Christmas House Tour and Gardening

A couple of months ago a friend who is in charge
of the Staunton Christmas House Tour, asked me
if I would let the house I am renting be part of the tour
this year. This tour is out on by the Staunton Historical
Foundation and they are featuring new residences on East
Beverley Street. It is great for me because I have helped decorate
almost all of the homes on the list. So, I am starting to make a
few changes to get ready for this.This weekend I started in the
dining room......

The dining room had these dark heavy blue cornices with blue floor to ceiling
panels. They made the room very dark, so I brought home some curtains I had
in the back of the store. They belonged to a retired decorator from a job she
never finished.

The new drapes are a pink and tan silk and are very long, perfect for the
big windows. i am amazed at how much brighter the room is now, I left
the lace sheers in the windows to help filter the light. I may have an old picture
of the blue drapes in a past post.

 I found two old pictures were you can kinda see the blue drapes
in the background. I picked up my sconces from Ebay that I had
rewired. I bought them because they plug in instead of being a hard
wire, so if I move I just take

 them off the wall. And now off to the yard, which has nothing to do with
the Christmas tour. I put in some annuals and perennials in some of empty shade
beds and filled up the containers below these beds.

Astilbe, that will come back next year, impatients and begonias, caladium and geraniums
that I bring indoors in the winter. This shade side will be pretty all summer long.

Elfie, standing guard.

The Larkspur came from my old gardens by way of seeds, the rest came with the house.
Love the bell flower. Now for new plantings which I hope to be able to see grow.

The cone flower is an exotic pink, the delphinium was a big splurge, but oh so
hard to resist, it's huge with lots of blooms. The knock out rose was on the $3
discount rack and will be huge one day. The hydrangea is to replace the many I
left behind at the old house, including an oakleaf that I had planted some 5 years
ago. Now there will be lots of watering to do.