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!"

Easy Botanicals For Walls, John's Room and Kitty

Hello Everyone....

thanks to all who responded and commented on my last post about my new life, and thank you for being concerned. My heart was touched. I did not respond, but I read all comments. I usually always respond, but I'm in a delayed funk due to the traumas of last year, so forgive my unresponsiveness in public, but know I read every one with love.

First a pic of my front yard .....I just love this view! This morning was picturesque....very misty, the moon hanging golden yellow and fully round between the trees and all else was barely lit by this light.....moonlight reflecting in the new lake we have from flooding, but its a lake for now, looking really pretty in moonlight with pure white egrets playing in them. It was breathtaking.

In light of day.....the solar bird fountain and Urn.....I just love these views.

Today I have just a short post in keeping with bloglandia and projects of beautification, and because I could not find such easy inspiration for botanicals framed, I thought I'd share mine.

In moving to this house I wanted special things for hanging on my walls. Unlike the last house there was little wall space and I had few pictures, but here there is lots of space for hanging things. I want  things which I absolutely love and preferably can make myself. One of them is macrame. Yes, that old craft, but have you seen what those genius women are doing with macrame these days? A quick search in google images or pinterest will show you the absolutely stunning pieces being made with macrame and the wonderful uses for them. I thought it would be a good thing for me to do when I cannot go out which is most days due to over 100 degree temps and humidity, and so I bought some rope and got ready to do some projects on youtube, and those lovely women show you from start to finish how to make them. I love the sharing of women! But this post is about botanicals.

I have always love those botanicals of leaves and fern, actual plants framed in zinc frames with double floating glass and chain hangers. They used them alot in older days and to decorate greenhouses and such, but now I want to see them on my own walls. In searching out where to get those frames, they are not common to find the zinc frame with double glass and chain, and when you do the price is prohibitive. I spent lots of time searching but usually nothing comes up, or is sold out. So I go to the usual do-it-yourself mode and I went searching for frames I could use. I wanted narrow frames, preferably wood that I could attach eyelet hook and chain to, but those got to be pricey too. I looked at many pictures and found I loved even those not framed in wood. I decided to just find what simple frames in white I could and frame the leaves and just see. I did and loved it.

So I am going to just tell you simply what I did. I went to Hobby Lobby and Walmart and bought a dozen or so frames, most of them cheap, less than 2 dollars and went to work. I love and adore my Maidenhair Ferns.....which do very well inside with moderate light and lots of water, and I notice also many if not most botanicals also use this fern because it is so light and flat, easy to lie between glass and backing. I also have other types of ferns, and I love these leaves and were what I wanted to frame. We also have largo Sago Palms by the front of the house and I used those, but we needed really long frames, at least 36 inches long by 12" wide, which we also found in walmart in poster frame section of frames. Basically Walmart had all the frames I needed. So you will need the wall space, the frames, the plant material and cotton gloves to keep from smudging the glass (or plexiglass) of the frames. Trust me this can become an issue. Wear gloves.

So basically, I will just tell you, since I didn't do a step by step thing, is to buy the frames in sizes that will both fit the leaves you are using and the wall you are hanging it on. You can use a single leaf or make a design with several leaves, mix up the species or whatever. You can even use flower petals and such but this can go into more talent than I have right now. However, some women are doing absolutely amazing things with Flower Petal Art as well. But you will need to know what kind of wall space you have, know where you are going to put your frame/s, or a collection of them. An entire wall of botanicals is beautiful, timeless and classy.

I simply removed the packaging, use the advert paper that comes behind the glass by turning it over so I have a white background instead of the cardboard backing, chose good perfect leaves from my plants, arranged them on the white paper, replaced the glass, and was done.
I do not know how long these will last in the frame, but because no oxygen gets in there, the leaves will stay green for a while, and even if they turn brown will still be lovely specimens. I just love how easy to make they are and how beautiful they are whether fresh green or aged.


Johns Room:
Now I know there is nothing grand about this, but the key here is COMPARED to his last room or feral dwelling, this is an extreme improvement and worthy of note and post.

Mostly this idea was something I wanted to do for my room and around the house, but John's room needed to be done whilst he was on vacation last week, and I thought I'd surprise him with some of my own art botanicals for his walls. But I had to explain it to him because he didn't know what they were or what he wanted to see in his "new" room, and had no ideas, so I had to show him some pics of those botanicals. He liked them and then said yes, he'd like some for his room.
We went for neutrals, beiges, (sounds boring but wait), whites, and touches of gold.
We first had to find some curtains for his room because we still had hung up there some fluffy, ruffled turquoise girls curtains, and I was getting antsy about those in his room so we had to look up curtains for men to give him some ideas as to what he wanted and we found some really cool ones with scenery that take up the entire wall. I had never seen them. We both liked one pair of a scene of trees, an old pier, and water in light tones. He decided to get those because he didn't want to think about it anymore (because the past 3 minutes were already stressful).
And because those curtains would take up an entire wall, those colors became the theme for his room. He also wanted to paint his brown furniture white, which we did. (I am so tired of painting,  OMG). We also bought a bed quilt and shams, wood crates to store things like shoes and what he likes to throw around, but mostly I had his laptop in mind, to hide miles of cords he has, and organized every item he owns, so everything now is really clean, light and the energy is unlike anything I've ever felt in his room. He even said it feels light and that he loves it.

Today I finished his room adding finishing touches to a room he already loved. I gold leafed the top of a small chest, because he needed some reflective things in there to reflect the sun and candles I planned to put in and to relfect the touches of gold in the birch tree print over his bed. I spray painted his old candleholders gold for the beeswax tapers, did the botanical wall, and I am waiting for moon light to come in the mail. :D John loves astronomy and the celestial bodies, and there is a light that is an exact copy of the moon, it looks just like the moon and I thought he needed that in there, but it has been delayed till next week. He doesn't know what I ordered so it will surprise him.  I saved a spot for it by his bedside table.

So here are some pics of his room and the botanicals. Sorry I didn't explain more about the making of them, but it really is so simple, there is nothing else but what I said. lol.

He has a chair in his room now. He didn't want to move his bed, he said because "I like it where it is"....but I know it was because he didn't want to move it, you know, exertion and all. sigh. But I explained some things etc, we moved it and found he had lots more space and even had room for a chair which I explained he could use to just chill or work on his laptop. I took mine from the guest room, put it in and now he loves it. I have learned this lesson a thousand times......do not listen to what john says....it is all based on laziness and a visceral petulance that cries "I don't want to". So.....now he loves it, the extra room and his new chair and he feels so proud. Yes, he thanked me. But he hasn't seen these finishing touches, the botanicals, the candlesticks and beeswax tapers, or the real fern plant, etc. :D:D:D....he will love his room even more. Oh, there is an empty shadow box between the candles on the wall....we have to work on that together. He thinks its so cool the shadow box for the wall, (never had seen them before) and wants some branches, pinecones, moss etc in there but we'll go through my stash of lichen branches, mosses etc, and do it together.
His laptop, mouse and cords are all in the crate, which he simply pulls out and uses on his new chair. He feels all grown up now.

So he goes from something I would never post online,.....to this...a clean but dismal space......

to this........a fresh room clean, decorated, organized, efficient, tones soothing to spirit, and airy.....

 These are the floor to ceiling scenery curtains sorry I'm not an expert photographer but you can look on amazon. (I don't like to post links anymore because some funky thing happens with those and pictures etc disappear from my posts and leave them looking like an abandoned site, sorry)  These curtains can border on cheesy but these are ok. There are all kinds of these scenery curtains but we chose something of nature with natural colors and tones. He loves them and I think they're so cool. When the sun goes down it comes straight in through this western window and lights up the pier. I often find myself sitting in the chair and gazing "out there".

You can't see here but he has a raw silk bedskirt I gave him because it matches these tones.
 



John bought a model of the truck he likes to manifest it into his life. I made sure it has lots of flowers in the bed part as that is what I want more of in my life.

Magical Lesson:

I have been finding that those things I have brought into my home, are now in my life for real.....like the birds nests I collect when they are left.....now I keep finding birds wanting to build nests in my plants, not any of the hundreds of trees around here, but my plants. Also the pine cones I bought, glittered and hung on a grapevine, and one on my bed netting. Now I live in a place surrounded by pine trees and pine cones. Also I collect special specimens of deer and now I live with real deer in my back yard woods, rabbits, and on and on and on....what I bring into my home, manifests in my real world. That is the magical lesson for those of you who read this far on my little blog. Take heed! Magic is afoot! lolol

 



 I put a few botanicals in my room. The top one is ivy, and the bottom fern. One on the side has 3 different ferns from plants I have in the house.

So there you have it, simple easy botanicals for walls, with incredible beauty and so easy and cheap to make. I hope you have fun with this.

And last but not least, here is my new kitten......her name is Sarah. We had to name her something other than what her  personality inspired which is what I thought I'd do, but nothing good came up except Tiny Terror, Houdini, Motor Mouth, Freakazoid, Little Beast and such....so we decided to give her a lady name to grow into. Sigh! Fingers crossed :D:D:D She is A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. !! A terror, but this phase passes, right?!