mantels and windows

Having never had a fireplace mantel until recently, I've been playing around with decor. Why didn't anyone tell me it's harder than it looks?! There's a lot involved - scale, layering, color, balance and symmetry. I can't tell you how many times I've changed this up. This shall do for now. The framed photograph in the middle is one of Tim's from his BFA art show last year. I know it's hard to tell from my photo, but it's a photograph of a staircase and entryway. The shadowing and textures in this photograph are amazing.

There's just one little problem that you don't see in the above photo - but you'll see below. The mantel juts right up to the window trim. (Yes, we need new windows and trim, and we hope that will be coming soon.) So, that leaves the problem of hanging curtains. We obviously can't do so now, as the mantel is in the way.

The window is actually a double one and the room looks harsh without a soft window treatment. We can't leave the windows bare (if they were pretty) because a neighbor's house is right outside this window. So...any ideas? I thought of fabric Roman shades, but I still don't think that will make the room look soft enough, especially when the shades are down at night. There IS room on the left side of the window for fabric to hang down. I have some gauzy sheers that I was thinking of draping over a curtain rod above the window and then just letting some hang down to the left. Tacky? Silly looking?

View from the kitchen...here you can see the left side of the double window.

We're not the only ones that like the new pass-thru. Clementine loves perching there. So far, my glass pieces have been fine. Clem's quite dainty and has never broken anything.

I still haven't decided on any art or decor for the living room or kitchen walls, but I am loving the light that we now get in both rooms.

Happy weekend, everyone!

inspiration for a lace curtain and gratitude

My front door has a decorative glass window that brings needed light into my darkish living room. Even though the glass is beveled with metalwork in it, I always worried a bit about the privacy factor. You can't see into the house from the street during the day, but at night when the lights are on in the living room, it's a little spooky knowing someone can somewhat see into the house. I also didn't like knowing that a stranger could walk right up to the front door and look straight into my house. A bit creepy, right?

Then I saw Alice's entryway and front door. I loved how she had a lace panel hung up across the glass window in her door and wanted to do that with mine. I asked my mom if she had a lace panel that she wasn't using and yep, she did. Mom joined us last night for dinner and brought me the lace panel. Using the inspiration from Alice, I hung the lace across a couple of 3M hooks, tied it in the middle with some twine and am really happy with the results. Of course, the lace panel isn't totally fool-proof and there's still the small side window if someone really wanted to look into my house, but it's an improvement. Plus, it looks pretty!

The curtain added some needed softness to this part of the living room, too.

Tim's been home from school since Thursday as he's on Spring Break. It's been a whirlwind of taking his car to the mechanic for some brake work, his phone with a broken screen to a repair shop, shopping for jeans and shoes, extra cooking, cleaning and laundry ~ but I'm enjoying every moment while I can. We visited our favorite coffee shop this afternoon and indulged in iced mochas. As we drove home with the sun roof open to the glorious, sunny sky, the radio blasting The Doors, and groaning to each other how our tummies ached from the chocolately caffeinated goodness, my mama heart was filled with gratitude. Tomorrow morning I will make my "famous" breakfast casserole and then Tim will be packing up his stuff to head back to school. And I will be heading to a bread-making class. I'll tell you all about that in my next post. In the meantime, I hope your weekend has been filled with inspiration and gratefulness, too.

roadside finds

Some of you may remember that I found this old window by the roadside

several years ago. Some men were working on rehabbing a house down my

street and I saw this window by the garbage can. I got out of my car and asked

the men if I could have the window. They looked at me as if I were crazy! Those

men obviously did not know about the vintage, chippy trend.

Ever since then, I haven't known quite what to do with this window. Every summer,

I faithfully take it out of the garage and simply lean it against the fence. And every

summer I say to myself, "I'm going to scrape and paint that window. And then use

it in my house somewhere." Mmm-hmm. What's stopping me from hanging this in

 my house is the weight of this window. It weighs a ton. Maybe because of the

 glass panels. So I suppose it would great on top of a dresser or side board, but

the only dresser we have right now is too tall. There is the side board in the entry

way of my living room, but there's a huge mirror and plates hung on the wall

above this piece of furniture. And...there's a buffet in my living room too, but again,

a big, decorative piece (which I really like, so don't want to remove) hanging on the

wall above the buffet. Oh well, guess this makes a great garden piece!

Now here's my latest cool find. The other day, Brian and I were driving down the

road and I spied a big piece of wood leaning against a tree. I told Brian this "just

might be something interesting", so I had him turn the car around. He pulled over

to the side of the road, and as I got out of the car and went to the tree to inspect

this wondrous piece of wood, a man in a pick-up truck slowed down on the other

side of the road, then stopped. He just sat there, staring at me. At first I thought

maybe I was taking something that was rightfully his. But he never said anything.

So I told Brian I did indeed want this piece and he came over to help me put it

in the car. It was very long and very heavy. As we were putting the wood into the

car, the man drove off. So he must've spied it too and went back to get it, but

we beat him to it - ha! 

Here's the thing: I have absolutely NO idea what to do with this. It's about 6 ft. tall/long

and is so heavy, that I could barely drag it to the side of the house. If it were lightweight,

I would love to paint something on it and hang it somewhere in my house. It has 

interesting hardware on it, too.

Any ideas out there on what this was originally used for? 

Or, what I could do with it?

 Happy weekend!