My Present to You

There is no denying I have had a b*tch of a year.  Glad to see it coming to an end. But in the darkness there has been light.   I want to thank some wonderful people who gave me words of encouragement, my Mom, my sweet Julia, my friends and my blog readers who are so kind. I found this in a small newspaper a few years ago and it hangs on my fridge.  On tough days I read this to remind me.  This is my Christmas gift for all of you.

1.  At least 2 people in the world love you so much they would die for you.

2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.

3.  A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you

4. Every night someone thinks about you before they go to sleep.

5. You mean the world to someone.

6. If not for you someone may not be living.

7. You are special and unique.

8. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good can still come from it.

9.When you think the world has turned it's back on you, take a look, you most likely turned your back on the world.

10. Someone you don't even know exists loves you.

11. Always remember the compliments you receive, forget the rude remarks.

12. Always tell someone how you feel about them.

13. If you have a great friend let them know they are great.

Just because  a blog needs  a picture, here is my cherub I got from Wellington years ago after a long health issue as a treat to myself for making it through.  Here he is holding my favourite crown pin:

And here he is for Christmas with a vintage mercury glass ornament in the snow:

Thank you  to all who have supported me and encouraged me, and even just got me to laugh on a tough day.  Light is appearing and everything is getting better than I could have imagined.  Tomorrow Julia and I travel for Christmas in Vegas. I am so excited.

Merry Christmas,

Patricia  :)

A present to me

Thank you for all the kind comments my readers are leaving me. The support means a lot to me. 

Does anyone else have this problem? - At Christmas I adore it all then..... it starts to feel too cluttered. I am starting to crave empty and less. I guess this happens so I'm ok when I pack all my nice things away.  Time away will help, I will come home and enjoy everything then family tradition is put it all away on New Years day. 

I was shopping at HomeSense on Friday and saw a neat little cabinet.  I walked by it a few times, checked the sale price then went home.  Then, that's all I could think about.  That's my sign that it's a good buy.  I went back on Saturday and bought it (wrong choice, busy day, traffic galore and then me parking in front of the store on a busy street to load it in the car).  I lugged it out of my car and up 14 stairs myself just so I could set it up.

Up the stairs there is a small space that was not being used effectively.  I like pretty when I turn a corner.  My first inclination was to put it somewhere where I could see it all the time but it's better to have it in an unexpected place. 

I still have to paint this hallway and this is prompting me to get it going. 

The reason this cabinet was on sale is that the glass in the doors was broken.  I actually don't mind.  My first thought was to do what Linda at www.PaintedWhyte.blogspot.com did with her tv cabinet:

I love the chicken wire on the doors.  You have to see what this looked like originally:  http://paintedwhyte.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-am-so-sick-of-being-so-sick.html.  She did an amazing job with something that most people would pass on.
Linda is so kind she offered me some the chicken wire - I'm thinking about it. 

Right now I like the open doors because they are showing some of my favourite things:

my Rachel Books,

a beautiful antique shaving cup that I found in an antique store - can you imagine a man using this to shave??  I can't,

my Domino book and favourite white pears.  Have you read this book?  It's wonderful as was the magazine which unfortunately went down with all the other magazine deaths in 2008.

On top I put some more treasures.  My white vintage mirror tray was found in an antique shop in a teeny weeny town.  I was attending a terribly boring party and I ran out for a few moments.  No one even noticed I was gone.  I painted it cream and it shows up everywhere - it's just perfect.



In my frame is a Paris composition from the scrapbooking portion of Michael's last year.

A mirror box works everywhere.

I love this little Christmas present to myself.  I don't care that my back hurts from lugging it alone, it's a bit of beauty.

Until next time,

Patricia

Feather Tree

I'm sorry, I haven't written in so long.  I have had a bit of the Christmas blahs - very unlike me, but now we have plans and I feel a lot better.  Let me explain, it's just my daughter and myself for Christmas this year and I knew we needed to do something, so it's unorthodox, but we are going to Vegas.  I have never been and I have no luck for gambling but we want to go to Cirque du Soleil Love (I have always loved the Beatles - Paul.... sigh, and my daughter is going through a Beatles phase), my daughter adores The Lion King, and then pools and Target ( Whee!!) will help fill our time.

Every year I bring out my favourite feather tree.  About 10 years ago I saw my first tree in Country Living.  When I looked them up online they were expensive so I bided my time and waited.  I found one finally at Superstore at an after easter sale for the grand total of $3.00!!

It has a horrendous bright bottom and ugly fake green grass but it was the little pink fluffy branches that made me think there was potentional there. I put it in a mercury glass vase this year and then covered that with a fluffy feather boa.

About 10 years ago I went into a thrift store and found these:

Vintage ornaments that must be mercury glass.  They have a bit of an aqua tint, and reminded me of this picture from Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting book.

I lusted after all this mercury glass and so when I found mine I was thrilled.  I strung then with white ribbon and hung them on my feather tree with bit's of vintage chandelier crystal's that I had hanging around.

I love these little ornaments so much I pack them myself when I move and carry them in my car -these and my jewelry come with me.  I only paid about $4.00 for them but they are worth so much for me.

I get some flak for this tree.  No one else likes it that much but it's my favourite part of the Christmas decor.

Until next time,

Patricia

I can't stop

I can't stop thinking about this:  http://joepurdy.tumblr.com/post/450486854/joe-purdy-covers-rem-for-the-voice-project .  Isn't is amazing that he taught them this song?  Women never fail to amaze me with their limitless strength.

 I adore Joe Purdy (much to my teens distress) and I play him every day.  I admire him because when he ccouldn't get a record contract he just started his own website and sold his own music.  I saw an interview with him where he said the only difference is he doesn't have a huge house now.

I never get tired of his songs on my ipod.  There are a lot of special ones to me but "Miss Me" live at the Hotel Cafe and "He Said She Said" are on constant play. 

If you follow up and love this song here is Joe singing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kapKiY4hxDQ

Until next time,
Patricia

Christmas White

I put the Christmas tree up.  It's white and I fill it with mercury glass ornaments that I got from a grocery store.  Here in Canada, Superstore has some fantastic home decor items and they also have Joe fresh clothes so shopping for groceries is about more than just groceries.

As I mentioned previously the tree is white. I took the bottom support rails off so that I can put it in an urn. 

Here it is looking spindly and awful, but if you look at the top of the urn you may be able to see bags sticking out.  This is a perfect deep urn, so I place the pole in and then add bags of sand, rocks, anything to weight it. Pack it in tight or else it will go over.  I know this from experience.  I put it in a beautiful antique urn went out for dinner and came home to mercury glass death.  I learned the hard way.

To cover the bags I use a feather boa.  I love feathers at Christmas, it looks like snow and it adds a dimension to the tree that works.

I let it drape over the urn.

This is the whole tree finished.

My daughter put a toy on top because we used to put a toy on the top when she was little.  

When I had a mantle I used to drape it in feathers and add mercury glass holders and balls.  It was beautiful.

I actually made the mirror.  One year my Mom and I were obsessed with Trumeau mirrors so I made 2 of them, one for her, one for me.  Not a difficult job.  Just a board, fancy trim, a piece of mirror, and I used anaglypta wallpaper on top and and  another piece of trim.  For a person that had never used a miter box it was a bit of a challenge but I got it done. I did a pale pink for me and a pale blue for her.

Getting it together is taking a while but I will post some more of my decor. 

until next time,

Patricia