MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY!!!

I've been especially busy for this holiday season. I've taken on a second job to help with all of the added expenses but I will ALWAYS find time to decorate for the holidays. I hosted the family Christmas this year and thanks to heavy support from my sisters, I was able to do what I love the most. So here are some pics from my house. Enjoy!

The Table

Don't know what the food tasted like but the table looked great!

The Living Room Mantle

The king is from mom. She put 3 of them out every year for Christmas)

My Tree

Adoned with gold, silver and green and white ornaments and knick-knacks. I loved the theme.

The Family Room Mantle
Located in the same room as the Christmas Tree and all the same colors were used.

Learned how to make bows this year and I made lots of them!!!


I hope you enjoyed viewing these as much as I enjoyed creating.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL AND HOPE 2010 IS A GREAT YEAR FOR YOU....

Ann

"SETTING" THE STAGE

Christians confirmation was last Sunday. Here are some pics from the small dinner party we had afterward. My favorite part is always the table setting!!

I kept the fall theme going throughout the house and just added things to the table. I almost almost always use chargers and I have several plate collections to mix and match. I also don't like hiding the table and I hate store-bought runners so I folded and pressed a silk piece of fabric down the center and used that. It is something to put the water glasses and the centerpiece on.

Can't wait to do my Christmas table!!!

MERCHANDISING MY KITCHEN CABINET

I've been home for the last 3 days with my son who had the flu, poor baby. When there was nothing left to clean...I took on yet another project - my kitchen cabinet. So here we go.

I don't have a before picture, but this is my end result. This kitchen cabinet has been "reworked a thousand times since we've been in this house. In my kitchen, every inch of storage is utilized and this cabinet is no exception. This new display includes my everyday wine glasses, my everday coffee mugs and the rest is collected pieces from my stash, all lit up with my new puck lights.

A good display involves good balance. The black items match my black appliances. The green items are my backdrop and a color that runs through my house. The clear wine glasses add reflective quality add sparkle. Everything else is a filler.

This cabinet is the first thing you see when you enter the kitchen and can also be viewed from the front door. A great place for a display cabinet if your contemplating a kitchen remodel. Next time I'll go a frameless cabinet so the center stile is elimated.

What to do tomorrow.....

Fall Into My Entry

I love the fall decor and colors so much I thought I'd share how I decorated my small entry table...from start to finish. Not much space to work with but I always begin with 2 or 3 key pieces.

Then I add some fall pics to fill in the bare spots and add lots of color.

Next comes some pretty ribbon and candles........always candles for sparkle!

And voila!! I even stuck a couple of black wire spiders and spider votive holders that I found at a garage sale in there.

I'm ready for Halloween or Thanksgiving....Can't wait to decorate for Christmas!

Time For Fall Decorating

The colors for fall are so warm and inviting. When decorating for any season, I don't believe in completely removing all of your current decor. Just add to it using the colors, accessories of the season. Make sure you edit if necessary so the look isn't too cluttered. This rooster and floral arrangement were already on my serving counter. I just added a few extra pics to bring out some of the colors in the adjoining family room and added a couple of glass jar pumpkins and filled them with decorative gourds and candy corn.


Fall pics and ribbon added to my armoire......

So easy fornd me to decorate my tabletops and mantles for fall. I grab my favorite pics from the craft store and intertwine them with orange lights and grapevine so they stay secure and I play around from there. Here I used some candlesticks that were already there but just changed out the candles for fall theme.

My Favorite Garden Room

This is my favorite room to escape. What you don't see in this photo is a beautiful floral chair that brings all of the colors of the room together. In the morning the sun beams in and in the evening I can sit on my antique, reupholstered sofa - given to me by my great aunt - and enjoy a glass of wine. It's a comforting place for me. Where is your favorite room to escape? Do you have one?

My Very First Post

After agonizing for a week, I finally decided what to write for my first blog. Its going to be a story...I like stories....hope you do to. This is how I became a decorator and why. Like most of you I was home raising my kids, who were now in school full time, wondering if I should return back to work. My former profession as a retail manager and visual merchandiser was not an option. The hours are too demanding and I wanted to be home with my kids. I've always love decorating the homes of friends and family. I looked into formal education several times and the cost and time associated with college seemed unattainable so I continued on the course of decorating for free for friends, family and family friends. "OK," my sister said. "It's time to start charging people." I did. I couldn't believe it! People were actually paying me! I would get referrals from happy customers and it was wonderful. I learned really fast though, that there were a lot of things I didn't know. People in "the business" would call us "just housewife decorators." Then the time came. We all have those pivotal moments in out lives that changes us forever. For me it was losing my mom. She passed away from a very brief and unexpected illness with cancer. It was then that I decided that this life was too short to stand on the sidelines and watch all of your dreams and passions pass you buy. I mad the decision to finally go back to school. I was in my mid forties and going back to school. I wanted to formally call myself an "Interior Designer"- a professional! Finally no longer a housewife decorator. How did I pay for it? My clients actually did. All of the money I eventually charged went directly toward tuition and books. No loans, no grants, nothing. My clients and I did it together...and a really good bookkeeper - my sister. I graduated on the deans list with so much more knowledge, confidence and best of all, zero debt. The only debt I have is to my clients or

people like me who love to decorate but just needed a little bit of help along the way. Most with small decorating budgets just like me and a yearning for the room from the magazine.

So I'll be writing to not only teach you what I've learned but to to be your decorator. I'd like to take your ideas and make them work. If you don't have the ideas, I'll give them to you. I found throughout my experiences that all of us are creative in some way, we just need a little guidance sometimes. We all want to make an Impression.

Ann