Adding some green

Yesterday I used the sunny afternoon to visit the nursery around the corner to purchase first greens to decorate the house for the holidays. Just a couple of branches are enough to make it work for me. I do like simple arrangements best. Candles and all my other decorations take care of the rest.








There is a wreath with lights on the front door, greeting us in the dark when we come home. We will add and refresh the greens as the days go by, decorating the Christmas tree in mid December. I use a fresh evergreen garland over the mantel, but I will do it in the next weeks. This way it will still be fragrant by Christmas Day!

Do you use fresh greens?


xx
Victoria



Pictures by V.Zlotkowski

Magic carpet

A few weeks ago I looked through eBay, a hobby of sorts, to find treasures to blog about or to find things I happen to look around for our own needs. One of those needs has been a carpet for our living room. A carpet has not been on our have -to -have -list, for the obvious reasons: Always something else more needed!
But then I hit the jackpot finding a beauty...
The PB navy wool chain link carpet. The price was more then right (A $ 299 bargain), 100 % wool, the colors and pattern absolute perfect and all I needed to do was convincing my better half that now was the right time.
I succeeded!


Click to enlarge the images.

And here comes the magic: Since the carpet arrived, a day before Thanksgiving (A magic in itself, it was not expected until Dec.1) everybody is drawn to it's cheerful pattern, it's warmth and the room now feels completed and chic!


We love this carpet!



xx Victoria



Pictures by V.Zlotkowski

Thanksgiving 2010

May this Thanksgiving be filled with the blessings of the harvest season and our hearts grateful for all what we have received!
Wishing you a joyous day with your families and friends!

xx

Victoria





Picture by V. Zlotkowski

11 pictures

Six more weekends until 2011... The year has flown by, I still remember our beginnings at Vermont.
January came with snow...


February brought an enormous blizzard... with a blackout for many days!


There was the Orchid Show in March.


April had the Easter bunny.


Makeover May.


June and the end of the school year...


July travels to our destinations in Europe - Germany...


August in Italy!


September bringing back our American life...


October filled with joy.


And November with some home work...



It has been a wonder filled year until now, we are so looking forward to Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season! We are grateful!
May you all celebrate your year and all the memories you are keeping close to your hearts!

xx
Victoria



All pictures by V. Zlotkowski.

Weekends roll around...

Weekends roll around and it's almost Thanksgiving. I am a little scared as how fast the time passes by, I am still feeling the afterglow of this summer. This makes me sometimes melancholic and as I sit near the fireplace, crackling with a fire to warm the house I reflect on my life. The old feeling of an endless amounts of time ahead of me gives way more often to the awareness of it's passing. My own time span is thankfully unknown to me, but I think about what I have done with my life until now and how often I feel the need to do more. To be more creative, more active, more caring, more loving. Less selfish - more selfish?
There is this voice pushing me onward to new goals, yet they are still hidden. Sitting here I try to listen.
How often do you have the time to concentrate on the inner dialog? There are so many distractions...
The time is always now and I am fully aware of this. To embrace this very moment, to live in the presence, to look at this fire, which will burn down in a while and to enjoy the dancing flames.
To embrace the family, to spend the extra time with parents, who are getting older and with friends. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday to reflect upon life, the intensity of every moment and the importance of being together - now!
There are people without contacts, lonely, often quietly so. Neighbors without family, the odd fellow. Perhaps we can embrace them too, pack an extra meal, or a small gift. Time is a wonderful present. Many people are just grateful to talk.


I will keep this in mind as the holiday season rolls around and we get caught up in all the festive preparations...



Wishing you a great week!

xx
Victoria



Tre pictures my own, hands via goggle image.

Friday flowers

Happy weekend, my friends!

xx
Victoria




Picture by V.Zlotkowski

Calendar 2011

By October the calendars are out in the shops and I eagerly await their arrival every year. I do not know why, but the thought of a new calendar makes me happy with anticipation and hope for the coming year. We usually have made plans by then for the next seasons, when to visit families and friends, what trips to plan and which places to visit. I love to see the month displayed on a beautiful calendar. And we like to write our laid out planes into the new calendar. Fixing plans on paper makes them become somewhat real, no?
We have had many different styles over the years, depending on our mood and interest: I remember Marc Chagall and Picasso, Japanese wood block prints, whimsical Norman Rockwell Americana, Tuscany and New England calendars, Castles of Scotland, plant drawings of the 18Th century, historic world maps and this year a collection of old Train posters (gorgeous).

For 2011 I selected this beauty:
'The Art of Ornament - Museum of Fine Arts Boston'


All images are works by Eugene Grasset, a graphic designer and teacher whose innovative decorative patterns were an important inspiration for the Art Nouveau style at the end of the nineteenth century. Born in Switzerland, Grasset was trained as an architect and moved in 1871 to Paris, where he began working as a designer for fabrics and graphic ornament. Adapting influences from sources as varied as medieval stained glass, Near Eastern art, and Japanese prints, Grasset developed his distinctive style of bold, strongly outlined colors for posters, ceramics, stained glass, and tapestries, in addition to the furnishings for a Montmartre cabaret.
He taught at the then newly established Ecole Normale d'Enseignement du Dessin, developed his theories of graphic design for his students, especially his reliance on natural forms as the basis for developing decorative motifs. His work has influenced many others!


I can't wait to hang it on it's usual spot, come end of December and to look forward to all the new year will bring!

More calendar inspirations can be found here.


XX
Victoria