Is it too late for some Christmas trees and such?

For those of you who are suffering from Christmas postpartum as I am, enjoy some pictures of our trees and such. 

The den tree.  Most likely her last year.  Thanks to a curious cat she was knocked over and her base is less than sturdy.  Den Tree 2.0 will likely have a "nature" theme next year.

Even the animals have a tree.  There are mini pet theme ornaments on this little one.

Yes, even the laundry room got a tree this year.  She's wearing miniature French post cards. 

Claudia in the living room.

She's just so pretty.  The pine will likely get replaced with peacock feathers when she takes up residence in my office.

Goodwill frame, discount letters glittered in Martha's amazing glitter and some vintage music...wa....la....cute and sparkly Christmas decor for about $2.00!

Living room tree.  All our favorite "traditional" ornaments.  Some for E's childhood, some from mine and some we've gotten since we've been married.  Of course a bunch of Boston Terrier ornaments as well!

Chalkboard paint.  I love you.

I made the JOY banner out of vintage music and left over paper and glitter, love it.

And, now my "me cave" aka my office.  I am just going to give you a teaser, so watch for a post more about this room and it's recent transformation!

I hope you all had magical Christmas' and blessed New Years!

A dream came true.

I have been searching for a vintage dress form for about a year.  Do you realize how expensive these babies are?  No? Let me show you...

From Etsy $495.00 (plus shipping)

Granted, this next one is "dressed" in a way that makes my heart skip a few beats, having to pay the asking price would stop my heart cold.

Prepare yourself...

$1,625.00 from Etsy

Another from the same seller.  This one is cast iron, can you imagine the shipping?  It would likely be cheaper to fly to Utah (where the seller is) and carry it home on your back.

$1,975.00

Thud.  Yeah, I my jaw did that too.

Now, feast your eyes on this beauty.

She's delicate.  Prim and proper.  Wearing a lovely festive Christmas skirt.  And, thanks to this weekend's French Hen Barn Sale, she's MINE!  Better yet, she was only $110.00!

She is currently in my living room to show off her lovely Christmas attire, but once the holiday is over she'll reside in my mom cave (which is coming along slowly.)

And in keeping with naming my favorite pieces, I here by name her Claudia.

My worst enemy....Me

I am my own worst enemy.  I am a perfectionist and I am very, very hard on myself.   My current self abuse I can blame on blogland.  Now, I love more than anything to read everyone's blog.  I pour over the pictures, analyzing every detail.  I print pictures, keep notebooks, folder upon folder of favorites.  What's the problem with this?  Seeing the beauty you all create makes me second guess myself and what I really like and don't like.  I have to remember that just because it's on a blog and it gets 100 comments doesn't make it pretty and vice versa. 

For example.  I am painting the spare room in an effort to make a "mom" cave corner.  I hate the color.  Hate, hate, hate.  It's Glidden Barely Jade.  The chip shows a lovely blue, green, grey.  The walls, are blue.  Just plain, boring, baby blue.  Atrocious.  What makes me hate it even more? Because none of you have used it.  I love the color in my laundry room because Layla at The Lettered Cottage used it, so it has to be a great color.  Our den color was approved by Young House Love.  Our living room colors come from the very amazing Monique Keegan as seen in Country Living and owner of Enjoy Co in Granville. 

The spare room...some crap I picked.

Why do I do this to myself?

Are you hard on yourself like this or should I seek help?

I wish I could...

Color my hair this color. 

I don't know why, I just love it. 

I also love that cloche she's wearing, alas, I don't have a hat head.

Or this snood, oh my how lovely.

If your life isn't complete without such a lovely lacey haberdashery you can find it here.

I'm dreaming of an industrial Christmas, I think

Despite the Halloween decorations still being up (I just didn't have the up-and-at-'em to take it down yesterday) I'm already dreaming of sugar plums and tree themes.

Last year our itty bitty house had 13 trees.  Now, before you get all impressed that count includes small trees here and there, there were only 3 full sized trees. This year I feel the need for change.  The large tree in the upstairs living room is our "traditional tree."  It has ornaments from our childhood, our first year married ornament, the ornaments we've made/gotten for the dogs etc.  The tree in the spare room was new last year, white with white lights and peacock themed colors.  The den tree is all pink and sage green ornaments that I've used since I was out on my own 8 years ago.  I think that's the tree that's going to be revamped this year.

This year I want to shake things up some.  Do something different. 

Something that doesn't scream Christmas. 

Vintage industrial has a special place in my heart and I thought incorporating it into Christmas could either be great or be an epic FAIL.

Here's what I had in mind....

I love this tree.  It's flocked, pre-lit (a MUST) and has little pine cones. It's pricey, way too pricey (for me at least, I'm cheap, I only buy trees on clearance.) It's also really hard to steal pictures from Home Depot's site.  For more info on this tree go here. I thought the flocking would be a nice contrast with the metal in the decorations.

Now for ornaments.  Personally I'm a "nester" I like to nestle ornaments into the tree, I really don't like hanging ornaments.  This could also be because we have two not so bright cats and two insanely curious dogs, so nesting just makes more sense.

I love letters and spelling out NOEL or JOY in vintage metal letters, too cute.

I just loved these little pulleys.  They would be adorable on their own or you could use twine and hang a bulb from them.

Again, these would be adorable hung as individual ornaments.  They also would be great strung together with red velvet ribbon or lace and used as a cluster in the tree.

These spindles would be cute nestled in the tree, on the mantle, or wind colorful ribbon or thread around them and pile them in a wire basket for under the tree or by the fireplace.

I loved these old hotel numbers.  I think having a bunch of them strung together with a funky color (bright key lime green maybe) satin ribbon and used as garland would be a fun touch.

For those of you who have a thing for hanging ornaments, this would be a cute way to hang your favorite.

Washers, could be individual or strung together with twine for garland.

Calibers, I love that you can adjust them.  I think it would be cute to use them to "hold" ornaments.

I fell in love with this little lantern.  Cute on the mantle or as part of floor decor around the tree.

Vintage tape measure garland anyone? ME ME ME!

And what would be the tree topper?  Fireman's lantern of course!

I have a peculiar fascination with wire baskets and sap buckets.  I loved this one for it's long skinny shape.  It would look cute holding firewood or filled with pine branches.

There are few things as glorious and perfect as an Edison bulb.  I would love to see these with ribbon tied around the ends and hanging from a tree.  See, I am ok with some hanging ornaments.

Rusty chain garland?  Why not?!

So there you have it. Some vintage industrial Christmas inspiration.

I'm not sure if this will be "it" for the den tree this year as I was just struck with having that same tree and using "woodland creatures" to decorate it.  Owls, nests, birds, etc. 

So many ideas, so little time.

All images are from Etsy, I just searched "vintage industrial" and got pages and pages of good ideas!

Talk me out of it, no, talk me INTO it!

I really wanna do it.  I've been dreaming of it for months.  Pros and Cons lists.   Everyone is doing it. 

What is keeping me up at night? 

I want to remove our upper kitchen cabinets on one wall and put in shelves. 

You're bummed aren't you?  You thought it was some amazing earth shaking idea, sorry.

That's the only pic of that wall I have right now and as you can see there aren't that many cabinets anyways so I wouldn't be losing on storage, I think I'd be gaining.

The blurry "thing" to the right, that's a cabinet as well, and it being gone would REALLY open up the kitchen to the eating nook.

The thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger is having to pay to have it all done.  I know NOTHING about electrical or demo and honestly, I am just not brave enough to just jump in.  Now, if the cabinets were attached to the wall without a soffit I would try, but I have a feeling once that soffit is attacked dry wall will be necessary.

Another con is that the walls in the kitchen are paneling and I worry it would be a huge cost to tie the existing paneling in with new.

Can you see where I'm going here...cheap, cheap, poor, both of us in school, I worry I'd open a big ol' expensive can of worms.

The other big hurdle is our home was build in the 1950's and I recently saw on the news that demo in homes built prior to 1970 is now specialized and both contractor and home owner can be fined if demo isn't done in a new, safer manner.  I'm assuming this is due to lead.  SO that just adds another $$$ to the whole thing.

I just don't know what to do.  Once I get an idea I can't stop myself.  Estimates are free, might be worth a few phone calls. 

If anyone knows of a good contractor or handy man in the Columbus Ohio area, email me at kat_eyez23@yahoo.com. 

Here's an inspiration picture for you from Pure Style Home.  Serious, Laura has more creativity in one of her nose hairs than I do in my entire fluffy body!

photo: Pure Style Home

Madame Bellom sees all......

I never really decorated for Halloween until last year and only then because I found some things on sale at Michael's.  Every year I add a little more and hope to have enough "stuff" to decorate the entire house and not just the living room. 

As you'll see I lean towards the odd and unusual and not just pumpkins and ghosts.  This year I made a fortune teller's booth where Madame Bellom steals tells your fortune. I hope you enjoy!

Here's Madame Bellom's chair, her raven watching her from the top of the light, her black cat hovering above and her chalice and voodoo doll. 

I used a bouncing ball with glitter in it as my crystal ball, the base is a piece Eric made in school forever ago. The table got a coat of chalkboard paint and a "spell" written on it.

Let Madame Bellom pick your brain..

The dresser's Halloween costume.

Isn't she sweet?

Yowza, maybe not.

Love potion #9

 

Cheese dome made into a cloche to house an old turtle shell, vintage photo and lock.

Found antlers give the impression of bones.

Bleeding candles, super easy to make!

 I sure hope this lovely lady isn't offended that I used her picture as part of a creepy Halloween display.

 Jingle bell spider from last years Country Living Fair.

Happy Halloween everyone!