Almost Christmas Eve of 2018

Hello Bloglandia friends and strangers.....

It is once again a belated post, a conglomeration of several, but here I am.

I can't speak of all that has transpired or all that is, and at the same time, nothing is transpiring.....but I can show some pictures that some of you have asked for.

Life is about adjustments and mostly healing these days which is slow, from the past year of hell, and the years before of untold difficulties of the not so normal kind.

Anyway, below is alot of pictures, I mean alot. As usual, get your coffee, tea or wine, or whatever..........and sincere apologies for the very unprofessional pics, I really wish I could ooh and ahh with the beauty of good photography, but alas........sigh....here goes, I will comment above the picture:

We put lights around the house...(don't you just love when people state the obvious?) But the thing is with this house we used some clips designed for shingles, and they were easy to use and keep the strings in a straight line which delighted me. The Italian Cypress are lit and I'll keep them lit all year.

When we had the floors redone, we took advantage of the empty space and painted the walls a French Pink.....I couldn't live with the dead beige. Now things look sweeter, brighter, and warmer.

The fireplace is one of my special places to look at, as with most I imagine......but its the deer, the real live ones in my life who are helping with making some magical moments. So they get the place of honor on the mantle.

 

 I didn't buy much at all this year for Christmas because I wanted to use what I had, but I bought this deer with antlers.....he's just gorgeous, all white and silver and majestic......he has his little ones around him......


 
 






Some random beauty.....my favorite color amaryllis, Apple Blossom, white with palest pink.

I finally was able to add Christmas greens to my chandelier, with some ornaments.....so festive.

On the kitchen table which we rarely use....a small white village Christmas display,

Every room has a little touch of Christmas. I am celebrating still being alive and wanted this house, the first Christmas in this house to be beautiful at least a little bit everywhere.

This years Xmas tree has no baubles, because we have a very curious cat who cannot resist investigating every single thing in this house....and testing it for breakability.....so no glass baubles. Instead, I used the pinecones I collected in the summer and painted silver and copper, added hooks and hung them with snowflakes and icicles.....its an all nature themed tree. I like it.

just a view.....

While in my new and only hangout these days, walmart!.....I passed this little tree and it stopped me, I have no idea why, I hate tinsel, but I loved this tree in the rose gold, john got it for me in silver and I have a lovely shabby chic tree in my bedroom......it fit perfectly in the narrow space between cabinets. I love the light it gives my room....I love unconventional lighting, especially when it is closer to the floor...this light is lovely!

and when he tested the lights on the tree in the kitchen, I loved seeing it there and he liked it too.  He got another one for that spot :D, and I used only what I had sitting conveniently on top of the Xmas decor bin.....just more pearl garland and gold icicles. I've been so slow in decorating this year. I'm still doing things at this late date. I'm working today on more pine cones....I am wanting white ones.....but those won't be ready for another two weeks when I receive the velvet ribbon I need for them. They will be all year decor. I just love pine cones.

 

 Here is John fixing the top half of lights....I had to catch this moment as I never saw him touch a Christmas ornament or tree in 17 years, unless he was holding it for me.....so this was a rare thing.

My view from the most important spot, in the kitchen, where I do most of the work and food prep. I am keeping a fireplace DVD on all day, I listen to the crackling, and play music on the PC.

Nothing more classic than pine in a galvanized bucket....with an ever so curious cat.......

 There was this very blank space high up on one kitchen entry and it bugged me. It needed something. Well I had an extra garland of faux jasmine that look gorgeous, and I wanted to hang it on something natural, so I went and cut a branch that still has berries on it, sprayed those gold and silver, and hung the branch with the garland.

 This garland now has the ornaments I would not hang on the tree. It has iridescent glass and mercury ornaments, and its lovely.

 



Behind it is a shabby chic lantern I made with a white Chinese lantern, added an electric cord and bulb, and the light is lovely. At night it looks like the moon is covered with flowers and is hanging behind vine and branches. :-)

Just some pics of the rest of the house....this is the guest room.....waiting for my friends.....

This is my room.....I adore the afternoon light in here....its magical.....

To keep pine scent, some douglas fir in a bucket next to my bathroom door......

 Its a romantic looking room I think, now that I see the pictures.....

My bathroom....I love this room, its huge, and it also has a huge closet inside it too....my cozy spot.

I made some floor to ceiling gauze curtains with lace, to block the draft when showering, it works like a charm and is more beautiful than the plain white shower curtains behind them.
The gauze curtains on a wooden branch over the tub are also there to block a draft when I bathe. Also works nicely....I used to freeze with the blowing air from the vents, now I dont' feel it when bathing.

 Today, (can't believe I am still working on decorating, lol ).....I hung some giant snowflakes in the kitchen window where the sun comes in the mornings.....it created lots of moving prisms in my kitchen! Need prisms, living moving prisms....necessary. The deer were out there this morning. I will take pictures of them when I am not frozen watching them.

Is anyone still here? lol......winding down......lets see, what else......
oh yes! Johns' bathroom.....I HAD to redo that the best I could.......and compared to what it was, even though he says it didn't bother him cause he only showered in it, it looked, he said, like a gas station bathroom......and we cannot have that. So I got to planning, and marbleized his counter by hand painting it like mine, put up some beadboard wallpaper, added chair rails, and baseboards, I caulked them. I made a topiary, made some real plant botanicals for his walls, got a sconce to hold a beeswax candle, and added fresh eucalyptus to keep it smelling wonderful which it does, and got him a nice mandala shower curtain which he picked out, since the look of that tiny bathroom is taken up mostly with the shower curtain, it should say something nice. And I talked him into a nice lamp, a turkish lamp which is pink mosaic, and you can't see how gorgeous it is, but it is gorgeous. "His bathroom is now complete".....says, "nanny Mcphee .

I think thats all friends.....
oh one last thing....I finally finally was able to take pictures of my cat Sarah without her being curious about the camera this time, she was in a meditative state....and I got some good pics of her......but first this below, is her Christmas present. We got her a cat tree, and understandably, if one knows the superlative nature of cats, as I do......she sniffed it out then ignored it lol.... however, she does get playful and forgets she's the Queen of the Universe and gets ebullient in there.....especially when I pick her up and shove  place her in it, cause dang it, she's gonna play in that thing, ahem......but she does.....has even napped a few times in the papasan basket.... I keep her food on the third floor, so she has to go up and use it.....:D

So I'll leave you with the beauty queen, and I thank you all for your time and attention and for listening to my postings and pictures. I wish you all a very lovely and magical Christmas, lots of warm hugs and loving feelings, great presents and amazing foods!

"Yes, Merry Christmas to all of you lovely people!"