Thanksgiving Table

If I had to choose a favorite holiday, Thanksgiving would be it.  I love Thanksgiving with its cozy food and time with family.  Living far away from my parents, sisters & brothers, I have made my own family tradition to travel home and visit each Thanksgiving. It's a warm season,  an opportunity to revisit old memories and create new ones with my kids.  For me, Thanksgiving hasn't held the hype and pressure that comes with some other holidays.

Until this year.  My husband's family moved close by and he wanted to host a family Thanksgiving at our house -- before we left town. A little crazy? Yes. But I love him and we do our best to support each other so here goes.

We were lucky enough to inherit his Grandmother's china, which he wanted to use.  He promised to wash all the dishes and had a strong argument of, "if not now, then when." He was right, and I now had an excuse to go shopping.  I need glasses, silverware, table lines...

I wanted it to be simple and relaxed but elegant.  It turned out to be just that with an eclectic mix of china and glassware matched with earthy fall linens.  I stole an idea off Pinterest for simple candle holders made of mason jars and raffia. We set up in our glassed-in patio, turned on white Christmas lights and burned a fire in our wood stove. In the end it was everything I love about Thanksgiving.

Welcome to the Dark Side

Imagine a world where unicorns and rainbows shot out of every crevice. At a seaside beach house where no one ever did anything but sleep and kick the sand off their shoes as they came in off the beach, the living room might look a little something like this:

And it's fine, there is nothing wrong with a nappy space. It's perfectly suitable for a bed and breakfast or a vacation home, anywhere nothing ever happens and nothing ever will. But with Halloween today, I saw so much passion! The vigor with which zombies feast and vampires hunt is inspirational. And life is about the same passion (well, maybe not exactly the same.)

What strikes me about old scary movies is the dark layers they create with historical, industrial, and quirky items. An unexpected space that throws you off and tells a story of a deeply toubled monster. Like the Adams Family. What if we could draw on the creepy and bizzare to improve our beachy living room? And what if the color scheme and couch could not be changed?

Weathered, worn, industrial, traveled. I think it achieves seaside Sherlock Holmes. So lets take a lesson from the twisted staircases, tarnished candelabras, and velvet couches and do something a little dark next time. Maybe a twisted design is just the thing to get your home to go bump in the night.

To twee, or not to twee...

It’s time, boxes are 90% unpacked, furniture is in its prime placement, and the neighbors have waved out their car windows as they drive by.  I guess this means we’re moved in and can begin decorating (she types as her grill slowly widens to reveal an even row of enormous teeth.) 

Numero uno, our entry is a dis-ASS-ster.  Your first impression as you enter is established by a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-esque hallway and an office area in much need of organization.  But today’s story focuses on our barren, never ending, entry hall. 

It does not invite, surprise, or give an Annie impression in any way. The entry won’t be completed before our first neighborhood party, so I’ll just live with the vanilla reputation its bound to earn me for a while.

Let me take you back to Echo the Librarian’s birthday party.  A lovely evening complete with dinner, cake, presents, and google-chatting Liz.  Then I tried to get Echo’s advice on the creepity entry.  “Hey girl, I gotta do something with this entry, come see.”  “Okee.”  “I saw this thing on Pinterest, I was thinking of putting the kids’ pictures with a clock stopped at their birth time.”  Silence.  “Don’t you think it would be cute.”  Silence.  Finally, “Uhgh, it’s kind of twee.”  Then I had to get some kind of definition of this discouragement, so I could process the insult, and decide whether it was justified.  It was.

I still can’t tell you exactly what it means, but I think it’s something like country cutesy, which I am definitely not going for.  I think the current location of the kids’ pics is twee.  The family vinyl is admittedly not cool, and not me. 

But I love my family and was peer-pressured into making it at a crafting women’s organization meeting.  If you belong to a crafting women’s organization, you know what I’m talking about.  Participating is optional, but if you don’t, then it’s like “I hate your stupid crafts, they are silly.”  And who really wants to go around insulting people?  So you craft.  But now I have 2 signs that say Neilson and a family sign, and if I don’t put them up, does that mean I don’t love my family?  “I spit on your family sign,” is not really what I’m going for either.

The problem is twee things are super cute.  Subway kitchen signs, things personalized with special years, it’s all so precious.  But I guess that’s what makes Echo gag.

So Echo is 100% correct to deter me.  What I really want is something interesting with age and a practical use that invites people to come in, take off your shoes, and put your socked feet up on the couch.  How about these shoe hidey deals, also found on Pinterest? 

But how do I make them look like they are not from Ikea and ultra modern?  How do I layer interesting things?

Those are my problems to sort out, but what I want to know from our readers is, do you twee?  And what about me?  To twee, or not to twee…

Code Red Guestroom

“Code red! Code red!  GO GO GO!” 

If you find yourself in a hurried panic to shove all your miscellaneous cr@p into your guestroom when you have sudden visitors, then you have a guestroom just like Liz’s!  That is until this summer.  For over a decade, Liz has lived away from family and has frequent
out of town guests.  It was finally time to evolve
beyond the storage room – guestroom.

As with any decorating undertaking, it is an evolving process.  A few key things we did were to find a headboard, choose focal wall art, buy bedding, refinish furniture, and find some key accessories (we’re still looking for some of those.)  Okay, I hear you, it sounds like more than a few things, but just take it one step at a time.  Liz already had the dressers, painted them white, and found super cute knobs. 

The headboard was the real first layer and most important find for the room.

While discussions about the size and shape of our next headboard project for the guestroom had begun, Liz found this headboard at a local thrift store. She knew we had an ambitious battle a head of us to retake the guestroom so Liz bought it knowing it would help save us time. The headboard is amazing "as is."  It has a beautiful finish and the most special metal accents.  Not bad for $10!  And the headboard also has good bones if ever we want to change it to something unique and fun.

Like most we know, Liz had to stay within a bidget for this makeover.  We shopped online for the perfect bedding and it was easy to find... for way more than she could justify spending. Liz had a budget and was just as determined to stay within its boundaries for necessity as she was for the challenge.  In the end we had to get out and shop our little trunks off and we finally found something. It wasn't' the red and cream duvet color of Liz’s dreams but it is pretty and adds casual elegance to the room.


Now, the guestroom is set. It has dug in its heels and refuses to become a storage dumping ground. Over time, the room will continue to evolve as our needs change (and as we find more lovely irresistibles).

My Lovely Lady Lamps: Update

Here's a solid lamp.

Super functional, great construction, and yet it's been hit with the ugly stick.  This is what I live for.  Something useful and functional that needs a little help in the beauty department.


My inspiration for this lamp makeover:

For now, here's the lamp with the shade and the base coat:

I want it to look like glazed pottery. But I'm only getting so-so results with the layers of paint and glaze. For now, it's back to the drawing board to figure out how to get that look. 

In the meatime, the behemoth ottoman is getting close!  Super excited for it's reveal in the next couple of weeks.  So far the feet are dark, dark walnut and the fabric is gray and white ikat perfection.  It's going to be gorgeous. (Do you like the way I distract you from my unwhelming lamp progress?)
Here's the before:

Happy decorating!

The Best Medicine

I’m not generally a proponent of retail therapy.  It’s self-destructive in the long run.  When super stressed, I can be found soaking in the tub, noshing on my favorite candy bar (also self-destructive in the long run), or “going to bed” early.  And by that I mean watching my favorite show in my jammies in bed. 

All that said, I slipped.  A little.  We moved on Saturday and I had a job interview today.  Looking for work and packing while sick with a gnarly flu just overwhelmed my good-sense.  I stumbled into Freddies looking for shelf liner and “accidently” bought myself something pretty for the new house.  But it was half-off, and stole my heart.  It makes me happy.  That’s all that mattered at the time, and I’m still happy with my purchase so I’ve decided to share its loveliness. 

These are sculptural pottery candleholders.  I probably won't actually burn anything in them.  I love how they look with the paint color (which was a total suprise, it was red when we originally looked at the place, yuck). 

My life was out-of-control busy and the purchase made me feel excited and at peace about moving.  I know, I’m sick.  I think it was way too therapeutic to be sensible.

And I was responsible and got the shelf liner.

Have you ever “slipped” and “accidently” bought something beautiful you did not later regret?  Warning:  this sharing might be a little counter-productive to my no retail therapy rule.

Master Bedroom Evolution

I just wanted a place to rest that wasn't hideous. This room has evolved over 8 years. I've added one layer at a time as I learned and explored what I really like.  I've made a few mistakes along the way like a pea green wall color that made me look ill.  Just because you like a color doesn't mean it's good for romance.

1. This mirror was an impulse buy for my daughter's room. But when I brought it home, I loved it way more for my room.  Sorry baby girl.

2. I purchased similar shades to these for my Master Bedroom about 6 years ago.  They are a classic look that started to add a layer of textured detail. I found mine at Ikea for cheap.

3. I actually like these curtains better than the ones that hang in my boudoir.  Mine work well though and are the same color with a sheen to them. I wanted to add more texture to the room. I purchased two sets from Overstock - one for window coverings and one for the closet opening. Unfortunately I let a few reviews get in my head and they morphed into shower curtains. That is until I bought the pillows in #7 that really pulled the room together.

4. The headboard. I had a lot of fun with this one.  My sister and I made this together a few summers ago.  It only took one day and came out great.  I spent days researching the size, shape, and design I wanted. In the end I invested most of my budget into the fabric - a good idea because that's what you see and feel. I waited for a JoAnn's promotion to get the fabric 1/2 off ($65 to $33/yrd.)

5. Ikea dressers! A practical buy that looks great. Clean lines... ahhh.

6. I wanted my duvet to add some depth to the room decor.  The ruching really helped accomplish this and create more interest.

7. The pillows were such a great find.  A few months ago I saw them at T.J. Max and bought them on the spot.  They pulled the room together and gave it that polished look I was going for.

8. From the beginning I had these frames. I displayed pictures from an anniversary trip my husband and I took. This was a great way to add a personal and romantic touch to "our" room.

So Annie should be happy.  She's been asking for this post and I finally committed and did it.  I love the evolution that constantly occurs in my home and it's extremely satisfying when a room finally feels "done."

Master Bedroom by liz-galbraith-ellis on Polyvore