Corner Curio Cabinet

This is the curio cabinet that I instantly feel in love with as we entered Dalton Direct Furniture. Although it isn't currently lighted or wired for lighting, I know it is something we can add ourselves. I felt that adding this piece would assist us in providing an asymetrical sense of balance to the room, help to fill a bare corner, and provide unity to the height and scale of all the furniture placed within both sides of our living room. I've accessorized it using a few of my garden clotches, my collection of bird figurines, and another nest filled with eggs!

The Total Package...

This is the current area of our living room. Don and I are so happy with the progress that we've made even if we had to complete this project a little at a time. It's definitely been well worth the wait! We both love this space, everything from the color scheme we've choosen, to the pieces of furniture, right down to the accessories that we so carefully chose together from items we've already owned. We're still continuing to look and shop for just the right table lamps and we both desire something a bit chunky at the base with a graceful curve to reflect those in the sofa and endstands. This is a room we can live and love in, not too feminine nor masculine and reflects both of our personalities to a "T". We've accessorized using only a touch of silk greenery and all of our figurines reflect our love of nature! I couldn't resist adding at least one live plant to room, having a two year old lab named Chaos and our 17 month old granddaughter, Alexxis, in our prescence almost daily may turn out to be a challenge so we're taking a wait and see approach to how this is going to work; but overall, both beauty and beast are very well mannered --- at least the majority of the time, LOL!

Please excuse my use of adding a rug underneath the recliner. I assure you this a temporary solution to prevent the recliner from sliding and damaging the wall behind it.

Directly across the room...

Is where I've relocated our hutch. To the left of it is our kitchen doorway which I cropped from the picture. Anyways, the hutch is filled with a few of my favorite stoneware dishes and accessories, the Tea Rose Collection of Pfaltzgraf. I collected these dishes over the years, many were gifts to me from family and friends. They've been well loved and used over the years to celebrate many Mother's Days, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners. Some even contain a few cracks and are chipped but I cherish them all the more. There are even more of this collection on a long shelf above the opening in our rear kitchen area, while other pieces are stored in a cabinet.

I accessorized the top and tabletop section of the hutch using a few of my favorite home decor items, many of them hold special memories and remind me of some of the travels Don and I have made over the years, of our favorite places to shop, and family celebrations.

I'm desiring to add some greenery to the top and perhaps a small area rug or a co-ordinating runner on the floor one day... it's one of those "I'll know what it is I want when I see it" type of things that provide us something to look forward to. {smile}

Entryway

This is the view of the west half of our living room, what you'd see if you looked to the left as you entered our home. Although this area appears to be small, I can assure you it isn't. This area of the room measures 11'6" wide by approx. 13'; of course, I'm estimating that from when we previously laid the hardwood flooring in the 11'6"x16' area and am accounting for the 36" front door. Please keep in mind that the above mentioned area isn't shown completely as I found the area leading directly opposite a bit boring, LOL! It is the doorway to our kitchen with the hutch beside it on the living room wall. Anyways, we have a good size area for inviting family, friends, and guests into our home so "Come on in!" I'm more than happy to take you on a tour and show you the final results of what's been keeping us so busy the past few weeks!



Just to the right of this photo, you can see the previous "pass-through" window. It's long since been drywalled in, however, this "niche" carries a lot of Don's family history. When his parents lived in our home many, many years ago and after they put on the bedroom additions, they once utilized this area as a dining room, hence, the favored knickname of "pass-through window" as dishes and dishes filled with food once "passed through" this area. Today, I utilize it for displaying decorating accessories and am searching for that just the right touch to assist with filling it in. I'd love to add an actual piece of a tree limb to rest this planter upon. Wouldn't that be amazing to fill and change out seasonally using faux silk flowers and perhaps some moss to assist forming a piece of nature nestled in the wall. I know that may sound a bit "off the wall" but then again, your talking to the girl who once had an entire grapevine filled with greenery and white lights draped above her living room mirror. I'll have to find those photographs to share as I received a lot of nice compliments regarding it from family and friends.

We managed to accomplish a bit more today,. The computer and all its components have been moved to Alexxis' nursery/laundry room area of our home. The hutch has been relocated to where the computer desk previously resided and the recliner and one end stand has been placed where the hutch was previously located. Sounds easy enough, huh? Typing it out makes me wonder why it took me half of the day, LOL!

I had one bare spot on one of the living room walls that was sort of annoying me but with a little quick thinking, I'm discovered a temporary solution that I'm happy with it. I borrowed a plant stand and two potted plants off of our rear deck. I merged the plants, a spike and a geranium from one pot, into a larger pot of coleus. I tucked the potted plant into a hammered bronze planter, placed it on the plant stand and viola! one bare spot is now gone. It assisted in adding a sense of balance to the room.

Earlier today, I captured some photographs of the living room to put on my blog. Unfortunately, by the time I cooked supper, cleaned up afterwards, ran a few errands, I didn't have the time to upload them to the computer. I'll try to get them posted in the next few days.

Tommorrow promises to be yet another rewarding day. As I continue to plug away, purging, sorting, organizing before we go for an early evening dinner out. I think I desire a bit of pampering, don't you? Anyways, I've some items to return to the studio and I'm desiring to clean and organize the bottom portion of the hutch so I can store some scrapbooking and rubberstamping supplies to keep something close at hand. I've had an idea for creating me a journal-like structure --- anyways, we'll see how that goes!

Alexxis - Halloween 2007

After arriving back home, dropping off the warehouse purchases at the store, we made our way over to see the little Miss preparing for her first Trick or Treat! Isn't she adorable in her little Elmo costume? Here's mommy attempting to get things straightened out and look at that smile peeking out!

Unexpected Wedding Decor - Preparations and Planning

Our trip on Wednesday proved to be a very successful one, although we're still searching for those "just right" living room lamps. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, not too cold or hot, and traffic wasn't too heavy as we traveled to our destination. Leaving earlier than we originally intended allowed both of us some much needed leisure and together time.

Our first stop was into Home Goods --- Don & I so love this store! We can always find something for our home there and this trip was no different than many others we've previously made. The store's main focus is Home Goods with a focus currently on Thanksgiving. We discovered many theme dishes and autumn designs, and discovered that they're beginning to set Christmas as well. Since we've been recently discussing our thoughts and ideas for our December 8th Evening wedding, making notes of an even longer list of "Things To Do" in preparation, we decided to look at Christmas decor while we were here. We originally had no intentions of purchasing anything other than a pair of table top lamps, until we found some items that were perfect in every way for decorating our home for our upcoming Wedding & Christmas!

We're desiring to start by decorating the outside of our home to greet our guest as they enter so finding this wreath to hang on the front door and a matching table top greenery to lay on the coffee table proved to be just the ticket. The green, red, and gold will work magnificantly with our home's existing decor.



We, also discovered a gorgeous white holly tablecloth, a tailored red center runner, and a package of gold charger plates for use on the kitchen table. Paired with our Frost White Corelle dishware and our wedding cake for a centerpiece, we believe will provide us an amazing kitchen display.



We also couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase these lovely gold glitter candles. Won't they be beautiful scattered thorought our home? I thought so.

After we made our way to and fromthe warehouse, we stopped for a nice, quiet lunch before heading into Garden Ridge. There we found those gold napkins, perfect for pairing with a Christmas themed set. The pearl white party favor boxes will be adorned withred and gold curling ribbon, perhaps holding a golden jingle bell and a tag that includes our names and wedding date. The bells will be for our guests to ring at the end of our marriage ceremony. Together these could double as table top decor as we visit and mingle with our guest prior to the ceremony.

Anyways, we're happy with our purchases, stoked to find them so unexpectly. One more thing out of the way!