Winter, where ARE YOU!!!

I wish winter would really come!!!  I thought it was January, isn't that a winter month?  So far we have only had one afternoon of snow and it didn't stick.  I can live with the "no-sticking" but I would love to see a little falling, ok ALOT falling!!!!

 OK, no more complaining.  I thought I would share the finished office project!

 The sheetrock is finished and we are working on the ceiling.










just a shot of the bead board in the process of the faux finishing and aging.

 finally on the ceiling!! with the fake beams, which are painted with brown paint then pulled out with the brush, that lets the grain show through.

The cabinets are installed and the floors are in!!  The cabinets were made by the contractor, not the greatest, but my husband LOVES them:)   The floors are lumber from Lowes that was sanded and stained, then coated with poly.

The  office has been great, we finally have all the electronics hooked up and he is moved in!  It took a LONG time, it seems anyway, but it is finished and in use!
NOW I get to work on the little room that his office was in originally!  That will be a process too!!  THAT I am looking forward to since it needs paint and everything, I am thinking of a really primitive wall finish.  I will share it all when I complete the plan!

We are very busy at the Mary Washington House this Jan.  the gift shop is closed and we will be working on the inventory!  I have spent several DAYS trying to put together a list of volunteers in a format that all of the volunteers can open in their e-mail.  I finally found a calendar template to use!!  I am not real savvy when it comes to the computer, but this has been fun to figure out!
Volunteers are so important to our historic homes here in Fredericksburg!!  We share our love of great old homes! And it is so neat to be standing in the home where George Washington last saw his Mom before he became President.  She knew that he was to be the First President of our Country but didn't live to see him in office!!   She was a strong woman in Colonial times, even in our time!!  Widowed at a young age with 5 children to raise and a farm to keep up!!  She chose not to remarry, which was usually done in that time, and ran the farm on her own up to the age of 64, when Her eldest son, George, convinced her to move to town!!!  She lived to the age of 87! Not very many people in that era lived to that age!  WHAT A WOMAN:)
Sorry I got on a "Mary Washington" tangent:) LOL
Anyway I am off to work on some inventory!! 
Volunteering is a great gift! Why not volunteer today:)
Happy Jan. and I hope you are getting some snow in your area!





 

Christmas in the Un-Farmhouse!!!

 I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!!

We almost had an Un-Christmas!!:)  With all the construction going on I was hesitant to bring out the decorations and feather trees, since they are antiques and I didn't want them to get dusty!  There STILL seems to be construction dust everywhere!  So the decorating was a little sparse.  I did put some lights on the porch outside which I rarely do because I like the simple "lights in the windows and wreaths"! 

 Every year around Thanksgiving we take the screens off the windows and just after Thanksgiving up go the wreaths!  THIS year is has not been cold enough to take the screens off, since I have had the windows open ALOT!!! we have left them on, so NO wreaths!  Even now I have the window open!!! JAN6th  where is the snow?  CRAZY!!!   It has been nice to be able to open the windows but I always hope for a WHITE Christmas!

SO our Holiday Season started out just fine with everyone home for Thanksgiving!  I made an arrangement for the front door in one of my favorite baskets.  I usually have a large square wreath to which I add fresh leaves and fall things.  I have been bored with the usual decorations, so I decided to use my basket!! Well it lasted about 2 hours or so!!!!!  

Poor little basket!

THANK YOU Mr Squirrel:)

THIS is what I found on the door not so long after I made it!!  I should have thought about the corn! I had to just laugh! and wish the squirrels Happy Thanksgiving!!!  I almost always put corn on the square wreath and they never bothered it at all!! Oh well live and learn:) Hope I remember that next year :)

 At least the crafty squirrels could not get to the centerpiece inside!! :)

I decided to go back to my original plans for Christmas (back to the 1900's when I decorated my first apt)!  I was always going to use fresh greens and fruit for the whole season!   Somewhere along the way the "store bought" things began to show up THEN the antiques!  When the children were little I added some new things to the greens.   As they grew older I added the antiques.  The antiques have taken over! I still always use lots of fresh greens but I can't resist the antiques!

The Nutcracker guard the pineapples!  :)

Here are some of the greens on the mantle, it doesn't show up that well, but we have everything on there including nandina leaves.  I have not used the nandina before but I really like it! It is so light and airy!

The outside got some fresh greens also!

A note about using fresh greens....  A few years ago I was lucky enough to be asked to help decorate a room in the historic home of James Madison,  Montpielier.  We used loads of greens from the property and they told us to spray them with "Mop&Glo" wax.  It only works with Mop&Glo, but it preserves the greens for a really long time.  I forgot about that and have not used it in awhile,  but I am going to make a note to try it next year!!

 

 

A few of my favorite ornaments for the tree!

Nutcrackers peeking out of the new office windows!

Even with all of the construction and turmoil our holiday was great, just not long 

enough!!

I have lots of pictures to share of the office so I will post them all at once:)  I am now going to take down the tree!  I always hate taking it down because it doesn't seem dried yet:)  AND I really didn't get the chance to look at it much this year!  OK maybe I will wait until tomorrow!  As Miss Scarlett said "Tomorra is anothea day"!

NOVEMBER!!! REALLY!!!

I have NO idea what happened to Oct!!  I can't believe it is already Nov!!!

Between time flying by and not being able to get into the blogspot site I am WAY behind:)

SO the room is coming along!  Here are some pictures.

HERE IS WHERE WE HAVE BROKEN THROUGH INTO THE NEW OFFICE

THE BEGINNING !

ANOTHER VIEW

THE VEIW INTO THE HOUSE.  NOW THIS IS WHERE THE POCKET DOORS ARE.

THE POCKET DOORS !!

FROM THE OUTSIDE

It sticks out more that we thought, but hopefully when the siding is added it won't look quite so huge!
The weather is great and it is easy to work right now!  Today they put on the tin roof.  I am happy with the color!

THIS IS THE VIEW FROM THE UPSTAIRS ROOM.

I AM LIKING THIS ROOF:)  I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THEM.  THIS ISN'T RUSTED BUT IT IS STILL TIN!!!










I will be back SOON for a little tutorial on glazing!

I sure hope that y'all are having comfortable weather so that you can go out an play!  I love to look for leaves and berries for now and Christmas.  Yesterday we went looking for bittersweet!! The patch that I got some from last year is GONE!!!  Now NO bittersweet, yet that is:)

I hope your week is great and you have a chance to take a nice walk outside and breath the fall air!!!

THE FRONT DOOR BLUES.....

We seem to be working on our house all the time!  This year we are adding an office  for my husband.  It is off the Tavern room and will have 2 openings into the new room.  We will have pocket doors so that when he has meetings he can close it off from the rest of the house.  Now with a new section being built, the old section needs a little TLC.  So we decided to put in a new front door.  We decided on replacing the door and sidelight,  that we have now with a set of double doors with glass at the top for more light. We have been thinking about this for awhile now so we decided to go ahead with it!  We are hoping to find a set of reproduction doors and the search has started!  And I don't think it is going to be too easy to find!!

This is the door now.  It is metal and over the years became scratched and dented. I wanted to wait until I could find the best door:)  So to hid the bad areas with some graining and combing. 

This is a close up of the door.  This works great for other areas too such as kitchen cabinets!

I added the missing knob after this picture:)

These are the pantry doors.  This really hides alot of dings:)  I think next year we will improve the kitchen and I am thinking about various tones of white.  I love the white and sort of brownish color of old ironstone.  We'll see:)

The best part of this whole addition is that I get to have the bedroom back that is now the office!!  I can't wait!  I am thinking about color for the walls and what type of aging I will do.  Stay tuned:)

Today was a beautiful fall day!!  The leaves have started falling and I just love to hear them!! So I spent part of the day painting the porch doors!  I will take a picture to show the whole finished porch!! Just in time to sit with hot tea and look over some of the magazines that are in a stack waiting to be opened!!

Well tomorrow I am off to an actual store to look for shoes to wear to our daughter's wedding!  Since it is in a park I need something easy to walk in:) YUK I hate to go into retail stores:)  If it is not an antique store or a thrift store, I just DON'T think it is fun :0)

Wish me luck and take some time to listen to the leaves falling !!

BEAUTIFUL ~ BUSY FALL !

I think that all the seasons are my "favorites"!! But there is something a little tranquil about fall.  I love going through the old magazines and planning Thanksgiving and Christmas!!  This year however, we are planning a new room on the house and a Wedding!!!  Yep our daughter is getting married in a beautiful park overlooking the Hudson river!  She always wanted a fall wedding and here it is!!!  I can't wait to see the decorations our other daughter will be doing for the tables!  I know it will all be great!!  

SOOO about that room!  Well my husband desperately needed an office so we decided to bite the bullet and build one!  Hopefully when the room is finished we can talk about some AGING,  since I wanted this to be an informative blog:)  I seem to be the only aging so far:) 

This will be an outside door for his meetings, so that the visitors don't have to go through the house and face 2 big, but sweet, baking dogs!!

Hoping this tree will survive!

the inside.

This room will be off the "tavern" room, so now that room will be a little dark SO we may add windows to that room, NOW the front door looks terrible!! SO looking for new door, which leads to the inside of the porch!  We will be adding ceiling fans to that!!  I am a Southern Girl after all so I need to porch sit on both the front and back!!  Not sure when I will have TIME for all that sittin but at least it will be there!! In the cool weather,  a hot flash gives me the excuse to sit outside:)

The part I like the most will be the tin roof! Pictures will be coming as soon as it is on:)

The problem here is ~~ Do we decorate the office like the Tavern Room or give it its own personality?  We will enter the office from the house through the Tavern Room!  Where the windows are now, will be openings with pocket doors.  Not the best design but hopefully it will work.  I am guessing we will
 NEVER be able to sell this house!  It will surely be DIFFERENT:) 

I hope everyone has a great Fall day!!

I HAVE NEVER MEET A GOURD I DIDN'T LIKE!!!!!

I have been cleaning out my "fall cupboard" and I can't believe how many gourds I have collected over the years!!!  I can't seem to pass up  a cute gourd!!!  They have dried really great and I will try to find time to paint some and maybe sell some on the Picture Trail site.  If I can part with them!  This year I am NOT buying more!!  Well, I will try not to!

Fall is in the air Finally!!!  I even think some of the leaves are starting to change.   I don't remember that happening so early before.  That means it is Apple Time.   Applesauce is on the menu this weekend.  The northwest part of VA is a great place for good ole fresh apples.   Also time to get on over to Starbucks for their caramel apple cider!  Thank goodness for the drive through, I can paint and take a break without having to change out of my work clothes!   This is sometimes a problem, since I often feel the "NEED" for more breaks than usual!

SO take an apple break this weekend and treat yourself to that great caramel apple cider!

YES Virginia there is a Mother Nature!!!!!

Last week is a week that I will always remember!!  I am sure that I am not alone when I say WHAAAAT?

An earthquake in VA ?????  When I first felt the tremor, I just thought TREMOR!  THEN shaking, crashing and loud noise!!!  I realized that it was at least a category 4 quake.  While we were in the high desert of CA we felt those several times since we were on the San Andreas Fault.  The house really didn't shake and we didn't lose anything to crashing:)  The pots and pans hanging on the  pot rack did rattle a little and that was about it!

  THIS house swayed and stuff crashed in random places.  By the time I decided what to do, it was over, even though it seemed like an hr or more:)  I couldn't believe the power, too bad we can't harness that!!! Our poor dog Charlie is still nervous,  Rowdy was like "Whatever"!!! 

 We were lucky to have minimal losses.  Some antique mirrors fell off the mantle in the bedroom and one of them smashed to pieces the other one was not hurt at all the third one, my favorite with a reverse painting on the top, suffered a clean break so I think I can repair it!  Almost all of the little sheep were just laying down on their shelves just as if they new what to do :)

  NOTE TO SELF next time HANG the mirrors, don't just lean them against the wall!!

The hurricane was scary too and for several nights I left the tv on all night to mask the sounds so that Charlie could settle down some. I have never left the tv on all night, but I think it helped some. With the hurricane behind us and the yard cleared of the fallen limbs and branches, we were on the road to recovery! 

Monday was a great day, but Tuesday was terrible.  

 Around 2:00 in the afternoon Charlie had a horrible seizure!  It scared me to death!  I called the vet and  he said to bring him in when he was over the seizure and calming down.   I threw him in the truck and took off.  Luckily the vet is close by.  The Dr was not sure what caused his seizure, but gave me some anxiety meds for him.  I gave one pill to my poor little boy and I do think it helped. He was a little better and slept all that night.   He seems to be a little better now!  I am watching him like a hawk!!  

My husband was in beautiful Wisconsin through all of Mother Nature's tirade!!! 

This little "Mother Nature Show" has really thrown me off as far as fall decorating and plans go! Hopefully by next week I will have some things to share! 

For now I have some scherenscnitte to share!

Little Girl with Her Bird, painted background in a combed frame

Brother and Sister, painted background with combed frame

 

Brother and Sister Parade, painted background, aged frame.

Little Flower Girl, painted background, paint embellished frame.

For more information or to purchase please go to www.picturetrail.com/tansyanniestudio

I hope you all have a safe and peaceful Labor day weekend!