a few of my favorite -christmas- things

i wanted to be productive yesterday but then i decided to be completely lazy instead and it was a beautiful thing! it felt so good to just have a day of no responsibilities and to wrap presents and soak in the magic of the first snow of the year. crazy that it took this long to get any here but we now have a good inch on the ground which definitely qualifies as real snowfall in my book. today though, i want to dive right in and share with you some of my favorite christmas decorations and traditions:



we tend to get a little competitive in our house with the decorating of sugar cookies. i don't have  any fancy tools..we really just decide what frosting colors we want and do what we can with a butter knife and everyone sits around the table to decorate them together. i use my nana's recipe that her nana used before her every year...it just wouldn't be christmas without them!



this knit advent calendar of little hats and mittens has to be one of my favorite decorations. if i was a more accomplished knitter, i would have made it myself but i'm still learning so when i saw it in a catalog (i think it was garnet hill a few years ago) i snatched it right up. after gaining a few pounds the first year we filled it up, i decided to start using the same (perpetually unwrapped) mini candy canes each year...shh, don't tell!




the two photos on top are some of my favorite vintage christmas decorations. some of them are so fragile like the little stocking that i still have not quite figured out the best way to display them. i am definitely a classic-retro christmas kind of girl though when it comes to decorating: big bright lights, celluloid, brenda lee, sparkly old icicle ornaments, you name it.

many of our family's decorations that haven't been passed down come from a place called bronner's in michigan, like the advent wreath there in the bottom right. it is in a town called frankenmuth, not far from where i grew up, and is where many german-lutheran farmers settled back in the day (i.e. my family ancestry). if you haven't been there or heard of it i should warn you that it is kind of crazy and the whole town has gotten really built-up and commercial over the years, unfortunately. it's still amazing though and i cherish it..it's basically a winter wonderland, a christmas city. the first time i took my husband there a few years ago he got a little freaked out by how over-the-top it is and i, having grew up with it as a normal thing, just didn't understand why it was weird. i can kind of see it now, haha, but i still love the place as the old lutheran church, the biergartens, and zehnder's restaurant have a lot of family history attached to them. goodness, i am getting hungry now just thinking about it!

i hope you've enjoyed this little peek into our home, it's fun to share all the little things that make the holidays merry and bright.

p.s. i almost forgot...saw this index of free gift tags on odeedoh the other day. there are some new ones and others have been floating around the internets for a while, but they are all pretty sa-weet!

welcome in!

both workspaces and the chair are from IKEA

it's only taken me forever and a half, but i finally have photos of my studio (in a decent state, ahem) to share with you! i've been a cleaning up a storm the last few days in preparation for my sister and her boyfriend coming into town for thanksgiving. this is their first time visiting us here so i knew i wanted to have everything cleaned up for a little tour. and this way you have plenty of eye candy to enjoy as i step away from the blog for a few days to enjoy thanksgiving and their visit.



if we stay in this apartment any longer, i would really like to paint and i am also working out how i might move things around to accomodate a lightbox set-up...we'll see. i know i'm a very lucky girl to have a room like this of my very own so i've got to work with it and not whine about wanting more space!



my inspiration board...ha, what can i say? my interests and inspirations are all over the board....mmm literally and figuratively. i didn't intend to make such an old man joke right there, these things just happen every now and then you know?

well, i better run. today i am making the cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, rye bread, chocolate hazelnut ice cream, deviled eggs, and marshallows all from scratch to make tomorrow's feast prep a bit easier. by the time my husband gets home from work and our guests pull in the drive-way tonight, i am so going to be ready to collapse! the happy kind of collapsing though where you are surrounded by loved ones and the knowledge that soon you'll be feasting and having a very lovelyquietcozytime, enjoying doing not much of anything, and reflecting on all that we are grateful for.

i hope you have the same and will see you back here in a few!

nesting and decorating efforts, pt. 2

(my favorite hand-painted porcelain plates hanging in the kitchen...i really am a grandma in a 28 year old's body)

many moons ago i posted some photos of nesting details in our home and i've finally managed to get the rest of my photos together for you! i find that when moving often from rental to rental, it is best to focus on cherished (and movable) items to make a house a home since one is so limited in renovating and painting options in apartments and flats. so on that note, here are some more of my favorite things which make our house a home...

my cookbook collection which sets atop my antique Hoosier, a high school
graduation present from the antique shop i worked at growing up...

...and inside the Hoosier: my jadite collection!
a few of the pieces are modern but my favorites
are the vintage jadite restaurant ware by Fire King.

and of course we couldn't leave the kitchen without a snapshot of one of
my favorite items, my felix clock! a reproduction, but still so darn cool!

in the living room i have a couple duncan phyfe tables which i inherited from my mother
when they refurnished their living room. i love the elegant style of this one especially
which folds out into a square card table. for us, it makes a great spot for our record player!

speaking of records, we have quite a lot!

and what home is complete without kitties and a ridiculous amount of books?!

this little care worn travel case with its retro travel stickers was something i found
while working at a long ago estate sale. for many years it has been filled with
photographs and has moved into more apartments than i can count.


"have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"
—william morris

nesting and decorating efforts, pt. 1

spent the day working on my resume, deep-cleaning the kitchen, and making a very good baked potato soup, mmm, hard to believe it was a low-fat recipe!

i promised you some photos of our new place though and my decorating efforts prior to our weekend guests arriving so here is the first batch which highlights some of my favorite trinkets. i'll post more of my efforts around the house and especially in my new crafty workspace later in the week.

our mr.fox doorknocker which i coveted in anthropologie quite desperately before buying it last year! you just grab his little nose and tap on the body-shaped plate, too cool!

this is one of my favorite spots in our home, right in the corner of the bedroom...colorful pillows atop the cedar chest which is full of quilts and afghans and sitting in front of a big sunny window where the kitties like to sleep...pure contentment to me!

a little corner at the top of the stairs for funky odd 'n ends..an old photo of my nana when she was a nurse, a stack of old leather trunks, an antique coke tray leaning up against them, and a candle made to look like a grumpy old troll from a friend's trip to norway.

alas, it would be too cruel to tell you about a troll candle and not actually show it to you! just excuse the flash photography.

my beloved miniature shelf (a repurposed printer's type drawer) which includes a piece of the Berlin wall from my godparents, among several other trinkets picked up along my own travels.

last, but not least, is norm the nome who lives with the rosemary in the kitchen. i don't suppose he'd make it into any decorating feature in better homes and gardens but he's still one of my favorite little details!



p.s. i think we might have found a wedding location in Scotland!! fingers crossed!

p.p.s i hope you're enjoying the extensive use of !!!!!!!!!! in this post!!!

domino withdrawals

two of my favorite inspiration photos from domino
(copyright domino magazine, condé nast)

i just need to lament a little...i'm going through domino withdrawals....has it really been almost a year now since it's cancellation by Condé Nast?

you see, i've been in overdrive attempting to get my craft room (and the rest of the house) in order since we are expecting some out of town guests in march and my fiance has promised them "non- to semi-squalid" living quarters for the duration of their stay (geeeeeeez louise, kind of a tall order, huh?! haha). in doing so, i have been archiving my magazine collection and filling bookshelves, organizing materials in a practical and pleasing way, and unpacking those last couple stubborn boxes of indeterminable "stuff" that seem to lurk around after a move.

so today i share with you what i've drummed up for inspiration in lieu of domino...and i think i might have hit the spot!

(photo of Ellen Luckett Baker's craft room by Laura Malek for craftzine.com)

this is the color of paint i'd like for the walls in my workroom. i'm told it's from martha stewart's lowes paint line that is no longer available. let's hope her new line (coming this spring) has a similar color!

(from annaleahart's flickr stream, but you should also check out her blog)

this is perfect as eventually, my workroom will also have a pull out futon bed thingy in it for guests. alas, with a complete lack of funds, our guests will be staying on the trusty blow up mattress we use for camping. i'm big on colorful pillow arrangements myself...some anthro ones and some homemade.

(another from annaleahart's flickr stream)

o bunting, how you tempt me. I want to make some as decoration for our wedding reception (we're still going to have something of the sort at my parent's farm after eloping) but this photo makes me think that i could make a miniature version and then use it as edging on some bookshelves. Also, if you flip through her flickr stream, you'll see that one of those embroidery hoops is a c.s. lewis quote...quality!

and finally...

(this is actually a movie still from the biopic Sylvia Plath, screen capture thanks to Sweet Sunday Mornings)

I love me some Sylvia Plath, maybe not quite so much this movie, but it does indeed have beautiful costumes and set design. I love the simplicity in this still. My spaces and I get consumed in color amd chaos sometimes and as i sit here typing looking out my own northshore massachusetts window, i think i could indeed do with a bit of simplicity and clarity.

so now i've posted the inspiration...stay tuned for my decorating updates...albiet on a poverty row type budget!