Oh happy day!

I can finally take a decent indoor photo thanks to my new camera!!! (and tripod) I got a Nikon Coolpix P7000.
I picked up a much needed new digital camera yesterday. After using the same Canon Elph for over 8 years it was time for an upgrade.
Here she is! I am just beginning to learn all that it will do, so keep in mind while straying from auto on this baby I may produce some weird shots.


So I would like to share with you our new fireplace all decorated and our new window treatments! I posted the drapes last week after I thought we were finished, but I ended up ordering more fabric and doubling the panels of linen and getting a new drapery rod. So here they are, fuller and the trim has been painted around the window from where we ripped off the shutters.
You can see the accessories I have added to the mantel, a trio of pillar candles a beautiful iron cross which we received 3 unique ones for Christmas gifts this year form Rory's Aunt. I hung the other two on an opposing wall to tie them in together. Oh also a plant on the mantel in a cobalt blue pot.


Before of our fireplace & shutters


Here is a new addition to our home a Zee zee plant, I hope I can take care of it well. You can also see my new tripod sitting on top of our trunk.

NOVICA

If you haven't heard of NOVICA by now I am going to introduce it to you.
NOVICA is a webstore by the National Geographic company, they have beautiful handcrafted items from around the world. These talented artisans have a safe and wonderful way to get their crafts out to the world, it benefits them as well as the consumer who is supporting them while buying items that you just can't pick up locally.

Like these!
Today I got an email telling me these were once again available to purchase. They were out of them over 3 months ago but I signed up for an email notification once they had more in. They got in 6 sets and I just ordered 1 set for us.
They are a set of 6 beautifully hand blown dessert glasses in cobalt blue (what else) from Mexico. Shown here filled with delicious piña coladas! Yum. I plan to use these beauties for desserts mainly, ice creams (our favorite is McConnel'ls Coconut) , panna cotta, flan, who knows!

I can't wait to get them and display them in our glass cabinets.
I used a coupon code I found while searching the internet "NOVICA8494" for an order over $40.00 and saved $10.00!

Refinished, for good.

I think we have almost completed our fireplace renovation. That last step basically was to cover up the existing rough stucco finish with a much smoother and more "us" version of a hand troweled plaster look. We did this with a special concrete Venetian style plaster.
But first!

We did this to our fireplace...
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We turned it pink!! Its Pepto Bismol pink actually, due to the special concrete/mortar/stucco primer, you can see Rory applying it below. It was this horrendous color most of the morning today, until we got to mixing up the plaster.


Currently this is the finish. Its a little gray still as it's wet and should dry to white in the next few days. Rory is still hand troweling it as I type, which needed to be done many times over the last couple hours to get a nice smooth finish.


Here is a close up of the trowel marks.


A long way from what it once was.

Bye bye shutters

I took a plunge and decided to remove the custom shutters that covered our large window in our living room and also seen here in between our living room and sitting room. These shutters were here when we bought the home, and by the state of them they had most likely been installed over a decade ago.
The main reason I wanted to remove them was their lack of ease when trying to operated them. We spend a lot of time in this room in the evening so we preferred them shut for privacy, but during the day I would have loved to be able to open them and let the light in. Doing that was a lengthy process that usually involved me struggling with the somewhat dilapidated shutters, until frustration set in and I would just shut them.
Here they are in their lovely putty color goodness, the other option besides removal was to repair the broken parts and somehow paint them a more complimentary color of white. I started to think about how difficult it would be to paint moving shutters, and I quickly decided to take them out, it started to hurt just thinking about the free time that painting them would involve.
(the flash really makes the yellow look bright, its not really this color in real life)


So here we are today. I took out the shutters and whipped up some linen curtains last night. Now we have privacy at the flick of a wrist! Its so easy to "swish" them open and closed just like that. I even think they look better.
I still have some repairs around the window where the shutters were attached and bit of sanding & painting, but I love the difference so far.


I mean look at that view that we get to see now that the window is open, and the light poring in is great. The shutters darkened the room so much that during the day we would need the light on. So it just proves that decoration really should be based around practicality more than anything.
I love seeing our giant oak tree out front, I can't wait till there are leaves on it again.


The brown linen curtains are just more fitting in the room than the gray putty colored shutters ever were, and best of all they fit our life style.


The only thing I wish I could have done was make the drapes wider. The window is 98" wide and my linen source only has 59" width fabric. So after sewing & hemming the 2 drape panels I made just barely cover the window.
Ideally I would have just bought 2 of these 100" wide x 96" long Belgian linen drapes from RH, but at a whopping $767 + tax I thought making them myself even if they would be half the width it was good enough!