Bright New Year!

It’s been a pure joy getting to not only read fabulous blogs but to also get to know each one of you. You each bring creativeness and vision with warmth from your heart…..

You brighten my days and for that I thank you…..

Wishing all of you the very Happiest and Brightest of New Years and may all your dreams come true…..

Happy 2012 my Friends!

Awards Time! Passing them along.....

I feel so honored everyone has been so kind in giving me awards, not just one but two, Blog on fire and Liebster award. Blog on fire came to me from Maureen over at Eclectic Revisited and the rules for accepting this award are: 

List 5 things about yourself and pass the award onto 5 others. Ok you asked for it because you already know so much about me from my blog. I asked mister man to help me think of something but he was absolutely NO HELP! So here we go….

 

1)      Mister man likes to call me “picky but patient” because I’ll wait for something I want for like forever! Dining room chairs I waited 20 years…seriously, I couldn’t find what I really liked. I just know when something is right when I see it and I don’t mind waiting no matter how long.

2)      I’m a vault when it comes to secrets. You tell me something and it’s a secret I won’t mutter a word to a soul.

3)      I love to teach others about my work and textiles so if you’re up for learning I’m here.

4)      I drive a truck and his name is Bubba and it’s a standard. Driving bores me so I need something that makes me work. Living in the country a truck is invaluable for hauling stuff around our property and it comes in very handy at antique shows too.

5)      I pretty much have the luxury of not knowing what day of the week it is or the time. I sleep when tired, eat when hungry and work pretty much when I’m not hiking with Dylan dog. Half the time I don’t know what day of the week it is but it really doesn’t matter!

So I need to pass this wonderful award along to five people and while everyone is deserving I can only pick five so they are:

Karin at la Pouyette

Tina at The Enchanted Home

Andie at Divine Theatre

Sharon at fashion-isha

Desiree at Decor de Provence

Thankfully I don’t have to think of more things to bore you with about myself I just have to pass this award along to five lucky and very deserving people. This lovely award came to me from Allumer Decor

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up-and-coming bloggers.

Liebster is a German word meaning "dear, or valued, from the verb -lieber-to love".

To keep this award going, each recipient must recognize five deserving blogs who have less than two-hundred followers.

here are the rules . .
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog.
2. Choose five new blogs to nominate and let them know by leaving a comment.
3. Request that the chosen blogs pass the Award on to their favorite five.

4. Copy and paste the award on your blog post.

So my picks for this award goes to:

Elizabeth at Pinecones and Acorn
John at Wilson Kelsey Design
Amy at Amy Howard Daily

Keri at Ivy Clad

Kristi at Simple Everyday Glamour

And there we have it ten lucky award recipients and I hope when you have time you'll stop over and give all of these beautiful blogs a look see because I know you'll just love them!

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukah Everyone!

From our home to yours, wishing each and every one of you my friends a very

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukah!  

I hope your Holiday Season is Bright!

With Much Love!

Rick, Debra & Dylan Dog

There's a kind of hush.....

Atlanta Home & Lifestyles

The holiday season is fully upon us and I know most of you have already finished decorating for the season. Because mister man and I use fresh greens everywhere in a home that has a wood stove and fireplace going they can really dry the air out. Because of that we like to decorate a week before Christmas insuring everything stays fresh and green.

Suzanne Kasler

While I like the look of big splashes of Christmas everywhere time is usually a game changer for us to keep things simple and low key.

Southern Accents, 2004

(Decorated with winterberry, greens and tiny boxwood on the mantle)

To bring the simple beauty of the outdoors in….

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, 2010

(A Charlie Brown tree needs love too!)

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, 2011

(What could be simpler then two evergreens in urns!)

When you’re surrounded by a forest as far as the eye can see that’s easier to do.

Southern Accents, 2004

(Fresh winterberry and branches, we have those!)

It’s a good thing too since the place we usually go cut our tree down has only replanted their fields and the trees won’t be ready for at least a decade. So Mister Man came up with the idea to go into our forest and see what we could find.

My image

I was a little skeptical but along the way we found pinecones, winterberry and branches to decorate. And then we found him the perfect little tree hidden among some great pines.

My image

My image

We brought our tree home and planted him up in an antique urn. The burlap will keep his dirt in place so after Christmas we can take our little tree back outside and put him back in the ground.

Southern Accents, 2002

A quick trip to the grocery netted us with cranberries and kumquats, the garden store for paper whites, Amaryllis flowers and small Cypress trees.

Mister man got thirsty!

After all our decorating and running about was done Mister Man decide it was time for a little eggnog….laced of course!

My image

I even netted these funky green flowers from the grocery store, they look just like moss in flower form. I have no idea what these guys are called but love them! Yes they are intensely green.

So what’s your personal style full blown decorating or natures offering?

Splash of color...Need your opinion

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles 2010

Can we talk? Lately I’ve seen rooms in magazines that have a simple pop of color, a pop of color that says look at me! Mainly a rustic orange/tomato a color I happen to love and seems to be a simpler, fresher version of red.

Carrier and Company

It’s used on everything from drapes, lampshades, wall hangings to upholstery.

Carrier and Company

The bright vibrant color is tempered by cooler more neutral colors……

Elle Decor

Giving a room a focal point to draw the eye in and add a bit of warmth.

Traditional Home

Veranda

Veranda

But as you can see it can still be a bit of a bold color

Traditional Home

But warms a room up so much

Atlanta Lifestyles & Homes

Veranda

My image

Being a textile dealer I get rolls of fabrics shipped to me to use in my business. So when I received this roll of rustic orange silk velvet I had no idea what I was going to use it on since antique textiles don’t come in this color. Then it happened, a yard sale beckoned me and a chair was purchased for the sum of $25 but with the most God awful 1940’s flowered fabric so an idea struck me……

My image

Cover the chair in the tomato red silk velvet!  (Please ignore the sage green wall color because that color is going in January and will be replaced with a lovely gray.) The color was a bit bold and really had a POW factor so I tried to tame the color a bit with an antique tapestry pillow. But I don’t know while beautiful the chair is sort of screaming at me. So what do you think keep it or recover it?  

Through the years.....it's somebody's birthday!

Mister man at first meeting with Dylan

Nope not mister man’s birthday it’s Dylan’s and he’s five years young! This picture is from our first meeting with Dylan at six weeks of age. We had decided that since I was going to be the main caregiver we would let the puppy do the choosing rather than us. Dylan was all over me in a nanosecond and it’s been love ever since.

We call this picture "the magic of Dylan"

Dylan dog at eight weeks old his first week at his new home in February 2006.

awkward stage at 4 months

Never in our wildest imaginations did we think Dylan would grow so fast and go through an awkward stage like children do. This is pretty much close to the last time we were able to pick him up and carry him about.

Dylan proved to be a fast learner but was also full of high jinx. Believe it or not but he never once chewed shoes, he never chewed anything in our home except his toys. Here he was simply being silly and had swiped his Dad’s shoe while mister man was putting on the other.

first swim

Dylan’s first time out swimming his first summer and while he did well he isn’t much of a swimmer he prefers to wade out into the deep water and then proceed to drink it.

prizefighter puppy

Like children you always have to watch what goes into a puppy’s mouth. Mister man was out in the yard walking Dylan when a large bumblebee came along and Dylan sucked it up! Dylan didn’t really suffer any ill effects except his face and head swelled up making him look like a puppy prizefighter.

Dylan has always been heavily into sports, loves to go snow shoeing with his Dad.

And loves to hike with his Mom.

Dylan's turned out to be a great addition to our family. One of the best things I love about Goldens is no matter what they’re doing life is always a party.

Happy Birthday Dylan dog!