Another Redo



One of my barn paintings, framed in old barn wood...

     Okay.  I like change.  (NOT the Obama kind!!!)  I have always, as long as I can remember, changed the decor in my house.  When I had my big old historic home, I changed the displays in the butler's pantry, all the curio cabinets, and china cabinets - every MONTH!   I was physically stronger then, and saw nothing wrong with moving the furniture almost as often.  My daughter could wake up at noon on a Saturday  and find the entire house redone.  Sometimes I switched entire rooms with each other.  It is always stimulating for me to get my artistic juices flowing and to see what odd items can go together in an eye-pleasing way.  I might take a very valuable antique item and put it in a basket with a dimestore item, then add a scrap of fabric or paper... who knows?
     So, after redoing my blog yesterday, I decided it was high time to redo the living room for winter.  Now that I've lost alot of physical strength,  I mostly change the art and other decorative items.  It doesn't hurt that I do watercolors, and have almost limitless paintings to choose from... I feel energized when it's new and different.

part of the curio cabinet

      The poor living room had recently been neglected.  It still had Autumn colors, paintings of  colorful trees and shadowy scenes,  coiled clay pots filled with wheat and other grains, and my collection of turkey figurines!  It was time for snowflakes, deer, silvery branches, and snow scenes.  Moshe helped me by bringing  in some actual pine branches which I attached to the walls with picture hangers.  The curio cabinet is filled with my Grama's old celluloid reindeer, various snowflakes, crystal bowls, touches of blue glass.
     Moshe is such a dear;  he always appreciates the "new look".
Even when he is outside cutting wood for the fire, if he runs across an interesting branch or stump, he sets it aside, knowing that I might like to create something out of it.  Just yesterday, he saved me a couple of very unique branches... who knows what they will become?  Or, where they will be incorporated into our decor?  He also scavenged a couple of the all-time most-wonderful items recently, and gave them to me for Hanukkah... They both were pieces from a small old barn; one a wonderful door with its hinges still intact; the other the gable end of the barn.  These pieces are solid red oak, and so heavy that they will have to be remade into something for the yard... WAY too heavy to hang on a wall. (Sigh.)
         

my joke deer, sitting on the sled

      The living room has a little alcove where the piano sits. I hung one painting there and a pine bough over it.  On the wall jutting out from the alcove, I propped my old sled, with a stuffed animal deer that I made about twenty-five years ago.  That deer is one of my little jokes with myself... He's a deer, wearing  camouflage and a hunting jacket.  (SICK!  Yes, I am sick!!!)    Wow... Does that bring back memories... Twenty-five years ago, I was a single Mom, raising a young daughter.  I worked more than fulltime, but it was still hard to make ends meet.  I started making floppy-eared bunnies, which was all the rage at the time.  I never made any two exactly alike.  They had precious little embroidered expressions on their faces, frilly dresses, fancy hats, you-name-it.  I got so many orders for them that I paid my little daughter to cut out the pattern pieces for me.  I got special orders for bride bunnies, Atlanta Braves bunnies, nurse, doctor, lawyer, biker, even a nudist bunny!!! One well-loved local dentist was buried holding his dentist bunny that I had made for him - toothbrush and all...  But, I digress. After the bunnies came deer, pigs, cows, dolls.  That little cottage industry helped us make the mortgage payment and knit together our tiny family unit.  One time we received an order from a business - I can't remember exactly, but it was for twenty-some rabbits, maybe even thirty... it was a lot.  After the person left from bringing us the list of orders,  my daughter, Melody,  and I literally jumped up and down for joy.
     And, so... decorating, for me, is more than just putting away some stuff and getting out some other stuff.  It's always a trip down memory lane.  Hope you've enjoyed the stroll with me this morning.

...two of my Winter watercolors, above the sofa...

Shalom Y'all - Twyla