by Wendy Scheel | Dec 4, 2015 | Home Tour
With so much sad news in the world this week, I would like to just be quiet and share with you some happy, stress free photos.
Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference.
And on that same train of thought, sometimes it is the little décor items that pull everything together and produce the warm and fuzzy feelings of the holidays.
Among the big Christmas décor items, The Tree and The Stockings, I love to add smaller areas of décor that you might not notice until you come to our house the second or third time.
So let’s look around.
When you walk through the front door, Santa greets you.
A few more feet into the living room and the decorated fireplace mantel welcomes our family and guests.
A little holiday spirit reaches between the big windows and then finds a place to land on our wicker trunk coffee table and the end table by the couch.
The dining room windows also display a little joy, not to be outshined by the quilted table runner held down by some flocked trees.
Besides the smaller Christmas tree in between the dining room and kitchen that holds all of the ornaments we have collected through the years, there is a story of decorations on the granite counter top and a final display of festive cheer on the island.
Today is a day for pictures, not so many words.
See you tomorrow,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 4, 2015 | Business, Home Tour
The retail world is always a season ahead. My Etsy shop is no different. I do not have a lot of items listed for Halloween and Thanksgiving. That doesn’t mean I don’t love to decorate for them, it just means that I have to concentrate on different holidays listings. 🙂
In previous posts I have mentioned that we were setting up our Christmas décor early so that we could get those Holiday pictures for the blog and shop.
But, there are so many beautiful ideas out there right now to create a Thanksgiving table centerpiece. For example, this picture from Thistlewood Farms. Karianne posted this creation on her blog yesterday along with several other ideas from her blogging friends.
(source)
In addition to using limes in a centerpiece, what caught my eye were some tree slices that were used as vases. I read Karianne’s post very carefully to see if they were actual trees or ceramic, but she was telling such a great story, there was no mention of the tree slices.
The beauty of Pinterest or blog following is that you can re-create exactly what you see or maybe take away just pieces of it.
For instance, if you don’t have tree vases, maybe use something along these lines:
Then arrange grocery store or local florists fresh flowers in a vase and maybe a couple of limes for effect. 🙂
I have used those same candle holders from Fall to the Christmas decorating season in our house.
Sneak peek of the transition from Fall to Christmas on that shelf.
I am fortunate and very thankful that my Mom loves to collect Santa’s. Now that my parents leave for their winter house in Texas before Thanksgiving, and who could blame them, she no longer decorates their house in Wisconsin for the holidays.
So they get the warm weather and I get some of her Santa collection.
I would love to hear where you get your table centerpiece inspiration. A blog, a magazine or maybe you have a kind Mother that shares things with you.
See you on Friday,
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 2, 2015 | Home Tour
We had a great Halloween weekend with our neighbors!
As we were both reviewing and sending each other pictures from the weekend, pictures that will never make it onto this blog, 🙂 , I found a photo from our previous house.
I forgot how much I loved the painted staircase!
I removed the carpet from the stairs, added stained oak treads and painted the back of the risers the same color as the kitchen cupboards.
I was so on top of it that day! 🙂
Now we have the “stairway to heaven” in this house and I am really feeling that I need to do the same thing here. I’ll let you know how that progresses.
Looking at these stairs, the wall on the left is the back wall to Wade’s office and the spindles on the right you can see behind the couch.
Those 17 steps lead to a small sitting area.
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Looking from Family Room
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Looking across from guest bedroom
When we first bought the house, I thought it was a kind of goofy area. I think I have moved chairs around, a bench placed in a couple of different spots and even attempted the minimalist approach to the area. Minimalism made it look like it was waiting for something. The bench and chairs were too much.
I split up my Queen Ann chairs leaving one in this area and the other in the guest bedroom in front of my desk. I then moved in a small antique table and a lamp and topped it off with some fun pieces.
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Sitting area corner
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Looking across from guest bedroom
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It works really well when guests come to visit, i.e. my parents. My Mom is an early riser and many mornings I have found her sitting in the chair with her morning coffee and reading her local news from her iPad.
I think I will keep the sitting area as a sitting area. 🙂
The guest bedroom is right around the corner from here. You’ve already seen most of the pictures from this bedroom when I posted about the quilt my Mom made for me. Across from the bed is my desk where I work on my blog. Spencer took great shots of the room.
To refresh your memory….
These are the last two rooms for the Home Tour 2015. Maybe I should make a Home Tour 2015: The first week of October, the second week of October etc. When I was looking at these pictures, I noticed that I have changed a lot of things around.
This girl loves change!
I have dug into my Christmas box and on Wednesday I will show you some things I have set up.
I hope you stop by!
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Oct 30, 2015 | Home Tour
Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. Shocking, I know. 🙂
It happened again, soon after we moved into our house. The ownership history of this house is that the original owners lived here for about seven years. They then sold the house to the owners that we purchased it from. Those owners lived here for about two years.
Last summer when we were pulling the dock in, we met the original owner. He was a very nice man and is still friends with the neighbors. He kept looking back at the house from the water, so the nice person that I am, asked him if he would like to come inside and look around.
He declined.
I told him how much we loved the house and if I were to design a house, this is the house I would’ve designed….except for one thing.
I didn’t understand why the previous owners had put an ironing board cupboard in the master bedroom on the wall that you would obviously put the head of your bed on. (You’re ahead on me this, aren’t you?)
He looked at me sideways, and very Minnesota nicely, told me that he and his wife had put that cupboard in, not the owners that we purchased from.
Mouth, meet my foot.
But to add insult to injury, he added that in their current home, they had done the same thing. They again had put an ironing board cupboard in the bedroom and they loved it because it was so convenient for his wife to finish the laundry ironing and then put things away.
Okay then.
I just smiled. Minnesota nice smiled and slinked away.
So here is that bedroom.
As you walk into the room, on the wall right behind the wrought iron based nightstand, was where that cupboard was inserted into the wall.
Not my style. So I changed it and moved on. 🙂 Ironing board cupboard removed and brick wallpaper put up to create an accent wall.
The opposite corner of our bedroom at the foot of the bed holds the rocking chair I upholstered and the dresser. And then to the right is the calming view of the lake that greets us every morning.
On the right hand side wall as you walk into the bedroom is the pocket door that leads into a long galley vanity/whirlpool tub/shower/bathroom/walk in closet.
Remember the chandelier we put in the walk in closet?
Me too. It stills makes me feel all Movie Star….with a foot in my mouth. 🙂
Have a safe and Happy Halloween! Stop by for a Sidenote Saturday between bites of candy.
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Oct 9, 2015 | Home Tour
As the Home Tour continues, we travel upstairs. These stairs, all 17 of them.
At the top of the stairs to the left of the dresser, you can see light shining thru from my son’s bedroom. Jack is 17 and I believe that any parent with a teenage son can agree that no one wants to see that room. 🙂 But if you really want to all you have to do is take every piece of clothing you own and throw it on the floor. Walk on these clothes for several days, add some bowls with dried up cereal in them and add some tossed about wet towels to complete the picture.
That picture will not make an appearance on this blog. 🙂
Moving past Jack’s room and on your immediate left is the guest bedroom. I will share that part of the tour later in the month. Continuing down the short hallway is a bathroom on the right and then straight ahead and up two little steps, we enter my sewing room/studio.
I love this room. The previous owners originally used this area for storage and then updated it to be a media and exercise room. Now it has found its third purpose.
The window in the front faces West and the afternoon sunshine is glorious.
I have a large table in front of the window that holds my sewing machine and serger machine. The area behind that is my cutting table.
I debated cleaning and organizing every inch of the studio prior to taking pictures. But the thing is is that it never looks like that. There are always 2 or 3 projects going at the same time so in reality the studio is one big area of organized chaos. 🙂
Lining the wall are industrial racks and barrels of fabric. My Dad made me the black horizontal racks. Makes the room look so professional. Love it.
And finally, between the industrial racks, I have rows of finished pillow covers. These are covers that were made and then photographed to be listed in the shop. I offer several different sizes of covers so typically orders are filled when they are placed. These covers are just waiting for someone to order their size. 🙂
That is the sewing room/studio. I hope you enjoyed the tour!
This weekend in Minnesota is going to be unseasonably warm. Yahoo!!
I will share with you tomorrow on the SideNote Saturday post the outside item that won me over when we were considering buying this house.
Have a great weekend!
by Wendy Scheel | Oct 2, 2015 | Home Tour
I think I mentioned during the Home Tour that we have only lived in this house for a little over a year.
Although this house was 7 years old when we purchased it, it was as they say, turn key ready. I think my husband was excited that he didn’t have to do a thing and we could park our stuff inside and get out on the lake to fish. Silly husband, it’s as if he never met me.
In all honesty, we haven’t really done anything major around the house. But what I have done is replace several of the light fixtures. Putting my spin on decorating makes this house a home for me.
I don’t have any before pictures. Remember “we” were excited to get outside and go fishing. 🙂
Let me describe what the before looked like . Again, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t me.
Here is the new dining room table chandelier. Metal Orb from World Market.
There was a five piece chandelier over the table that matched the pendant lights that hang over the island. In fact, I think the original light is still in the garage waiting to be posted on Craigslist. Note to self: get that listed.
Here is the light in the bathroom over the double vanity. Home Depot purchase.
It use to be a 5 round bulb on a metal piece. Nothing wrong with that, just not me.
Now for my favorite change.
This…..
Turned into this…
Yep. I took what is affectionately referred to as a nipple light and replaced it with a 6 lamp chandelier. And here’s the best part…
This is in my walk in closet!
How many times has someone seen the inside of your closet? If you are like me, close to zero. But everytime I turn on the light, I smile. I love touches of whimsy in decorating and this is the icing on the cake for me.
Plus this was a labor of love. My husband has become pretty handy at changing out light fixtures for me, but he never enjoys it. Here is the picture of him right after he replaced the light.
That is a face saying, “A chandelier in the closet? If this doesn’t prove to you how much I love you, nothing does.” heehee. He is so cute.
I hope you get a chance to stop in tomorrow. I need your help with something.
Have a great weekend!
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