My Cozy Home

back from Portland, on to St. Louis - a stop in between at home

Portland was very nice even if I was there for work.  I stayed in a great old hotel, The Benson, and was able to get out and shop a little one night.  Anybody heard of Powell's Bookstore?  It's ginormous!  I spent some time roaming the isles and purchased several books and magazines for myself and Evy.  I also did a bit of clothes shopping which is always a good time.  I got home on Wednesday and am leaving again tomorrow for another work trip - this time for St. Louis.  Today Evy and I had an outing at the mall where we bought sparkly shoes (for Evy, but sadly not for me), and some fun clothes for the two of us.  I don't shop for clothes very much so it's fun when I do.  My favorite store is J.Crew (very often I realize that literally everything I am wearing (save for underthings) is from J.Crew. - this includes my coat and scarf).  I do love that store.  Anyhoo, I recently received a wonderful, and completely indulgent cookbook as a belated birthday present from my friend Boni, and at about the same time I purchased another cookbook  - nearly as equally indulgent - just  because it looked so good - "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" and "Cupcakes!" respectively.  Both have great covers, pictures, and recipes. 

 

"Sticky, et al" is by Jill O'Connor, photographs by Keigh Beisch.  "Cupcakes!" is by Elinor Klivans, photographs by France Ruffenach.   I wouldn't normally add who did the photographs, but they both do such a fantastic job that I had to mention them.

This is a picture from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" as is the below picture.

A bit blurred, but you get the idea.  Those colors, the arrangement of the food...it's all so great.

 

This delightful photograph is from "Cupcakes!"

I recently updated the display atop the little chest of drawers in our entry.  I love old baseballs and like how they look in a silver champagne bucket.  If my friend Susan reads this she may recognize it as a wedding gift from her in-laws, which has yet to be used for chilling any sort of beverage in the 10 years we've had it.  It's been used for practically everything else though.  Also pictured is the new (old) clarinet that I recently got from an antiques store called Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis.

I think it's the combination of a classy, respectable looking champagne chiller filled with very old, beat up baseballs that appeals to me.  I don't like things to be too much of anything - it's the mixing and matching of old and new, glitziness and restrained elegance that gets me excited. 

And since it's almost Valentine's Day I am including a picture of the little hand-stitched heart that I made last February.  It's hanging in the Living Room right now, but normally resides in Evy's room.  Some of you who have been reading for awhile may remember when I made this humble little heart last year. 

Thanks to everyone who drops by even when I'm not so quick to update my blog.  I really do appreciate your comments and emails.  Thank you for always being so supportive, kind, and funny.  Talk to you when I return from St. Louis.

 

the odds and ends of january....

I've had a number of pictures to post lately, none of which seem to relate much to one another.  I guess there doesn't need to be a theme exactly, it's just nice when there is one...says me.  Odds and ends, mixed with a bit of this and that are okay too.  When my mom was here she and I fixed up an old crib that had been used by my great grandma for her six baby girls.  It stayed in our family and was used by my mom for her dolls when she was growing up.  I painted it and my mom made a nice cushion for the bottom of it.  Evy's babies have a new place to take a nap now.

                                                                                                                                                                  

My mom sewed different colored buttons on the end of the cushion for the enclosure.   

                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                 

This is a slate that got on Saturday at Haupt Antiek in Rosemount, MN

                                                                                                                                                               

I got this little "mother" box at Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis, MN.  It's been featured in Country Living and is just 20 minutes from my home. I also got an old clarinet there as well and have it next to my old trumpet.

                                                                                                                                                          

And now for the important stuff.  I purchased several goodies from Rosemary who makes fantastic creations - the kind of wonderful goodies that just make you smile.  This is one of the cones that I got from her.  She sent me two because she wasn't sure which color I would like better.  I love them both!  This one hangs on the french doors between the living room and the family room.

                                                                                                                                                               

This is the second cone, which works perfectly in my bedroom.  It actually hangs from my nightstand, but the lighting wasn't as good there so I moved it to the door.  I also got the little "Dream" banner that is set in the top of the cone.

                                                                                                                                                               

For some reason my camera wouldn't quite focus in on the little box, but I'm sure you can still see how lovely it is.  It sits on my night stand atop "Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners; Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders" 

                                                                                                                                                            

And this...this is the wonderful crown that Rosemary made.  I just love it!  I love it all and am so glad to have her beautiful creations in my home.  She is so detailed and uses such pretty materials.  Thank you Rosemary for allowing me to purchase these lovely  works of art!

                                                                                                                                                               

I've recently received a couple tags and an award.  I will write about those in my next post along with some photos from my mystery bookshelf which recently received some Nancy Drew additions thanks to my very sweet and thoughtful husband.  I hope you all are well my friends.

                                                                                  

pictures, pictures, pictures...

The visit with my mom and grandpa was perfect.  I love vacations like that - almost always involving antiquing, watching old mystery movies, relaxing, eating, almost no actual responsibility.  To me, that's vacation perfection.  We had our Christmas with my family on New Year's Eve.  We ate pizza, watched "Candleshoe" with a young Jody Foster from 1977, opened presents, and rang in the New Year.  Even my 93 year-old grandpa stayed awake right till the end.  Here is my Grandpa, Evy, and my mom before my grandpa left to go back to North Dakota.

I think it's picture overload for this post.  Since I haven't posted in a while I've accumulated some settings and a project that I want to share with you.  In my next post I'll show you the project that my mom and I worked together - a very, very old, small crib that's been in our family for a long time.  We painted it and made a cute cushion for it - pictures to follow in the next post.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

This is the journal and bookmark I made for my mom while she was here.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

This is a side view with the tabs and pockets that my mom added to it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

A view of the kitchen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

This is an old basket that I picked up while antiquing with my mom.  I also got a couple more 1803 candles which are absolutely the best candles I've ever used.  Some how those little cups ended up in a picture again.  I think they've been in my last three posts.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

My mom gave me that little tray for Christmas.  It has chalk board paint on it.  Such a cute idea.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Cranberries, orange slices, evergreens, and floating candles.  They smell so nice.

My riding hat collection is growing.  I just can't seem to refuse a riding hat when I see one.  I think they're so fun!

                                                                                                                                                                   

A couple of old horns that I picked up recently while antiquing.  Steve was bummed that he couldn't honk the horn sitting above the trumpet.  He couldn't quite understand why I would get a horn with a falling-apart honker.  I looked at him in disbelief and said, "why wouldn't I get it?  It looks like the perfect horn to me".  ;o)

Hope you all are well my friends.  I'll be back soon - I promise!

goodies from abroad...

My friend Sophie sent me a wonderful goodie package from England.  It was a birthday/Christmas present and I just love what she sent.  I showed the "NOEL" gilded letters in my last post, but she also sent this wonderful pillow and cute hand towels from Laura Ashley.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The little candle lights are from my mom.  When they are turned on they flicker like candles.  I really like the little polka dot towel from Sophie.

                                                                                                                                                            Another Laura Ashley hand towel above.

See the little paper crown on the cloche?  Below is a picture of Evy on Christmas day wearing a paper hat from her English Cracker.  We all were wearing them while eating our Christmas waffles.  Good times.

                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                             Sorry for the big gap between posts.  I've been working, trying to spend time with family - you know, all that stuff that everyone deals with at this time of the year.  My mom and grandpa arrived today to celebrate a belated Christmas, as well as New Year's with us.  I'm looking forward to a week off of work starting on 1/2.  My mom and I will be antiquing, watching old movies, eating popcorn and chocolate.  We may even work in a fun sewing project.  I hope you all had wonderful holidays, and that you'll have a Happy New Year.  We'll be opening presents again - Christmas round two.  Thanks for putting up with my spotty posts.  I'll get back on track soon I promise.  Hugs to you all!

Where has the last week and a half gone?  You'd think in that time I would have finished my Christmas shopping.  Yep...you'd think so.  Anyhoo...moving on.  I wanted to finish a quick post and then work out.  I'm trying to be resolute about working out.  I often just want to curl up in my corner of the couch and read magazines or watch fun shows that we have on DVD...you know, mysteries.  But, I can't let go of the working out thing.  It makes one's brain function better, makes you live longer.  I must do it.  So, after this post, I'll head down to the basement and begin the work out.  And I'll be so happy afterward - I always am. 

I wanted to show you the wonderful "NOEL" sign that I got from Sophie.  Thank you Sophie!!

The little Santa next to the "NOEL" sign is a vintage candle.  He's now a cream color, but I think he use to be red.  I guess he faded over time - now he's the perfect color.

                                                                                                                                                                              

Here are the little Bailey's cups I recently got.  You saw the boy cup already a couple of posts ago, but I wanted to show you the girl cup as well.  Do you see her little bow and pearl necklace?  I think they are so cute.

A reading nook.

One of our outside windows - there is a mirror image on the other side of the house.

   

The mirror in our foyer reflecting our living room fireplace.

Hope all is well with you and that you are further along in your shopping than I am.  Happy Holidays!!

birthday fun and antiquing...

Hi friends.  It was my birthday on Wednesday 12/5 and I had a nice time.  Steve, Alex, Evy, and I went to dinner and I opened my presents there.  We had fun.  I got some fun things such as Coco perfume by Chanel, Lovejoy (BBC mystery show from the 80's, 90's), and "Merry & Bright" by Country Living. I also got a Shabby Chic book too.  I've really enjoyed the Merry & Bright book - perfect for this time of year.  My mom sent me some fun stuff too, among which was the below glittered trees.  Some folks were asking about the coffee cup from the last post.  It's from Bailey's.  I have a boy cup and a girl cup.  The girl cup is even wearing a pearl necklace.  I'll have them both in my next post.  They're so fun.

These trees are so fun, and very sparkly.

Here's a little banner I got whilst antiquing on Friday.

Can you see the little silver cup?  It's engraved and says, "Compliments of Mr. & Mrs. John Monson".  It's so cute.   Hope you're all having a great week so far.

holiday glow, and random things about me....

Every year I think that autumn is my favorite time of year, but then autumn passes, and think maybe Christmas is actually my favorite time of year.  It's so magical, so cozy and warm.  I've taken a few pictures of the living room, but also added a couple of dining room pictures because Heather asked to see more of it.  And lastly, I'll share 7 random things as requested by Nancy, and what I was doing 10/20/30 years ago as requested by Joyce.

This is our fireplace mantel in the living room.  This glow made me feel warm against the outside snow that is mounting by the minute here in Minnesota.

This is the tree we cut down in our back yard.  It was in a bad spot, one that would have eventually pushed out some of our stone retaining wall.  We didn't want that to happen so we decided to use it as a Christmas tree this year.  I don't normally like to cut down trees from our yard, but in this case it had just gotten too big and was going to start causing damage.  As I mentioned in my last post, it's a bit of a free spirit.  It has bald spots and isn't uniform, but I like it.  It's just doing its own thing, perfectly imperfect.

   

My morning coffee.

"Greetings" banner from Bayberry Cove.

Heather had asked about the dining room.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Sorry that the picture is a bit grainy.  I was having some issues with it and had to switch to our other camera that allows for additional settings.  At any rate, you get the general idea about the dining room at least.

 

And for Nancy, 7 random facts about me:

1.) I organize my underwear by color, they are folded like a little package, and lined up within an organizing container in one of my drawers.  I do the same with my bras.  My closet is also color coordinated from lightest to darkest.  I also use all the same kind of hangers - they are wooden and are the same color.  Does this random fact make you want to run screaming from my blog?  Now that I've typed it out, it does sound rather...obsessive.  All my handbags are in cloth bags and sit on a shelf in the closet.  That didn't sound any less weird did it?  Okay, moving on.

2.) I'd like to own a mystery book store - all mysteries, all the time.  I'd have antiques in the shop, overstuffed chairs, and a fireplace.  It would be called "Creaky Door Mystery Bookstore". I'd have coffee and tea, and cookies available too.

3.) When I get home from work at night I practically run to our bedroom to put on my comfy clothes.  I usually wear a black Adidas track suit, or a brown velour pants and jacket outfit.  I must be comfortable.

4.) I had lasic surgery three years ago - IT IS SO GREAT!

5.) I love the show "Psych" - love, love, love it.  It's hilarious, and it is a mystery show: win-win for me.

6.)I moved from Idaho to Kansas City, MO when I was 18 for college.  After college I moved to Minneapolis, MN for work.  I bought my first house when I was 22 -was the best investment I ever made.

7.) When I met my future husband and I found out he loved old music, old movies, antiques, kids, and talking about feelings - well, I thought I had hit the jackpot.  As it turns out I did hit the jackpot and have been happily married for over nine years.

10/20/30 - Is a request from Joyce to share what we were doing 10, 20, and 30 years ago.

10 years ago: I was 24 and engaged to be married to Steve and we were planning our wedding, which would occur on 8/1/98. 

20 years ago: I was 14 and was in 9th grade at Lakeland Junior Highschool in Rathdrum, ID.  I was looking forward to my 15th birthday, which is on Dec. 5th.  We were about to have a school dance on Dec. 18th, which is when I started going out with a boy named John - we dated for about two years. And no, I'm not guessing about the date. That was the actual date of the dance and when I started dating John.  The things we remember even years later.

30 years ago: I was 4 and was about to turn 5.  I remember that one of the birthday presents I received was a Little House on the Prairie book.  My presents were wrapped and sitting on the floor next to an antique ice box that was in our dining room.  I remember them sitting there and I remember that morning when I opened the presents.  My mom still has that ice box in her kitchen.  We had recently moved to Rathdrum, ID from North Dakota after my dad died in a car accident.  We lived on a mountain - a beautiful mountain in Idaho.  I loved that home and my years there.  My uncle now lives in that house, which is nice to visit when I go back to Idaho.

Sorry for the very long post, but I wanted to accomplish a few things in this one. I hope you are all doing very well and enjoying your weekend.  The snow here is beautiful and I'm enjoying some relaxation in our cozy home.  Until next time my friends.

decorations underway...

I realized this year that I had a lot of Autumn decorations to put away.  I guess that happens when you find new treasures every year, and I certainly always seem to do that.  I started putting Christmas decorations up this weekend - spruce tips in the window boxes, wreaths hung from doors and windows, knick-knacks positioned, the tree cut and placed in the living room.  Wait till you see the Christmas tree (it's one that was on our property).  Let me just say that it's unique...and has character.  I like it, but it isn't your typical cone-shaped tree.  It's more of a free spirit you might say.  More to come later on the tree.  For now I wanted to share an arrangement I put together in our foyer.  I used a silver ice bucket as the base.  I added a large spruce tip for the center, and white pine and cedar bows around the edge.  I used pheasant feathers to embellish, and added a little nest and bird ornament for affect.  Flanking the tree are my two riding helmets.  Not sure why the ice bucket looks dark - it's a light silver color.  Bah...lighting.

   

 

This is a little silver tree that I got from Traditions.  I bought one for Evy to have in her room.  The star on top is from Bayberry Cove.

More to come very soon.  I hope you are all well my friends!

are you ready for it...?

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  I'm very ready - I love Thanksgiving, I love the food, the decorations, time with family, and taking an opportunity to be thankful and aware of life's many blessings and opportunities.  Every year and every holiday is a stepping stone in life's pathway of memories - a table full of family and friends passing delicious food from hand to hand, kids' tables, naps on the couch with football on the T.V. in the background, leftovers.   This is our dining room, which will not be seeing any Thanksgiving action this year.  We usually go to Steve's brother and sister-in-law's home.  She makes an amazing meal and makes it look so simple.  She's always so cool and calm - I'd be a mess, figuratively and literally I'm afraid.

My little hen that I got last fall for a song. 

This is a picture of the harvest table we prepared at church yesterday.  I'm part of the Alter Guild and one of the things we take care of is decorating for the holidays.  I'm sure you can imagine how much I love to do that.  I thought it turned out really well.  It was fun to view the end result while attending church today.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration.  Next up...Christmas (I recently acquired a couple of 20" silver glitter trees and a "Greetings" garland with glitter letters from Bayberry Cove.  I sure do love holidays :o)

 

favorites, and organizational euphoria

This is somewhat of a random post as I've been inspired by a couple of things lately and wanted to share them with you.  First of all, I have been organizing, organizing, organizing...to the point of obsession.  Generally speaking, I like things to be clean, especially if I walk into a room and can see it.  The flip side of this for me is that if I can't see it, then I tend to let things go until it gets unbearable.  I don't do this all the time by any means, but my bathroom drawers and my closet were two such situations where I just let them go, willing to put up with the mess and the clutter.  Last weekend I snapped.  I couldn't take looking at that chaos any longer so I took everything out of my bathroom drawers, threw a ton of stuff away, bought organizers, and re-appropriated each and every item.  I then did the same with my closet this weekend.  If it hadn't been for my iron will I may have given up part way through, like a Navy Seal when he's going through that initial training.  When they give up they have to ring a big bell to let everyone know that someone has thrown in the towel.  Yes my friends, my closet reorganization was akin to Navy Seal training.  It's not for the faint of heart.  Steve very well could have found me buried in a pile of clothes, but I soldiered on - a bit stronger for having done so :o)

I didn't take any photos of my closet, but I did capture a couple of shots of my newly organized bathroom drawers.

Opening a clean, organized drawer is not only a relief to the eye, but is very gratifying.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                My newly appointed makeup drawer.  I used to have everything crammed into a smaller drawer.  I never knew where things were.  Now I don't waste time hunting around.  I use the vintage box on the right to hold my hair bands, ribbons, clips, etc.  It's nice to have it handy, yet covered so you don't see all of the individual items.

While getting the organizational baskets for my drawers at Target, I also picked up this Simply Shabby Chic fabric basket to corral some of my many books.  Hey, there's another journal I made stuck in between the books.

 

Wanted to share a few favorites with you.  My favorite skin care is Arbonne's Nutrimin C line.  It's really great.  I also use Proactive to combat acne.  I use to have adult acne, but the combination of Proactive and the Nutrimin C line has really changed my skin all together.  In addition, I use Bare Minerals instead of traditional foundation, which I absolutely love and would never go back to regular foundation.  At night before I go to bed I use a Bare Minerals product called Rare Minerals.  I used to have sun spots on my cheeks and a couple on my forehead.  Those spots are gone now.  I was really surprised, quite happily.

These are my Bare Minerals I was talking about.  As I said, I would never go back to regular foundation.  I also use the blush, and eye shadows, and as I mentioned the Rare Minerals at night before I go to bed.

   

My favorite lip therapy: Co. Bigelow from Bath and Body Work.  They feel good, taste good, and make your breath smell good too.                                                                           

If you're staring at a chaotic closet or drawers, consider taking a day to sift through it and make some sense of it.  It's so worth it, and it's a gift that keeps on giving :o)