Sunday, January 19, 2014

Living Room Touches

With all the Christmas décor tucked away into storage the house almost echoed. For me, it’s always somewhat of a challenge to decorate this time of year.. I get tired of the winter decorations yet it’s almost too early for spring touches.

Before I proceed I need to make it known that my life is once again back to normal…  camera-wise. I finally managed to get my favorite camera again! ( exactly like the one that was taken from me last fall ) I’ve had so much fun already with it. I am also considering installing a tracking device in it so it’s less likely that history will repeat itself! ( Or maybe just putting a sticker on it that says “if you feel the urge to steal this camera,think again, because it just might contain a tracking device”  Or  “if you feel the urge to steal this camera you may want to reconsider since it contains a bomb that can be detonated by the owner and she will not hesitate to press the button since she feels if she can’t have the camera, no one can” ) (honestly, I almost felt this way)

Anyway, yesterday I braved the cold and took a walk with the two youngest in our family the cats. I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of little Pebbles as she thought she was stuck in a tree…

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Finally she got it figured out…

 

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She reeks of cuteness, doesn’t she?

 

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This big guy went along too, of course..

 

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Okay, back to the subject… living room touches..

 

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Don’t ask me why I enjoy taking crooked pictures..just different, I guess.

 

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I still have mostly neutrals in the living room with a few splashes of blue.

 

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I made a cover for an old pillow and transferred some wording onto it, the same way as I do for wood. (since I know no French, I hope the words are nice!)

This past summer I clipped some fresh blue Hydrangeas.

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I let them dry out in the vase and they surprisingly kept much of their color. But this winter I thought they didn’t look so nice anymore so I gave them a light coat of blue spray paint. Here is the before and after…

 

Fresh…

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Dried…

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For the mantle, I painted little clay pots, added numbers and stuck some boxwood clippings in them.

 

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I used binder rings and twine to bundle some pictures together for the wire basket. I still want to add more.. just haven’t gotten around to it. I took all our photo Christmas cards we got from people and tied those together for the one bundle.

 

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For those of you interested in some easy, non expensive curtains you might want to try this…

 

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I cut strips of cloth 12” wide and sewed them onto sheer panels every 12”.

 

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To hang them I got pieces of electrical conduit from my dad and spray painted it black for the rods.  My brother in law has a shop with plumbing and electrical fittings of all sorts so I rummaged around until I found a hook like object. They were silver so I painted them too. They worked great to hold the rod. I found some rings with clips in a local fabric outlet store that worked perfectly to hang  the curtains.

 

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The only thing that could be an issue for some people with these curtains is that they are see through. I don’t worry about any shades at our house since we are back in where no one can see us. But I’m sure if I was right by the road I would add blinds.

 

For the entryway area I felt I should have something to hang purses and coats for my tea party guests when they come, so for now this old ladder will suffice…

 

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I stuck some carpet gripper on the legs so it won’t slide down so easily..

 

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So that’s a little of what I’ve been up to lately. Hope you enjoyed! Until next time…

-Mary

8 comments:

  1. Your cat's are beyond cuteness!
    Also loving the decor.Grey theme with DIY blue pillow and dried,blue Hydrangeas - very soothing combination of colors :)
    Have a good week!
    xx
    Mila

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always love your decor. I have been wanting to paint some of my clay pots with chalk paint this winter but I think it's too cold to walk out to the barn to get them. How lazy is that!!

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  3. Lovely ideas…especially the 'Paris' pillow!

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  5. Love your living room...that Pebbles is precious :-)

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