Christmas Suitcase Becomes Winter Vignette

I envy all of you that have your Christmas decorations down already. Mine are coming down slowly as I pack things away and think about changing up my usual vignettes. I am also thinking about painting the living room before I drag everything back out. It was last painted 9 years ago, and I am ready for a change. Just thinking for right now...

In November I found a great little vintage suitcase at a local antique shop that I painted white inside and out. I was pleased with the way it turned out. Today I changed it up from a Christmas theme to a winter scene.

An oil lamp, lighted branches, vintage song book, pencil tree, skates, vintage fur baby booties, a vintage winter photograph, a bird in a crock and pinecones and grungy snowballs.

From another angle.

My mom.

I think this booties were mine.

Bird and skates.

I moved the suitcase to my entry bench. I think I'll try it there.



I hope you enjoyed my winter suitcase vignette!

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Pretty Lady Portrait Plates

I have been reading sooooo many decorating, crafts and DIY blogs this past month (and enjoying it).  I have been inspired!   I'm pretty sure I will be trying chalk paint in 2012, maybe beadboard paintable wallpaper, and scouring garage sales and consignment stores in the new year with a little more gusto.

This has been a real departure for me from my usual source for new decorating ideas, magazines.  I also used to be a faithful HGTV fan but programming changes at the network to an all contemporary, all the time format, and house staging and house hunting programming, none of which pertains to me, caused my viewing time to dwindle. 

I like my home to be filled with nostalgia, pretty fabrics, pretty flowers, pretty colors, my personality, and probably lots more stuff than most people care to own, let alone display.  I like my pretty things mixed up with distressed and a little shabby items for the contrast.

Imagine my delight when I read on Bab's Upstairs, Downstairs blog that the Polohouse blog would be featuring a "collections" link party on the first of January.  I hope I can hook up with other crazy people like me that love collecting stuff.

Here is another one of my favorite collections, lady portrait plates.  Someday I hope to have a very feminine bedroom decorated with my lady headvases, lady portraits, lady portrait plates, and lady figurines.

This one is marked made in Holland and looks like a royal commemorative plate.  1898 - 1938.

This one is a Royal Staffordshire.

This little one is marked "made in occupied Japan".

This Mona Lisa plate is marked Limoge and I just picked it up in December at a consignment shop for less than $10.

Unmarked except for a number, but very beautiful.  My favorite!

Also a Royal Staffordshire.

This is a Rosalinde pug portrait plate thrown in for a laugh or Candice Olson's "the unexpected."

I have two of these from Salem China, just slightly different.

And there they are, on display on my living room wall.  I seldom add to the collection.  I don't want it to get so large that it can't be displayed on one wall.  I prefer many smaller collections to a huge collection of one thing that fills shelves or even rooms. 

 Hope you enjoyed my lady portrait plate collection!

I Love Collecting...

If three of anything equals a collection, I have a lot of collections. 

Collecting is an adventure. On any given day, you never know what you will find.  My favorite finds are usually my least expensive ones.  When I find something rare or even semi-rare and get it for a song, I really, really LOVE it.  It's more memorable and much more enjoyable than paying a hefty price on ebay or at an antiques shop. 

Needless to say, everything I want can't always be found "for a song" at a garage sale or consignment store and plenty of times I have purchased "must have" items at full price on ebay or at antique shops.

One of my favorite collections contains both newer items and vintage items.  I love this collection because I love Otis Pete, our pug.  In June of 2004, we acquired the cutest little fawn pug you ever did see.  Now at 7 1/2 years old, he's a little gray, and not so cute, but soooooo loveable. 

Here he is as a puppy:

He is seven and a half years old now and not as cute but the BEST dog anyone could ask for.

In honor of Otis Pete (as my youngest daughter named him), I have acquired some pug memorabilia. 


A needlepoint pug on a cushion pillow.



A larger resin pug figurine my mom gave me.



Pug portrait plate.



Small ceramic group of three pugs.



Pug on left purchased on ebay.




A Th. Poncelet design tapestry pillow from England designer-cushions.com.



Two more ebay pug figurines.  The one on the left is marked made in England.



My big beautiful ebay ceramic vintage pug.

This collection will grow as I find just the right pug items to keep!





We Use an Outhouse Every Day

My second bathroom is 6' 8" x 5".  Very small.  After you squeeze in a toilet, a small vanity and a neo-angle shower stall, it becomes downright miniscule.

How do you decorate such a small space?  Well I thought about how the bathroom was about the size of a an outhouse, and I got my inspiration. 

First up - take a trip out to hunting shack country to snap a few black and white photos of real live outhouses.  Then - frame them in heavy black wood frames. 

Continue the outhouse effect - by adding a graniteware tub, "cabiny" signs, and a black distressed mirror.

(We actually bathe our dogs in that tub)

Add some outhouse humor.

And there you have it, my outhouse..in town.