Warm Vignettes For Winter

My living room mantel is important to me during the months of January and February.  

 We spend more time in the living room than the den because the fireplace is there. 

I love to wrap in an old soft quilt with a good book and a dog or cat in front of the fire.

I do not like cold, damp, dark days.

Lucky for me, here in South Carolina we do have those unexpected days of warm sun and shorts in the winter.

A Southern snow is okay.  Here today and gone tomorrow.

Let's start with what a wonderful Santa brought me - cherub heads!

They are gray and silver now.  I may just distress them more.

I love the way they look in front of the stained glass window.

Regular readers know I am eclectic and eccentric in my decorating.

I follow no rules.

I choose to create vignettes from items well-loved.

The bucket arrangements from the last post were placed on either side of the fireplace.

Besides buckets, burlap, and boot stretchers, I added books and birds.

Oh, and silver bowls.

I wish I had a pair of horse prints or winter scenes to replace the usual florals.

I may have to make some.

If I get up off the sofa any time soon.

The lights provide interesting shadows on the shelves.

The cage cloche was another gift from Santa.

I chose a few red and blue books for spots of color among the grays, neutrals, and darks.

There are two sheep on the mantel - they stay there most of the year.

I just this moment had a thought of what could hang in the alcoves on either side of the fireplace instead of those florals.  


 I will let you know if it works out.

Back to the mantel wall.

Two sweet birds huddle on a stack of books.

Another bird peers at the titles.

These are book boxes - love them for storage!

I always think of this pair of birds as Donna and Chucks.

Me singing my heart out and Chucks squenching his eyes closed in horror at the sound!

Santa also brought me Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits so I have been wailing the blues around here.

No not officially on the mantel wall, but close enough.

I love this window and angel.


Okay, the tour is over.

Do I keep everything like this for two whole months?

Nah. I will add something or delete something along the way.

BUT  it will be something interesting to look at while reading a good book with a dog or a cat in front of a fire wrapped in a soft old quilt.

See y'all!

Knick Of Time Tuesday #118 Vintage Inspiration Party</>
Common Ground: Be Inspired #171 

 

Buckets and Boot Stretchers

 Back in November before the Christmas decorations went up, I had an arrangement I especially liked.

I had found a pair of boot stretchers at the antique mall for a decent price.

I did not know they existed, but had to have them when I saw them.  

I left another pair there.  

Should have bought them, too.

Found out they are quite expensive - a lot more than what I paid.

Of course they were gone when I went back the next day.

As you can see, these are not a matching pair.  They are in several adjustable parts.  You can see the stretchers laying on the table.

The green buckets were from Tuesday Morning.

So along came Christmas and the buckets and boot stretchers were stored away.

I finished today putting away all of the Christmas.

Time to rearrange and decorate for the dreaded months of January and February.

I am not a cold and dark kind of girl.

I freed the buckets from the attic along with some burlap bags, some curly dead stuff, the boot stretchers, some shoe stretchers, and some blue plaid material.

I was sure there was an arrangement in this pile somewhere.

The two buckets turned out better than expected.  Now I had two arrangements about three feet high.

So where to put them?

They needed to be together.




Here inside the front door.

With the second arrangement on the hall tree.

No way - they were too overwhelming for the small entry.

Plus Chucks kept running into them .

Plus the boot part of the stretchers would not fit in either place.

What to do?

What to do?

Well, you will just have to come back next time to see where they ended up.




PS  If you see boot stretchers for $20 a pair, snatch them up.

Even if they are not a matched pair!

See y'all!

Knick Of Time Tuesday #118 Vintage Inspiration Party
Common Ground: Be Inspired #171 

Merry Christmas!

I hope Santa brought you and yours presents and joy this Christmas Day.  

Such a special season with such a special reason for all the celebration.

See y'all!

A Holiday Night at Wilkeswood Manor

'Twas late evening at Wilkeswood Manor on the Eve of Christmas Eve's Eve.

I could hear in the distance caroling and church bells tolling ten o'clock.

The moon was a silver orb blurred by scudding clouds.

 The cats pranced and danced about my bare feet  as I captured for eternity the sight of Wilkeswood Manor dressed in its holiday garb.

White lights twinkling in the azaleas and camellias.

Wreath upon the red door.

A peek into the front window revealed a tree and a chorus of angels.

Okay, enough with the pretty stuff.

A fat and happy gourd Santa nestled in his rusty hose reel by the front door.

 A stack of rusty toolboxes on a distressed red rocker hold poinsettias - the fake kind - with dried rosemary branches.

It was 75 degrees with high humidity and I was dressed in shorts, tee, and barefooted.

It better be cold for Christmas.

You hear that, Santa?

I want cold for Christmas!

See y'all! 

See all the bottle brush trees at these posts:

Let The Bleaching Begin

Dying the Trees

Bottle Brush Trees on Corks

Bottle Brush Tree Joy

Bottle Brush Trees on Molds 

Bottle Brush Trees On Blocks 

Merry and Bright

 Here are a few vignettes in the living room.

No deconstruction - just pared down to a simple merry and bright Christmas.

The Frozen Charlottes like to pretend they are sugar plum fairies at Christmas.

We only used vintage Shiny Brite balls of various sizes and hundreds of white lights for the tree.

An angel greets visitors at the door.

A simple vignette: vintage postcards, a lighted topiary, and my quail collection.

I do change out the prints around the house with snow pictures.

They stay up until the end of February.








Come on by if you have the time.  

I promise all the junk is put away.  Neatly!

I always allow guests this time of year.

I promise fudge, cookies, and Chucks' horrible coffee.

See y'all!

See all the bottle brush trees at these posts:

Let The Bleaching Begin

Dying the Trees

Bottle Brush Trees on Corks

Bottle Brush Tree Joy

Bottle Brush Trees on Molds 

Bottle Brush Trees On Blocks