anything on it, preferring it to be clean folk art, which speaks for itself. It’s very old.

To the left, the gallery of our beloved dogs. The artwork, including the sketch, is by Shanna. The photograph is mine, transferred to canvas. I have another beautiful painting of Scout by another blog reader that I have yet to frame. That’s on my to do list.

There’s more in the living room but there was just too much glare this morning. I’ll get to it soon.

Happy Saturday.

It’s Here

May 24, 2019 at 10:55 am by Claudia

We’ve just been through a flurry of activity! In anticipation of the sofa delivery, I vacuumed the old sofa, then we put a tarp down and moved the sofa outside to the cement walkway near the kitchen. Then, we covered it with a fitted sheet. That should hold it until Don and his friend move it tomorrow. No rain in the forecast.

Then things like vacuuming the floor, moving things out of the way. And, with a window of 9am – 1pm, the delivery guys arrived at 9! Huzzah! A father and a son, who couldn’t have been nicer.

I snapped a few quick pictures for you.

It’s an English roll arm sofa, a style I have loved for a long time. We ordered sunbrella (indoor/outdoor) fabric in a shade called Cactus. Not really because it was sunbrella, but because we liked the color. We didn’t want beige or white or gray or brown. We wanted color. Since the color looked slightly different in every photo we saw online we were praying that the reality would be what we wanted.

It is. This pop of spring green is just what we’re aiming for.

It’s longer and deeper than our old loveseat but it seems to take up much less space than we thought it would. – which is a great thing! The difference turns out to be minimal.

We are thrilled. Eventually the cushions will be more cushy and English sitting room-y. Our backs are very happy with this new addition to our house. Such great support!

After 10 weeks of waiting, we couldn’t be happier with how the whole thing turned out.

Since we rarely get anything new and have never had anything made-to-order, this is a big deal for us and it’s one of those times we say “Does this mean we’re adults now?”

Yes, even in our sixties, we say that. Late bloomers always.

Happy Friday.

Shuffling

May 21, 2019 at 11:08 am by Claudia

I’m getting to the blog a bit later this morning.

We were sitting on the sofa, having our second cup of coffee and we began to chat about how anxious we are for the new sofa to arrive. Then we started talking about moving things around when it arrives, because we always end up doing that. Suddenly, we were pre-moving furniture! Of course, there’s only so much you can do with our living room space, which includes a piano, a heavy sideboard, and large wardrobe/cupboard.

Don started talking about wanting cleaner lines in terms of the kitchen island, which has become, for us, simply a place to put things when prepping dinner. It is no longer a place to store things. Don is right – it was pretty busy there. We had the blue table, the bread board on top, the Vernors crate, and a wooden crate below. And then we looked over at the bistro table in the living room. The one thing that has always bugged me about where it was situated is that we have golden pine floors, a golden oak coffee table, and the bistro table also has a golden finish. We’d already been thinking about putting a rug under the coffee table to break up some of the pine.

I’ll take better pictures later when the light isn’t pouring into the room, but the antique farm table is now where the bistro table was. It looks much better than this. I love the blue chipped paint, which gives our eyes something other than golden wood to rest on.

(The bright sun makes a good picture next to impossible.)

And the bistro table is in the kitchen.

I have to figure out the details yet.

Don’s right. The lines are cleaner. We’re also thinking of getting four matching chairs for the kitchen table. I think we want a bit less ‘variety.’ We’ll see.

Of course, this could all change once the sofa arrives next week! But for now, it’s a good change. As always, with a small house, I had to find new places for certain items, like the vintage step stool and the crate that was under the blue table when it was in the kitchen. The Vernors crate is temporarily in the white wardrobe. Once the sofa is here, I’ll take pictures of everything.

I told Don that I sometimes feel my whole life consists of shuffling things around. Small spaces are a huge challenge that way. But it’s also a lot of fun to see things in a new way. Don has a very good eye, as well. So we work well together.

Much cooler today, but sunny. I’m going to go outside shortly and check on my green things.

Happy Tuesday.

Saturday Art Work

It’s Here

Shuffling

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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