Open House Party

 

 

Welcome to the Open House party.

 

I am so happy you are here and I can't wait to see what you have to share.  You will

find the link to join the party at the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to those of you that linked to last week's party.  If you are featured this week feel

free to grab my party button. 

 

 

 

Doreen at Hymns & Verses created this pretty Valentine vignette.  Just look at the cute cow!

Freddy and Petunia took a vintage globe and made two unique and AMAZING sconces. 

Okay,  these brownies could become my favorite guilty pleasure.  Barbara @ 21 Rosemary Lane
shared this delicious recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake swirl brownies...yum!

This beautiful collection of brown transferware belongs to Sarah at Hyacinths For The Soul.  In
this post she shares many of her fabulous containers.

I hope you enjoyed the features this week and now on to the party......

 



A Vibrant Eclectic Interior With a Vintage Feel

I've been looking for an interior to share this week that is a little out of the ordinary and when I stumbled upon this home at JJ locations, I just had to share it with you.  The house is an 8 bedroom Victorian villa set in 2 acres of gardens. Clever use colour, patchwork fabrics and wallpaper, along with an eclectic mix of furnishing has created a comfortable vintage feel to this unusual interior. 

This vibrant home in Somerset, UK is available for film/photo shoots, see more images of this unique interior at JJ locations.

Gift Wrapped - Christmas Inspiration 2012

I am not one for solely following tradition and those 1 metre rolls of shiny paper scattered with trees and snowmen and candy bars are definitely past their "sell by date". Myself, I keep a stock of embellishments on hand which are really great for last minute wrapping. Collect vintage beads or jewelry, broken vintage pieces and old buckles can be put to use. Buckles can be threaded onto wide or narrow ribbon and secured around your parcel. Pieces of jewelry can be hot glued onto the ribbon or parcel itself. There are endless ways to wrap.  

I have been browsing the Internet and found some "non traditional" but fabulous ways to wrap your gifts. lots more inspiration can be seen on my Pinterest board, I have added a link at the end of this post.

 

You can find many more gift wrap ideas on my Pinterest board "Gift Wrapped"

Happy wrapping!

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I Did Tell You

1| Image via Style Me Pretty 
2|Collage created by Lee Caroline - Via Style Me Pretty 
3|Collage created by Lee Caroline - Via Style Me Pretty.


Sending out prayers to all the familes affected by the tradgedy of Newtown CT

Christmas Mantelpiece - Simple - Elegant

On a dull, wet, Auckland Spring day I tried to get some photos of my Christmas mantelpiece.  I'm not so happy with the image results, still waiting for that elusive upgrade camera, "I know, ya..ya.. you have heard this before". However, yet another Christmas I have had to make do with my point and shoot, so please excuse the fact that I don't have a wide angle lens, and I had to work in poor light.  I am a perfectionist at heart and would rather wait until I have that perfect camera, but I realise, if I wait for perfection, my readers would too. I am thankful for photo enhancement to add some light to the images, although I may have over done it slightly.

I wanted this years mantel to reflect nature and elegance, and to include items of mine and my mothers. For nature, I chose Orchids, I adore them and they flower for such a long time, I knew they would see Christmas and New Year too. My pair of porcelain Cheetahs complimented the white orchids and their black pots and added to the symmetry.  I then  up cycled a vintage fruit salad glass that belonged to my mum. I had lots of old broken pearl necklaces of my mothers and placed these in the bottom of the glass, adding a simple white candle. I finished off with a delicate garland of tiny silver stars to swag across the mantel and voila!... Simple but definitely elegant, don't you think?

Poppy was totally miffed yet again at being dressed up, she is giving me her, "sad dog" look.

If you want to see my mantelpiece from last year, please visit "here" or if you still haven't planned your own mantelpiece and want more inspiration see my previous post "Christmas Mantelpiece Decorations".

Later this week I'll be sharing more images of my living room makeover decorated for Christmas and next week my Christmas tablescape which this year is a touch of "vintage". I'll  be using all the beautiful vintage items I have inherited from my mother to create a pretty vintage Christmas tablescape.

Last years tablescape of mauve and silver can be seen "here"

Have a wonderful week, start to plan your Christmas day meal now so you won't stress.  If you haven't thought about gifts yet, you might want to check out some of my  gift ideas "here", its still not too late to order on line.

Sharing this post with...

I Should Be Mopping The Floor

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

Time Travel Thursday at the Brambleberry Cottage

Show and tell Friday at My Romantic Home
The Shabby Creek Cottage

At The Picket Fence

I Did Tell You