Wreath Repeat

After Christmas last year (2009)I thought I would be smart and head to Georgetown and take a whole slew of pictures of Christmas wreaths and decorations to use in Dec 2010. Well I did - and carefully edited and "stored" them on my hard drive. Maybe I should say "lost" instead as 5+ hours of searching on this computer and the other computer I thought I may have used yielded nothing... So here's a reprise of my Beacon Hill decorations taken in '08 and posted in '09. Yes, the missing - awesome Georgetown photos are driving me nuts...This would be easy to do - spray paint branches red and place in containers w/moss.

Love this creative peace sign wreath!






More branches - simple and doable.






**EVENT: If you live in the DC area, Tudor Place is holding it annual Holiday Wreath making workshop with fresh boxwood, greens and magnolia cut that morning on their property. I've gone for 4 years and it's really great fun. More info here.

How to Decorate a Christmas Tree in 22 Seconds

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We returned from Memphis yesterday, promptly bought our Christmas tree and decorated it with abandon. My children are not the patient types.

Matt loves to play around with the time lapse function on his camera and this was the perfect opportunity. Here is our family decorating the family tree in 22 seconds.



The actual decoration time was more like an hour and a half. We put the Christmas mix on our iPod and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I still need to decorate the rest of the house and put the boxes back in the attic, but at least we've got the big thing done.

I don't know about you, but I do not have a "themed" Christmas tree. I take great joy in the eclectic variety of our ornaments. Of course, my favorites are the ones my kids make . . . the glitter stars with their preschool photos inside. Priceless.

Now, I've got to get on the Christmas shopping. I've done some but there is much more to be done. But first things first. I've got to get my hair cut and colored tomorrow because while I love the color gray I do not like it in my hair. 

Best wishes to everyone as you embark on your holiday preparations. May our days be merry and bright!

Eye Candy with a Touch of Red

Can't go wrong with a round table, books and chic french chairs in a soft red velvet. Design by Luce Gayrard, House and Home Nov 2009, photography by Monic Richard.

Haute Fabrics Now in Georgetown & books ON a wall

***Haute Fabrics is now located in Arlington (see update here), not Georgetown.  The main location remains in Marshall VA.

I mentioned this briefly in another post but this news warrants more coverage than that. Haute Fabrics (Marshall, VA) has opened a location in Georgetown at 2603 P Street NW Washington, DC, sharing space with Jean Pierre Antiques. The selection of fabrics has grown since my first visit two weeks ago and the ones I had my eye on were in the range of $16 - $26 a yard.



Haute Fabrics, 2603 P St. NW, Washington, DC, 202.965.1123 (*they're closed the day after Thanksgiving but I will update this post w/their hours tomorrow)

Earlier in the month, I posted on the amazing concrete books created by Richard Taylor of Flat Earth Designs. Check out the creative way Debra Phillips of Scentimental Gardens and SG Grand displays the ones she has for sale. Ask you would expect, customers are first surprised to see them on the wall and then to discover they're concrete to boot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The painting is by Anna Mary Robertson Moses, "Over the River to Grandma's house", 1947

Chalkboard Wall in the Master Bedroom!

We're using to seeing chalkboard walls in kids' bedrooms, play rooms and kitchens but I have to say I absolutely love it here in the master bedroom of Wayne McGill and Chad Farquharson.

Beautiful pairing of colors in the bedding too.

Image via Style at Home, January 2010, photography by Kim Christie.

Alexa Hampton: Talent & Personality!

Alexa Hampton is personality and talent all-in one. Funny, down-to-earth, genuine, and relaxed, here she is demonstrating how uber comfortable her sofa design for Hickory Chair is! I mean really, how fun is that! A huge thank you to Suzette Delay, Showroom Manager of Henredon, for hosting a tea and giving us a chance to meet Alexa in an informal setting and learn more about her work and approach to design and...have so much fun at the same time.
Alexa with some of my favorite DC Designers - Sally Steponkus, Laura Stifel and Heather Safferstone of Sally Steponkus Interiors.
Her furniture collection for Hickory Chair is impeccable. Above is the Susannah side table.
Love the Perlini mirror.
Chris Set of Four Trays - each tray can be moved to where needed.
Jennifer Sergent, Marketing Director of the Washington Design Center, enjoying the comfort of the Breck Chair.
I couldn't resist posting this pic of Suzette's personal collection of tea pots.
If you haven't had a chance to pick-up Alexa's book yet, definitely put it on your list. Here's just a few images of her designs to enjoy.

Supper Club

Our supper club Saturday night was great fun. Of course, I was a little on edge and snapped at my loving and patient family (don't worry, I apologized) as we cleaned the house and prepared the food. I self-admittedly get a little tense when company comes. I'm not OCD, but you might think so on these occasions. Matt was so glad the house was looking nice, that he snapped some photos of our spiffed up crib.

Here's a candlelit view of the table. I hollowed out the big white pumpkin and placed a vase full of Trader Joe's flowers in the center.

"Aerial" view. Of course, I had not put out the napkins, silverware or glasses yet, but oh well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of my pumpkin place card holders. I spray painted all my pumpkins and gourds gold a la Eddie Ross. I just grabbed some leaves from the yard and scribbled on the names with a sharpie, then cut a slit in the pumpkins

Side note: some of the little pumpkins on the table came from our own little pumpkin patch. Our house backs up to woods, so last year when we were done with our pumpkins, we simply tossed them over the fence thinking the deer could eat what was left. Well, apparently, some seeds took root and this year we got about 5 pumpkins off the vine. Pretty cool.

And on the menu, Rosemary Rib Roast. It was delicious. Probably a little more rare than I intended because my meat thermometer malfunctioned.

I typically don't have recipes on my blog because I don't usually cook anything that interesting, but I pull out all the stops for special occasions. My friend Becky forwarded this recipe to me. It's one she got out of Southern Living years ago and makes every Christmas. I loved how easy it was to prepare! Here it is . . . 

 

Rosemary Rib Roast

Have the butcher remove the chine bone, and then tie it back on--this will give you the flavor from the bone, but allow you to easily remove it for carving.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Stand: 50 minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings

Ingredients
6  garlic cloves, pressed
2  teaspoons  salt
2  teaspoons  pepper
1  teaspoon  crushed rosemary
2  tablespoons  olive oil
1  (7-pound) 4-rib prime rib roast, chine bone removed
1  cup  sour cream
2  tablespoons  lemon juice
2  tablespoons  horseradish
Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl; rub over roast. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Bake roast at 450° for 45 minutes on lower rack of oven. Reduce temperature to 350°, and bake roast 45 to 50 additional minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 145° (medium-rare) or 160° (medium). Let roast stand 20 minutes.

Combine sour cream, lemon juice, and horseradish; serve with roast.

That's it . . . easy peasy.

 

We're off to Memphis tomorrow to visit the cousins, aunt, uncle and grandparents. I'll be busy doing laundry and packing tonight. Some light reading I'll be taking along . . . 

And some not so light reading . . .

I'm more than halfway through this book and hope to finish it over the holiday. Some of the reader reviews on Amazon were less than favorable, but I'm actually enjoying it. Call me a contrarian.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: Some of you asked if I got the chairs from Habitat. The answer is no. I haven't even had a chance to go back there. Secondly, I have put myself on a self-imposed chair diet. I have too many as it is. This could change next week.

Round-Up

I've done a little browsing here and there this week between other obligations. Here's what I found:

First, a set of four klismos-style chairs I spotted at the Habitat for Humanity store today for $50 each . . .

I loved the shape and thought they would be great around a round table. The problem? Three were side chairs and one had arms. Very strange. Anyway, while perusing blogs today, I ran across this photo from the Elle Decor Showhouse in San Francisco on Katiedid. Check out the dining room by Palmer Weiss (a designer I love): 

Don't these chairs look similar? You could lime the wood and possibly even add fabric to the wood backs for  a similar effect. What do you think?

My big find at the Habitat store was a $3 black cylinder shade for my $4.99 lamp. That's right, my entire lamp came in for a grand total of $8 and some change. Woo hoo!

I'm kind of digging the retro vibe of the lamp. Sorry, I took this at night, so the lighting is not good.

Earlier in the week, I spotted a pair of ceramic foo dogs at an antique mall for $30 for the pair. Thought that was a great deal. Some people don't like the foo, but I still do.

And this French mirror looked extremely familiar, and while I don't remember the exact price, I think it was pretty reasonable. These last two items were at the Winchester Antique Mall in Franklin.

And although this version is much smaller, I knew I had spotted this look recently both here and here.

Wishing you all a Happy Weekend. I'll be hosting our supper club tomorrow night and I'll try and remember to snap some pics of the finished table before dinner.

Sources: Katiedid