More Decorated!

Preface:  I am going to the cabin and decorate a little for Christmas!  Crazy?  You betcha.  I can't wait.  I was planning on driving up for the day this Friday, but the forecast is for, are you ready...snow!  Not much, but the precipitation is going to be accompanied by temperatures dropping from 33F degrees to 19F by nightfall, making for what could be a rather exciting trip back down the canyon...and my snow tires are still in my backseat where they are staying until the old S.S. check arrives next Wednesday and I can go someplace and have my tires switched out.  So I'm staying put for now and will drive up toward the end of next week.  I've set aside some of my most rustic decorations and have one or two really fun surprises planned and will be blogging about all!

Picking up where I left off in my last post about my Christmas decorations here at the apartment, here are some shots of where my burgeoning supply of decor spilled over into the bedroom...

...the bedroom is the only room that has not escaped the ongoing "rage for white."  Some of the photos on the "white blogs" are so deliberately over-exposed you can't even see any detail.  Maybe that's the idea.

I made this arrangement in this pressed tin box last year hoping I might be able to sell it at a consignment shop in Nederland.  The shop specializes in clothing, so the proprietor had little interest or ability to showcase floral arrangements or any of the decor items I took in...everything was relegated to a high shelf in a back room.  Any customers who wandered back there rarely thought to look up at the shelf along the ceiling for product!  And if they did they only saw the underneath side!  At any rate, I retrieved this at the end of the season when it hadn't sold.  The little white birds and dangling amber jewels, purchased at Michael's I think, look right at home on top of the white chest of drawers along with the white cast iron candlesticks, the pierce-work lidded dish that's filled with dried herbs, the sea-shell sconce, and a shawl I've had for years that's there because the paint on the side of the chest of drawers needs retouching!  The two keys sticking up at right are actually hooks I found at Jo-Ann's last year.  They were in the sale section and were tacky chalky pink and blue but have been painted a lovely satin cream and are awaiting a final assignment. 

The tray of objets below was moved from the top of the chest of drawers, where it usually resides, to make room for the floral arrangement.  It is now on top of the steamer trunk with the addition of a couple of bark apples I found at some thrift shop, forgotten now, and some dark brown feathers, barely visible at lower right, purchased at Hobby Lobby...

Another floral arrangement I made last year that didn't sell at the consignment shop...

...is in behind the tray.  I love this basket with its metal feet and handle and beaded inset.  The arrangements are in small red and white pots so can be easily removed.  I probably will keep the basket no matter what I decide to do with the arrangements.  Right now, this looks tres romantique illuminated by the little lamp with the red shade!

With the goal of using every bit of Christmas decor I had stored, I made space on top of the steamer trunk for the smaller of the two trees I'd found out on the patio at the Boulder Goodwill...

I stuck some sprigs of longer-branched greenery into this one, something I wish I had done on the larger one in the living room since it gives these skinny trees a little more texture, and loaded on the remaining ornaments, icicles and a string of pearls.  I found a string of indoor lights after I had this tree dressed, but it has 100 bulbs and I think I'd have to take everything off and start over to use it on this tree.  It might be fun since I could try that decorator-recommended method of covering each branch starting at the trunk and working out.  I'm not sure how motivated I feel, but it is only December 5!

Here's a cute little arrangement, another one that didn't sell last year--good thing I can take rejection!--that I gave to another resident here in the apartment building.  She is a cancer survivor and wears pink all the time, so I was pleased she was happy to accept it...

I was so enamored of these little doll carriages many years ago when they were a hot item in all the craft stores and snapped this up when I found it at Goodwill.  It seemed to be calling out for a little-girl-pink color scheme.  I think I found all the elements at Michael's.

That does the bedroom.  

This is what I ended up putting out in the hallway...

...the lighting out here is horrific and the hallway narrow enough I couldn't get far enough back to get a good shot.  I created a high table by stacking a plant stand on a table.  I wanted it tall so I wouldn't have to cut off the brocade table cloth.  The over cloth is a silk drapery panel...

...I got both at Salvation Army for $1 each.  I guess I must have been thinking that if I had to face Pepto-Bismol-colored walls every time I leave my apartment, I might as well play into the color scheme.  I wonder who picked out this color?  The second floor is even worse.  It has a very gray-toned lavender paint that makes everyone look ill.

This is the wreath on the door...

This was fun since the plastic ginko-leaf wreath, that I snagged at Goodwill on a 50% off Saturday several weeks ago for $2.99 if I recall correctly, was not Christmasy to begin with...


...but got transformed with an infusion of pine sprigs from the two greenery picks I was able to afford at Hobby Lobby...have you checked out their prices?  Whooee!  Many of the things I have lusted for there recently in the way of garlands and wreaths, both fall and Christmas, are way in excess of $100.  I guess the Chinese are getting savvy.  Hopefully the people who are actually crafting the product are getting the lion's share of the money.  I digress.  

All of the ornaments except the butterflies came from the Salvation Army and I paid 25 cents each for those on a 50% off day...

  The butterflies were among my stored Christmas decor and I have no idea where I got them but I'm quite sure they were a thrift store find.

The "tree" on the table...

...is made of two tear-drop swags I got on sale at Michael's several weeks ago when their Christmas stuff was already being marked down 50%...


...I was having trouble finding any little trees at the time...the thrift stores hadn't put out their trees yet...so recalled this trick that I learned while working at Jo-Ann's in Scottsdale, Arizona, one Christmas season.

First you wire the two swags together...

...I highly recommend that you cut the loops first!  I cut mine afterward and ended up with only one "stem" to stick down into the pot...my usual monkey do, then monkey see...At any rate, you need to wire the swags together both top and bottom and hot glue the wire in place...

Here's the urn already prepped with floral foam (I like to build the foam up so it's above the container rim)...

 ...covered with green moss...

Blogger lesson...never take a single shot of anything!  This photo was so out of focus I had to play with the brightness and contrast and just pretend I meant it to look this way...

After I inserted the swags, stem side down into the moss covered foam, I beefed them up with some of the most inexpensive picks I could find at Michael's the same day...these were 99-cent picks so I got them for 45 cents each...

...then slathered on the icicles and some rather Japanesey looking pink and yellow jeweled picks I'd had for two years wondering what I was going to do with them...

I think they look like Geisha hair picks.  I lowered the little watercolor I had purchased earlier in the fall and topped it off with a crown I'd found at Goodwill here in Boulder...

...all part of my more is more decorating philosophy!  

Does this crown look a little too much like these old Standard Oil Crowns?



Photo courtesy of Primarily Petrolian

Also seen here, which are a fond memory from my Midwestern childhood (Can still hear my Dad saying, "Give me a couple of bucks of regular.")!...


Photo courtesy of Shorpy Historical Photos
 
Oh, did I say I was having fun?  All for now.  I have a few more things in the works.  I may still be doing this on Christmas eve.  It wouldn't be the first time!  Teddee

Signs of Spring

I'm letting my hair grow, but went to Boulder today for a hair cut.  Only another woman would understand.  My last hair cut was before Christmas and I've been coping by wearing my beret.  Here is my goal.  The hair style only, the rest is well out of reach.  Sorry, I failed to note the source for this photo when I printed it off for my hairdresser.

I have been wearing my hair very short for some time.  The last several years I worked I found I could sleep an hour later if I could just shampoo and go, but depending on who was cutting my hair and how much visiting we did during the process I sometimes looked as if I were having a gender identity crisis.  So I'm ready for a change.  My current hairdresser says it should be this length by the end of summer.  If you live in the Boulder area or visit here and need a really great cut, make an appointment with Cathy Bentley at Rumours Hair Studio 303-444-7797.

Coming home, I spotted some university students who had dragged their chairs out on the roof of their house on Arapaho and looked as if they were looking forward to a little TGIF in the 60F-degree afternoon.  Boy, that brought back memories of campus in spring.

Yesterday it was warm enough here in the mountains that I did dishes on the deck.

Black dog, who preferred lounging in the snow, was keeping me company.  I wonder if he might be part Spitz.  I'm calling him Macho Macho.  He has way too much testosterone.  Perhaps if I found out his real name he might lose some of the attitude.

I really look forward to being able to do dishes and shampoo outside when the weather warms up.  It's like having another room.  Lots of counter space...

Rumours is just around the corner from Salvation Army so after my hair cut I had to stop in to see what was new.  Someone or some place very exotic must have donated some things.  I loved this French Empire-looking table or stool with its Egyptian influence. One of the stretchers had come loose and there was some damage to the wood, but it could have been repaired easily if one had just wanted to use it for a table.  They had priced it at $15.  I was tempted.

 

 Then there was this interesting lamp.  I would have loved to have seen it illuminated.  $4 price tag.

I really liked these two baskets.  I liked the color of the large one, but it was huge and would really have taken up a lot of space.  The small one had a green tone that didn't appeal to me.  I forgot to check the prices, but it looks as if the large one was $12.

I took this photo of this candle stand because I thought it was proof that all of this merchandise came from the same source.  Probably a shop named Timbuktu, like the one I'd love to have, that was going out of business in this economy!  I didn't get the price.

Poor Dixie had been waiting outside all afternoon for me to return instead of making her way back to her own home.  She was chilled, so I brought her in, turned the electric blanket on and put her on the bunk.  We were both happy. 

How did your Friday go?  Teddee

Computer Glitch

Sometimes I hate computers.  I guess it's only when they aren't working.  Several months ago I managed to eliminate the need for entering a daily password to access my computer.  I found the daily requirement for a password annoying but what I found really annoying was that message that started two weeks out telling me my password was going to expire in 14 days, 13 days, 12 days, etc. and did I want to change it now.  So, I bumbled around and figured out how to eliminate the need for a password.  Don't ask me how I did it.  I never know when it comes to computers how I eventually effect whatever it is I'm trying to accomplish.

So I had been happy with the result.  No need to enter a password each morning.  Then a couple of weeks ago I start getting the really annoying message telling me my password was going to expire and did I want to change it now.  Thinking this might eventually go away since, as far as I could determine, I no longer had a password, I kept indicating "No."  Apparently when I logged on Sunday morning I was told the password would be expiring that day, but I didn't have my glasses on and, once again, I indicated "No" I didn't want to change it.

I got back Sunday night and tried to log on to blog and immediately got a screen with the message that I must change my password.  Otherwise, no go.  I was annoyed, but plugged in the last password I thought I'd had, typed and confirmed the new password and got a negative.  I tried every permutation of that old password, capped, all lower case, all caps.  Still a negative.  Then I started trying other passwords I might have used, although I thought there was only one other I'd ever used for computer access, but no variation of that one or any of the others worked.

I decided to try again Monday morning when I was rested, with no success.  Then I decided to call Salvation Army where I'd bought the computer thinking maybe they had someone they used to prep their computers before they put them out for sale who could help me or recommend someone who could.  Joe answered the phone and told me just to hit Enter.  I did that to no effect.  He said he'd be in all day and would be happy to take a look at the computer to see if he could help, so I decided to load the computer into the car and make the trip to Boulder for the third time in as many days.  I have become so dependent on my computer and the internet I felt, even for one evening and a morning, that my right arm was missing.

I knew the footing was too treacherous for me to feel comfortable attempting to carry the computer to the car, so I loaded the computer into my "computer ambulance," this cute little wooden sled I bought at Goodwill a couple of years ago.  At the time I thought the sled would only be good for decoration and dreamed of filling it with evergreens at Christmas until I realized no one decorates outside up here for good reason--the winds--which would not only blow the evergreens out but blow the sled away unless I loaded it with rocks or nailed it to the deck.  I used the sled to transport the computer between car and cabin when I bought it last spring so knew this would work.

I had other errands to do in Boulder, but drove directly to Salvation Army.   Joe was there and turned out to be the new co-manager.  He came out to the car, carried the computer in, carried it to one side of the store where he had other computers set up, plugged it into the power and plugged in a monitor and mouse.  He powered it up, got the "You must change your password message," hit Enter and was immediately in.  I was happy it wasn't anything major, but annoyed that when I hit Enter, when I had him on the phone, the same thing didn't happen.  Perhaps you must do it immediately, not after you've attempted to set a new password?

Unfortunately, in his zeal to be helpful, while he was in the computer, Joe started "fine tuning" things and when I got the computer back up here, dragged it back in from the car on the sled, carried it back into the cabin, got everything plugged in and fired it up, my monitor display was really screwed up.  The left side was totally off the screen, I had a big black line on the right side and the type was so distorted I could hardly read it.  I got into the innards and got that fixed, but now everything is smaller than it was and the entire image doesn't fill up the page.  Right now I just don't have the patience to try to figure it out.

Have you ever had this happen?  Do you know how to fix it?  Teddee

I Got Out!

What a difference a day makes.  It got up to 40F degrees today and did it early.  Sunny.  A little breeze, but not bad.  So I got bundled up, did my outdoor chores and started digging out.  Soon had to take my coat off.

The only way to approach this is one shovel full at a time and don't think about the project as a whole.

Made it to the car.  I don't know if the snow plow operator thinks he's helping by shoving this snow up against the front of my car or what.

This really wasn't fun, but I finally got the car dug out and made sure I could drive out onto the road.

Cleaned up a bit then drove to Nederland and returned two library books and checked out two more I had requested.  Went to the spring and filled a couple of jugs with water.  Dropped off some recyclables at the town dump.  I would guess this is the only town dump with a view like this:

Stopped at Ace and took advantage of a 20% off sale to get a couple of boxes of Safe Lite Fire Starter Squares and the bits and pieces I need to make a pot rack.  More about that in a future blog..  I dropped off some plastic bags at the recycle bin at the supermarket and bought myself a chicken sandwich and Diet Coke at the deli.  I was starving after all that snow shoveling.  Got my mail and was pleased to find I had received two books I had ordered, based on the recommendation of Karen Anderson who does readings at the Blue Owl Bookstore in Nederland.  They are DNA Demystified and DNA and the Quantum Choice both by Kishori Aird.  I am interested in exploring DNA reprogramming and am really looking forward to getting started on these.

Decided that since I had freed myself from my snowy prison I'd drive on down to Boulder.  The Salvation Army store had been having a 50% off sale since yesterday.  I figured things would be pretty well picked over I was getting there so late, but found a few things.  I couldn't believe no one had grabbed these two Victorian? Edwardian? engraved silver napkin rings.  Loved the little bracket with the hooks for a hanging sign, what I guess is a silver wine bottle holder and the beautifully colored sphere with the leaves and fruit.

I also got this lapis skirt and Chico's travelers top:

The grand total for everything was $8.77 with tax.

And I got back before dark.  How did you spend your Saturday?  Teddee

Before or After?

When does a trend go from interesting to just plain silly? 

With another three inches of snow having fallen this morning on top of about one to two inches every day for the last week, I'm feeling more and more cabin bound and spending more and more time on the internet looking at blogs. 

I'd never looked at a blog until about a year ago.  I was working full time and didn't even have a working computer at home and certainly didn't have time at my job as an on-site community manager of a large homeowners association in Scottsdale, Arizona, to spend any time on the internet, let alone blogging.  But, as a retiree, and once I got a replacement computer at the Salvation Army in Boulder last April, I started exploring. 

Like many women, I'm drawn to any web site or blog related to interior design or decorating.  There are several trends in decorating right now that women (there may be men doing this, but I've not run across any of their blogs) seem to be just blindly following to the extreme.  One is painted furniture.  When I first started noticing it, I kind of liked it.  Some women providing tutorials on their blogs seem to do it well, but others, who seem to be extremely proud of their results, are just ruining nice pieces of furniture and, in some cases, entire rooms of gorgeous paneling.  I often have to look twice to make sure which is the "before" shot and which the "after," since the "after" looks so dreadful.

I don't know if this started with Rachel Ashwell's original Shabby Chic look, which used lots of white and pale pastels, but it seems to have been taken to the extreme in Belgium and/or France.  There are entire magazines devoted to what I'm calling the "White Movement."  In some cases it appears that homeowners have simply taken a spray gun and white paint and painted everything in their home white, not just the walls and ceilings and furniture, but all the accessories.  It really looks goofy.  There are some magazines, blogs and web sites, emulating the trend, in which everything is so pale you can't even read the type.

Another trend is numbering household decor.  I haven't picked up on the source of this, but many of these ideas seem to start with items found at French flea markets, called brocantes, if you aren't a follower.  I don't know why the actual vintage European items are numbered.  When it first started, a little bit of it was cute.  Now people are willy-nilly painting numbers on everything in the house without much thought to the font used or the style of the furniture.

Then there's the feed sack and burlap thing.  Lordy!  Again, it was cute when it first appeared and I think the use of burlap is probably a result of the current economy because it's cheap.  But, there seem to be different grades of burlap and the cheap kind many people are using bears no resemblance to some of the more eye-catching examples I'm seeing on line.  Having grown up on a farm, I can tell you that snuggling up to pillows wrapped in real burlap bags would not be fun.  The use of imported linen feed sacks for throw pillows and table runners is rampant and still cute, although I'm not fond of either the common red or blue stripes, but if they are real vintage European feed sacks they are not cheap.  I had been thinking of using burlap to enclose my bunk area in the cabin and perhaps even using it to help weatherproof the south wall of the cabin, but I'm having second thoughts.

Then there's the skirting thing.  People are removing cabinet doors in perfectly new, beautiful kitchen cabinets and replacing them with gathered fabric skirts to get that vintage look.  Again, sometimes it's done in a way that looks natural, but then more and more people hop on the band wagon and do it poorly and even if you had considered doing it (because the doors on a cupboard in this old cabin are so warped they won't stay shut), you start backing off.

As a tie-in to this rant, it appears to me that in blogland protocol, if you can't be a real "Go, girl," rah rah supporter--"It's really ugly, but you tried"--you're probably not supposed to say anything at all, hence no "credits" and no pictures in this blog.   However, I have been wondering if I might be able to use one of the latest on-line fads, Pinterest.  Pin your interests, get it?  You start an account and every time you see a photo of something that catches your eye, you pin it or post it so everyone can see what catches your eye as if anyone cared what catches your eye.  So far, I haven't seen anyone pinning things they disliked.  I wonder if I could start a new trend?  Teddee

Thriftier Thrifter

In good company with Ireland, Greece, Italy and now France, I'm imposing new austerity measures on myself.  I don't know about them, but I have a real goal, to save up enough to run another electric line into the cabin, making yesterday's thrift outing thriftier than usual.  I had to go to Boulder to get a prescription filled, so used that as an excuse to drop in at the Goodwill for their 50% off sale.  I spent $21.11 but can't show you anything I got for that amount because, for some reason, someone had decided it was a good idea for the baggers to just load everything, unwrapped, into boxes.  When I got to the car I had to unload everything because I didn't have room for the box--I use my car as a second room because of the tiny space I'm living in and right now it is full of bags of bedding that the family uses when everyone comes out and camps out in tents in the meadow.  So, I had all of these breakable things tucked in among the bags and that's where they're going to stay because I'm not going out in this to get them:

There is another cabin straight through this grove of aspens, but it's not even visible for the blowing snow.  This was a Denver Post on-line headline from yesterday, but I think we're just now getting this.  According to NOAA, we're not getting 14 inches of snow, which, apparently, they got or are getting further south around I-70.  I think we're getting less than an inch, but we are getting the winds.  NOAA says 48 mph wind gusts and I'd say that high at least. 

This morning when I was trying to get the fire going, I thought I'd open the cabin door a crack to increase the draft.  Took down the quilt that I hang over the door to keep the wind out and got a face full of snow just through the cracks in the closed door, so decided that wasn't an option. 

This is the "view" from my east window.  The screen is imbedded with snow.  I figured this was the same storm that just dumped on the Pacific Northwest, but maybe it swept in from the plains.

This is a picture of my thermometer outside the north window.  I think it says 19F degrees.

Back to the thrift outing.  After going to the pharmacy I just had to drive out past the Salvation Army where I spent $7.41 for these:

and this:

I think the little mug is cut glass.  It's edges are pretty sharp.  It was $1.30 and had been in the store long enough that it was 50% off.  I thought it would be a nice container for some odd silver spoons I've found at thrift stores over the past months.  The two canisters in that same picture will be used in the pantry for nuts and other small-quantity items.  One was $1.30 and the other $2.45.  The lower picture is of a quite large canister, filled will cookie crumbs right now, that was only $2.45.  I had seen one of these, either in a magazine or on-line, filled with old clothes pins and it looked quite clever.  I just determined this is not too tall to fit in one of the shelves of a cupboard used for cleaning and laundry supplies and there are a bunch of clothes pins, some antique, in a plastic bag out in the wood shed right now just waiting to come back in the cabin.

What bargains did you find on your last shopping outing?  Teddee

Steam Punk Table

The "steam punk" table (different than a punk steam table) I spied and purchased at the Salvation Army store in Boulder on Saturday did find its way up the canyon yesterday, thanks to Tenille and her father Bill.   Here are some photos of the underpinnings of the table.  (Yes, I discovered last evening that once I downloaded some new software Kodak had been trying to get me to download, I could, once again, take the photos off my camera.  Still can't print and efforts to communicate with Kodak techs via phone yesterday were not successful).  Note the magnificent hinged legs (on the table, not the Kodak techs), extra heavy-duty springs, and hinged leaves that remain down even when you flip the table over as I found out when I was taking these photos.  I did some on-line research and find that today's versions are called adjustable, convertible, hi-low, flip- or lift-top tables and they come in rectangular and pie shapes, offer storage and are raised and lowered with all sorts of mechanisms including gas pistons.  They also seem to range in price from $159.98 to $2,195, with $300-$400 being about average.  So, I'm still happy with my $17 outlay.

I'm not going to show you the top of this table until I decide what to do with it, but you can see the underside of one of the leaves.  The dark Formica-like veneer reminds me of some furniture I had back in the late sixties.  But I do like the sort of Frank Lloyd Wrightish detail on the legs and the brass touches and casters.  Not sure if that's real brass, but will take some Brasso to it and see what happens. 

Arrival of the table was a little later than expected because Tenille and pere had spent the morning at Home Depot buying things they needed in order to get her A-frame in Rollinsville ready to put on the market.  She'd been renting it out, but had become disillusioned when her last tenant disappeared into the night, leaving the door open to the elements, a situation about which she only became aware several days later when an electrician whose services she uses noted it blowing in the wind and called her.

I had spent some time yesterday morning digging my path through the drifted snow wide enough so she and I could walk side-by-side, thinking we would carry one end of the table and her Dad the other, but they had the table out of the truck and halfway to the house before I even got outside to find out if they wanted me to move my car. 

I noticed her father opted to walk backward, which automatically merited my Nice Guy Award if he hadn't already allowed himself to be recruited to pick up the table, haul it up the canyon and about five miles out of his way, then unload it and bring it into the cabin of a total stranger.  (Yes, I had offered on Saturday to pay them something for their efforts, but Tenille wouldn't hear of it).

When I think back on it, every man with whom I've ever had a long-term relationship always made me walk backward when we were carrying something, unless I made an issue about it.  Perhaps this should be a test when determining if you want to be in a serious relationship with someone! 

If you're a woman, does your man make you walk backward?  If you're a man, does this ever even cross your mind?  Will it in the future? 

Tomorrow's blog will offer more about the Sears auto debacle and the e-mail I received this morning from Paul Bernardy at Sedgwick.