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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year!

While many people put away their holiday decorations shortly after Christmas day, I like to be old fashioned and leave mine up until at least the twelfth day of Christmas which is January 6.  In reality, they often stay up even longer depending on motivation and availability of time. The big busy crunch in December usually means that I don't start decorating until the week before Christmas when I can take my time and enjoy it so the decorations aren't up a lot longer than those of others.  We're just on a different schedule.  Since my church choir is having a twelfth night get together at our house on the Saturday following the actual night, why not just leave everything up?  Besides, this is the only entertaining we've done this season and while, like Linda (Linda Letters) I've decided to do things simply for the joy of it, it's still nice to decorate for guests.   Anyway,  if you don't drop by in person, here's some of what you'd see if you ever visited.

For the first year there's something on the outside of the house.  Come on in, it's cold outside!

The angel's names are Jeanette and Isabella.  Get it?  Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella...

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A sharp right takes us into the music room.


This old bird-cage action (worthless as an instrument) piano came from an estate sale somewhere here in Washington, was schlepped to my hometown in Alaska by someone who was starting a second hand store, sold to a friend of mine, and when she wanted to get rid of it, it became mine and then moved back to Washington.  Crazy.

The glass Christmas tree collection was begun in the first year we lived in our house and now-friend and glass guru, Florence, gave me the first one as a thank you for spotting water coming out of the house next to ours which she spend several years lovingly restoring  and then sold.  (She never lived in the house and wouldn't have noticed the flood for several days.)  Anyway, she continued giving me trees for a few years but then thought that I would be tired of them.  On the contrary, they grew on me so now I get one each holiday season to add to the collection, which now has outgrown it's space atop the melodean that has been in my mother's family since about 1850.  Some are now elsewhere but I love looking at the little forest and thinking of our friendship and our time in the house. 

Turning left we go to the parlor.

Using the cello, a gift of Laura (Gravy Lessons)

Fireplace with the nativity set that we got on our first Christmas together.





 Opening the pocket doors, we get to the living room which still needs to be cleaned up a bit so you'll just see bits.

 This year's tree.

Northern nativity that we got when we visited Alaska to surprise my sister for her 70th birthday.

From our antique mall days come these German wooden figures which went missing for several years only to be found in a really obvious place.

This vase with sparkling hair sometimes doesn't get put away at all.  It was made in Vermont and we got it there when we surprised our uncle on his 80th birthday.

Something shiny and new from Home Goods, my new favorite store.  Only drawback - they don't sell plants.

Copied this idea from a couple of places.  It's a great way to display the glass ornaments, missing hanging thingies so were purchased for very little at Bedrock Industries.

Dining room. The roses need lit tea candles and will get them before the party.

Looking from the dining room back into the living room. The hanging candle lanterns will also get lit and the doors will both be open all the way.

I got a couple of these wrought iron votive candle holders at Watson's annual sidewalk sale several years ago.  I'd salivated over one of them but it was far too expensive for me.  After a year or so, it vanished and I thought it had sold.  There were actually two of them and they showed up at the sale (takes place every July but Watson's often has "Yard Sale Pricing" sales tables (anything  under 20 dollars is a dollar, and so forth.)  Hooray!   They've always had candles and lent a nice glow to occasions but take a bit of time to light.

I was playing with some glass balls thinking that I might decorate one of them,  soon I was using floats from the garden, scouring the attic for mishaps that were going to be thrown away by glass blowing friends and robbing the tree of a few things. Since the candle holders got filled with spheres, light was needed.  Fortunately, there were more strings in the basement.  To cover the bare lights, some "shimmer cloth" that I had to buy at an 80% off after Christmas sale, came off the spool.

Since the box with all of the beads was still upstairs, some of them found their way on.  A glittery star or cool glass something or other would be the perfect topper for this "tree" but having neither that would work, this dove descending was pressed into service. 
Leave it to me to take a piece, elegant in it's simplicity and turn it into something that a drag queen might find a little over the top.  Oh well, it makes me smile.  What doesn't make me smile is the thought of taking all of this down.  My goal is to have it all boxed and put away before the Northwest Flower and Garden Show which is only seven weeks away and marks the beginning of the garden season for us in these parts.   May your new year be filled with laughter, love, prosperity, and peace!

46 comments:

  1. Start the new year smiling! I did - I smiled all the time while reading your post. Peter, thank you for opening your house and letting us in! Now, I know that you live in a store of antiques and vintage goods, and that you are a crazy artist! Love your holiday decorations and especially the last piece - awesome! Have a great party and a very Happy and Healthy 2016!

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    1. Thank you Tatyana! Yes, I am crazy but not so sure about the artist part. It is fun to drag the decorations out. A very happy and healthy 2016 to you too!

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  2. Gorgeous and very Victorian like the house. Thanks for inviting us in to tour before the party!

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    1. My pleasure! Thanks for stopping by. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

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  3. Your house is wonderful, Peter and looks like a museum of antiques. I liked stained glass work on the door and window -with torch, it's beautiful!
    Happy New year!

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    1. Thank you Nadezda, I have fun being a pack rat. I made the glass on the door and the window with the torch was part of a damaged old window that a friend saved.

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  4. I think seven weeks is do-able for taking it all down. Maybe. You surprise me - here I thought you were the master of all outdoors and I find you an indoor decorating god too. Marvelous house and furnishings! The glass trees - what a great collection. Love the Alaskan Nativity with the polar bear! Oh yeah, Home Goods. It's just down the street from me which explains why my house looks like it does. Can a person collect everything? Happy New Year!

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    1. It is so much faster, easier, and more fun to put it all up than to put it away! I didn't decorate for about ten years after my mother's death so it's been nice to get back into doing it the last two years. It would be very dangerous to have a home goods that close to me. I do believe that a person can collect everything but it may require moving to ever larger homes.

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  5. Peter, I'm speechless! Seeing more of your house and its beautiful woodwork has me wondering if I missed posts on renovation work. If so, please direct me! And Happy New Year!

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    1. Most of our work has been on the outside of the house - tearing off the 1940's siding, re-creating corbels, dentals, and other gingerbread that was removed to make a flatter surface for the "new" siding, sanding the siding down to wood, painting, new roof, restoration of the round stained glass room (rotted from the sills down with most of the panels having fallen out years ago, foundation work, re creating the front porch from pictures (1060's wrought iron work had replaced the wood.) That all happened years before the blog. There's lots to do inside like address cracked and falling plaster, etc. but for now, we're just coasting. Luckily, with the exception of the kitchen, all of the woodwork on the main floor was left the way it was. With the lights dimmed and in carefully cropped pictures, things don't look as bad as they are. This is why we entertain after dark!

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  6. That's a lot of poinsettias Mister! Happy New Year...and good luck with the de-Chirstmasizing before the NWFG Show...

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    1. I so thought of you and the challenge today when I was at Watsons. All Christmas stuff was 70% off and they were encouraging people to take cartloads of free live poinsettias. Tempting but that would mean taking care of them. The mostly silk ones in the pictures hold up well with no care at all year after year.

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  7. Wonderfully decorated Peter, Wishing you a very happy and blessed New Year.

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  8. Gorgeous Peter. I also love the Alaskan nativity and.keeping the musical instruments around. Just thinking of the melodies they made in years gone by makes me happy.

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    1. Thanks, Joanna! I enjoy playing the instruments too and it's especially nice when visitors play!

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  9. Thanks for the tour of your beautiful house, I loved it.My goodness, you really do push the boat out with your decorations. It' s amazing. What fun you have. I think I' m doing well with a tree and a bit of holly.
    Happy New Year Peter.

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    1. Some years I haven't done anything as far as decorating, maybe just a festive tablecloth on the dining room table and some flowers. I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of person. Just have been in the mood the last couple of years to do it. Happy new year to you Chloris!

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  10. Happy New Year Peter and Tom! You really did your house up something big this holiday season. Wow! Love the glass balls in the bowl with Christmas lights underneath.

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    1. Happy New Year to you and Nigel! Looking forward to more gardening adventures this spring and summer!

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  11. Beautiful and even though I have never been inside...it's just as I imagined.
    Happy New Year, Peter!

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    1. One of these times, you'll have to come inside! It's usually embarrassingly cluttered and covered with a healthy layer of dust and dog hair. Happy new year to you, Vickie! What adventures shall we plan this year?

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  12. Wow! Love your "drag queen" decorations! And your sense of humor.
    I am beginning to look at all my decorations now and wonder if I am tired enough of them yet to start the process of putting them all away, and then doing the follow up cleaning. If not this weekend, then probably Monday. I need a rainy day to get motivated. Yes, mine will have been up a month by then.

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    1. Thanks, Linda! I always leave mine up until I'm sick of them. As long as they hold some magic and enjoyment, they get to stay. Hooray!

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  13. Your home looks incredibly beautiful, Peter! I can't really pick a favorite ornament, arrangement, or room because it all looks so perfectly designed, one room to the next. Thanks for the tour. :)

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    1. You are far too kind! It's fun to have a party for which to prepare! I might not do so much if it weren't for others coming to visit.

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  14. Gorgeous home and decorations - I had to go through 3 times and still I probably missed some wonderful detail - I'm going back again. I'll try and not leave any footprints.

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    1. Thanks, JoAnn, especially for not leaving any footprints. However, we'll need to vacuum and mop again before Saturday anyway. So glad you commented so that I could discover your blog. We've a lot in common having both grown up in southeast Alaska (Skagway) I did a teaching internship at Mt. Edgecumbe after it reopened for a half a year and lived in the dorm there. Became familiar with your home town. I miss Alaska but do love our winters or the lack thereof.

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  15. Wow, you have a lot of beautiful decorations. I wish you a happy new gardening year, Peter!

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    1. The decorations are the result of many years of making things, shopping at after Christmas sales when everything is very inexpensive, and never throwing anything away. A happy new gardening year to you, Satu!

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  16. Yesterday I couldn't put my finger on it. Today I think I know why I like this so much: No Santa Clauses, just plants, many poinsettias (la Flor de Noche Buena or Christmas Eve flower) and evergreens especially trees; baubles, shiny objects catching the light, representing sun, stars, fire, and the nativity scenes announcing even more light.

    I like the series of photos where we see the doors closed, then open, and next the objects in the room. You are giving us all a gift like the Magi by sharing this beauty (and work) with us and your church group.

    I shall bake a Three Kings Bread, the Rosca de Reyes and send you the bean.

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    1. I have a couple of Santas but don't usually get them out. The one I like is a figure of Santa with a shovel and holding a little tree that he's about to plant, his hat is over his arm and his cheeks are especially rosy as he's obviously been working hard digging holes. Don't know where that box went. Must be somewhere, right? I like the idea of sparkle and reflected light at this time of year. When I light all of the candles, which should have been done before the pictures were taken - oops. It's especially nice. It's been fun decorating a little at a time and at my own pace this year. The choir folks are such special and sweet people that it's a joy to do it for them and to share with my blogging pals!

      If I get the bean, does that mean that I'll have to do it again next year? :)

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    2. Yup.

      The tradition of placing a trinket (a figurine of the Christ child) in the cake is very old. The baby Jesus hidden in the bread represents the flight of the Holy Family, fleeing from King Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. Whoever finds the baby Jesus figurine is blessed and must take the figurine to the nearest church on February 2 (Candlemas Day, Día de la Candelaria).

      In the Mexican culture, this person has the responsibility of hosting a dinner and providing tamales and atole to the guests.

      In Spain, roscones bought in pastry shops have a small figure hidden inside, either of a baby Jesus or little toys for children, as well as the more traditional dry fava bean. Whoever finds the figure is crowned "king" or "queen" of the celebration, whereas whoever finds the bean has to pay for the next year's roscón or Epiphany party.

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    3. I thought that was the case. Thanks for the information. We used to do an Epiphany cake at coffee hour at church with several trinkets baked inside, each requiring the one who found it to do something for the community like volunteer for the charity of his/her choice, etc. The one who got the mixing bowl charm got the honor of making the cake next year when each recipient would report back about what they did to fulfill their assignment.

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  17. This is the Christmas post I was waiting for, and it was definitely worth the wait! What an incredible displays throughout your home. I love the music room and the parlor. I think if I ever visited in person I would have a hard time leaving. So many wonderful things to look at and all your collections... Considering how much time it must have taken to put up I think the NW Flower and Garden show is a reasonable time line :-)

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed looking around. There are lots of things to look at and each one has a story as many were gifts or inherited from special people. You're more than welcome to stop by sometime but to call ahead so we can tidy up a bit!

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  18. You have the perfect Holiday House and I feel priviliged to visit, if only virtually. Happy New Year!

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    1. Happy New Year to you Rickii! This house is too big for just the two of us and most of it stays closed off unless we're expecting lots of people to visit. The house seems to come alive in a special way when it's full of folks!

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  19. Gorgeous!! Home Goods is addictive. I shop there a lot and have bought many of my pots there. :o)

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    1. Thanks, Tammy! I first heard about Home Goods from one of your posts! We finally got one here (20 minutes away) and now I'm addicted.

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  20. Awesome, you don't miss a spot and I love all the lights making it glow. I don't know how you get it all up on time!

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    1. Thanks! The secret is that I have a couple of weeks off before the twelfth night party and that gives me the time I need.

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  21. When you decorate, you DECORATE! It's so wonderful, you could charge admission for house tours. I don't blame you for not being in a hurry to take it all down. That process always makes me a little sad.

    I hope you enjoy your Twelfth Night festivities. Happy new year Peter!

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    1. It's fun when one has time to do it! Taking it down used to make me incredibly sad and that's when I stopped decorating altogether. Now I'm not so sad as taking it down gives us extra space again and allows me to bring out stuff to celebrate the coming of spring!
      Happy new year to you Kris!

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  22. Your antique house is fascinating, and you have decorated it to the hilt, Peter. I love all the swags, lighting, and poinsettias. Your choir will feel so spoiled!

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  23. Amazing decorations! A classic interior like yours really demands to be used to advantage which you certainly have done. I could mention many things that caught my eye but I will just give a nod to the front door since my door isn't the right style or protected enough to have such a lovely wreath. Happy 2016.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.