In the Deep Midwinter...............

                                                                     


                                                                 It's cold here.........

     Everything is brown...........

or brown.......

The branches are stark against the sky......

My Little Boy statue is buried in his leafy wrap...

and the animals are wearing their thickest coats....

I live in what's also known as the "Deep South", in Georgia

below Atlanta, almost in the middle of the state.  We get

a taste of winter this time of year....it does get cold, plants die, 

water freezes.....and the long underwear does get used.  But about

this time of year we see that annual miracle that always takes

me by surprise.....usually after a couple of sunny days of milder weather....

The cheerful yellow daffodil is starting to make it's appearance.....

It's always amazing to me, how these miracles of God know when

it's time to come up through the coldest days of winter to let

us know that everything's working as planned, that spring will eventually come...

And there's something about a daffodil....it's just such

a bright and sunny flower, I don't think you can look at one without smiling.....

I'm wondering how many of us when we were children picked these 

for our teacher on the way to school, or for our mothers....

A few years ago I picked a bundle, rolled them up in a very wet wad

of paper towels, put them in a ziploc bag and sent them to a friend up in

New England.  I just knew that a little bit of natural sunshine would

be appreciated by everyone....and she said they lasted for over a week!!

I love all kinds of flowers.......to me they all are beautiful and

special in their uniqueness, and I surround myself with them in the yard

and garden when the last frost is over.....but there is something about

 the determined daffodil.....that beautiful little soldier that you can depend on

every midwinter in the south, to come up and brighten the landscape just when 

you could use a little color among the browns......

I hope you all will be enjoying your own local daffodils soon wherever you are....

Just another one of Gods gifts to us.....

devon :)

Woody Loves Brenda

I've been spending the morning redoing my computer room/office area where I spend a large portion of my waking moments :)  One of the pieces in the room is a large, heavy bookcase/shelf unit (?) that I bought a long time ago at the Lakewood Flea Market in Atlanta, before they shut down.  There was a man there who made furniture using old doors and windows, and when i saw this piece I had to have it.

He had taken old door frames and put it together like a big bookcase.......

One of the things I love about using old pieces for furniture is the
"character" they come with.......shabby,chippy, old, worn..........

and sometimes the unexpected..........

What is that, up there..........??

                            Look closer.............

Woody Loves Brenda.........

                                                             with a scary heart face.......

Poor Woody, he's not much of an artist........!!

My plan is to eventually reorganize my files and drawers and use the shelves as storage, but in the meantime, I needed to fill them with something.............

I took the top shelf and made it a "baby-theme", using vintage photographs, books, shoes and sterling, and the lamp that I made in this older post..........

For the middle shelf I went with the vintage lady-romantic look, with some sheet
music and jewelry thrown in with some more vintage pictures....

The bottom shelf is still kind of unfinished, I put some magazine files on it
with a vintage tray...............

The top of the bookcase has had an old child's rocking horse on it........it likes it up there.....

So I'm still working on it.........It will be more useful once it holds a lot of the stuff
hiding in the desk drawers at the moment.........I need to make a trip to the container store or Ikea for some of their storage containers for shelves.  In the meantime I can enjoy looking at some of the vintage pieces to fill the space.......

And Woody and Brenda will always be there too!!

                                                        Wishing you a wonderful day!!

                                                                         devon :)

Getting "The Look"

I guess I'm like a lot of people.....once I get all the Christmas decorations packed away I'm usually looking at having to redo a lot of rooms in the house;  Bookshelves, tabletops, the front foyer.........in our house the whole family room is rearranged to make a spot for the tree, and furniture is moved to accommodate it .  But now everything is a little hollow........I usually put things away in boxes to make room for the Christmas stuff, so now I have holes I need to fill, and new vignettes to work on.  The red transfer ware china has to be put back and that means the pine cupboard is going to need some attention.  And it's this time of year, when I have all this empty "palate" in front of me, that I long for a new look in the house.  And it's usually the same look I'm after.....

The following pictures belong to and are off the Nancy Fishelson design page........
She's been written up and profiled many times in magazines, mainly Country Living, where I first saw her work. I just LOVE her style................

The pictures speak for themselves......lots of white, lots of natural textures............

One thing I noticed in her design is that she uses a good amount of greenery to
offset the white.......It looks so pretty and adds such a simple touch to the rooms.
So the other day I went in search of some greenery of my own,
and was able to find some really good, affordable plants at my local grocery store.
I haven't started to pull my rooms together, but I did find some homes
for the plants, and I'm hoping to somewhat duplicate the look that
I love so much in her pictures.........

Ivy's a natural choice for me............I just love it, the way it trails and spills out of containers.............

I like to take old drawers and try to use them as planters.........this one's really narrow though, the pots were almost too small to squish in!!  Stoneware bowls make good containers too.........this is one of my favorites......

Ferns are a good choice, they have that airy quality about them......
but they can be a little tricky, for me anyway..........
as far as "shedding"..........

And I'm a sucker for Creeping Fig plants, I love the look of the leaf.........
but I confess I have a hard time as finding out their true comfort zone
in the watering dept.

Here's the white handled box that's been in a
few of the previous posts.......the Ivy was outside getting a dose of fresh air........

And I got two of these small topiary's  from my local Kroger for 6.99 each!!

So if I can keep these lovelies alive (always a struggle for me :)  )  I might be able
to pull off the look I'm after......I do have plenty of chippy things that
 I can tie in with the decorating, and of course, the ever-present Ironstone collection needs to be re-addressed.  For me it's just a matter of getting it done and being happy with the way I do it!!!
I'll do some updates in the future to see if I'm on course with my plans............

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, thanks for stopping in for the visit!!

        (courtesty of Nancy Fishelson Designs)

                                                                            devon :)