Make your small laundry bright and pretty

itty bitty laundry

When I purchased my new Samsung front loaders I measured carefully.... or so I thought.

The thing that sticks out of the door that goes in the door jamb to keep the door closed barely brushed the front window of the dryer.... sigh

I promptly taped the door closer flat against the door until I could figure out what to do. 

Options:

Take door off

Send the pair back to the store and choose top loaders

Have a plumber come and shorten the gas pipe that causes the pair to jut out into the room

Order doors two doors that fit the opening.

I decided to order the doors and had them installed to open into the hall. It worked out well.

Here is the set up so far. I need handles for the cabinets and I think I want to get rid of the bases so I can use the top of the machines for folding.

I may try to use them under the white cabinets on the wall under the stairs in there. They provide excellent storage. I just cannot reach into the cabinets above them anymore without a step stool.

 These cabinets make nice storage, but I think different handles would give them a better look?

 The bottles hold my laundry soap.

 The cute metal bide has my swifter stack and the other cubbie holds the dusters.

 This is a utility room. Various floor cleaning tools hang here. aprons, battery storage and electric screw driver stay here. Those little baskets hanging on the wall are used in the summer months to guard our food from bugs when serving outdoors. I think they make cute wall art in the mean time. :)

 I found an old bushel basket like my mother used to use and put extra pool towels in it.

 The colorful bins hold raffia that I use to tie herbs or gifts, the next one holds swim diapers for our "wee guests" pun intended. And the bottoms has string, jute, burlap ribbon that I'm always using for something.

 This sign is so colorful and matched my color scheme completely. Love the thought.

Here is the view walking in. Any suggestions or comments welcome. This is a work in progress.

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Valentine Decor DIY

Valentine Tree of Hearts

 I had ordered these little zinc hearts and pictured making a tree like this for my foyer. It's simple but depicts Valentine's Day without the red and pink this year.

My husband drilled holes in them and we tied jute string to them and I hung them on the branches. I ordered the hearts from
http://www. factorydirectcraft.com
Mine are 1" and there were 36 pieces for around $7.

A Christmas home tour

Christmas

a most wonderful time of year

I had a fall arrangement on top of these shutters. So I left the jars, added some old pink ornaments added these sparkly little presents, a little greenery and voila! I found these lovely mercury ornaments that I have hung from the chandelier, along with some three dimensional snowflakes and the beading I usually place around candles.

 Bear with me puuullease. I am new to watermarks. I've covered up part of what I wanted you to see. sigh...

The dining room underwent big changes in the fall. Walls were painted, window treatment changed. I finally found a wonderful corner hutch when we visited Canton, Texas flea market. It happened to be done in Annie Sloan French Linen with pink inside. I totally went with it as I have a favorite set of dishes by Michal Sparks, "Estate of Mind", ad they have a lot of color in them, and pink is major. So my point in telling you this is that is how Christmas in the dining room became pink this year. I'm just having fun with it. 

 I love forcing bulbs. My Paperwhites are lagging, but it's okay, I will love whenever they decide to bloom, my Amaryllis has bloomed and bloomed this year. The Christmas Cactus in the background is almost ready to pop her vibrant pink blossoms. :) So if you came to have breakfast with me, we'd sit here and chat. My grandmother embroidered that lovely Batten-burg table cover. :) she was a master at it. She taught me all kinds of fancy stitches, and she used to say....the back should look as beautiful as the top, and hers does. May be why I don't embroider much.  

My kids have always made fun of my angel. The first year we were married, we had NO spare change. I went to the craft store and found this doll head, I attached a piece of wire hanger, gave her a gold pipe cleaner halo, and put white netting on her for a gown. She even has a tacky plastic holly and red flower on her dress. She was supposed to do for the first year. 

After 30+ displays her gown began to come apart and disintegrate! That year I cut up my wedding veil and made all 5 of my children their own treetop angel with a little poem I wrote. She has been with us for 42 years now. She is too sentimental to part with, even with her crazy hair and overdone eyes. :) I have a grandson who is frightened by her..... lol When our 5 kids were small, after all the decorating was done we stood holding hands around the tree as daddy placed her on top and sang Silent Night. sniff... Each Christmas our children got to choose a special ornament. I would write the year and their name on each one. They each had a nice collection to take with them when they left home.

This is the banister decor, nothing special really. I made these swags a few years ago. I added in the teal this year to go with the rest of the den decor.

Here is the tree. I will try to post some close-ups of the themed ornaments. Most of them are birds, and dragonflies, butterflies, flowers and lovely French inspired burlap ribbon. I through in some teal high heels for girlie measure.

The following photos are close ups of tree ornaments.

love the French inspired ribbon

 lovely birds

lovely aqua Hummingbirds

 Drangonflies and cool mercury glass ornaments trimmed in metal with chain hanging from the bottom. Beautiful detail.

Every tree needs an elf and this one is 43 years old.

Every tree needs and elf, and this one is 43 years old....

I have had this little Charlie Brown tree for a number of years. Wrapped in burlap and only has bells for decor. 

I think this is my favorite piece in the house. Love looking at it. And it is filled with things dear to my heart.

lovely blingy candles nestled among the grand babies...

I fell in love with these simple clip-on flowers. Rustic pine cones, completely natural. This swag adorns the halltree in the foyer. I love this ribbon offered through Decor Steals, 

EPHEMERA PARCHMENT PAPER VINTAGE INSPIRED RIBBON

http://www.decorsteals.com/?utm_source=Decor+Steals&utm_campaign=c865c1360e-ribbon+-+12.15.12&utm_medium=email

The dining buffet

Just feels of Christmas warmth

Thanks for visiting! I will post our backyard tree and decorations soon. :)

Enjoy the Season...

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Christmas Mantle in Gold

Christmas Mantle Simply Done

First I must apologize if you waited for daily steps to decorating. I had to leave town for an emergency for a dear family member. I'm sure you got the idea though.

My decorations this year are more simply done than in years past. My sweetheart is facing surgery tomorrow and I know the taking down will be left to me.

Today I'd like to share my mantle with you. There is no greenery used and just a smidgen of aqua to tie in in with my tree.

 I used the three gold reindeer I picked up at Marshall's a couple of years ago. The pinecones I gathered near my home and the gold balls came from a floral arrangement a friend had sent a few years ago. I had the gold magnolia sprays in my Christmas stash. 

My favorite part of this years display is what you probably think is ribbon! Well, it is metal that I snagged from a cool shop in Utah called Kneaders. They had a beautiful rustic tree decorated in wonderful burlap, metal, and natural pieces. I bought it right off the tree! $15 for nine pieces. 

I wanted some letters to spell out a Christmas message this year, really difficult to find what I wanted. I settled for these Walmart letters for a couple of bucks each. There is a brown shiny branch thing under it all.

The finishing touch was wanting something drippy off the front. so I chose the beading you can buy for candles to add a tiny touch of aqua and hung the gold snowflakes with it. I burn a fire in my fireplace so I have to be careful about what drapes around the sides and the front.

 I should have lit a fire huh? It's been hot in Houston so it didn't even occur to me. Would have spiced up the photo right?

Stay tuned for glimpses of my pink and gray Christmas decor in the dining and other simple touches. 

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