A Favorite Corner.

 

Do you have a favorite spot in your home? I have a number of spots that I love to spend time in. Maybe I'll do a little feature here on the blog about all the corners in our home. Let me know if you'd like that. I'd love to see yours too! Lace curtains let the sunlight shine through, the small lamp adds more when the days are dark with clouds or in the evening when just a bit of light in this corner is needed. A small round vintage picture from the Antique Mall and a framed floral print underneath, above the china rabbit (she has clothes on!) sitting on a wire chair and a potted plant.

The corner I've chosen today is in our main floor turret ~ it's 3 stories high, with the lower level housing our daughter's kitchen nook and the upper level is our master bedroom sitting area, complete with a window seat under all the windows. On the main floor, we use this corner in a variety of ways though the year. It houses our old Victrola, currently a writing desk and our tea cart (not pictured). Oh, and my gramma's hope chest (also not pictured) sits along the end of the staircase. It holds our Christmas tree decorations through the years. In the Winter, this space is where we set up our Christmas Tree. And other times, we move the desk out and the piano in and it becomes the music room. Very versatile and always fun to change around. 

I love the 2 floral prints we picked up at the charity shop for $4 for both. But then it was a 50% off day, so we actually got both for $2. We bought them to put in to our Antique Mall booth. However, after a few weeks of sitting on the desk, I picked one up and held it up in this spot and suddenly they had a new home! Love them and I do promise to take a closer shot so you can see the lovely flowers and the border and the pretty gold frames. The plant in the stand has tripled in size since we moved it there a few months ago. The light is just perfect but it's grown so quickly, I'm going to have to repot it soon. The wrought iron unit it is sitting in was a boot sale find ~ I recall paying about $6 for it. At the end of the day. No one else had bought it, so the vendor reduced it down to $6 just as I walked over to her. Perfect timing! Underneath is a folk art basket and a stone angel that I should probably put in the garden in the Spring but for now, it sits cozy and content on the bottom shelf. Resting next to is is another wrought iron piece that we're trying to decide where it should go. It was at the charity shop, sitting behind some pots and other outdoor items, almost buried. Paid $4 for it, again on a 50% off day. It was in my cart and every few minutes someone was stopping me in the shop to ask where I had found it! According to the staff, it had sat in that very spot for over 2 weeks. And suddenly everyone wanted it. I love treasure hunting there because you really have to be willing to push other items aside to see what's hidden behind. So much fun!

One of the many writing desks in our home. We have a desk under the stairs in the great room, this one in the turret, the secretary desk in the living room, a desk in our guest bedroom, one in our master (in the turret that is set up like a mini office) and my husband's editing desk in the art studio. Grandson has a desk in his bedroom in the apartment and youngest dd has one in her bedroom as well. If I've counted right, that is a total of 8 desks in one house. On this desk is a sweet birdhouse unit. Each of those round holes is actually a drawer. I don't have anything inside at the moment but in time, this might end up in the art studio to hold small art items. Or in the laundry room where I have collected framed prints of birdhouses. Next to it is a small pink candle holder, then a framed picture of dh's grandparents. On the back, it says "Wedding 1927" and we're trying to determine what their wedding date was. Next is a pile of notepads, typed up with a pretty blue ribbon and a vintage banker's lamp that belonged to dh's parents. I love the green ladder back chair. The other one sits at our desk in our master bedroom. This is a lovely spot to sit and write, while gazing out at the little forest to the south of our house. A calming and inspiring spot in so many ways.

The lace curtains let in just the right amount of light and filter the strong sun on the days it's very bright outside. I love that we can see our little potting shed through the lace. We truly don't need curtains out here but I don't like the look of completely naked windows ~ to me, they always look like the room is unfinished. Working on the second layer of curtains to go on here. I have the living room and dining room figured out, along with the kitchen nook, the laundry room, the french deck door and the huge window in the great room ~ that's a whole other post. But the turret still needs some thought. I'm in no rush. I know just the right look will come to mind one day. There are 4 windows in the turret and they are very tall ~ 6 feet in total height. So planning here for window coverings will take some time and a lot of input from family. We'll get it right, in time!

That's the tour of my current favorite corner. I'll take shots of the hope chest and the tea cart later. I'm off to spend some time with my family on this special "Family Day Holiday" in Canada. I don't think we need a day off to spend with family as we're together all the time but appreciate our leaders believed in a day to reconnect and do something fun with family and friends. Hope you'll join in and share some of the favorite corners in your home that we'd love to know more about. Post in the comments or your blog. Can't wait.

~ Chy

Icy Webs.

Looking out our window this morning and we found

these 2 icicle webs. Obviously there was a good sized

spider web there that we never noticed. Now with

the ice, it stands out. Nature adapting for the Season.

~ Chy

Cream Lace.

Before we were married, I was asked what kind of

china we would like on our wedding gift registry.

At the young age of 22, I wasn't really into china or

crystal and we had already bought our house, which

did not have a formal dining room. So we chose a

very sturdy pattern of stoneware from Denby instead.

Then 12 years ago, my grandmother died and I ended inheriting all her china, her silver and her amazing dining room set. I also brought home this sweet corner cabinet that showcased some of her favorite things behind glass doors (not visible in these photos). I stored her china in here along with other treasures we had gathered over the years. When we visited the East Coast a few years ago, we came across a lovely china patter called "Cream Lace" by Skye McGhie. Fell in love but couldn't fit what we wanted to buy in to our suitcase. And though the store offered to ship it across Canada to our home, I knew I'd be worried that it would arrived in tiny pieces. So we kept the pictures in our head and hoped one day we'd come across the pattern and all the pieces we hoped to have. A fun treasure hunt.

Slowly in time, we began to collect a piece or two, here and there. Mostly from our favorite charity shop and our Antique Mall. Our collection grew. I had it scattered about the house. Then at Christmas, our eldest found a woman selling quite a few pieces on FB Marketplace. Amazing low price and it turns out, she had never used the pieces. Brand new, not a chip or scratch or tea stain ring! I was so thrilled on Christmas morning to open up an obscure box and find some many pieces of my collection inside. I was teary and excited all at once! A small dream come true.

After the holidays, we then had to figure out where to store all the pieces and decided to clear out the corner cabinet, built for my grandparents back in the early 30's, and showcase the entire collection. That's what you see above. This is now part 1 of my post as just this week, I stumbled across more and had to rearrange again. I'll show you that in part 2 very soon. The last picture shows the cake stand that I have in my kitchen holding a small basket of dried flowers. I haven't yet decided if I'll leave it there or add it to the dining room corner cabinet. Decision and pictures soon.

~ Chy

Morning Light.

 

Just a few weeks ago, it was dark when we'd wake

up in the early mornings on the days we'd be working.

But now the mornings are getting lighter and lighter.

I'm sure this week, I won't even have to turn the lamp on.

I always love how the sunrise finds ways to dance on all

our walls. Moving and changing as it filters thru the house.

~ Chy

Bizarre Conflict.

As someone who is never comfortable around conflict, being embroiled in the middle of a very bizarre experience has left me this week feeling unsettled and upset. I won't provide details here as it won't solve a thing. I can only write that working in a team environment, as volunteers, there should still be a level of professionalism and willingness for all voices to be heard. Within this particular initiative, there is clearly a "them" and "us". It's been evident for a while that an unhealthiness was brewing and as we tried to work through it, there was a sudden change and people quit! And quit with bitter words that don't make sense nor add up to the actual experience. I find I've had to be the peacemaker in certain situations over the year and I think some of my upset is not even having the opportunity to help two parties find common ground. I guess I could take some heart and work it out in my head that if they couldn't handle some questions about process and how to move forward, then they weren't the kind of people we'd want to move forward on the board. None of this feels good. None of it makes sense. I don't like hidden agendas and there is a piece of me wondering if that's what this is all about. Alterior motives? Creative differences? In the end, I don't think we'l every truly know why this bizzare conflict began. What I do know is that we now have a new individual taking on that area and she has, in a very short time, made leaps and bounds in the progress of the tasks that were being worked on or hadn't yet been touched. In the end, the individuals who are committed and work seamlessly within a team environment are the ones still with us and the ones we need to complete this project. A natural weeding out of the conflicters was the right path ~ it just doesn't feel good. This too shall soon pass. 

~ Chy

Frozen Castle.

During our recent extreme cold weather snap here

in the frozen tundra, someone in our community

captured this amazing photo of our heritage hotel.

Looks almost like this castle is frozen in the clouds.

~ Chy

Spring Dreaming.

The cold, the bitter, through your bones, can't get warm cold continues. Extreme Weather Alerts and Announcements were issued last Friday, February 1st. This is now Day 10. And honestly, this needs to go away! And not come back!!

To keep our minds off the snow and the icy cold, we've been keeping very busy with purging, donating, getting items ready for inclusion in our Antique Mall Booth, working on our upcoming Summer Music Festival, I've been catching up on case notes for my counselling clients, reading new books from Christmas, and finally, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming about Spring! I have made a veggie patch plan, am working on where I'd like to plant more perennials, and thinking about pots and planters. Last year, we put as much of our gardening tools into our little potting shed. This Spring, I'd like to get it organized and thinking about what that would look like. And finally, we have some landscaping to finish and part of that is installing our front arbor gate where we hope to create a little parking area for guests. Ideally, if this works, they would pull up to the front of our house, which has a much more welcoming view than the side of our house. They would park, stroll through the arbor gate and trek down a short path to our front door. Dreaming of plants and bushes, maybe even roses to make the path enjoyable and fragrant. A bit of work for this dream.

Hope you are staying warm and maybe dreaming in a bit of Spring Dreaming while the landscape outside swirls in a icy cold, snowy weather pattern. Hope you'll share what is keeping you sane and positive during this polar vortex ....

~ Chy

Happy Saturday.

This picture came across my FB feed this morning and after reading everyone else's posts about the frosty weather outside, I chose to send this along, with a little "your welcome" after explaining why I wasn't chiming in on the weather posts. A little hope for warmer weather and all the big gardening adventures that many of us are dreaming of.

Kids grief program this morning, then a quick tidy and we headed in to the Big City to celebrate this sweet girl's 6th birthday. How did she get to be 6 already!! We had fun at her party. It was so sweet seeing her with her little friends from her Kindergarten class. Truly growing up too fast.

Excited to have not one but two little

lockets to wear with her new dresses.

Sweetest granddaughter in the world

We are so proud ~ she is too cute!

It was a "Happy Saturday" but the end is near. We came home, lounged a bit, did some writing, ate a great dinner, wrote more, watched the hockey game and now we're off to sleep ~ grandson has hockey in the morning ~ no sleeping in this week! Hope your Saturday was lovely. And warm!

~ Chy