Wooderlander, thank you. That is a very nice compliment. Kmcg85, thanks for the suggestion. As I explore paint colors I'll check those out. Parma, yes, that's probably a good idea! I reupholstered the sofa, the 2 ivory chairs, the seats of the 4 dining chairs & the 2 little striped chairs in the red room all at the same time about a year & a half ago. Had the drapes installed a year ago & the tablecloth made 6 months ago. Bought the rugs shortly after sofa was done. So, maybe I should take a breather from textiles for a while! Of course I've also had almost every room in the house painted at least once in the 2 yrs. & 5 mo. we've been here (this will be the third color for the hall!) I pay people to paint for me so it's not the ultra-cheap fix that it is for DIYers! I'm so ready to see that hall change (again) though! At least the jam color taught me that I like a deeper hue there. It does have more impact than the Linen White did. Anyway...I could ramble on for days, sorry! Thanks for the suggestions. Jen, thanks! I agree, Squirrel is quite a treasure.

Things are coming along. I think you have to choose between the scrolly lamp and the candlestick trio, as one side needs something more weighty. Personally, I would keep the candlesticks (as they could be used in many ways) and find a lamp with more weight. The little wall hutch looks very nice, and the whole space is feeling warm and welcoming. If you have a Hobby Lobby in your area, check for their weekly sales on frames, etc. If you can get a standard size frame (a simple black one would work), one size up from the current art piece, you can have a mat cut for almost nothing, in your choice of the instock matting colors. I certainly understand the waiting for funds thing, but just wanted to give you a heads-up on a relatively inexpensive alternative. The frame you have now seems very nice -consider having a piece of mirror cut for it and using it either horizontally or vertically. As for a name for the pheasant, what was your granny's name? Perhaps you can adapt that in some way?

A&AE, I have been following this discussion with great interest, because I am going to be decorating with some pieces in the future that are "Japonisme," which is Chinoiserie's cousin, lol! My mom lived in Japan for a year back in the mid 50's and brought back a ton of stuff. Some of it was made more for European tastes. Also, she lived in SF for three years after that and bought a lot of Japanese influenced things to go with what she brought back. I have inherited it all now. So I tend to love Asian influenced things but also I have a style that can be described as "sentimental" or as I call it, "cozy granny" because most of the stuff I like hasn't been in style since granny's day or even great great grandma. I've always liked antiques, but at my age, things that are considered antiques today are the MCM stuff I grew up with. When I was a kid back then, that was NOT the definition of antique! I like stuff from the late 1800's through Art Deco. I like Victorian, but couldn't live with most of it. Arts and crafts is one of my favorite styles and that definitely had an Asian influence. I don't know if Chinoiserie has ever been extremely popular, but right now I am up against a couple of trends which I think are also influencing how a younger generation might view Chinoiserie. One is gender, because my SO for whatever reason, is very strongly against floral things. My dad didn't like floral things all that much either, but he often just acquiesced to my mom and that was fairly typical I think of male/female relationships in the last century and maybe even the one before that. The home was the typical purvey of the "woman of the house" and Chinoiserie was popular with them. I think there is a great deal of sexism in considering certain colors and motif's "feminine" but it's out there and prevalent so there you go. My SO certainly suffers from that cultural conditioning. So now that men are taking a more active role in home-making (at least some men, my SO included) and marital relations are looked at more as a partnership, there's a lot more influence of taste that might be considered "masculine" in the home, from color palettes to art and furniture styles, like the "industrial" trend. Not to say that men don't like florals and women don't like gears, but I know in my decorating dilemmas, it is often gears vs flowers and we tend to compromise on styles and designs that are less extreme--abstracts, geometric stuff, etc. I'm not sure what will bring about a revival of the taste for Chinoiserie or even Victorian or antique anything. Folks are more transient nowdays and aren't as inclined to devote themselves to a set aesthetic in their homes. They want a flexible look. So I think individual pieces of Chinoiserie will always be popular, like art, dishes, fabrics and accent furniture. I think the total look will remain popular with only a few folks who can afford it. Because of the transience, I am afraid the days of those gorgeous Chinoiserie influence wallpapers are gone forever, at least in big common spaces in homes. While I love the look, even I myself would not go for it, because I would want to be able to more easily change out the look of a room from season to season or year to year. But I have little vignettes of Japonisme all around my current home. When I have some time, I may post some of them. Here's a quickie, just something I totally threw together. The framed pictures are very old calendar pics that my mom had from back in the 50's in SF. They are just there right now to fill up the space and hide the very ugly white back of the shelving units. They will go on the wall eventually, and my mom's collection of Japanese dolls will go in the unit when I get it properly set up and the glass doors installed.

Love reading your memories. I live on the street I grew up on. There were many large families. We had 7 kids, Wilson's next door had 10, Chauvin's and Schiller's had more than 10 kids each. Never lacking friends or someone to play with in my neighbourhood. We had the best hide and seek games. IDA drug store on the corner that carried lots of penny candy and roasted nuts and ice cream that came in cardboard type rolls. If you had a dime to spend you could fill up a small brown paper sack full of candy. Mr. Coyle was a jeweler, I used to think his daughter Marlene was a princess because she was so pretty. Mr. Sweet across the street would call me Anna Maria All Spaghetti. My Aunt and Uncle lived across the street, The Tompkins lived on the corner and they had a pool. Mr. Tompkins was a dry clearer and Mrs. Tompkins sold Tupperware and I remember their basement was filled with the colourful clear plastic bowls. McKinnon's lived directly across the street, Mrs. McKinnon always chastised us for sitting on the front porch because we would get piles haha. I never knew what that meant. I remember on the dining room table there was a shot glass for each family member with their daily vitamins and cod liver oil balls. Mr. Sweet used to make us fried balogna. Mr Peck used to whistle for his kids to come home, Wilson kids were hollered for by one of the older siblings starting from the oldest to the youngest. My Dad hollered mostly for my younger brother and I. I could hear him blocks away. Anne, Paul SUPPER! Kempson's lived across the street. Ma Kempson would always offer me a banana. She was a big woman who gave wonderful hugs. Bob was always working on cars. One son had been in jail so wasn't really talked about. Critchlow's also lived across the street, they didn't have kids but they had a big collie named King. Mr Critchlow was kind of scary but once I got older and got to know him he was a gentle soul. Mrs Critchlow used to give me a ride home from Brownie's when she would see me walking home. She just died a few years ago and was always a good friend. Mr Quenneville down the street would sit on the front porch in the morning and when he would see me walking down the street to go to work he would yell out "Anne, you're late, you are going to miss the bus" My best friends parents were my second families. Mr Moore would call me his adopted daughter, Mr. Drouillard would make us late night meals when he came home from work, he died when he was only 50, just a week after my Dad passed away. He told me I was going to be like my sisters and never get married. Yep, that came true. He used to reglue the soles on the bottom of my platform shoes in the 1970s. Mrs. Drouillard would play games with us, I still go with her daughter her Mom's house to play Canasta and she gives me jigsaw puzzles. She was a young Mother, just a couple of years older than my oldest sister. Her Father lived with them. He used to walk around the house and say Well, well, well. He didn't like many of Vickie's friends but he liked me. My other friend's Mother used to bake all the time and made the best butter tarts and pies, and ginger cookies. She was a good cook too and always invited me for holiday dinners or just any day dinner. Kathy, her Mom and I laughed a lot. Mrs. Wilson lost her husband when her 10th child was only 7 months old. She worked to provide for the family and little Mrs. Fields from the next street over became the Nanny and Housekeeper. We had one lady on the block who didn't like kids. She was always threatening to call the police when we played baseball on the empty lot or playing in the street. i remember all my neighbours fondly and was sad when most of them eventually moved away or died. There are only 2 of us now on the street who were here from the beginning. My closest friends to this day are the friends I grew up with, they are family.