Echoes of Designing for Your Life

Well golly gee, I told Kari and Kijsa that there was no way that I could play with the big gals by participating in their Designing for Your Life post. I mean, really, play with the grown-ups who know how to pull a room together with style and class? But today, I want to play. I soooooo want to play and I'm going to play and that's all there is to it! (See the levels of humiliation that I am willing to go through for visitors?)

Okay, some time ago now, I concluded that my style is "New England" through and through. Plus I live on the edge of a small forest as you have by now seen and heard and I mean "on the edge." Plus the new space has some peculiar angles that were necessary for the correct pitch of the roof and to accomodate the request for higher ceilings. We were tired of that closed in feeling that, while cozy enough, can make one feel claustrophobic.

My daughter told me that I needed trees for that high awkward spot so I requested trees.



They arrived with all their foliage, which sent me into a flurry of leaf plucking making my backyard look as if Hurricane Ike had been through. I learned a lot about maple leaves and beech leaves while plucking them last night, but I'll save that for another time.



And here the trees are in their new home. (ETA: This is really a work in progress. My hope is to hang photos of family members there. Then, perhaps, it won't look quite so much as if the chair is wearing antlers. :D)



Ruthann of Warm Pie, Happy Home had a great tip about using coffee grounds (new) in candles, which I have used and like, but I also had need of covering up the wire stem of these fake posies so I used her idea there, too.



Hmmm, how about up close?



(Yup, all you discerning readers, I changed the photo for a better look.)

Then, after the window washing of yesterday, I placed my tired Rosemary there on an inverted bowl for height and just placed a fall garland around it.



Sometimes the simplest things make me happy. This little screen door decoration for a few dollars from the Christmas Tree Shop makes me happy. I grin every time that I get to take it out and display it. People seem to enjoy it and I get a lot of comments on it including one from my father who rarely notices such things.



Visit Kari and Kijsa and perhaps, after seeing my humble efforts, you'll feel like playing, too. I hope so!