PIstachio and Plum Nursery Reveal

I finally had a chance to take photos of the nursery. The framed Kew Garden print was finally finished right around the time I received the vinyl wall decal and the glider. A lot has come together in the past few months to create this unisex cum feminine nursery. What started out like this in April is now complete. This is the view that greets you at the door.

The dresser and crib are on the same wall, this is configured a little differently than when the boys shared this room.
 
When we began this nursery we didn't know what the sex would be. If she had been a boy I would have added purple elephants. But since she is a girl I'm doing a flower theme, hence the violet doily and tea pot. Mr. W brought the leather kangaroo back from a business trip to Japan. I've been coveting this Big Ben alarm clock for a long time for myself, but realized it would be perfect in the nursey. Moms always need to know how long they have been nursing!
 
A closer view of the wall decal. I know I'm late to the wall words trend, but it didn't seem to work in the bungalow, and there wasn't enough vertical wall space in that nursery.  I ordered this decal in plum and  I was able to reuse these wall plaques (from SL@H) which were a gift from a friend.

This is a nice view in which you can see how the crib skirt matches the extra hem we added to the curtain. My friend randomly gave us the crib sheet since I didn't register for a 3rd child. It fits perfectly!
 
We were able to put the changing table along this wall on it's own. A friend bought this pansy painting for me when we were in college, and now it works perfectly in the pistachio and plum nursery.

My nursing station. The new glider finally arrived as well. The plum color ties in with the curtain fabric and gives a great pop of color against the wainscot in this corner.

I'm so glad we decided to buy a new chair for the new nursery. It is very comfortable and I love that it spins. It makes it so easy to turn to reach a cup of tea or whatever I need from the side table.

 

A view back toward the door. The one thing I have yet to do is strip the paint from the transom window. I never climber a ladder near the end of the pregnancy to clean that...ad now who knows when I'll have time.

I'm dreaming of a blue Christmas

It is only the middle of October, but already I have Christmas fever. It was triggered by looking through a catalog and seeing these peacock feather trees. I have admired peacock themed decorations i the past, but I didn't think they would blend well with my Tartan tree. But now that we are in the Queen Anne and we have extra rooms I thought that I could indulge in the novelty of another tree.  Yes, that would make 3 trees total if you count the nursery tree that we decorate for the children. But the interest of being somewhat reserved I thought that the Parlor tree should just be a table top tree.  Peacocks were a favorite for the Victorians so it only seems appropriate to decorate a Parlor tree in this color scheme, especially since we have some teal jewels in the leaded glass windows and a swallow in flight in the transom window in the entry.

Peacock Christmas decorations are available all over the place too. I spent this week going to P1, Macy's, and P1 had a lot of great peacock decorations including this tree skirt. I was thinking about searching CL for small low tables I could use int he window of the tower to place the tree, but then remembered that we moved this small cabinet into the Parlor anyway to make room for the full size tree in the Drawing Room. I think it will be the perfect spot to place the new tree.

Here is a close up of the tree skirt, I love the colors!


I've gone a little crazy getting decorations and candles.  These are just some of the ornaments I've bought so far.  And I'll order the small feather trees to to decorate over the piano.
 


Edit: I can't seem to help myself from purchasing decorations for the peacock tree.  I think this might be the last of it, I've found garland, solid balls to fill in, numerous feather spikes, and a used tree topper off ebay. I'm cutting myself off until after I trim the tree this year and determine how much more I might need to fill in.
 

Desperately Seeking Sofa

When Mr. W was on paternity leave last month we realized that a family of 4-5 with only 3 chairs in the family isn't going to work. The boys kept grousing at him to get out of their seats. We so seldom all watch tv together that it is rarely an issue. We decided to rectify the situation and started shopping. But rather than the nice fancy leather one we were planning on getting before we moved in, we decided to go with cheap and disposable while we still have small children. Enter: Macy's.

We settled on a tufted back, twill fabric sofa that will seat 3, but is still small enough to fit in our Family room. The stock options were scarlet and grey. As much as Mr. W is a Buckeye fan, we decided to go with a special order cognac color. It should arrive to us at the beginning of November, maybe even in time for my birthday.

It can't come a moment too soon though, here are the boys double decker-ing it on a weekday afternoon.

Michaelmas

Mr. W thought it would be too ambitious to invite people over and roast a goose for dinner since we have a little baby. So instead he picked up some pork chops and we improvised. I made the German style red cabbage and he made the apple and potato stuffing.

 A continuation on the theme of OLH with meat and no utensils.

Our wheat sheaf centerpiece, apples and figs from our tree.
 
 A vintage Michaelmas postcard.

 Michaelmas pie of apples and blackberries.

 Punkin adores her daddy.

An antiquing score

While driving out to the Needlepoint shop last week I noticed a 'Going Out of Business' sign on Antiques & Oddities. I don't get into their shop much, but I do admire their collection of windows while I pass by. Everything was marked to 50% off. I decided to stop by to see if there were any china hutches  since we are in desperate need of storage for our Dining Room, so much is still in boxes in our basement.

By the time I got there everything was pretty much picked over and very few large furniture pieces remained. But I did score a few items. I spied this pair of Eastlake style vases. There are different images on each side of the vase. The green color is perfect with the new fireplace tile as well as the wallpaper I am thinking about using on the walls eventually. They were made by Charles Barlow of Smithfield Works and thanks to the internet I was able to learn that this studio was indeed doing work in the time period I guessed, from 1880-1892.
 
I don't think I could have found a better pair for our the new Eastlake mirror! And at $50 for the pair, and 50% marked down I couldn't not buy them.
 
 Mr. W and I have long joked about getting a valet for him, but it isn't the sort of thing one comes across regularly in Oregon, and certainly not high on our list of needs. As I was getting rung up I did a quick scan around the room and noticed this awesome brass valet I had overlooked when I came in. 50% off $125 and I knew it was meant to be for Mr. W.  He was happier than I expected to see his new valet.


And honorable mention to Baby Boy and Punkin for allowing me to cruise through the store without too much trouble. I'm lucky they are easy children.

Wallpaper ideas

I received an email from Bradbury and Bradbury that they are offering to waive their design fee for their B.J. Talbert roomset. This was one of the wallpapers that I ordered samples of last year when I was getting ideas for exterior paint colors. Conveniently for us, this roomset has a 14"h border, most are 24" or much smaller, like 8-10". The picture rail is set at 14" below the ceiling in every room in our house so it is a challenge. Also this roomset compliments our new fireplace tiles so well! Bradbury charges $600 (!) so it is definitely a good opportunity since I could get an idea of how much wall & ceiling papers I would need to order; and therefore, know how much money we need to save up for this room. I think they would be better at doing the reflected ceiling plan than me. I have no experience with that.

The upper sample is the wall fill ad the lower is a dado paper for the lower half.  It pulls out all the colors from the new tiles.

These are the frieze options. I like the one on the right with the  larger flowers. Anything would be better than what we currently have.  A girl can dream, right?

Back to School dinner party

 I love our little tradition of a special dinner party the night before the first day of school.  This is our third one and this year we have two new students. Although he is only 2, Baby Boy is going to a pre-Preschool playgroup at a local community center. Yes, he'll get dropped off 2 mornings a week for an hour and a half each day. This should allow him some big boy fun and me some one on one time with the baby.

A place is set at teh table for our new Kindergartener.

And one for our Pre-Preschooler
 
 Each year I search the internet for ideas to steal from other people's back to school dinners. I loved the idea of paper airplanes suspended from the ceiling form the Glamorous Housewife's blog.

 I also stacked up some reference books. Will they even use dictionaries... or will it all be online?

 A few from the other side of the table. I was able to find more of my things this year post move. I've had that crayola tin for forever.

 Playing off the apple for the teacher idea, we had pork chops and apple sauce. Also corn which we picked at a birthday party on Sauvie's island over the weekend. This variety of corn is called peaches and cream and it is SO good!

 I found this school days scrapbook at LoN a few years ago and have been waiting to give it to my little student. I think it will be a fun way to look back at the previous school year before a new year commences.

 Our Little Helper loves all meats, utensils not so much.

 Daddy reads aloud from Curios George and the Alphabet to get us i the mood for learning to read this year.
 
The baby listens intently.

 Baby Boy fell asleep right before diner started, so we let him sleep. He doesn't eat dinner foods yet anyhow.