And then it was Christmas...

My goodness! 

How time is fleeting.

I can not believe that the last time I posted was the middle of 

October. Did I miss Thanksgiving? 

Sigh!

Again, we have had great loss in our family this year. 

As well as loss of friends.

More than ever the traditions are important.

They remind us of our memories.

The things that are worth remembering.

This year decorating was a daunting job for me.

I seriously questioned if it was going to be worth it.

Now that it is all out and in place, I'm glad!

I'm glad that we did it. 

Yes, lots of it is the same year to year.

I change this or that, but for the most part,

its the same.

Toys from my daughter's Christmas's past.

Dishes collected over the years.

Given from beloved Aunts.

When I was young, I never could imagine that Christmas 

could be a sad time. Now I understand. 

But happy traditions help. 

They help us move on to new times and new

memories.

If your Christmas is hard this year, I hope you 

remember an old tradition and find a way to start a new tradition. 

Blue in the Red and Yellow Room

 I'm so tickeled! 

I just picked up our new dining room chairs yesterday. 

I had been looking for a LONG time. 

I finally found some... and they are totally not what I would have thought

I wanted.  

Well not TOTALLY.... 

I love the shape of them. 

The color was the surprise.  They are BLUE! 

How on earth did I end up with blue in my Red and Yellow living room?

Well look closely my friends.  See that right there? 

It is a pop of blue.

 The same shade of neutral blue!

So it works! 

And I'm just as pleased as can be! 

I got them here.

Common Ground

The Charm of Home

French Country Cottage

A Delightsome Life

My Romantic Home

Little Change Makes a Big Difference...

To me that is.

This is how our living room looks all the time. See the love seat under the window?
It is a warm, cozy room. I love it. But!
When we do the Christmas decorations, every year, that love seat must be moved into the
garage. The tree always goes in the window.
This is not my husband's favorite part of Christmas!
So when the tree goes down the love seat comes back in...

Until this year.

We tried something new... I moved the club chairs under the window and left the
love seat out altogether.
I liked the view. Lighter, more open and cleaner.

But then there was this big open, empty divide in the room.

From this angle the room still didn't look balanced.

These are a few pictures of the entry way, just to give you an idea or feel of the room.
So I left it this way for a few days. Just looking at it and thinking....
and then DING!

It occurred to me... split the chairs up!
TAAA DA!
I loved it! Hubs loved it!

We are currently living with it and making a final decision on how and if we for
sure want to get rid of the love seat. I'm pretty sure we do.

SO?

Wanna buy a cute little love seat?

I'm joining this parties:

Honey at 2805 for Potpourri Friday

Sherry at The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home

Courtney at French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday

Debra at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Fridays

Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

I love Goodwill!

When I go into Goodwill looking for something specific, I never find it. But I do usually find something wonderful!



Look at these great plates that I found a couple of weeks ago. They were a $1.99 each. I thought that they might be ruined because they had rust and black marks. I brought them home and cleaned them up. I wish I would have taken a before picture. I think they look really nice in my office.



When I bought this one I couldn't think of where it would go. But I think it looks pretty here on the sideboard. It's perfectly shabby/cottage for $1.29. Don't you think?!

How I Knew I Loved Cabbage Roses

When I moved into my current home I had the luxury for the first time of having a "Living Room" and a "Family Room". Decorating the family room was easy. Blue and White of course! It is right off of our Kitchen and all of my dishes are blue and white (Blue Danube).

But the challenge was deciding what I would do with my wonderful new Living Room! Well I found a great sofa and love seat at Levitz when they finally really did close. It had a great country look and was buttery yellow with soft pink and red cabbage roses on it. I couldn't pass it up. I purchased it and then using that as the inspiration I started collecting all of the "rose" items that I already had. When I finished I found that I had plenty to complete the room. Here are some pictures.








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