The Kitchen, Infamous Though It May Be

Here it is, in all its non-glory. What it needs?  New counter tops, a new backsplash, a new cook top, a new vent hood, a new floor, the cabinets need to be painted inside and cleaned well on the outside. I'd also like a new (non-mullioned) window with a deep sill, so I could keep herb plants there. The color green on the walls needs to be changed to something a bit sunnier and I could really use a new, stainless-steel microwave.

I got an email from the woman who first contacted me about showing my photo on TV and when they taped the show yesterday, they did use my photo. However, there is no assurance it will remain when they do the final edit of the show. She is going to let me know if it survived the cut and when the show will air - and I will let you know when I do. Meanwhile, if there is any show that would like to re-do my kitchen to show on TV - they are more than welcome!

Christmas Decor at Home ~ 2010

My front door wreath (hanging in the kitchen for this photo.) If you are on Facebook with me, these are repeats. Sorry.

I made this for a friend, but I enjoyed it for several days before she got it.

In my dining room...

Also the dining room....

Detail of the buffet centerpiece...

The den mantel...

Detail of the den mantel......and I am finished!!  My youngest granddaughter turns eleven today. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!! See you soon.

More Christmas Decor in a Private Home

The bookcase in the living room. I did the garland, hydrangeas and ribbons, but I asked Pam to place the angel. It is over 4 feet long and heavy and I don't trust myself on a ladder any more if I have to hold something weighty.

The newel post on the main staircase. Pam placed the garland, I did the ribbons, bows, hydrangea and acorns. The first photo of the tree I showed you several days ago had only lights. Here you see some of the hand-blown glass ornaments that were used - over 300 of them. This tree is so tall  (about 10") that we decided it could use more ornaments. In past years the 8 foot trees have been jam-packed!

This exquisite angel graces this foyer table every year. I am getting very familiar with her; having done the arrangement for at least 5 years. This year I used holly, pine, fir, cedar and boxwood with gold cording and ribbons.

This four foot tall tree sits in front of the dining room windows every year. It is decorated with burgundy ribbons, and sterling silver and crystal ornaments. Jackie polished all the silver ornaments. There are at least 50 on this tree - although it doesn't look like it in this photo.

 

I hope you are enjoying this series. I am so busy this month that I don't have time to write much. Monday night is our neighborhood pot-luck dinner and ornament exchange, and I have to cook pork tenderloins  (with my favorite new sauce), wrap presents and Lord-know-what-all before 6pm. I hope to get some good photos from that event, which I will share eventually.

Christmas Decor in a Private Home

This post starts a series of photos from this home, which usually takes three of us three days to decorate, but this year we were able to finish in two days. Pam and Jackie lit the fresh Fraser fir  tree while I placed garlands and ribbons in almost every area in the house.

If you are on Facebook with me, you have already seen these photos. This home has the perfect colors for Christmas decor and they have so many collections that it is an interesting place.

This hutch is in the breakfast room, which also has large windows overlooking the rear garden. We drape those four windows with pepper berry garland and magnolia leaves, but no ribbons.

This mirror graces the dining room wall and each year, we decorate it with faux garland, ribbon or cording, gilt leaves, red dried hydrangea and Florentine angels. After all the decor is finished, we go back and add touches of fresh greenery (pine, fir, cedar, boxwood) to all the faux garlands, to make  them appear more authentic and give the home a nice aroma. I am posting most of my photos with Picasa now, and they will only let me post four at a time, so you'll see four new ones tomorrow night, from this home. The owner will be reading my posts and I am sure she will enjoy your comments on her lovely abode.

One of the Downsides.....

to losing my Outlook Express email is that I had at least ten emails saved; from which I could expect to glean ten future posts for the blog. Now they are gone and I'm on my own to come up with something to write about. It's getting drastic here, folks!

We did have one perk today. The genius who fixed my computer found and isolated the old email addresses - all 200+ of them! I decided to print them, so when the computer messes up again, I can at least have the ones up to this date. Guess how many pages it printed?  Eighty-six! Of course, there was a lot of white space on each page. I really thought that my printer would run out of black ink before it finished printing, but every page is sharp and clear. The cartridge isn't new either - so that's very good! I've decided to try to remember to write out all the new email addresses that we get after this, so it is never a problem again. Also, when he attempted to set up Outlook Express on the other computer, it loaded 2,848 spam emails that we have gotten over the last 2 and 1/2 years - but they went directly into the spam files and we never saw them. None of the 2,848 looked remotely interesting.....LOL.....so we deleted all of them immediately!

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The pressure-washing, board-replacing and deck-sealing people are finally finished. It looks okay, and I know it is better for the wood to be sealed - but - I really preferred the look of the wood when it got weathered and gray  (sort of like me!) Another problem, which I am trying to ignore, is that the guy who sprayed the wood with sealer got it on all my plants and the ivy that grows all along the fence and retaining wall. It is nice and shiny now, but I know those leaves will die soon and I'll have to wait until the plant can push out new ones before it looks nice again. I had no idea that they would not use a drop cloth or something to protect the plants. If we ever have to have pressure-washing done again - you can be sure they will use a drop cloth - or they won't get the job. I will be firm on that. You've had fair warning, so you are armed against your pressure-washing people. Make them do what's right.

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This photo was taken from the site of my decade reunion last weekend. It is my beloved Kanawha River, in Charleston, WV. I have loved the river since I was a child, but I don't think I properly appreciated living in a city with a river until I didn't have it any longer.

When I first moved away from home, the ocean took the place of the river in my heart. When we moved to Raleigh some 41 years ago, I quickly realized how much I missed bodies of water - and lakes don't quite do it for me. I've always said that if Raleigh had a river, it would be perfect. Too bad I can't transplant Raleigh to sit beside that beautiful river. That would be Almost Heaven, indeed.

(I took the photo from inside the event site, so you see reflections in the glass.)

Six and one-half Hours Doing What?!?

The garage cleaning-sorting-tossing out started just after 10:00 am yesterday, and with only two small breaks, I finished for the day at 4:40. These photos show you the parts I got done, and it amounts to only one half of the garage. This is where I design flowers for weddings and parties. All the supplies I need, plus inventories of vases and other supplies are resident here. The only thing I needed over the years to make it complete was running water, but that was available either in the kitchen - a few short steps away - or from the hose on the front of the house. Needless to say, no one has been able to park in here since I officially started my business - Tickle Your Fancy - in 1984. I have a small wedding this weekend, and now I have a clean, neat area in which to work.

Need any spray paint? I probably have your color.

When I am designing, I stand behind the station to the left here (the white cabinet with the cubbyholes). It has a laminate top and is okay for getting wet. I bought this piece from a business that was closing. It was their cashier's stand, and the cubbies were for invoices and receipts - but it is perfect for my knives, etc, and for watching TV.....lol

Here's a better view of my station. When I have other designers with me, they work on the tables to my left. My folding tables got so cruddy that I covered the tops with Cont*ct paper, and I re-do them every year. When the weather is good, I open the garage door, which is very nice - not only for the fresh air - but because I admit to being nosy, and that way I can see anyone who drives into the cul-de-sac.

You wouldn't believe the pile of stuff I packed into my car for transport to the county dump today. I should have taken a photo of it before I packed it. I have been saving plastic wares for years; margarine tubs and the like, because I can use them for liners in some containers that might otherwise leak, or if the client wants to take the flowers, but not the fancy container. It saves money to use them, rather than buying liners from the wholesaler. I have saved multitudes of them, and I know now that I will never be able to use them all in my lifetime. So, off to the recycle bins I go, with hundreds of those and boxes galore. I also have a tendency to save boxes, and about every 4-6 months I have to sort them and take the excess ones to the dump for recycling. I still have one other cabinet to sort through before I move to the opposite side. When I finish the other side, I will show you the whole thing. It should be much neater when I am done!

You may remember that I've mentioned recently that my excesses (saving/hoarding) have begun to weigh on me heavily. I know it might not look like I got rid of much, but it is a good start. When I close my business (probably next year), I will begin to divest my house of all this inventory. I plan to have a garage sale for both business and personal goods, advertising it to florists as well as through the usual channels. The thought of doing it is overwhelming, but I have to start somewhere. Wanna help?

***Out, Damn'd Spot!

or maybe...."Off, Damn Paste!"

These are the infamous walls I've been telling you about. The wallpaper is mostly gone, but the paste remains, in quantities to choke a dinosaur. The brighter blue parts on the lower section are where I have successfully removed the paste, and the dull upper parts have yet to be tackled.

The white stripes were painted there 26 years ago, just before applying the wallpaper. I knew that if the wallpaper shrank (as it sometimes does), the blue wall would "shine" through, at the seams so I painted those areas. Unfortunately, I painted over the old wallpaper paste, and now those areas will have to be sanded until they are as smooth as the blue areas. A thankless job if there ever was one.

This is a close-up of the area with a lot of paste still on it. You can see how thick it is. Before I've managed to get the whole hall and up the stairs finished, I may give up and put up new paper, since the walls don't have to be so pristine for that. Take a lesson from me, and don't put up paper unless you know how to do it without bucket-fulls of paste - or - you plan to move before it has to be changed!

<<>><<>>

I just watched a show on HGTV, and they solved the problem by putting bead board over the existing wallpaper. Now there's a thought!

^^^^^^^^^


***The title comes from:

Doctor:
What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.

Gentlewoman:
It is an accustom'd action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of
an hour.

Lady Macbeth:
Yet here's a spot.

Doctor:
Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to
satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady Macbeth:
Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then
'tis time to do't.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and
afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
pow'r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?

Macbeth Act 5, scene 1, 26–40

Home - Another Golden Oldie

This post, from a while back, shows items that used to be displayed on my kitchen wall. Since these photos were taken, we have removed the wallpaper and painted. The shelves and decor items have been stored in a box for over a year now, and I really miss seeing them! It's nice to be able to come back here and visit them again. Someday, when I re-do the back hallway off the garage entrance, I will display them again.Until then, I can revisit them here anytime I like.

Enjoy!

And if you're so inclined, show us your kitchen wall decor. Okay?

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Last Sunday was the 2 year blogiversary for Imagine, and I can't believe I missed it! This is post # 811. Round and round she goes, and where she stops? Nobody knows! (not even she!)

No piece of paper is ever safe around these two!

(Storm at the top and Eclipse at the bottom.)

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Wheeeee! A whole week without anything on the calendar. Whatever shall I do? Hmmmm......maybe I ought to clean the house, disinfect the bathrooms, wash windows, polish silver, shampoo carpets, scrub floors, do laundry, ironing, clean the garage, toss out our junk, donate to Goodwill, cook some food and wash/vacuum the car. That should only take a week, right?

The Site of a Wedding

Click to enlarge!

Sometime in the mid 1980's, I did flowers for a wedding in this home of a local businessman. The setting was lovely, and the home was so unusual for this area that I photographed it. Top: the approach to the house, which is almost totally surrounded by lakes.

There are few examples of ultra-modern architecture here in this area. We are prone to have traditional or transitional homes and Craftsman-style cottages. This is rather austere in appearance for Raleigh, except for the size.

The wedding was in early May, and I remember well going into that cold, cold pool to anchor a float which was covered in flowers. Yikes.

This was the first time I had seen a "swim-up" bar anywhere other than a resort. For the wedding reception, the round bar was covered with flooring and the cake sat under that gazebo on a round table. It was a unique setting for the huge five tier cake, large enough to feed 500 people. They had plenty left over, since only about 250 attended the wedding.

The main entrance.

What do you think of post-modern architecture? Could you live in a house like this? How would you furnish it?

A Wedding at Ayr Mount

The table centerpieces. The newest color schemes for weddings are using orange and yellow predominantly, and sometimes in mixtures with other colors as well. This was Mel Day's wedding (Dogwood Tree Florals).

Look at these giant irises. I could hardly believe they were growing so well in October. Each blossom was about 5-6" tall.

This is Ayr Mount, an historic home in Hillsborough, NC., built in 1815.

Here is the chuppah that the groom made for the wedding. Their families and friends each decorated a square for the chuppah quilt and then the squares were joined together and edged with lace. It will make a nice keepsake for the couple.

These photos are from the house brochure. I took a few photos inside, until the caretaker told me they weren't allowed due to insurance restrictions. It is beautifully decorated in furnishings from the period during which the home was built.

Click to enlarge.


This view was looking from the back of the house. Our trees are just beginning to show some color changes.

If you'd like to know more about this and other historic homes, read Adventures with Old Houses by Richard Jenrette (2000).

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Does anyone else find it amusing that "Joe the plumber" is not named Joe (it's Sam) and he isn't licensed as a plumber in Ohio? And he grosses nowhere near $250k? He is probably wishing that his 15 minutes of fame would be over in five minutes, since the news reported that he has tax troubles.

NOTE: Sometime this week, Imagine will reach 100,000 hits. I hope you'll help me celebrate!

After All the Hard Work.....

Here is the kitchen after we painted it Glidden's "Sassafras Tea", a pale yellowish green. The color choice wasn't mine, but I bowed to mr. kenju and miss kenju, who prefer lighter colors than I. It looks different in every photo. The photo truest to the real color is the middle one.

We are stuck with these ugly, ancient, yellow formica countertops and backsplash; at least for a while. I wanted a slightly darker, sage green; one that would be a better contrast for the counters, but mr. kenju says it won't be long before we get new counters. I admit that I am loving the new lightness in there. Miss kenju has always said our house resembles a mausoleum. If she had her way, everything would be white! I don't think I could live in a place that was all white. An artistic person goes nuts without color (at least, this one does).

This is my small desk area, which is barely used, but makes for good storage of things needed occasionally, like cook books.


If you want to see what it looked like before, go here.

I had much more stuff on the walls before, and I decided to mix it up a bit and not keep adding to it as I have always done before. I am resisting the urge to put most of it back.....LOL. The extras are all in a box, and as soon as I re-do the back hallway off the kitchen, it will go there.

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Thanks to mr. kenju's basketball contacts at Georgetown, we secured two tickets to the NCAA Games today, pitting Georgetown against Davidson and UNC against Arkansas. Miss kenju and I went to the RBC Center here in Raleigh and the stands were a sea of Carolina blue. If you're following the games, you know that Davidson won a hard fought battle, and UNC gave Arkansas the trouncing of their lives. I really enjoyed myself. The last time I remember seeing a live basketball game was the first one ever played in the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, in 1984.

Riddle Me This, Batman!

Same wall, same camera, same settings, same ambient lighting, same everything - except the photos were taken about 30 seconds apart, at 7 pm. One was taken up close and one was zoomed. Why do they look so different in color???

The bottom photo is more near to the actual colors. These walls were never painted before. When I put up the wallpaper 25 years ago, I stripped off the old paper and I painted the walls with a quick release stuff so that the paper would come off easily when I wanted to remove it. The wall board has darkened over the years and maybe the quick release stuff darkened them too. I know that after I have patched all the nail holes (and if you remember seeing my kitchen, you know there were many of them) and sanded, the walls will look a lot better, even without paint! LOL

The area I painted on the wall this morning (right side) is a Benjamin Moore sample called Dill Pickle. I like it, but I am afraid it will be too dark in the late afternoons and at night. The kitchen faces north, and so it is bright and sunny in the mornings, but not so much later on in the day. The lighting isn't really sufficient in there, and I want to remedy that soon. Of course, once the ceiling is painted white again, it will be better.

The two paint squares on the left are Behr paint from Home Depot. I have thought I was partial to either of the colors on the bottom, especially the one on the right. It has just the right amount of yellow for me, but I know it will look darker on the walls. I think I will buy a quart of that and paint a larger patch and see what happens. What do you think?

Leftovers ~ Holiday 2007

Our Governor's Holiday Card. The artist chose the perspective of looking into the Mansion from the porch, during a snowstorm. William Mangum is a native North Carolinian, who paints a different scene each year for the holiday card to be used the following year.

This small tree and the set below are what passed for Christmas trees at casa kenju this year. I only decorated with ornaments I could find in the house without having to go into the attic. I was lazy this year!

The gilded angels above were made by a dear old friend from Charleston. They are made of fabric and papier mache, and these were made using lace taken from my mother's lingerie after she died. They are very special to me, and have been in use for about 20 years.

The angel above, wearing her finest deep blue velvet and gold lame, was made by a neighbor. Originally from Germany, she is very artistic and crafty, and when I first moved to the area, she had holiday craft sales in her home every fall. This one has a wax head and arms, and I have to use care in storing her, so she won't get too warm and melt.

This pale pink rose, which I washed out with the flash, was blooming on December 10 th, just outside mr. kenju's doctor's office. We had a long streak of very warm weather about that time, and shortly after this was taken, the temperatures plunged. I thought of the intrepid blossom, and wondered if it had shrivelled. It was nice to discover this flower blooming out of season.