Paparazzi

Recently, a neighbor stopped by for a little sunbathing on the deck.

Tanning the left side...

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New Year's Eve Champagne Punch, Delicious and Easy to Make

While we continue enjoying all the beautiful tablescapes linked for this week's Tablescape Thursday, I thought I'd share a wonderful recipe for a Champagne Punch I make every Christmas and New Year's.  It's easy to make and always a big hit.  (If you don't care for champagne, substitute chilled club soda, instead.)

If you are making this for a small gathering of 2-4 people, one batch will do. If you're having a larger gathering, you'll want to make several batches because it's always a big hit and goes quickly. I went through 4 batches (with none left over) when I had a party with 25 in attendance. (So, that works out to be around 1 batch for every 6 folks in attendance.)

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Elegant Dining in Brumby Hall: Welcome to the 175th Tablescape Thursday!

Early this morning I posted a tour of the downstairs of beautiful Brumby Hall.  If you missed that tour, you'll find it here: Brumby Hall.  For Tablescape Thursday, I'm taking you into the dining rooms.  Yep, Brumby Hall has two dining rooms, probably due to its function as a special events facility now.

This dining area was at the very back of the home.  Isn't the chandelier gorgeous?  I loved the simplicity of the three hurricanes down the center of the table.

The salad plates depict the Twelve Days of Christmas.  This one is "nine ladies dancing."  Does anyone recognize the pattern?

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Beautiful, Historic Brumby Hall: Take the Tour

This week between Christmas and New Years is such a special time.  In a way, it feels like time is standing still.  For some, life may have returned to normal with normal working hours and schedules.  But if your household is anything like mine, you're still reveling in all things Christmas with New Year's Eve/Day waiting in the wings.  My family is still here visiting and the memories we're making are memories I will cherish always.  I hope you're making wonderful memories this week, too.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to tour Brumby Hall, a "house museum" included in The Marietta Pilgrimage, a Christmas Historic Home Tour.  Brumby Hall has a rich history and it's a delight to tour since it has been restored and furnished beautifully.

This brief history of Brumby Hall was included in the booklet we were given during the tour.

Hope you enjoy this "pictorial" tour of Brumby Hall.  If you ever have an opportunity to tour it in person, you'll definitely want to do so.  Pictures just don't do it justice.

The Entrance:

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Top Projects for 2011

Rhoda is having a Top Projects of 2011 Party and I am joining in with a few of the projects I worked on around the old homestead this year.  There were lots of small ones, but I'm just linking to a few of my faves for this party.

Bedroom becomes home office/craft room/sewing room

Before:




After:

Project (from start to finish) can be viewed HERE.

Screened-in Porch goes through a transformation for the 4th of July:

Before:

After:

You'll find the full transformation HERE.

Craft a flag for your patriotic celebrations:

Before:

After:

You'll find the tutorial for building this flag HERE.

You'll find lots more fab projects over at Southern Hospitality so stop by and check them out!

The Upstairs Family Room For Christmas: Welcome to the 153rd Metamorphosis Monday!

Merry Christmas!   I have just a quick "Before and After" to share for this Met Monday.   I added a few holiday touches to the Upstairs Family Room this year and never got around to sharing those.  As always, I hung a little wreath on the grandfather clock.




This year the armoire got a bit of lit greenery and I moved the feather tree from its usual spot in the guest room, HERE, to the upstairs family room.

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Ice Chiller for Wine or Champagne: A Tutorial

I shared how to make this wine chiller last year, but I thought it would be fun to share that post again in case you're looking for something fun for your Christmas table or for your New Year's eve celebration.  It's easy to make...you'll just need a couple of containers, water and cranberries.  Sliced lemons and limes would work, too.

Tutorial:  Make a wine chiller:

Last year I received a catalog in the mail and it showed this pic/ad. I was tempted to order it until I realized the silver bowl was plastic. I remembered I already had a silver bowl, so I decided to try and make the ice chiller with things I already had and save myself $29.00.




The Before:
The only items I had to purchase were a bottle of wine, cranberries and distilled water. You don't have to use distilled water so you could save the expense of buying that, if you like. But I discovered when I made flower ice cubes HERE, distilled water will usually freeze pretty clear, and it's only $1 for a gallon...more than enough for my ice chiller. If you would like your ice chiller more frosty looking like the one in the catalog, just use tap water.



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Colonial Williamsburg Christmas Centerpiece: Welcome to the 174th Tablescape Thursday!

Greetings!  Hope you’ve been having a wonderful day!  My day has been a little wacky.  I had an eye exam this morning and I sort of forgot when you go for an eye exam, they dilate your eyes.   So, if these pics look a little blurry, you’ll know why.  lol  It was definitely a challenge taking photos and sorting them with partially dilated eyes.

I love the “Colonial Williamsburg style” fruit trees. The tree I created this year is a bit different from those I've created in years past.




I took the leaf out of the table so this tablescape is a bit cozy.   I started out with red candles but changed to gold ones midway through the picture taking process.  So you’ll see both red and gold candles in this table setting as you scroll through this post.

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Christmas Mice Ornaments or Present Toppers: A Tutorial

Looking for an ornament or present topper? Christmas mice with candy cane tails make cute ornaments for the tree.   They are also great little present toppers.  This is a great craft for all ages.  I have a faux candy cane tucked inside my little mouse below, but you'll probably want to use a real candy cane if you attach these to a Christmas present.  The faux candy canes work great when making these to use as ornaments.

Here's how Mr. Mouse looks with a real candy cane tail.

Tutorial for Candy Cane Mice:

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Christmas Inspiration in Blogland

There were so many fabulous Before and Afters linked for Metamorphosis Monday!  Here are just a few I found linked to inspire you as you finish those last minute holiday preparations.  (Click on the links to view the full post.)

Love how Rita has decorated her bedroom for Christmas at May Days:

Mary has a great tutorial for making a table runner for your Christmas table at Redo 101.

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Beautiful Kitchen Renovation: Welcome to the 152nd Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Met Monday!  I'm so excited to share an amazing kitchen make-over today.  Linn and her hubby did all the work themselves!.   On their blog, The Home Project, Linn says their main goal was to just "clean up the area and make it a great place to cook and organize our pantry."  The budget didn't allow for knocking down any walls or changing the area/size of the kitchen, but the changes are still quite dramatic.

As you can see, Linn was dealing with a lot of green: green walls, green ceiling and green linoleum flooring.  Note where the refrigerator is in this pic.  It blocked a lot of light in that location.

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Christmas Vacation, A Movie House Tour

Christmas Vacation: A Movie House Tour

When Christmastime comes around each year, do you and your family have a favorite movie that you just have to watch?   Mine without a doubt is the classic, Home Alone.  Love the house, love the humor and I can't help but feel a little sentimental when I see it since my son was about Kevin's age when the movie first came out.

Another movie that's become a favorite over the years for many folks is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold and Beverly D'Angelo as his wife, Ellen.

In the movie, Clark has big plans for a "good, old-fashioned family Christmas."  Both sets of grandparents are coming for Christmas, along with his Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis.  The Griswolds get a surprise visit from Cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her moocher husband, Eddie, played by Randy Quaid.

The movie takes place in this adorable house.  You know I have an affinity for yellow houses from THIS post.  It definitely has that "all-American, mom and apple pie" look.




If you've seen some of the other movie house tours at BNOTP, you are probably wondering if the movie was really filmed in this house.

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Tour the Beautiful, Historic Whitlock Inn

Recently, a friend and I went on a Christmas historic home tour in Marietta, Georgia.  Included in the tour was the beautiful Whitlock Inn.  This Victorian home was built in 1900.  A brief history found online states, "One hundred and ten years ago, the M.G. Whitlock House, the famous 150 room Marietta resort, burned to the ground. Before the Civil War, it was a popular showplace for tourists taking the train from the hot coastal towns, like Savannah, to the cooler foothills of Georgia. The resort occupied nearly the whole block of Whitlock Avenue where now stands The Whitlock Inn, a private residence and the Trust Company Bank."

"In 1900, part of the land was purchased by Herbert C. Dobbs and his wife Annie. Here is where they built this Victorian Mansion, home for their family of eight. In 1910, the home was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kemper Smith, who, after several years of residence sold the home to the Dosser family. The much loved Dossers were active in the First Methodist Church, which is now located directly across Whitlock Avenue. Mrs. Dosser is remembered as a favorite piano teacher and the giver of elaborately decorated Christmas parties."  (Brief history found here.)

Today the home is a Bed and Breakfast owned by Nancy and Sandy Edwards who graciously open it to the public for tours.  Come along and take a peek inside this beautiful old home.  (The following pictures were taken by me the day of the home tour, except for the photo of the dining room and back yard, which I found online at the Whitlock Inn site.)

The parlor:  Love the fireplace and the gorgeous wallpaper!

Dining Room:

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A Mercury-Glass Christmas Tree Table Setting: Welcome to the 173rd Tablescape Thursday!

Several months ago I was shopping in Marshall's and I came across a mercury-glass Christmas tree. It was very early in the season and the stores were just starting to get Christmas stuff in. The tree was only $12.99 so I purchased it with the idea of buying a few more for my Christmas table setting this year. I was envisioning a centerpiece filled with pretty, silvery trees. Unfortunately, I never came across anymore silver trees in any of the discount stores. Pottery Barn had them but the price was way more than what I wanted to pay.

Then it happened. I went on a Christmas home tour and there it was, the table I had envisioned. These home tours are bad for the pocket book, ya know? It was gorgeous and I was ruined. The next day I bit the proverbial bullet and purchased a tall tree and two small trees at Pottery Barn. Ouch. Merry Christmas to me.

I still needed one more small tree. I didn't want all the trees to be exactly the same--so much more interesting when they don't all match. I just wanted them all in the mercury-glass style. I eventually found another one in Marshall's, but it was more silver than mercury-glass looking. You'll see it in some of the pics below. I wasn't satisfied with it and eventually I found another mercury-glass tree inexpensively on eBay, also visible in some of the photographs below. It adds a fun twist to this table setting.

The three center trees (including the tall one) are the ones from Pottery Barn. One cool thing about the PB trees: they are designed so you can tuck a string of lights up inside. In this pic below, the lights inside the 3 center trees are turned off.

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Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime

Recently, my friend, Mary, visited Colonial Williamsburg.  While there she took photos of some of the wonderful outdoor Christmas decorations she saw on Duke of Gloucester Street, which is the main road through Colonial Williamsburg.  I have never been there during the Christmas season, but I do so want to go.  Have you ever been at Christmastime?

Mary said, "The arrangements go up right after Thanksgiving and remain up to January 6th.  Most of the arrangements are hand made by the employees of Williamsburg, Va. and some arrangements, the employees who are lucky to rent these colonial homes make their own arrangements. Employees who rent are allowed to hire a florist to make their arrangement but everything has to ALL natural, and only items that would have been in Virginia in the 1700's can be part of the arrangement. All of the arrangements are judged by the category-professionally made, hand made by an amateur, made by Williamsburg employee in the floral department. The arrangements are checked daily for anything that might have wilted. The pine roping is changed every 2 weeks."

No wonder all the arrangements are so beautiful!

Come along and help me name the elements used in creating these amazing displays.  I've numbered the pictures for easy reference.

1.




2. This appears to be dried flowers with perhaps burlap interwoven throughout.  I know I should know the names of the flowers…they look so familiar.  Want to take a stab at it?  The purple and pink are globe amaranth, I think.




3.  I see pomegranates, pine cones and more dried flowers.  Ummm, what are the long, skinny stalks?

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A Christmas Porch Welcome to the 151st Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Holidays!  Hope your weekend has been grand!  I've been busy finishing the last bit of Christmas decorating for the front porch.  Come a bit closer and check it out.

I usually use pine garland around the door for Christmas, but last year I had to buy enough to go around the door twice because it was sort of skimpy looking.  So this year I decided to try cedar.  If you live in the Atlanta area, Pike Nurseries has beautiful cedar garland.  I purchased 30 feet--enough to go around the door, down the center of my dining room table and across the mantel for $45.

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Christmas Historic Home Tour in Marietta, Georgia

Last Saturday I went on a Christmas (historic) home tour in Marietta, Georgia with a friend.  We had so much fun! The weather was great...not too cold, just cloudy.  I took a lot of exterior pics and was able to capture bunches of pics inside two beautiful homes included in the tour. I'll share the interior shots soon, but for now, here are the sights we saw along the way.

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Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Welcome to the 172nd Tablescape Thursday!

Greetings and Happy Holidays! I've been working on a tablescape in the dining room this week, but I'm short one thing I need to complete it. So, last night I put together a totally different table setting in the breakfast room.  While taking pics today, I played around a little with a setting on my camera called "effects."  I've included a few pics taken in the effect setting known as "color sketch."

This tablescape turned out to have a "Santa" theme.  I paired Santa salad plates (used in this previous Christmas tablescape) with red trimmed Noritake, Colorwave dinner plates. As I was setting the table, I remembered I had three sleighs stored away with the Christmas decorations. Once I climbed into the little storage area under the eves, I discovered I actually had four sleighs. All were received as gifts over the years, except one. It struck me as funny, how completely different they all are in their design.   I think you'll enjoy seeing all the different "takes" on Santa's sleigh.

Oh, one more fun thing to note: this table setting includes the "key to JOY."  See if you can spot it.  We can never have too much joy, right? (Click on any photo to further enlarge it.)

Please enjoy this table setting accompanied by the well-loved poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Per Wikipedia, "According to legend, A Visit was composed by Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas."

Twas the Night Before Christmas
By Clement Clarke Moore

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

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Beautiful Christmas Banister

Recently, my friend Joy sent me a few pics of  her banister decorated for Christmas. When I saw the photos, I gasped!  It's covered in hundreds of ornaments and took several hours to create...worth every moment!

I asked Joy how she created this stunning look and she said, "It's two strands of garland wrapped in three strands of 100 lights. I work each strand individually and wrap it with the garland so that the cords don't show."
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What Would You Buy With a $1,000 Gift Card for Old Time Pottery?

Announcement: Thanks so much to all who entered the giveaway from Old Time Pottery. The winner, chosen by the InLinkz Random Number Generator is: No. 43, Sheree. Congrats, Sheree. Please e-mail me at betweennapsontheporchatgmaildotcom with your contact info.

Greetings!  Have you had a chance to visit all the amazing "Before and Afters" linked for yesterday's Met Monday?  I am so inspired by all the creativity and talent linked each week.  So many amazing ideas...I want to try them all.

I've been busy completing more holiday decorating and will be sharing that soon.  Decorating around here always involves a trip over to Old Time Pottery to see what they have gotten in for the holiday season.  Do you have an Old Time Pottery near your home?  If not, it's worth the drive.  Seriously! What you save by shopping there will pay for your gas.

I have come to heavily rely on them for affordable goodies for my table settings, holiday decor and everyday decorating in my home.

Old Time Pottery furniture and decor products:

Here are just a few of the treasures (with links to those posts) I've brought home from Old Time Pottery over the years.
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Pottery Barn Christmas Garland Tutorial: Welcome to the 150th Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Met Monday!  Hope you've had a wonderful weekend.  I've been busy with more holiday decorating and today a friend and I took a local Christmas home tour.   I took some pics on the tour and I'll be sharing those sometime soon. In the meantime, I'm sharing the start of my Christmas porch metamorphosis with a link to a tutorial in case it's one you would like to copy for your own front porch.

Last year I shared this photo from a Pottery Barn catalog.  I had seriously been drooling over this photo in the catalog for two years straight.  It taunted me with its Christmas charm and sheer beauty.  I'm telling ya, my heart literally skipped a beat each time I opened the Pottery Barn catalog to this page. ~~~SIGH~~~

After lusting after this beautiful entrance for two years, I finally decided to get with the program and create the look for my own porch.  I briefly considered buying the garland, but when I realized the garland was only 5 feet long and it would take 2 strands of garland for each column I decorated, I decided to make my own.

I saved a bundle by making it myself and ended up getting the PB look for less than half of what it would have cost if I had bought the garland ready made from Pottery Barn.  Plus, I got the added bonus of "lit" garland; the PB garland isn't lit.  Here's a photo taken last year of the completed garland.
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Paula Deen "Street of Dreams" Home Tour

Recently my friend Terry took a Street of Dream's home tour. Have you ever been on one of those tours before? They used to have them in my area frequently, not sure if they still do. I've been on a few and they are a great way to get ideas for your own home.  That's how I found the wallpaper for my son's bath many years ago.

This home has the most amazing outdoor room and wait until you see the dog wash! I'm not sure why there's a urinal near the dog wash--at least, I think that's what it is.

How do you like the TV above the fireplace?  I guess they make outdoor TVs that can take the humidity and cold.

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