the mud

I think my fascination with hallways started when I was in college.  I'll never forget the description of the entry way  in James Joyce's Dubliners as all the guests arrived for a party.  Growing up we didn't have a hall or entry way and our old house didn't either.  It's always been on my list for the perfect house.  Maybe that's why I am so excited.  So now for the picture gallery!  I am almost done my one, two, three day project and haven't done anything else on the list! Looking up the stair well I just knew it had to get done now and that it would put the finishing touches on our new space.  So just to recap, here is the before: This is how the picture layout began:  All the pictures laid out on the floor... a tape measure to try to measure... Then I made templates of the frames with old newspaper and hung them approximately where I thought each picture should go.  The blue painter's tape helps with nailing into plaster wall...

Lighting always plays a large role in the feel of a space.  Our old light fixture was pretty bad.    But the one I found to replace it was worrying my husband.  It hung much lower than the other one.  But since we weren't going to spend any money on this, it was our only option.  I had picked this one up at reStore over the summer for about $3 and it had sat in our basement too long.  So I invited my father over to help me with the electricity.  And I set to work in the basement with some paint projects.  I didn't really need to be careful of the floor, but using the cardboard box propped up like that allowed me to paint to edges of the frame easily. Although I thought I would put the glass panels back in, the lightbulbs were fairly large and I thought I'd try it without.  Melissa at 320 Sycamore had tried something similar and I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. Only I had inadvertently painted the white sleeves black. So her...

My project began at 8,9, actually 10 o'clock.  But don't think I was laying in bed.  I got my husband off to work with packed breakfast and lunch, made breakfast, made kids brush teeth, which hasn't happened in about a week, and then got caught up in my new book.   I had a plan in mind to paint the hallway,  and this is what it looked like to start. So, I took down Christmas (tear) and then began.  I thought I would just paint the wall over the stairs in one of the paints we already had in the basement.  I took out my old paints left from other projects.  By the way, I always look for mismixed Mythic paints at the store.  They sell for about $10 a gallon (bargain!) and they are eco and family friendly.  I can usually find something to do with whatever color they have!  We didn't have a full gallon of anything, except the paint I had used in the closet and Annie's room were mostly full, so I got creative and started mixin...

I love looking at all the January magazines featuring great new tips for getting organized in the New Year.  I think I've probably read all those articles before.  Of course  we all go through cycles in life and mine usually revolve around purging, nesting, then creating.  I can feel the creative energy beginning to flow.  I am ready to take it all on, but the list grows higher each day.  I have 3 more days off this week and I am planning to climb Mt. Everest and tackle about 8,000 projects in this house.  So, first I'm going to make a list.  Then I'm going to prioritize.  Then I'm going to see what I can do with what I already have in the house at this moment.   Then I'm going to see what I can do if I use the coupons I have for Ace Hardware.  Then I'm going to see what kind of time I have because the kids have made plans to see friends, go ice skating, go to the movies, all those fun things I should probably be...

The New Year always brings with it that wonderful project of finding the quintessential kitchen wall calendar, at least in my house.  I can remember most of my pre-teen/teen years were spent collecting the infamous Teddy Bear Calendars and I know it put an extra burden on my mother to find it before it went out of stock, which always happened long before Christmas.  In the past few years I have found wonderful wall calendars that promise to shower me with a bit of beauty in the hustle and bustle of planning the family agenda.  This year I found the new Vera Bradley calendar, which my daughter quickly confiscated for her bedroom (and really the colors are perfect! and it doesn't have room for writing anyway...)  Last year I hung the Stendig wall calendar in our kitchen and people always remarked on it.  The year before I had erincondren.com family planner which I loved and it was personalized with each of our names.  When the children were smaller...

One of the few moments mothers find to themselves in the bustle of the holidays is in the kitchen.  Now there may be 100 things to do but I find refuge in the kitchen.  After the dinner is done, people in my house usually evacuate the kitchen as quickly as possible.  I really don't mind if they don't do a dish, as long as I can find a few minutes of quiet.  The other night after I did all those dishes I found my recipe books and clippings and began to plan for the cookie exchange.  It is a trip down a familiar lane, looking at all the recipes I have collected, some scrawled in my grandmother's perfect Palmer penmanship.   I drank a cup of tea and fantasized about what my cookies would look like this year.  After finding a recipe whose ingredients seemed simple enough to master, I got to work.  Molasses cookies!  This was one of my Grandmother Sandell's recipes and it was simple enough to make.  It calls for lukewarm coffee...

In a new house you are constantly trying to create the stage set for your life.  It is a creative process.  In Philadelphia there is lots of talk about the fact that the Barnes Foundation Museum was relocated when Mr. Barnes specifically stated in his will that it not be moved.  I can empathize with Mr. Barnes.  The story goes that he was constantly moving the art in his home creating vignettes that best featured the art and the objects he had collected.   I do the same thing. So the one vignette I created for Christmas was this: I was really proud of this.  I thought it had a sleek look that worked with the blue.  I pulled out the kids silver baby cups and rattles and lay them on the mantle.  I spray painted an old boxwood wreath that had begun to yellow with pewter color metallic paint and did the same for some dried hydrangeas.  (I don't know who stuck that card up there between the hurricane candles....)  Cheap and easy, ...

Our house is not done yet, but day by day I am finding new places for our old things.  After staring at a pile of greenery on the dining room table for about a week, you kind of get motivated!   Here's the dining room window with wreaths.  A snowman wreath, which I had planned on dismantling, on the back door in the kid's playroom. In the kitchen I hung decorated balls from the chandelier.  I like the lights on the window sill and I like the wreath on the stand.  I've thought about spraying this wreath with the snow spray, but not yet... Mini-wreaths decorate each door.  As I was going to ask one of the kids to put this out in the shed, I realized I kind of liked the look of it here, because why not?  It might just need a ribbon though.  As soon as they start sledding in the family room, out it goes!

"It's that time of year,  when the world falls in love..."  EEEKKK.  Stop the song.  What happened?  What happened that we so easily forget the miraculous, good will toward all, merri-ness of Christmas?    It's okay.  Just resist.  Resist the urge to do everything.  Everything we do is a marathon these days.  We moved into a neighborhood where they ride around on a trolley seeing judging seeingjudging no, SEEING other people's Christmas decorations!  (Now, what-who Susie Santa thought this up, I don't know!)  But, it's not a contest, really.  Why do we make it out as such?  We scrambled around yesterday just to make sure all the bulbs on the lights work, the wreath is hung just so, the garland is fresh and the tree is placed just right in the window.  Are we crazy?  In short, yes.  As much as I complain though I love it!  We had a wonderful time rolling around in a li...

We are still unpacking books.  There are a lot of them, some we've outgrown, some that I thought I should put away or give away.  But this weekend we brought down from the attic all the books that were saved for Christmas and it's like a special present.  Forget the typical decorations, stories are what I need to get in the spirit.  I'll never forget my mother's collection of Ideal magazines, which she had started during her teaching career.  I would pour over those magazines reading poetry and stories every Christmas by the light of a lamp swathed in crepe paper ribbon.  The story of the original "Over the River and through the woods..." I learned from reading that magazine! Opening the box and remembering the stories is a trip down memory lane now for my own children!  Who can forget Christmas Mouse or The Littlest Tree or The Gift of the Magi?  So my gift to you, because I sometimes get the urge to write lessons for books, is a list ...

Even though it's after Thanksgiving and all of my decorating energies should be directed toward Christmas, I thought I'd take a step back and talk about the kid's bedrooms.  When we first moved in one of our priorities was to make sure the kids had special spaces.  We loved our old house and simply outgrew it, so it was not an easy transition.  Annie's old room was the perfect little girl room, with "All things bright and beautiful, the Lord God made them all..." stenciled around the ceiling.  I knew that we would have to step it up for her big girl room so for her birthday we painted and refreshed the little girl look. Here are the pictures: Here is the bed we ordered from JCPenney almost 8 years ago.  The circles are chalk-ready - just three coats of acrylic paint!  (No, you don't need special chalkboard paint :)  ) We moved this chair into the room when my mother-in-law visited during the hurricane and it has stuck! This chandelier is from ...

In the Kindergarten classrooms I visit, many teachers have lists of words that are "Juicy words" or "Words that Sparkle."  There are so many wonderful words we use this time of year.  Nourish, harvest, bounty, plenty, gratitude, thanksgiving, gathering, family, welcome, holiday, retreat, homecoming, tradition, heritage.  Just hearing the words reminds us of good things.  Nourish is one of my favorite words.  It has such a wonderful loaded meaning.  You can nourish yourself, your spirit, or those around you.   Nourishment has such significance as we shop and prepare menus and welcome friends and family from far away.  We need to nourish ourselves as we begin this festive season.   We are like the hibernating animals that need to load up before the long days of winter. During the holidays we have the excuse to set aside time to play, relax, and eat.  We treasure special time sitting around the ...

The other night, driving home from CCD, my son said, "I can't believe it's almost Advent.  That means I have to start my Christmas list."  I know there is some guilt looming here.  I am ashamed to say that one of the things I look forward to this time of year is the O List, the collection of Oprah Winfrey's best stuff that you would love to give or receive for Christmas.  So in lieu of the Oprah to-die-for favorite things, I'm creating my own list.  Trust me, they won't cost millions and you can find some as close as Sears.  For instance this quilted pillow: It's by Cannon , costs less than $15 and it's the best I've ever used! After sleeping on this dreamy pillow, you'll need a great cup of coffee to wake you up.  Peet's coffee is the best: Once you try it, you'll be hooked.  To drink that coffee, you'll need a special mug from StoneSoldier Pottery in Vermont, and though these are a little costly, $23, it makes drinking a...

So, honestly, this started as a joke.  I looked at this cover of Country Living, and thought,"Yeah, right, an old bench, rubber boots and some sticks?  Really?  That's the cover of a magazine?"  So I thought I would do a parody of it and you could have a good laugh.  But, the weather this weekend was so beautiful and I thought wow, it would be nice to have a    little outdoor space to curl up with a mug and a book.    So I got to work.  I wish I had taken the pictures of the pieces first, so you could see how it came together, but basicially it is what it is.  Blankets are always warm no matter what they look like.  Benches are always welcoming, allowing friends to sit together for a quick chat.  So this is what I did: The rug/mat is nice to sit your feet on.  The pumpkin was leftover fromm Halloween.  The tray was my little addition. The black basket is the one my husband made in woodshop in ...