Open House Part 3

The last part shows the library and the master suite. The library is where we spend most of our time, especially in the winter when we run the little gas fireplace.

I hope you enjoyed the Open House here Amongst The Oaks.

Open House Part 2

In this video you see everyone's favorite room; the kitchen. You also see the laundry room and the the back garden. In the garden is a large patio for entertaining, a huge fireplace, the guest house, and a lawn area for croquet.

Open House Part 1

We had an Open House Sunday and had LOTS of traffic. I thought you might like to see our little English cottage too. It has never looked so good or been so clean. This first video shows the front of the house, the living room, the dining room, the first two bedrooms, and the main bath.

We did a whirlwind clean up of Teen2's bedroom including painting the walls a warm grey. If I'd had more time I would have staged it a little better with a desk, but I just plain ran out of time and energy.

If you have any questions, just post a comment and I'll try to answer.

Toile Lamp Shades

After Teen1 (I need to think of a new name for her since she's not a teen anymore) moved out I was left with a nice freshly painted blue bedroom, new beige carpet and a new off-white Roman shade. She took her bed and furniture so I gathered together Grandmother's stuff again; a brass bed and an Empire style dresser. Then I studied it all for a while trying to think of a more traditional scheme that would work with the colors. I've always loved toile, so I figured black and white toile was the answer.

I'm going to make a toile bedskirt and some pillows for the bed too, but I started with the lampshades. I got those pre-sticky ones at JoAnne's and some sticky trim for the edges too. I also got little black tassels. The lamp shades were very easy to do and I'm quite pleased with the results.

Did you know you could get these fancy little knobs at OSH? You just unscrew the plain brown plastic ones and screw these in their place. Too cute, eh?

So here we are Amongst The Oaks actually making progress on the Guest Room Remodel.

Grapevines

Just before Thanksgiving a friend of mine asked if I would paint some grapevines over the arches in his entry area. It sounded like a fun project, so I said yes and took some measurements and made some patterns. Then I enlisted the help of Teen2 and we did the work the day after Thanksgiving.

We started by spotting in the medium brown for the branches and popping in some highlights. Then we started on the medium green in the leaves and added lowlights and highlights. Lastly we did the grapes starting with the midtones, then the lowlights, then the highlights. Somewhere in there I painted the cast shadows which really helps to make it look realistic.

Teen2 was a lot of help, but the best part was just working with her and getting a chance to talk without all the usual interruptions. And I didn't have to worry about her messing it up since she's a great artist. Thanks Teen2!

Teeny Tiny Bathroom

After a long break we are back to working on the cottage again. The Lord of the Manor installed the bathroom sink last weekend and today Teen2 and I made some curtains.

This teeny tiny bathroom is only about 3'x8' and the sink area cantilevers out over a flower bed. We made a curtain for the window and a curtain to hide the plumbing under the sink. To the left is the shower and to the right is the toilet. Now we just need to connect the water heater and we will be ready to host a guest here Amongst The Oaks.

Hogwarts and Hogsmeade

Here is the set up for the front of the Three Broomsticks. I had to position a spot light up on the siding to help the name show, but I'm quite happy with it. Next I'll start decorating the inside to look like a pub.

And here is the Hogwarts sign over the front door. It too is made of Sintra (that PVC sign material). It was more difficult to illuminate and I'm not exactly happy with how it looks. Maybe I'll try another spot light from a different angle. I want it to be easy to read and right now the shadows are too confusing. Maybe the green light isn't right? What do you think. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Favorite Projects from 2009

Lots of projects got done Amongst The Oaks in 2009. It all started in January with painting Teen2's bedroom purple, then repainting the main bath, then repainting the laundry room. By Spring we were adding a disposal, hanging a map, planting lettuce, and installing more drip irrigation. Summer found us painting Acorn cottage, making drop cloth curtains, refinishing chairs, and making flowery bunting. As the weather cooled we prepared for Halloween by making tiny coffins, tombstones, graveyard columns, and potion bottles. Then came Fall with touches of white for the dining room, and finally Christmas with glitter houses and cranberry glass ornaments. Oh, and the Lord of the Manor totally rebuilt Teen1's car.



All great projects, but here are my favorite ones for the year:

REPAINTING THE BATHROOM TIFFANY BLUE

INSTALLING A SECOND DISPOSAL IN THE KITCHEN


HANGING MAPS IN THE KITCHEN

USING OLD CURTAINS TO RECOVER MY IRONING BOARD...

AND MAKE THIS MARVELOUS BUNTING

REFINISHING THESE CHAIRS

MAKING CURTAINS OUT OF DROP CLOTHS

MAKING STYROFOAM GRAVEYARD COLUMNS FOR HALLOWEEN

MAKING POTIONS BOTTLES

MAKING GLITTER HOUSES

You may ask how we got all that done plus the usual stuff, plus work every day. Well the Lord of the Manor and I have a system. Every January we put considerable thought into our goals for the New Year. We actually walk around the house inspecting things and looking for things that not only need doing, but things we'd like to do or change. And we write them all down on a pad of yellow paper. And we keep that pad handy in a kitchen drawer and pull it out often to see what's next. And you know what? It works! Sometimes you only have a few hours and need a small project, and you see "install drip irrigation to hanging baskets" and there you go - a perfect Sunday afternoon project. Other times you choose a big project, but even that can be broken down into manageable steps to make it less daunting or time consuming. Maybe the planning stage will only take two hours? Maybe the next weekend the shopping stage will only take three hours? Maybe prep work can be done a little at a time in the evenings? Then maybe the next weekend the actual work will only take six hours. Don't let a big project beat you before you even get started - just break it down into manageable steps.

As projects get finished and checked off, you have a real sense of accomplishment and at the end of the year you feel great as you look back at all you've done. Not everything gets done, but you can put that on next year's list or you can just forget about it. That's the beauty of this system: you make the list, so you own the list. You can change it, add to it, or delete from it as you see fit.

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So we have already made our lists for 2010 and it promises to be a year filled with interesting projects which I will share with you as we finish them. But don't think I'm going to show you those lists - then we'd feel obligated to do everything on them!

Wishing you success with all your projects in 2010 from everyone here Amongst The Oaks.

Glitter Village

We got the little Glitter Village set up the other night. First we stacked some books up on a table with about 5" of books in the back, about 3" on the sides, and about 2" in the front. Then we laid a set of icicle lights on them and covered that with two layers of batting. I trimmed the batting to match the shape of the table and we poked holes for the icicle lights where we wanted each house.

Then we snaked each lights up through the batting, added the houses and poked the lights into the houses. Lastly we added some bottle brush trees and a few little figures. Voila, Glitter Village.

Here's Billy getting a card out of his mailbox.

Here's the choir leaving the church after practice.

Here the mailman delivering more Christmas cards.

And here are the kids who live at the little brown cabin making a snowman. The cabin was Teen1's idea and I like it a lot.

A word of advice if you decide to make some glitter houses: DO NOT use a toothpaste box to make a house like I did. The cardboard is so thin that you can read "Whitening Tartar Protection" right through the roof! Maybe a few more coats of paint will help, but for now I'm thinking the Crest House isn't making the grade here Amongst The Oaks.

Red Cliff Tureen

I'm almost finished with the buffet, but I need a little advice. Here's the basic arrangement, but do you think I should put small white pumpkins on the Martha Stewart cake pedestals? (I got those yesterday at Macy's. They were on sale for only $16.00 each! Regularly $28.00 each, which I wouldn't have spent.) Or maybe something else? Please leave a comment with your suggestion.

So here is the soup tureen from my MIL that started this arrangement. I Googled Red Cliff soup tureen and found {gulp!} that this baby is valuable. Replacementsdotcom had one just like it for $479.95! Nearly fell off my chair.

Anyway, it is beautiful, and I've always displayed it, but I'm glad I put it in a more prominent position where everyone can admire it.

Nice contrast against that dark wallpaper. Don't tell Julia (aka LOM, aka the Lord of the Manor) but I'm thinking of getting rid of that wallpaper and painting the dining room gray. A sort of dark gray, then overglazed with a lighter gray which I would comb to create a grainy texture. What do you think?

These pitchers are from Home Goods and are definitely not Red Cliff, but they support the grouping nicely and since I already have lots of pitchers they add to my collection.

So here it is, almost done except for some accent on those pedestals. Any ideas?

White Project

After the old, crumbly, creepy, decaying mess of Halloween, I'm feeling like I need something fresh, and clean, and bright, and white! So I'm sprucing up my dining room with white. I was inspired by the white ironstone soup tureen my MIL gave me many years ago. It sits on top of the china cupboard all the time, but I put it front and center on the buffet the day after Halloween.

Then I shopped the house and found this mirror from Home Depot which I painted white.

And these two lamps got painted white too.

Then I mixed some glaze with just a little gray....

and painted it over the two coats of white. Then I rubbed almost all of it off leaving a slightly grayish look in the details.

Now, won't these look nice next to the ironstone? I should be able to put everything together Saturday and show you the results. See you Saturday here Amongst The bright, clean, white Oaks.

Dining Room Decor

Our Halloween Party is next Saturday so I've got the dining room all decorated. The potions ended up on the buffet along with one of those pots of fire and a dead rose bouquet. And lots of spiderwebs courtesy of Teen1. I supported the pot of fire on three branches wired together to form a tripod. And I hung the old tapestry from last year.

And nearly all my potions are arranged here on the buffet. I made a few more over the weekend....

like this Polyjuice Potion.....

and this Pepperup Potion...

and these toad spleens....

and this jar of poisonous mushrooms.

To prepare the dining room table I first put some boxes and books on the table to provide different levels for the various dishes, then put several tablecloths crookedly over that, then layered on some more old books, tarnished silver platters, old candlesticks with blood dripped candles, and a skull, some cockroaches and some mice. And of course, more spiderwebs.

I also printed out these little tombstones where I will write what each dish is; like Fire Roasted Flesh Worm, Kitty Litter Cake, Scream Cheese with Blood Jelly, etc.

I guess that's it from Amongst The Oaks where we are just hanging around waiting for Halloween.