Home for the Holidays

Finally! My house is actually back to "normal" once again! Just in time for the holidays! For those of you who have no clue as to what I'm talking about, here's a little history. We live in an old farm type house which was built in the early 1920's. When we moved in (1982) our living room had panelling and the dining room had panelling and this horrible wall board which looked like wallpaper. The entire first floor had suspended dropped ceilings--like those you see in schools. The dining room had this tacky hanging light which looked like a wooden wagon wheel--think redneck barroom here. A long time ago, we literally doubled the size of the house with an addition in the back--36 feet wide, 20 feet out, two finished floors plus an attic suitable for finishing and an additional basement. This included an entirely new kitchen, laundry room, powder room, master bedroom with dressing area and huge bathroom. We've been enjoying this part of the house for sometime now. About 6 years ago, DH decided to redo the living room. He tore down the paneling and the dropped ceilings revealing plaster walls which needed some repair. We put plastic on the floors and lived in this state for about 2 years. After new drywall, paint and other things, I got the living room back in order only to have DH decide that it was time to redo the dining room. So, we took a couple of weeks to pack up the antique china, Waterford crystal, collectibles and whatnot then moved all the boxes to the living room along with the dining room chairs and the boxes of living room nick nacks which I still had to go through. So then I had a living room and dining room which could not be used. The living room was completely full of boxes with a path about 18 inches wide to the piano. This took place in 2004 as revealed by the newspapers we used to wrap stuff in. Here's a photo of the tiny tuxedo twins sunbathing on the loveseat surrounded by --well--junk!

We've been working on the dining room--new drywall over the plaster and paint. DH had to make wood mouldings for the french doors and windows and we had to have an antique light fixture restored:

We got the dining room together for Em's birthday on the 11th with the exception of some of the stuff hung on the wall. Last week I traded in my knitting needles for these tools:

I covered by worn brown leather chair seats.

Actually Sam was the first to use the dining room:

The next morning, I found all 4 of them sleeping under the table.

In fact every day, I find both Harley's and Sam's favorite toys under the table only to then find them upstairs in our room at night!
I found a silver Art Nouveau epergne to put on the table:

It looks particularly lovely with fresh flowers in it! At least the tiny tuxedo twins seem to think so! This has become their favorite spot to sunbathe!

We had Thanksgiving here and I had fun setting the table up fancy!


We had our family plus KC and my friend Cat and her daughter Caitlin. Cat made mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, Ems and KC brought marinated asparagus and seared, herbed tuna. KC is taking food prep classes so Ems is really enjoying his cooking! I fixed the turkey, Harvest Dressing ( that's my special stuffing recipe), broccoli, sweet potatoes with praline topping, corn pudding, and a pumpkin, apple tart in puff pastry. I think we will be eating Thanksgiving dinner for the next week depending on how many leftovers Bird decides to scarf!

When I was unpacking the living room, I came across the box of fiesta serving pieces that my friend Cat gave me as a thank you gift. She used to collect vintage Fiesta and I still do. First she gave me the five nesting mixing bowls:

These bowls were made in the 6 original colors and there were 7 sizes. I hope to find bowls 6 in green then bowl 7 in any of the other colors. She also gave me a set of 2 stacking cannister bowls with the lid and the covered casserole in red and the blue carafe with stick handled creamer which can be seen added to some of my other vintage pieces here:

I'm finding that these unusual serving pieces have become really collectible and they have really gone up in value even though Fiesta is being reproduced now in other colors. The old stuff has gone nuts! I use vintage fiesta as my everyday dishes, but I'm getting a little leary of using my serving pieces for fear of chipping them!

It will be so nice to actually be able to decorate the house for the winter holidays! I have a collection of snowmen that I haven't been able to put out the last few years. I also got the creche that my dad made when I was a kid that I hope to put out as well.

Life can get back to normal, if normal includes holiday preparation. My knitting group is having a cookie exchange on Dec. 12 which should be fun. I need to get going on Tree Jacket to finish her up, though she may have to hibernate until after Christmas so I can get some Christmas knitting done.

Time to go measure for window treatments! I refuse to go into any stores today. I figured it's a good day to get stuff done around here!

Bushism for the day:
"I've always found the best investments are those that you salt away based on economics." —George W. Bush, Austin, Texas, Jan. 4, 2001

Kitty Cam: Mikey has found the new living room rug to be his favorite napping place!