Lovely!

I'm wrestling with just that issue -- Things look so empty without all of the Christmas stuff up. But I re-arranged my pretties to new spots and am enjoying them all with fresh eyes. Except for my mantle of course, which is still just too empty...

You sure have a nice, deep mantle! I think the plate display looks really nice. My mantle looked a bit empty after I took down Christmas decorations, but I'm so busy w/two little kids that I stopped noticing within a couple days ;-)

Simply lovely and inspirational. Thanks for sharing you home with us. I always look forward to seeing your latest arrangements.

You have amazing drawers! LOL. Another fab mantle.

I always love your arrangements.

If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the darling faux deer head?

Like CB, I think you have great drawers. I only wish I had more "drawers" like yours to go through that would produce something I could actually work with. LOL

My home seems a bit bare sans Christmas decs. I think I might just take another look at what I have stowed away with an eye toward repurposing and creating something different to cure that sparse look we have going on at the moment.

I think you have great vision as well. I think alot of us have a drawer or two with some things like you've used, yet lack the vision of what those items could look like put together properly.

Your mantle as well as the rest of your home is just beautiful. I always love your decor posts. I know in advance that when I open your threads, I will love what you have done. So inspiring and not at all "cookie cutter".

Happy New Year!

Thank-you, ladies,

You know, when I took that deer head down yesterday, I had NO idea what I was going to do. Other than darken the deer head with an antiquing glaze, which I did.

Now it will look much more like the Front Gate photo, which is where I got it in 2008, artlover, JUST before Christmas on sale for $40. It arrived soon after, and I just packed it away til this past Christmas.

This old house doesn't have the storage that a new one likely would, so I do stash things everywhere. I started to root through 'my drawers', and saw the old blue things, and wanted to try the heron watercolor above the mantle, because I have put an old Craigslist mirror over my Empire dresser in the LR, and I couldn't have two mirrors side by side. I stripped the 'lip' off a remnant of blue gray lip cord that I had on hand, and that is the faux hanger for the heron, as I needed something above it.

So look everywhere, and I bet most of you have collections of things you like, or did years ago. These blue pieces are in favor with me again, after many years packed away. Just changing the room they were in did it. No money spent, and you won't have to leave the house!

but still, you have better junk in your trunk! LOL you have been collecting with expertise for awhile. Some of us were awash with geese in the 80s.

Love the blue! What a wonderful collection! And great tip to move things around and dig through those drawers. I was getting really tired of a pie safe I had downstairs so had DH and DS move it up to the guest room. Love it in there and know I will love it even more when I paint it a soft white to match the bed.

On the subject of holiday decor and looking bare afterwards, I don't know that losing all the greenery is that necessary. I took down the lighted garland on mine and the wreath on the mirror, then replaced it with two small artificial potted pine trees, a small spray of greenery/pinecones with a candle in the middle and two snowmen with green hats/scarves on each side of the greenery/candle which is in the middle of the mantel. I also still have my white/blue/green snowmen pillows in the guest room and a frosted snowman on the side table in that room. Much less decor and not christmasy but still wintery. Just don't go outside - still in the 60s-70s in So.Cal. and only a chance of showers in the forecast.

Lovely, per usual. Your style is much like a favorite syndicated decor writer and book author, Mary Carol Garriaty, owner of(is it?) Nell Hill. Our local paper carries her and I've cut out several of her pics as inspiration, and own two of her books.

My3dogs....May I say I've seen your home in many posts new and old, and you have the gift! Your home sings to me, so warm, gorgeous, creative, everything from your paint colors to your furniture to your handmade window treatments. Words cannot describe how much I love your taste. I remember you have a charming office/sewing room painted in Honeymoon and the color looks great. I had a tale of woe about our Honeymoon turning apricot and we had to repaint with Decatur Buff (which looks fabulous). Anyway, I'm gushing but I just had to tell you how much I admire your homey home and your darling spaniels. We have a much loved and spoiled Cavalier. I have collected some swell antiques and knick-knacks after being married for 38 years and I only wish I had the knack for displaying it as well as you do. OK, nuff said, you get the picture!

Well said, Begoniagirl...
Love the blue transferware on the mantle!!

The mantle is beautiful, the abundance of blue and white really makes a statement.

Always warm and lovely!

Love the rug, love your colors, love your mantle! I could never pull something like that off, even if I had things tucked away in drawers. Like everyone says..you have a gift!

The blue square candles are a NICE touch! Love the bird print, the framing and matting looks very up scale, lucious! As others have said....you've got "nice" things to do a mantle scape with....but the talent to arrange it!!!

Beautiful!
Bonnie

cooperbailey, believe me, just like everyone else, I went through a mauve and country blue period back in the 80s. I only had one print that had a goose in it, though, and it was behind a bathroom door!

Leah - I love Nell Hill when I see her things. I am very flattered that you thought of her when you saw my pic.

begoniagirl, Wow! Thanks very much for those kind words. It shows that those of us with smaller homes can have as much fun with them as people with large beautiful ones. My two boys got in the act this AM when I took a quick pic of two lager Chinese jars that I got at Home Good last night! They may not stay where they are shown, to the left of my office door, but I hate to return them as they were only $14.99 and $19.99.

{{!gwi}}

Beautiful, as always, M3D! I'm loving blue & white for perking up our after-Christmas rooms. Your new Chinese jars do a wonderful job of balancing the blue on the other side of your room there. Please keep them. As for your jewel box of a home reminding us of Nell Hill, I totally agree. You have a great talent for decorating. And while your vignettes and displays may sometimes include many pieces, you have the eye for never overdoing them. They always look like perfection. BTW, when I refer to your lovely home as a jewel box, I don't mean it's small, only that it seems to be filled with the most amazing treasures. Everywhere I look, I see beautiful things . . . including your sweet boys, there.
Lynn

Beautiful, as always and I love the blue!!! Where did you find that gorgeous Blue Heron pic? Sorry if you've already mentioned, I didn't read all the posts. If you EVER want to sell it, please let me know!!! Give those precious pups a hug for me!

Kat :)

lesmis, that is a signed, numbered, print by artist Art LaMay. He has done a lot of blue heron paintings. If you Google him, you'll find it and others. I found some and placed a link below. What is great about mine, which I bought locally here in Maine, is the frame and 4 beautiful textured cream colored mats. I tried to take a closer pic to show you, but the texture of the mats doesn't show well. I have herons come to the river behind my house, so the print is meaningful to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: See his prints here

My3dogs, thanks SO much for posting another close-up pic!!! It's just lovely and we also have lots of herons along the creek in our backyard. I will go look at his work, thank you for the link! I just love how yours is framed and matted, and that caught my eye nearly as much as the painting itself! Thanks again for all of the info!

Kat :)

Just beautiful my3dogs!

My SIL has blue & white china on her mantle. I suppose I could use my blue & white china in my family room because I have touches of blue in there already - even in my rug and in the over-the-mantle painting. However, with the book cases on either side of the mantle, I'm afraid it would be too cluttered looking. Currently, the blue & white is on my living room shelves, where I have no other blue & white. lol It looks out-of-place IMO.

My mantle looks so drab any other time of the year other than Christmas. You have inspired me to do something about it, but I don't know what. :)

I love it, so fresh looking to brighten up
these winter days. I love Blue and White
and collect Old Chelsea, English dishes.
You have flair and I love the print too!

Lovely. You do have the gift. I could have those exact items and probably couldn't put them together like that. Art La May is my neighbor's brother- in -law.

my3dogs - I don't get here nearly as often as I did when we were building, but it's always a treat when I come upon one of your posts.

I live in your general area, and if you ever think of offering a class/course on home decorating, I would be the first to sign up!

I haven't been back to this post... Wow - to have that wonderful artist as a relative. Do you ever see him visit?

amck - I read your post to my mother. The funny thing is that I have a sister who works in a high end furniture store (no family discount) and she, to put it mildly, doesn't care for my style. But she is starting to come around a bit, having admired some of my CL finds. In fact, begging me for a cane back chair that I eventually gave her. :-)

Nope, never did see him. He lives in FL so they always went there. I love his pictures of birds called The "girls"and the "boys"

My neighbor didn't have many of his pieces, said she couldn't afford them. Her next door neighbor bought originals though.

3d,
I noticed the sconces changed too. Did you do that yourself???? If so, I'm jealous. You got all the skills! Mantle decorating! Valence making! and now electrical too! My electrical skills are limited to changing light bulbs and plugging in small appliances.

bbstx,

Those brass sconces are just candles, not wired. But I do make my own lamps from candlesticks or whatever I want, It's SO easy! I think I posted some instructions here once for someone who wanted to make some like I had done from barley twist candlesticks that I got on eBay.

In my 'youth', I managed a hardware store, and it was GREAT to learn so much about things that I'd need to do in my future home. It was also fun to have a male customer come in, look at me and ask if there was 'a man' who could help him. I'd blow him away with my knowledge, and many found that I knew more than them, and left a bit wiser...

I love hardware stores and knowledgeable women!

I have considered buying a very cheap lamp at a thrift store and rewiring it, just so I can learn to rewire a lamp. I keep thinking, "how hard could it be?" Of course, that is what I thought when I decided to try to color my own hair. I found out...then had to pay to have it fixed!