I wish you each a new year brimming full of love, health, prosperity and of course, joy!
See you all in 2008 and thanks for a wonderful 2007.
Fireworks via Simply Photo
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
We’re stuck in the airport, with chaos reigning at air traffic control in New York, but here in the Raleigh Durham airport, folks are friendly, the husband bought me peanut m&ms AND a decaf coffee. So I’m feeling pretty thankful for a lovely holiday, lots of memories (who knew my mother was a bocce master???) and amazing meals.
My lovely mother in law sent me the photo above (from Better Homes and Gardens website) thinking that I would like it and she was right! I love the light, the tray table coffee table and the color of the wall above the mantel.
I’m finally catching up on almost a month of blog reading (I’ve missed everyone!) and thought I’d share a few photos from Christmas.
This is a snap of our stockings (made from a vintage quilt by my mom (the original Martha)). This is in the kitchen (explaining the pans in the top of the shot). The licencse plates are our old Vermont plates, the cow has been in Nova kitchens since I can remember and the two faux orange plants are from Pottery Barn and are left over from our wedding decorations.
A shot of the tree!
And, finally, the DONUT MAKER (we found it in the SkyMall Magazine) we gave my father. Every year in Vermont we used to go to the Dummerston Apple Pie Festival and sneak into the basement to get hot, freshly made donuts. We hoped this contraption would give us a memory or two of our old hijinks. It certanily wasn’t like the pie festival or like going to Donut Planet or the drive in at Dunkin’ Donuts, but it sure was fun.
Vintage Brass Stencils from the 1890s found on ebay — I love how graphic they are (I would hang the last in my kitchen). Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!
I just got an email that this lovely mantel scape is on sale for $179 at Room Service Home. Still a lot of money, yes, but, given that you’re getting 13 pieces, its roughly $13 a piece, which isn’t so bad for this type of decoration. Every year I see these in New York… ABC Home always has amazing (and amazingly expensive) versions on display. I’ve yet to actually buy them (the aforementioned storage issues) but can always dream. At a minimum, they are lovely to look at.
I went to my favorite vintage shop yesterday and found these German wooden “mosaic” blocks, colored on each side with different triangles of color. Making different patterns with them has proven addictive! They seem to be some sort of vintage educational toy, but, I think they are a nice way to jump start creativity.
I love this mantle from Caroline over at My Pocket — so elegant. This is also her Christmas tree with some lovely ornaments– great idea! Check out her blog for gorgeous photography and inspiration.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is making surprise balls (of crepe paper) full of treats, little gifts and all sorts of fun. I made quite a few this weekend and posted a couple on sale at my Etsy shop for $8.50. The one with the fake teeth and wind-up swimmer is my favorite.
I got a nice email from the folks over at objects de carte announcing some new cards and I especially liked these cocktail Sudoku cards. It’s friday and I’m ready for the weekend!
I thought this star card was graphic and fun, a nice departure from the normal holiday cards.
Have a good weekend, Abbey
….but instead I’m looking at vintage dollhouses on ebay (this is genius at work, people!). I sort of want to live in this house (all the ivy and lattice work?) Maybe not the brick….
And I’m lusting after these tins… which remind me of the ocean and our trip to cape code this summer (which is where I’d like to be right now).
Finally, I forgot to share that these sweet raindeer that were a recent ebay purchase:
Okay, back to the books.
(Happy Friday!)
Christmas in New York City is so magical and part of that magic is in the amazing window displays from the stores that line Fifth Avenue. 1stdibs, online aggegator of some pretty spectactular decorative objects and furniture from dealers, took a stroll down Fifth and documented the highlights of this year’s windows in a photo tour. I particularly love the ocean-themed windows at Bergdorf Goodman (below).
Photo: 1stdibs.com
A tiny bit of beauty for your Wednesday morning. My corner grocery also sells flowers, and last Friday they had peonies! In December! I fell a little bit more in love with this city on the spot. I love peonies — we had bushes of them in front of our house in Vermont and I used to pick off the petals and throw them in the air like confetti when I was a kid. I carried peonies in my wedding bouquet, too.
I’ve blogged Karl Johnson’s silhouettes here and just got notified that Daily Candy has a 25% off coupon on his custom ones — just send him a snapshot and volia! This seems like a really reasonable price to me and just think of the cute pets, favorite objects, homes you could have done for a friend, or for yourself. (enter DCDEAL on check out).
(Last post today, I promise — yes, I’m procrastinating on major school work — paper to go write!)
Last weekend we decorated the house — we didn’t get a tree because we’re leaving in a week (!!) to visit with family but still wanted to do something festive. It was Tim’s idea to use the garland, which is decorative without being overwhelming. Note that he even hung some over the window! He took this photo of me, and what’s funny is that I think I’m blogging in it. Note also the sorry state of our fireplace — stacked with magazines, not wood (sigh!).
My favorite part of our apartment is our double mantel. We have high ceilings and lots of white walls and decided to really make the fireplace and mantels the focus of the room. On the upper level is a frame from Shanghai Tang, the fish print is from ebay long ago, the tiny brown is a snap of me and my mom, the still life with the pitcher of flowers I painted when I was 11 and have hung in every place I’ve ever lived. On the lower level is a porcelain pineapple bought up the street, some tiny horses from a Paris flea market, a wedding photo, a barometer (my wedding gift to Tim), mini Christmas trees and a family of silver pheasants (also from a Paris flea market).
I was inspired by this Pottery Barn magnolia faux garland early in the season (Tim refused to buy it citing our complete lack of storage space) and think we ended up very close to this effect.
I posted here about my long hunt for necklace stands and how suddenly there are lots to choose from. I ordered there two from Urban Outfitters and was disapointed in the first — it was really too short to hold my long necklaces and just ended up looking messy. But I feel in love with the second, pictured below, it was just right!
Key hooks ($9.50)
Cute as a button ladybug band-aids ($ 8.50)
