Opulent Cottage

A Different Holiday

The last few days have been sobering, haven't they? I have debated with myself about whether to blog at this painful time, and like so many others, came to the conclusion that staying away wouldn't change anything. We spent a weekend of reflection and sadness, and also extreme gratitude for all that we have to be thankful for. And now, ready or not, Christmas Eve is a week away, and those of us who are so blessed will be with family and friends. If I could be with every one of you I would gladly do so, but for now, all I can do is share my life and read about yours in return.

We have been through a difficult few months here. Maurie's sweet Mom passed away on December 1st, at age 87. She had suffered a series of strokes, and had declined rapidly since November. She was a truly devoted Mom and Grandmother. Her greatest joy in life was having her family all around her. She enjoyed good health for most of her life and traveled almost the entire the US with Maurie's Dad and their local Farm Bureau, where they were both officers for many years. She worked for the Welfare Department, and was a tireless volunteer for several organizations, well into her late 70s. Maurie and Abby were fortunate to have a wonderful visit with her this summer, before the first stroke. It's a memory they will treasure forever. 

All of a sudden, priorities have shifted here. We just got a tree last night, my house is still full of boxes, and we're behind on shopping and wrapping. But you know, I'm more certain than ever that those details will work themselves out, while we reflect on what is truly important this year. Right now my man is in bed with a horrible cold, so I'm making homemade chicken soup. My kiddo is surfing Pinterest instead of cleaning her room. And it will all be okay.

So many projects and repairs that I had planned to obsess over won't be seen to this year. Things will NOT be perfect at Opulent Cottage! (Not that they ever are!) Rather than stress about it, I"m taking a simpler approach -- camouflage! It's worked around here for years :) This cabinet won't be refinished in time for the holiday, so I hung this sparkly snowflake to distract from its unfinished top. 

Like the crack in our arch (seen below), which likely will not be repaired and repainted before the holiday. In the past, I would never have allowed this photo to be seen! But now, these trivial details just don't seem so important. I hope to create lasting holiday memories in this dining room this year, wall cracks and imperfect furniture and all.

I know that so many of you feel the same way I do right now. My wish is that you treasure this holiday season, and savor each special moment. Let's all hold our loved ones close, and spread all the joy we can. Thank you for always being here, my special friends. You all mean more to me than I could ever say.

Love to you all,

Andrea

Joining:

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Brenda's Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

More Candy Christmas Kitchen Decor

Hi everyone :) I'm still alive, really! It's been a wild week of scraping, sanding, spackling, climbing, and painting. I didn't meet my goal of getting every room freshly painted, but I got darn close. And while my project list is still a mile long, I feel like I made a dent in it. I got a pretty good workout, too! And there's nothing quite like the satisfaction of sparkling white woodwork to help overcome the aches and pains :)

The painting really set me back on decorating, but this week, it will be full-on Christmas here! My girl is home, and we plan on doing lots of wrapping, baking, and all-around holidaying. 

I'm showing the kitchen again, which is the only room that's mostly decorated for Christmas. It was so gloomy this morning, so please forgive the badly lighted photos!

But . . .  the kitchen sure doesn't look this good this afternoon. We're having a freeze the next two nights, so we brought in all of our hibiscus, which are still blooming, the aloes and succulents, and some crotons and begonias that are gorgeous and growing like crazy. We might not have another single freeze here this winter, so I hated to let them all perish.

It only froze twice last year, but we never know what kind of winter we will get. I can tell you that I sure couldn't live with all of my huge ferns on my dining table for very long :)

I had a credit at Ross, so I ran down there yesterday and found these sweet polka dot bowls, as well as the large and small peppermint striped ones. I went for activewear, and forgot to even look after I took a detour through the holiday section. I restrained myself from a few other items, but let me say that if you are looking for cute Santa and snowman measuring spoons, or adorable mix and match holiday flatware, run. Quickly. 

The cheery red and white snowflake chargers came from the 99 Cents Store, and the candy striped oval platters and Eat Drink and Be Merry glasses were found at Dollar Tree. Serious cuteness at the $$ stores this year. 

I hope you're enjoying your holiday season, and finding time for loved ones and happy holiday chores :) I'll enjoy catching up with everyone this week!

xo,

I'm joining:

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Brenda's Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Icy Christmas Dining Room Buffet

The theme for our dining room this year is Icy Christmas! Even though we rarely have those here in Dallas, the sparkle of an icy tree has always captivated me.

The inspiration for this room came from this dazzling wreath. It was plain when I started, and although beautiful, seemed a little too contemporary for the rustic look I was going for this year. I simply added pine cones, holly sprigs, and a sweet bird nest. The wreath got topped off with a plaid flannel ribbon and a glittery Merry Christmas ornament. 

Confession time: I lucked out and found this gorgeous wreath at the Girl Scouts' yard sale down the street for just $5! It came in a Member's Mark box though, so I'm guessing that it was originally sold at Sam's Club. They might even have them now, I'm not sure since we don't shop there. If you have seen them, leave a comment and I'll update this post with the info.

The urns and ironstone bowls were filled with more pine cones and holly sprigs, some vintage Shiny Brite red ornaments, and pretty mercury glass ornaments. The mercury glass continues the beautiful icy theme, with its sparkle and shine. Since we don't have our tree yet, I ran through Home Depot and raided their box of extra tree trimmings. It's so nice to have the fragrance of fresh pine in the house!

I switched out the Bordallo cabbage plates for Christmas trees, and added a sparkly snowflake in the smaller frames above. Some of the plaid flannel ribbon landed on our lamp shades, made into simple bows.

A rustic basket holds my growing collection of vintage pewter and some festive red plates. I'm loving the pewter, and seem to be finding it everywhere I go now. You know, at all of those fancy stores where I shop :)

Mercury glass, glitter and bead ornaments from WalMart, plaid ribbon and holly from JoAnn Fabrics, urns from Hobby Lobby, and Bordallo and ironstone bowls from Ross.

I have a few other places decorated too, and can't wait to show you this week! 

I'm joining

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Brenda's Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Shannon and Debbie's Power of Pinterest Party

Tis the Season . . . . For Chaos

And do we ever have plenty of it here. 

All the Christmas boxes are down. But nothing is really decorated, because I have lost my mind and decided that I'm going to slap a fresh coat of paint on every room before I decorate. You know, in my extra time :)

And since some of the molding had a huge gap in the bathroom, I pulled it out and thought I could replace it. Then noticed that some of the sheetrock behind it had disinegrated. It was definitely an uh-oh moment. But my knight in shining in armor came up with a great idea -- beadboard! So I'm getting beadboard wainscoting on at least one wall in our little bathroom. As we speak! Can I get a yippee?!!!

Oh and I really need to ship holiday goodies to the college kids, since they will all begin to travel home next week. So there's a little baking going on, too.

Did I mention that I was out of commission for two days with a little bug? Better now, though.

AND, since we didn't have enough chaos already, Maurie decided to change satellite providers. Today. In the middle of mayhem. Say a prayer for the installation guy. When he walks in here, we'll be lucky if he doesn't call 911 and ask them to send an emergency crew :)

I'm pretty sure you all didn't want to see any of the aforementioned chaos, so I thought I would share the one area that is decorated. My tutorial for the dyed bottle brush trees, using leftover tie dye, is here. 

Some of you are done, aren't you? Tell me all about it! I'll come visit when I need a break from mayhem :)

xo, Andrea

I'm joining

Debra's Vintage Inspiration at Common Ground

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Heather and Vanessa's Inspiration Friday at At The Picket Fence

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Debbie and Shannon's Power of Pinterest Party

Donna's Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

 

Christmas Laundry Room Redo

I should have titled this post Abby Gave Me A Baby Reindeer So I Had To Paint The Laundry Room. Because that's what happened, except that makes no sense, so I'll back up and explain.

In the past, a drapery panel had been hanging in the doorway between the kitchen and our laundry/mud room. I took it down when I painted the kitchen, and realized that I really liked having all the sunlight that came into the room. 

But the laundry room was scary. Strange things had been done to this room in the past 86 years, like wires being glued to walls and plumbing holes cut where none had ever existed before. This wasn't a laundry room when this house was built in 1926, just a back entry. (These houses didn't have laundry machines at all, I imagine, just wash boilers like the one Maurie brought me from his mom's house.) The room has pine plank floors, even though the rest of the flooring in our house is oak. The poor things had been covered with tile, then linoleum, then vinyl sheet flooring, all of which I had scraped up long ago. 

So anyway, Baby Reindeer came home the other night, and I wanted him to be somewhere that I could look at him all day. He landed on the washer, one thing led to another, and I just kept going. And now I'm so enjoying my freshly cleaned, spackled and painted room!

 

In the future, I would love to have a shelf above the valance, with cheerful red painted baskets to hold extra laundry supplies and towels. My sister gave me this sweet chalkboard years ago, and it's a great spot for kitchen towels and this thrifted basket that holds extra shopping bags.

When I was cleaning the light fixture, I realized that we had drilled this one for crystals. This is one of the leftovers from years ago, when I bought, revamped and sold lighting in my antique booth. Now that the chandy is bedazzled, it really is the crown jewel of the tiny room. Just imagine that when you look at this photo, you see sparkling white beadboard on the ceiling :)

Brenda pinnned this cute display the other day, and I couldn't copy her fast enough. If you love red like we both do, you'll swoon over her Red Of Course board on Pinterest.

Now Baby Reindeer has a happy, fresh, clean new home, and I have a pretty view of my laundry room! By the way, Baby Reindeer can be found at Pier 1 here.

I'm joining Kim for Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Heather and Vanessa's Inspiration Friday at At The Picket Fence

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

 

 

A Little More Holiday Decor

As if every tabletop here isn't full enough, now I have moved on to the walls. I mean, we only have less than 1,200 square feet here, and this stuff has gotta go somewhere :)

 

 

My skates came in! Finally, after some kind of shipping snafu. These new/old/maybe vintage skates are the only thing that I bought this holiday season, well, other than the lanterns that I used a gift card for. I have coveted some of these forever, and the $14 price tag was too irresistible to pass up. 

 

This chippy window frame has been all over the place. I think I found it in a big trash heap, dragged it home, then to my antique booth, where it never sold, then to the attic for awhile, then to almost every room in our house. I almost made it into a screen for our fireplace. But I like it here, on the wall in our living room, the most. 

 

And remember the vintage screen grate that I used as wall decor? It was given a simple adornment of some found berries and leftover pine cones. I like to think that in its heyday, when it was on the front door of the old farmhouse, it proudly held a wreath then, too. Makes me wonder how everyone in our neighborhood decorated back in the 20s.

Thanks for looking at more of our holiday decor! I promise I'm almost done. And then, it's on to New Year's Eve!! This is a special one for us, the year for our graduate. We will have a houseful of teens, so I'll be showing lots of glittery decor and some really yummy treats.

I'm joining Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday, Cindy for Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home and Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper..

Christmas in the Foyer

The very tiniest room in our home is our itty-bitty foyer. At just 5 feet by 7 feet, I'm not sure that it can really even be called a room. But foyers are rare in these small 1920s homes, and we are lucky to have it at all. It's a sweet little place to decorate and create a welcoming spot for all who enter. 

This vintage crewel piece was a thrifting find years and years ago. I have been saving it in our attic all this time, waiting for our someday farm house to become a reality. 

 But really, when it tugged at my heart every time I saw it, why would I do that? So down it came, and now is the centerpiece of my holiday decorating in this tiny room. I topped it off with some Christmas tree trimmings, and now it just says holiday to me.

 I love to do this every Christmas -- collect the red and plaid clothing items we own and have them cheer up the coat rack. (It's actually just four wrought iron hooks placed right into the window moulding.) I unearthed this wicker trunk from the garage. It's badly in need of a fresh coat of paint! But still, it's a convenient place to pile extra blankets and a small spot to sit and pull boots off when we first come in the door.

 

 

A (formerly hot pink) letter holder became a display for some lovely vintage sheet music. A scrap of burlap and more pine trimmings became the perfect bed for another sheet music roll.

 

 

Our old chippy-peely shutters, with some transferware and vintage tole trays. I covered the lampshades with scraps of Country Life toile and finished the edges with some cheerful pom trim.

 

 

Is anyone else still decorating? Believe it or not, we just got our tree up yesterday! We are all moving at a much slower pace this year, but doing what matters most -- enjoying the season and spending time with friends and family. I hope you all are doing the same, enjoying your holiday season.

Love, Andrea

Today I'm joining Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday. Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday, Sherry at No Minimalist Here for Open House Party, Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground, Inspiration Friday at Heather and Vanessa's At the Picket Fence, Sherry's Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home, Potpourri Friday at Honey's 2805, Show and Tell Friday at Cindy's My Romantic Home.

Holiday Rain Boots

I know the copycat party is long over. But really, with so many great ideas bobbing around in blogland, it's hard to stop!

I had to copycat once more, with Kim's copycat from Ballard. But I didn't have riding boots that could be left outside, so I went with some well-loved rain boots. In this tiny house, it helps to have things do double-duty anyway!

This may be one of my favorite holiday decorations ever. But these vintage quilt pillows are really running a close second! I've had this cutter quilt for a while, and these pieces appealed to the homespun type of Christmas mood I have been in. 

It's raining now though, so our front patio photos will have to wait. Good thing the rain boots are waterproof :)

See y'all soon! I'm joining Kim today for Wow Us Wednesday, Claudia's Defending the Small House at Mockingbird Hill Cottage, Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground, Inspiration Fridayat Vanessa and Heather's At The Picket Fence, Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage, Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home, Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper, and Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life.

Candy Christmas Kitchen

It's time to show the kitchen! Despite its diminutive size and imperfections, it's the room I spend more time in than any other. Grab a toddy and settle in for way too many photos, cause it's really one of my very favorite places to decorate for the season. 

Over the years, our kitchen has taken on a Christmas Candy theme. It all started with candy lights and garlands on our kitchen tree, then progressed to peppermint plates, candy trees and yarn-wrapped peppermint wreaths. I bought yards and yards of peppermint stripe ribbon in Canton a few years back, and now I am always on the lookout for more cheerful candy themed holiday decor.

Of course, many of the items I add to the mix are from my collection of vintage and thrifted treasures. I love creating vignettes using some of my everyday accessories, with just a few holiday goodies added in to create a cheery holiday display. And now that I have been married almost 25 years, lots of them can be considered almost vintage anyway!

 

 

I couldn't help doing a copycat of Michelle's adorable hot chocolate bar here on our kitchen counter. This stuff was all sitting out anyway (we don't really have a pantry), so why not make it festive? We're addicted to hot chocolate this year, too. And can I just tell you that these mini marshmallows from Whole Foods are the best ever?!

I love layering my handmade tea towels with other pretty printed towels.

A simple stack of plates in a green thrift store basket, with some green bottles, just because I like their color!

I'm still having way too much fun decorating the shelves that we installed last year.

This is supposed to be our makeshift pantry, but it's hard to resist decorating this little space. The basket and glass canisters do hold a few basic supplies, though.

Peppermint stripe ornaments are actually place card holders. And I love this bottle brush tree in vintage milk glass!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing our kitchen! Next week I'll show our breakfast nook with our little kitchen tree, and a special Texas tablescape just for the Christmas holiday. Please visit these fun blog parties: 

 Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Courtney's Holiday Vignettes at French Country Cottage

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

At The Picket Fence's Christmas in the Kitchen Party

Mod Mix Monday at Nita's Mo Vintage Life

Seasonal Sunday at The Tablescaper

Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday Housewalk Party

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Handmade and Our Holiday China Cabinet

It really was my intention to show our finished, decorated dining room today. But there are . . . projects. Holiday handmade has taken over the house. Don't ask me why these projects don't happen earlier in the year. Don't ask me why I have some of my best inspiration only weeks before Christmas. Blame it on the Christmas music, blame it on Pinterest, or maybe the sugar rush I'm getting every day from sneaking bites of the holiday goodies.

At least the china cabinet is done! Somewhat done. I couldn't wait to display this Pottery Barn knockoff vase that I made for Debbie's copycat party. 

These birdie plates are another story. Actually, they ARE the story, about handmade holiday, that will be featured in The Dallas Morning News this Saturday. My friend Jamie challenged five artists to come up with a handmade holiday gift this year. It was the perfect time to break out the Mod Podge, and I created these plates with printed paper cocktail napkins and polka dot gift wrap. 

Now these are supposed to be a gift for a friend. How will I ever part with them, now that I know they look so nice in my china cabinet?! It's going to be a case of one for you, one for me, because I am going to have to make myself a couple more of these to keep!

I'm still addicted to the vintage sheet music, too. It will be displayed on our buffet again, and on our dining table, if I ever clear the sewing projects out of here.

Thanks for coming by today to see our china cabinet! I'm joining Sherry at No Minimalist Here for the Holiday Block Party.