Dashing!

The Holiday Season is afoot! We have been dashing to and fro...sometimes through the snow that has been gloriously falling for days now!

This business of dashing first began when I purchased two thousand Spring bulbs for the gardens. The weather has been wholly uncooperative here in Illinois so I had to roll with it! Toward the end, I was drilling holes into frozen earth, then covering it with garden soil purchased from Home Depot.  While everyone else left the store with Christmas decorations in hand, I was wheeling out bags and bags of soil, as well as a few more Spring bulbs!

We don't decorate for Christmas until a week before because we use fresh greenery and keep it up until Epiphany.

I leapt at the opportunity to do a few random things around the house.

As you may know, the gardens keep me fairly preoccupied during the warm months.

The inside doesn't get much attention until late Autumn.

That is also around the time homeschool lessons begin, so the house must be patient with me!

I managed to paint the cupboard in the entry.  Annie Sloan French Linen, Light and Dark Wax!

See McGillicuddy? On the right?

Detail of vignette atop cupboard.  Please note the large, antique, wooden carved polychrome monstrance that I found on ebay for $20. The seller listed it as a shaving mirror that was missing the mirror!

I have rearranged the Library for the 5,782nd time.  I think this is a winner!  

Atticus loves this spot because the daybed is right over the heating vent!

The mirror was a Craigslist find, it finally rests here, in the Library.  The drapes are new too!  I have another set to hang to give more fullness but they are on backorder.  

They are quite lovely; a faux silk taffeta in a beige and burgundy pavilion stripe!

Close-up of the mirror.  Thirty dollars on Craigslist!

This may seem like an innocent photo of an armoire in a niche, but do not allow yourself to be fooled!

On the contrary, this little endeavor took the larger part of a day and a big portion of my sanity to complete!

I decided to remove the bi-fold doors and simply place the armoire inside.  Three hours later, when I arrived at the "Dear God, what have I done?" stage of this venture, I was about to give up when I realized the bonnet came off the top of the armoire.  I would go into more detail but I really don't want to revisit that experience.  :)

How did I not see Mabel's keister in this shot until I uploaded it?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...Mabel the Kitty's rear-end!

No extra charge, of course.

This is an all-inclusive kinda blog.

Yes, this image is dark.  Sorry for that.  I wanted to give you an idea of the layout here.  Hopefully, I will have the chairs painted and reupholstered before Friday.

I chose robin's egg blue faux silk taffeta drapes!  They really add life to this room!

Here is the black, grey and cream toile I will be reupholstering the chairs with. I absolutely love it with the taffeta drapes!

Craigslist buffet, painted in Annie Sloan Old White and Dark Wax...you have seen this before.

We are cutting down our Christmas tree this Thursday!  I am so excited!  

Handsome Husband wears his lumberjack coat, one that he bought for such an occasion.  This is also the one time of the year he dons a plaid, flannel shirt.  I think it adds to that lumberjack-y feel  Don't you?

Then, back into the closet until next year! (The lumberjack attire, not the Handsome Husband!)

This year, it's Gracie's turn to choose the tree!

She already set her parameters: 

"Something very green, not too tall, not too short, kinda fluffy and not prickly".

Stay tuned...

xo

Andie