Christmas Cactus

Last year one of our furniture reps brought us a Christmas Cactus, after the
season was over I took the plant home because I am the only one with a green
thumb. I had never had a Christmas Cactus before, so after it bloomed I was like
what now. I kept it in the window with my orchids until it was time to take it out
to the porch for the summer with the rest of the guys. So to my surprise, this is what
I saw last week....

This funky little plant is full of blooms and they are opening up each day.

The blooms have so much caricature and the color is amazing.

These crazy little buds become a beautiful blooming plant. Next up, as we wind down Fall,

get to Thanksgiving, I will start thinking about decorating for Christmas. This house is too 

small for a tree but I will have fun planning my decorating inside and out.

Colder Days to Come

With colder days in the forecast, I made a big pot of soup yesterday
to last me all week.

I made a batch of Bear Creek's Minestrone Soup, it calls for 8 cups of water and
makes about six servings.

They are calling for days in the low teens, so a big pot of hearty soup will keep me warm.

Happy Veterans Day, stay warm and safe.

Welcome to November

Now that October is gone, I have one last post for last month.
We had an open house at the new store in Charlottesville with
little participation. I had made some mini honey butter rolls with
brie and prosciutto  and had a lot left over. last Sunday on my dog walk
I was thinking about what to do with the left overs. Well I was watching
Food Networks Thanksgiving left over show and was inspired to create
a strata. I have eggs but no milk and I cannot  soak this overnight. Anyway
I got home and diced up the left overs, whisked 6 eggs and added all to a
greased pirex and baked for a great breakfast.

Yum, I never eat like this. Food coma!
As I was cleaning up the dishes, this is what I saw out of the corner of my yard.

 We had a terrible storm on Halloween night and the rain and wind was crazy, I had the
privilege of driving over the mountain in it. This happened sometime that night, you can
see where it split from the tree and hit my back garden and thank god not the house. I welcome
November, cozy nights snuggling with Mandy under blankets in our warm little farm house.

New Decorating Job

I have a new decorating job that has been in the works since
this summer. This is a client of mine that I helped with her old
house a few years ago. She has since purchases a new house in
downtown Staunton, a historic Victorian house on New Street.
The first part of this house is working on the two units in the back
that are now two Airbnb rentals. We were working on these while
the house was being renovated, so it all came together as the house was
being finished. The first one has a blue and white theme and  I got to
use one of my favorite fabrics by Schumacher, a beautiful toile called
Birds of Paradise, for the curtains.

The Airbnb is called the Labrador Manor and these are the pictures of the listing online.
I forgot to take pictures when I was there. The second rooms were done in Stouts Flicks3
in grey.

I think these back two rooms were at one point servant rooms with double back
porches and separate entrances.

 The next rooms will be done soon, one of the fabrics is on back order. If you want
to see more of the house, check out the listing.

Mini Vacation to Figure Eight Island, N.C.

For my birthday last week, I took a couple of days off to go to Figure Eight Island
in North Carolina with my mom, my sister, my aunt and cousin. We stayed in a huge
house on this beautiful island.

There is a bridge you take to get over to the island, this is a view from the porch.

There are only a few houses on the island, surrounded by marsh and water with loads
of wildlife.

My lense fogged up while I was taking the picture of the Herond. Saturday the storm
came through and the temperature changed to cool. I went down to the dock to take
more pictures.

This is the water side of the house.

And the front of the house.

Each morning we walked the island to explore the surroundings, above is the water
across from the front of the house with two men fishing. Below is a picture of my
favorite house.

A view of the beaches and if you look close on the bottom picture, you can see
Wrightsville Beach at the end of the beach.

 A picture of the storm coming in above. And below, a few paintings from the house and
in my bedroom.

It was a great trip with lots of shopping in beautiful stores and great food in wonderful
restaurants.

The First Day of Fall

The past two days have been very hot, it is hard to believe that it is
the first day of fall. There is a cold front coming in so hopefully it
is going to start to cool off. Below you will see pictures of the last
blooms in my yard.

New Design For My Dining Room

I have been dying to do a new design for my dining room, I looked at rugs on Amazon.
I saw some that I thought were pretty at Home Goods, but I came across this 8' x 10' rug
at Ross Stores at only $100 and said let's do it. It's time to lighten up this room.

The old rug was a dated pastel 9' x 12' rug that I found at an antique store a couple of
years ago in other house, see my old posts from when I lived on Fayette St.. It was dirty
and was impossible to keep clean.

 The new is a Dragos rug made in Turkey and had Grey and multi tones, it shoes more
floor and is not as thick as the last rug. It gives the room a lighter look with a more updated
look.

The old curtains were made for my living room many moons ago. They are a
light green silk stripe and were dark and dated.

The new curtains are from Ballard Design and are a cotton twill with a decorative border and
are called Embroidered Square Trim Panels in Gray. I love the light they let into the room,
I do miss the look of silk but these do bring a new look to the room.

My next design decision will be replacing the chair fabric, above are a few contenders,
Duralee has come out with a few new patterns that I love.. Will post a finished look soon.
Still working on this room.