Christmas Decorating Proj Number One

So, it is the first of December, which means that there are only 24 more days until Christmas! Time to decorate, buy gifts, write cards, bake treats etc. Over the weekend while I was home in the country, I went to one of my fave antiques stores (will talk about that later) and I found these three fun vintage Christmas post cards (below)! They even had writing on the back which made them even more special. You can find some on ebay too!
I really wanted to do something interesting with them rather than just have them. I didn't want to cut them to make cards either. I decided to display them in a really fun and festive way! I attached each one them them to a red grosgrain ribbon with about an inch in between and a few inches extra at the bottom. You can get lots of great ribbon at Kate's Paperie. Then I took another red ribbon and tied a floppy blow and safety pinned it to the top, attached it to my door and voila!
Now I have the start of some fun and inexpensive Christmas decorations! YAY! (I might need to calm down.)

Alicia B.

Kitchen Dilemma

Kitchen featured in the 1950s in House Beautiful. WOW.

Yesterday afternoon as I was looking out the window in my parents' kitchen to watch the neighbors walk by (it's what we do in the country to pass the time apparently), I was blinded by the sunlight streaming in and had to look away. It made me start to think about the idea of curtains in the kitchen. My mother says she doesn't want them because they will get cooking debris (oil etc) on them and get dirty. She also really likes the light and openness in the kitchen and doesn't want to feel closed in by curtains. I wanted to see what other designers have done in kitchens, as the 3M filters on the windows my parents have just isn't cutting it. See below.

T. Keller Donovan uses a pretty blue toile valance in this otherwise white Nantucket kitchen.

Wooden roman shades would def solve the problem of cooking oils/dirt and since these are pretty thin, they still let the light in. By Noel Jeffrey.

In this uber colorful french style kitchen the designer, Michele Allman uses a red toile fabric and a traditional pinched pleat drapery style in the windows.

One of my now favorite designers John Peixinho who works mainly in Newport, RI also used a roman shade style in this kitchen, but I think it's a thin parchment colored fabric. Low maintenance, light blocking and good looking.

James Michael Howard designed this sleek clean kitchen and used an ivory linen shade in the large window. I like how he continued the strong dark horizontal line on the mouldings into the curtain.

Though the stove is right in between the two windows with long drapery, the designer used floor length drapery and a valance. This may seem like a lot, but it starts to become an architectural element as it echos the door off to the right. From Domino.

Another simple roman shade style but with a little kick with a small vertical stripe running down it. By Caroline DeCesare for the movie Something's Gotta Give. (Good movie but uncomfortable to see with your grandmother.)

One of my many design heroes, Victoria Hagan solves the entire problem of the light by creating these beautiful clerestory windows which provide great but indirect light.

If you're feeling DIY-ish, Martha provides this how-to on making your own curtains in my old fave magazine Blueprint. I like this one because it lets in light but it has very pretty and subtle polka dot texture. So cute!

Well, I helped my parents with their ivory shades from Kravet in our den, so maybe I can help them solve the dilemma of being blinded by too much light and feeling too closed in inside a big kitchen.


Alicia B.

Aircraft for Local Shopping

Gamucci, the e-cigarette

Gamucci is an e-cigarette that looks, feels and tastes like a real cigarette but doesn’t hurt you, the ones around you or the environment. It’s a rechargeable device that uses sophisticated micro-electronic technology to deliver a true smoking experience, only without the tobacco smoke and tar that contain over 4,000 toxins. It contains water, propylene glycol, nicotine and tobacco scent and, instead of exhaling smoke, you exhale harmless vapors. So your body receives all the nicotine it craves but without all the other nasty stuff, it’s a dream come true and best of all you can legally smoke it indoors. One rechargeable Gamucci cartridge is the equivalent of 20 cigarettes and the device’s battery lasts a whole day, when used with normal use (whatever that means).

Girl and Notebook

Flaws in nation's bird counts

"A team of researchers led by Theodore Simons, a biologist at N.C. State, found that trained bird-watchers aren't as good at hearing birds in the wild as previously thought, and their powers of perception drop sharply with even small increases in background noise. Factors such as traffic noise and observers' inaccurate spatial perceptions could inadvertently bias bird counts, they say."

Link: Full article from The News & Observer

American Redstart © 2008 Mike McDowell