Sharing Shadymont, My Mountain Cottage

The post with the most readers for 2016, was the one where I did a makeover on a french style night stand at the lake house. The piece had a plastic type finish that had yellowed with age, and I wasn't sure paint would cover it, but Waverly Chalk Paint did the trick. #1 Favorite:   French Night Stand Makeover 2nd Most popular: How to Spruce Up a Good Will Find I found this lovely ceramic dough bowl and fruit in October at GW. I removed the yellowed Spanish moss, and replaced it with new, washed everything really good, and added some fall stems to the bowl. I've had the tray on the dining table ever since.  I filled it with ornaments for Christmas.  Very versatile.   Post 3:  Embellishing Ceramic Pumpkins I received these pumpkins from Oriental Trading for a sponsored post.  I'm enjoying being a Brand Ambassador for them.  Such great products!!  They came all white.  Above, I had painted the...

I'm one of those people who decorates early for the holidays, and who quickly packs it all up after the main event is over.  My husband comments that the house looks bare, but I don't think I can ever be accused of being a minimalist.  I love my stuff, but I like it when all the "extra" decor is packed up and put away.  December 26th found me up bright and early, gathering everything to the dining and breakfast tables, to be packaged and stored.  I plan to better organize my decorating bins.  I want to have all my ornaments in one bin, all the Santas in one, etc. Here are some photos of the "cleaner" look without the holiday clutter. I'm keeping the lanterns out for now since they work great for winter decor.  I placed them on the sofa table, and added a birch log candle to the large one with some silver mesh ribbon, and a smaller candle in the smallest lantern. Two decorating books, a magnolia stem (from years ago) finish out the vignette. The...

I hope 2016 has been good for you and your family, and wish you the best throughout the new year. Now that Christmas is past, and that decor is put away for another year, it is time to decide how to would decorate for the Winter season. Recently, I've shared some of the Fall and Christmas items I have enjoyed from Oriental Trading Company . I will continue to use some of the items I was gifted in my winter look, like these white lanterns.  I placed them on the sofa table and added a touch of sparkle by using the gold and silver curling ribbon also from Oriental Trading Company. Their rolls contain 500 yards of ribbon for $4.29.   I think this is an easy way to make the lanterns festive for upcoming parties. Another way to use the curling ribbon for a bit of sparkle is like I've used it in the china cabinet. Simply curl pieces of ribbon and drop into crystal for a festive touch if you are having guests for New Year's Eve. I will continue to use these lovel...

Merry Christmas One & All

I had energy for some reason today, and had my closet purged before 10 AM.!  Yay, me!!  Of course I gave my daughter a huge bag of stuff to go through to see if she wanted it, and took 6 bags to GW.  As usual, I had about 100 empty clothes hangers after doing this.  My husband was going to throw away the wire hangers when I remembered a YouTube tutorial for making a Christmas tree from wire hangers.  Here is how you do it: You'll need: 6 wire hangers masking tape garland or geo mesh lights (plug in or battery operated) mine are battery operated ornaments or other Christmas decor First interlock two of the hangers by placing the hooks inside the opposite hanger and hooking it in place, tape at the top and along the sides to hold together. Make three of these, using all 6 hangers.  Be sure to tape as shown. Make 3 of these, then interlock them and use the tape to hold the form together.  When all 6 are taped together, they will look s...

I have several tables in the dining room that are great for decorating, the tea cart, a side table, and the bombe table. Tea Cart Of course I've been tweaking everything, trying to get it like I want.  Above is the first try on decorating the tea cart.  Below shows it with the changes I made. You can see in the photo before this one, that I've added ornaments to the 3-tiered tray.  Much better, I think with the addition of green.                          I moved the chair I recently painted to a corner in the dining room, to hold this lantern. I bought these picks and ribbon at Dollar Tree for a total of $3.00.  It was an easy project to make this to attach to the lantern. Later, I moved the lantern to the bottom of the hall tree, and brought in this antique egg basket full of Christmas decor.  The holly table cloth over the back of the chair is from...