Sunday Snapshot: Finished

Here is a peek at the new living room drapes that I finished the other day.  They are made from the same fabric as the ones that I made two years ago for the dining room. The style of these two rooms is very similar, and you can easily see from one to the other, so I wanted the window treatments to match.

Family Room bay window with new drapes!

Dining Room, with matching drapes.

The difference between the drapes in the family room and the ones in the dining room is that the family room drapes are finished.  Really finished ... not mostly, you-can't-really-tell-that-they're-not-hemmed almost-finished like the dining room. 

My goal for 2015 and beyond is to try to stick with projects all the way to the end.  It's been a struggle at times, as I fight the lure of other things that tempt me to start or work on, but I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of stepping back and basking in the triumphant feeling of FINISHED!

(Tutorial to teach you how to make your own drapes will be posted in a few days.)

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

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Sunday Snapshots are posts that are devoted to a moment in time that represents a slice of life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be.

A Huge Pop of Color in the Dining Room!

Our dining room hutch is seven feet tall.  With our nine-and-a-half-foot-high ceilings on this level of the house, the top of the hutch looked naked.  I have tried arranging baskets, art, and assorted other things up there, and nothing looked right ... until I tried this ...

I have had this stained glass window for YEARS.  I bought it on Craigslist because I loved it and it was cheap, but without any idea of where or how to use it.  The color and finish you see is exactly how it was when I bought it.  Thought at one point about reworking the framing in the shack to use it there, but decided that I didn't want to subject it to the weather.  It has been stored in our basement, moving from spot to spot, as I schemed and plotted.

I showed it in the basement workshop THIS post from 2010.

At one time, it was upside down in the corner of our pool room, practically hidden behind all of this crap that I have since sifted through and dealt with.

It was a fit of weird inspiration that led me to bring it upstairs and try it on top of the hutch.  My husband and I agree that we love it.  With that decided, it was time to make it safe and secure up there.

I screwed three pieces of scrap 1 x 6 to the bottom of the window to make 'feet' as a base.  With the window in place on top of the hutch, I then screwed the feet into the top of the hutch.  This thing isn't going anywhere now!

The 'feet' screwed to the base of the window with two-inch screws, and I used 1 1/4 inch screws to attach it to the top of the hutch.

Eventually, I hope to add another thing or two up there with the window, to fill out the space and add some more interest.  For now, though, I think that it's close enough to perfect exactly the way it is.

Moving Things Around

Late last week, against my better judgement, I ran through the Goodwill store when I was planning on only driving through the donation area to drop off a couple of things.  While I was there, I found the most wonderful set of dishes.  Did I need dishes?  No, but when did that ever enter into the decision. 

 

 

As soon as I saw these, I fell in love.  The fact that I got 46 pieces for $48 was icing on the cake.  (Each piece was 99 cents ... except the high-priced platter and serving bowl, which were $1.99 each.)

 

The cherry hutch in our dining room contains some of the best pieces of our Lu-Ray Pastels dinnerware ... which I have been collecting pretty much since we got married in 1980.  I love the colors, but the mixture of colors and shapes has seemed a bit chaotic to me lately.

 

 

 

 

 

Tucked in among the dishes, you can see some of my favorite little things.

 

A metal cricket given to me by my grandmother, and a small vintage chalk mouse figure.

 

 

An American Girl Bitty Bear sits in an egg cup.

 

 

This ceramic moose is my favorite souvenir from our trip to Alaska last summer.

 

 

Crystal crab placecard holders support a small porcelain doll, and a tiny ceramic cat.

 

 

The new dishes will be perfect in the hutch, and I can move the Lu-Ray to the glass-fronted cabinets in the kitchen ... some of which were holding my Moss Rose tea and luncheon set.  I love this set because it is so representative of the time in which it was made.  In addition to cups and saucers, creamer and sugar bowl, and small plates, the set includes a cigarette lighter and individual small ashtrays for each place setting.

 

 

 

Yesterday morning was spent moving things around between the hutch, the kitchen cabinets, and storage in a cupboard in the basement.  First step, remove the Lu-Ray from the hutch.  As I emptied the hutch, I found things that I had stashed in there.

 

The demitasse sugar bowl had a handful of assorted change

 

 

The Colonial-era cannonball I found earlier this year was in the yellow teapot. 

(Click HERE to see how I found it.)

 

 

With the Lu-Ray out of there, it was a simple matter to arrange the new dishes in the hutch.

 

 

 

... and I put back most of my 'treasures', and a few smaller pieces of blue Lu-Ray.

 

I swear, the cannonball looks like a giant cocoa-dusted truffle.

 

 

Arranging the Lu-Ray in the kitchen was a bit more involved.  I stacked, and rearranged, and fiddled, and I finally came up with an arrangement that I like.

 

 

 

The pitchers in the top cabinets are sitting on saucers and berry bowls to raise them up enough so they display nicely when the doors are closed.

 

Four colors, four doors, four pitchers ... perfect!

 

 

I have lots more Lu-Ray stored away ... I think I could almost supply the dinnerware for an entire State Dinner at the White House.  As I go through things later, I will probably bring in a few more pieces to add some height and interest to the blue casserole in the center cabinet.

 

What started at Goodwill as an impulse purchase of dishes I really didn't need has turned into a morning's worth of work that really did make things look a LOT better. 

 

 

 

Eventually, inspiration will strike and I will think of a good place to display the tea set.  Until then, it's safely tucked away.

 

 

Sharing this at Sherry's Open House Party.

Drapes in the Dining Room

This post could also be titled "Following My Heart, and Being Myself No Matter What Others May Think".  You see, the journey from a 'lightbulb moment' in a fabric store to beautiful drapes that are perfect for our house was an emotionally difficult one.

In September, I was in Hancock Fabrics and I saw the most perfect potential drapery fabric.  I knew instantly that it would be totally wonderful in our house.  I snapped this photo, and I brought home a couple of their tiny sample swatches.

The little swatches hung on the windows in our dining room and family room, and the colors in the fabric were even more perfect in our house than they were in the fabric store.  I knew that I had found THE ONE!

I visited Janet at her shop a few weeks later, and I saw a roll of MY fabric in her work area.  I told her how much I loved it, and mentioned that I was planning to use it to make drapes in our dining room and family room.  Janet said, "That's the fabric Miss Mustard Seed used for her drapes."

When she said that, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.  MY fabric was actually someone ELSE'S fabric ... I knew I would feel like a shameful copycat if I used it ... especially since the simple drapes I had in my imagination were very similar to what MMS has.  (I googled them as soon as I got home.) 

It wasn't that I minded that someone else had used the fabric and published it online ... I'd be silly to believe that no one had EVER made drapes like the ones I was imagining.  I got myself pretty deep in a feeling of insecurity, worrying that other people would THINK I was a copycat.  It's totally unlike me to even consider stuff like this ... what was I to do?

It was my friend Kat (dear, sweet Kat) who set me straight.  When I wrote to her about maybe not using the fabric, even though I loved it, she replied, "I say use that fabric and enjoy those drapes.  We can't decorate our houses for the internet, nor should we deny ourselves something we like because someone else has already used it..."

Thank you, Kat!!  Your words of wisdom helped more than you know, and I am very, VERY grateful that I took your advice, and followed my heart.

Without further delay, allow me to introduce ... our new dining room drapes.  (I snapped a few quickly-styled photos for you with my iPad this morning.)

The ceilings on the main level of our house are nine-and-a-half feet high, and these drapes emphasize that height and add definition to the room.  I am over-the-moon delighted with how they look.

Since the drapes are wonderful, I decided to do what I could to pull the rest of the dining room together.  I hung this gallery of The Husband's paintings on the wall above the blue buffet, and I love how it looks ... I need to find something to put on the top of the buffet, tho.

This corner cupboard holds a little flat-screen TV, so I can watch the news while I cook.  The top of the cupboard looked like a good place for a graduated stack containing two of my primitive painted tool boxes and a child's toy trunk.  The wall clock is an 1840's ogee clock from Connecticut, and the antlers are the same ones that I originally hung over the door in our office ... they look way better here in the dining room.

From the moment I hung the first of the two sets of drapes in this room, I knew that I had done the right thing.  These simple drapes, gathered on a rod, hanging from ceiling to floor, are the perfect choice for this room ... I am so happy about this!!  

The moral of this story is .... I followed my heart, and I am delighted with the results.  Kat, my friend, I am ABSOLUTELY enjoying these drapes!