Christmas 2015

Yes, I think it was launched by me making this runner (not yet quilted) for the chest in the living room.  It used to be a large tree skirt but I don't have room for a large tree and I am getting more joy out of this runner.

This is the first holiday table setting.  The nativity hanging is not "finished" yet but I wanted it up so I finagled a way.   The tree is not finished either but I am enjoying my mats and some Christmas books at breakfast. 

This year I got two place settings of Scarlet Fiesta ware and I am just enjoying them hugely.  
My green glassware is coming out, I love the cup and saucer which you can see below.
The books are Kathleen T. Norris' Little Ships and Emyl Jenkins Southern Christmas.

I just had to get a garland up and here it is for this year.

Aand last but not least here is my sideboard with the beloved clock, ticking and chiming away.  The red vase is empty in this photo but will be filled in the next batch.     We had a power outage and used the lamps, you can see the chimney's are dirty.    You can also see a candle of my Advent wreath lit.  And of course, the first thing to come out, the nativity.

My bedside

This picture was taken Thanksgiving weekend.   The binders with dates are my journals and the books in this bookcase are what I feel a child (should there be one around) oughtn't to read on their own if at all.
The dresser is a nice Eastlake antique given to us by my sister-in-law. 

Easter 2015

It was a wonderful Eastertide.

Floor-to-ceiling Bookcases

Have always said to me both Victorian and English.
Here is the view of some extensions I built last year to the bookcases in our living room (parlor).  I have wanted to have them since I bought the admittedly not very expensive bookcases back in the 1990's.  It is best just to have homes for my all my books.

Edwardian era home of T.C. Steele

I've mentioned before that he is my current favorite painter.  In May of 2013, on Mother's Day I took a drive with my mother to the T.C. Steele home in Brown Country, Indiana.    He and his second wife (his first wife died) named it House of the Singing Winds because of the winds that blew around it.
It is such a simple home, built for a painter and his wife to retire in and paint the rest of his days.  His wife Selma, planted the gardens and made the place beautiful. 
The drive up to the home was just gorgeous - and here it was (is still).

My mother took a number of pictures of her own.  She did stained glass in her day.

It really is a small home and later on a separate studio was built.

To me these picture just makes my heart soar.  The paintings are sublime and the setting just wonderful. 

The tour started in the studio and than went on to the house.  Here we are approaching the home.

There is a pergola built off the entrance with a marvelous twining some kind of plant or other I cannot now recall what it is but Selma planted it.

And the inside is, to me, cozy and elaborate yet simple.

Lots of books in their living room, they were both avid readers.  T.C. Steele also had a Gramaphone and began each day with classical music played loudly.   The local farmers didn't mind.

Here you can see the silhouette of a fine settee.

This is a painting of Selma.  I like the vase of peacock feathers below it.

Here is a picture of a samovar that was with the Steele family since the days of his first wife.  Next to it on the right is the closet Selma had built to house her dishes (since it was not a large dining room and she needed a place to store them) and which the local people then thought the most outlandish thing - storing decorative dishes!

And the last picture is from the drive home.  I snapped it either while driving or just by pulling over very briefly.  I took a lot of pictures as it was so beautiful and bucolic that day.  I plan to turn some of these pictures into paintings one day - when I retire.  When I retire (in 4 years) I want to paint like TC Steele did the last 18 years of his life from aged 60-78.     The last picture is a painting I made of our backyard in a previous home.  I made the frame too.

March breakfasts

I'm going to try and get a breakfast tablescape for each month of this year.  Here are two of them.  One is from March 17, 2015 and the other from March 23, 2015.
New this year are the two green canning jar candles. 

Mantel Clock

A full grandfather (or grandmother for that matter) clock is just not going to happen for me, I realized many years ago so I settled on wanting a good mantel clock.  I wanted a nice chiming one, easy to read and not chiming too much.
I found my clock at last and it has been chiming the hour and half hour now for about 2 months. 
I have it settled for now firmly on my sideboard where it won't be jarred or bumped.