Merry Christmas ~

One last little tree ~

The other morning I was standing at my kitchen sink looking out the window to the deck outside. It came to me how much time I spent here and thought how much a little Christmas tree would add to my viewing pleasure.

All of my decorations have been up for weeks...but...I did have one little tree left languishing in the barn. A little Charlie Brown tree that would be perfect!

I brought it up to the house and rummaged around until I found a few things suitable to be outside: some red glass ornaments and a wicker garland, plus one little bird and a red watering can.

Voila!

 A little sparsely decorated but still charming and has made cleaning up the dishes so much more pleasurable.

~  Merry Christmas ~ 

Fun and fairies ~

I have had a lot of enjoyment decorating with traditional things this year. To begin, I decided to bring my vintage ornaments out of storage for the tree in the living room, complete with tinsel. I can't remember when I last put tinsel on a tree, I had forgotten how pretty it is.

Then to add a bit of whimsy I tucked in some Mark Roberts Christmas fairies.

I don't have many of these, although they could easily become a bit of an obsession - they are so cute and it is fun to put them into unexpected places as tiny surprises. ( I have been gifting myself one each year for my birthday).

Here on the mantle among the decorations...

taking center stage on a table arrangement...

and presiding among the gifts under the tree.

I think they add a bit of charm and certainly a lot of fun.

~ Wishing you a Merry Christmas ~

So little time and still so much to do!

Adrienne

Holiday mantle ~

I always try to coordinate my mantle in the living room with the tree. This year I did a Victorian themed tree using all of my vintage glass ornaments, with burgundy glass balls and ribbon. For the first time in many years I have tinsel on the tree, but decided to forego it on the mantle.

I tried to reflect this in the mantle decorations with burgundy colored silk flowers, gold beads and ribbon. I used eucalyptus and pepper branches to soften the effect. 

It is a rather dramatic change from last year when I used soft pastels throughout the room. 

Miss Twiggley seems to approve. So far she has completely ignored all of the decorations. I consider myself lucky as many people are unable to decorate with a feline friend in the house.

It's nice to have the house all decorated and so much fun in the evening when I go around and turn on all of the little lights. Houses are never as lovely to me as at the holiday season. It is well worth the effort to add these festive touches.

~ Merry Christmas ~

Holiday decorating ~

First I needed to spend some time mulling over what to do this year...

Then face the daunting task of going down into the basement and bringing up all of the storage bins.

This is a California basement, not really very big, but a great storage place for out of season holiday decorations. The trouble is they have to be hauled up!

Finally, opening everything up and organizing how I will begin.

I like to mix it up and do some new things every year but there are some old standbys such a Santa theme in the kitchen that I will repeat, for me the holiday wouldn't be as enjoyable with out some of these old friends. 

 I have decided to use burgundy as my inspiration color in the formal rooms and have taken out of long term storage all of the antique glass ornaments for the living room tree. I want a traditional old fashion Victorian Christmas tree with lots of tinsel. 

Now I just need to put on some Christmas music and get busy.

Happy Thanksgiving ~

Wishing you all a very happy and joyous Thanksgiving.

Pumpkins 2018 ~

Last year I decided to paint a picture of a pumpkin. I hadn't painted for a while, so long in fact that some of my paints had dried up in the tubes. The picture below is the result. I put it on the kitchen counter and enjoyed it through Halloween and Thanksgiving as part of my fall decorations.

I had so much pleasure with the activity last year that I decided to try it again. This is my version of pumpkins for 2018. Maybe next year, if I do this again, I should mix it up a bit and add some other type of gourds...we will see.

 Like before, I slipped this into a temporary frame and put it in the kitchen. It adds seasonal cheer for the holidays. After Thanksgiving to make way for my Christmas decorations I will put it away until next autumn.

I love fall, the weather is cooler, there is much to plant in the garden and the light makes everything look better. I have enjoyed my attempts to capture a bit of it on canvas.

I hope you have a glorious day.

Thank you for visiting.

Adrienne

Indulgance, winter annuals ~

 With the change in seasons I am cutting back lots of things in the garden, including some big grasses, which gives me room to plant annuals.

In the picture below you can see some of the things I bought this week to add some winter color to the garden for my enjoyment: calendulas, allyssum, snapdragons, foxgloves. pansies and a few bulbs, which I never can resist. I call this my table of beautiful bounty.

 Last weekend, I dug up the two areas where most of these are going to go and added lots of planting mix to get the plants off to a good start. 

I will put the yellow calendulas and allysum in the area below, it is near my backdoor, I love the way allysum smells and this way I hope to get a nice whiff of fragrance every time I step out into the garden.

The other space is larger, the tall Rocket snapdragons will go here along with a couple dozen foxgloves and more allysum, leaving space for a new rose bush I will plant later during the bareroot season. If I have extra room I will add some delphinium, I haven't planted delphiniums  for a long time and never very successfully, but it might be fun to try again.

The pansies will go into three pots sitting in the bed along the driveway in the front. I love pansies but have always felt they were a bit fragile to be planted in the ground, planted in pots they should be easier to take care of and make more of a statement. 

 This is such a great time to plant  in Southern California and with the cooler weather watering in not as much an issue. I have decided to indulge myself with some of my favorite annual flowers fleeting though they might be.

Thank you for visiting.
Have a lovely day.

Adrienne