Winter Sideboard and Mantel

After the whirlwind that is Christmas all I want is to create simple sideboard and mantel arrangements that will see me through until the spring. Something calm and easy on the eyes, but still pretty.

I added some colour to the sideboard by embracing the warm side of the palette - red, pink, and orange. I was inspired by the fresh colours in the plates that I re-hung on the wall ... after not being able to find them for TWO YEARS.  Yep, two years ago I took them down to hang up the Christmas plates and very carefully put them away so they wouldn't get broken. When I went to put them back up, I couldn't find them anywhere and it has taken all this time for them to reappear.  Welcome back fruit plates.

I like that I can change out the flowers when needed to any red, pink, orange, or even white flowers or maybe even add a potted plant (which is a good thing because shortly after I took these photos the hydrangeas wilted and only half of them recovered). The carved oranges are fully dried now - with the more orangey ones being from the Christmas craft party this year and the more brownish ones being from the craft party last year. They are honestly the easiest hit of natural colour ever. I went wild with the tablecloth just because I love how cheery the colours are. And I couldn't figure out any other place to put the red tissue paper flower I made for the husband's birthday so I hung it from the top of the mirror.

The mantel is still very neutral with a collection of white stoneware across the middle and warm browns on either side with the bracket fungus and the brown pot holding the plant on the other side. That plant has been alive through two summers in the garden and this is its second winter indoors.  I love how it looks like a bonsai.

Do you change up your mantel and sideboard. It's one of my favourite ways to decorate our home.

So Long Summer, Hello Fall

  

Fall is officially here! We've had such a cool summer and early fall that it seems like it has been fall for awhile now. The funny thing is that I feel like the leaves are late turning colours this year so it just feels like fall, but looks like summer.  

I got my fall decorating mojo on and changed up the sideboard and picked a bouquet of weeds for the table. I've always had a thing for wildflowers - maybe it's the price - but I think it is just as much the relaxed country vibe. All I know is that this bouquet of goldenrod and aster flowers makes me smile.

I've finally started falling in love with some fall colours like orange and mustard yellow. How did that happen? All I know is that I have an orange t-shirt, an orange sweater, a mustard yellow sweater, a mustard yellow striped shirt, a mustard yellow striped dress, and a mustard yellow fall jacket. Yep, it's official I must like fall colours. They used to be my least favourite, but now apparently not so much. 

I decorated the sideboard with the mustard yellow runner we made last year in art class with leaves printed all over it (and in case you were wondering I did my best to iron it, but the wrinkles wouldn't go and the ink was coming off, so I left it). You can read about how we made it here. Then I gathered up a collection of things that were brassy, pottery, or orange and voila. I carved the oranges at both of our previous Christmas Craft parties (which you can read about here and here) and the pinky maple keys are from our Amur maple tree in the backyard. I don't remember the keys turning such a pink colour in previous years, but I like them. I picked a bouquet of them a few weeks ago and now they are dried. 

One of the things I love most about fall is getting back into cooking soups for dinner. I love soups and have already made my favourite one twice this month. You can see it below - it's a sweet potato peanut soup with an awesome blend of flavours (the recipe is here). So yummy. What's your favourite soup? I'm always willing to expand my repertoire and I obviously need to.

Blue is the New Black

I'm embracing the new blue trend.  

Last summer I painted our banker's chair in the family room a light navy shade (see photo below).  I love the colour and decided to paint the dining room chairs in it as well since they are in an adjoining room.

The blue is a bit lighter than a navy and not exactly royal blue.  It is sort of a marine blue.  And sort of like the centre of a blueberry. It's a really livable shade of blue - not too dark or light or bright.

We usually use a mix of chairs around the table which I wanted to unify by painting them a single colour.  Also our dining room chairs get heavy use so they were chipped around the edges and in need of a new paint.  The black of the IKEA chairs looked a bit dark with all the greens and blues and grays in the rest of the kitchen-dining-family room so I thought it would be nice to introduce the blue to the dining end of the room. 

I painted some of the IKEA chairs and one other blond wood chair in the navy.  Although I liked the light wood, we didn't have any other wood that colour and the chair had paint splotches and signs of wear on it.  So paint it, I did.  I love its lines and love how it looks in blue.

How do you feel about the blue trend?  Navy especially is all over the place these days - everything from clothes to interiors. I have always loved blue so this is a trend I love!

Spring Mantel and Sideboard

It was time to change things up around the house and bring in some pretty spring colours.  It may still be ice and snow outside (and we just got another 4 cms this weekend), but I sure was ready for fresh spring turquoise and yellow inside.

This was the first time I had put my Grandmother's batik on the mantel (it usually goes over the sideboard in the dining room) and I'm so glad I did because the colours are perfect for spring.  I lined all the turquoise and a few clear glass vases and mason jars up along either end of the mantel and added some tiny pink flowers.  I didn't know the name of these flowers until I Googled them, but it seems like they are waxflowers (chamelaucium).  Not a very pretty name, but they sure are a pretty flower and look great with turquoise.  Do they go by any other names?  

At the other end of the room I used yellow on the sideboard and dining room table.  My husband has a green thumb and has managed to whisper in the ear of all three of our orchid plants and they are blooming at the same time.  And for this lovely display they deserve to be given pride of place on the dining room table.  You can't really see all three plants in the photo below so I included a second shot with all of the plants visible.

  

The sideboard has yellow striped napkins on it and a yellow striped jug on top.  I love all the sun-shiney yellow.  Yesterday I ventured out through our snowy backyard and climbed the snowy climber to get some pussywillow cuttings.  They are actually starting to open up on the tree.  How do they do that when it is well below zero outside and the ground is covered in snow?  All I can say is that it sure is a welcome sign of spring.

  

Have you started decorating for spring?  March 1st was my ticket to change things up.  Now if we could just get those temperatures to go up a bit too.

Winter Mantel and Sideboard

I've been doing a lot of helping kids pack recently.  Well not really pack - they are old enough to do that for themselves, but more discuss what to take and what not to forget. 

William is back in Winnipeg and started classes again yesterday.  Kate is off to the University of Bath in the United Kingdom for a term, but is first going to Paris for a couple of weeks, then to Amsterdam for a few days and finally to London for a few days.  She also hopes to visit Spain over the Easter break.  There was much deliberation over what clothes to take that would work for winter, spring, and even summery weather.  She took a small backpack for her computer and books and a wheeling bag that was half filled with her sleeping bag and the rest with her clothes.  She actually had room to spare which was the goal as she will want to bring things back with her.   

I decided to draw Kate's packing list as a good sketching exercise and a little reminder in years to come of what she took.  

The last few days have been wickedly cold and there was some snow yesterday which caused Kate's flight to be delayed by 12 hours resulting in her missing the connecting train from London to Paris.  Sigh.  I will be glad when we hear that she has finally arrived in Paris.

With all the Christmas decorations down, it was time to decorate the mantel and sideboard for winter. 

I went with simple and natural for the mantel this year.  I kept the paper star and the foil birds I made before Christmas and added some pottery jugs, candles, a few things we have collected from over the years from various walks, and a plant.  The plant was growing in our front garden all summer and I couldn't bear for it to be killed by the frost so I dug it up in the fall and put it in the brown pot and it has thrived (or at least not died and that counts for something).  I like all the soft browns and grays and silvers - they are very restful.

The sideboard is a little brighter than the mantel since I kept the red and orange snowflake runner as the base.  It seemed natural then to decorate with golds, bronzes, oranges and reds.  We still have a few seasonal plants around so they got added to the sideboard along with the carved oranges.  I kept the bronze candlesticks and pine cones along the back.  I love the look of the sideboard with the candles lit during dinner.

And last, but not least, I want to thank all of you for your kind words regarding my father.  I am just now getting myself in gear and replying to you, but I want you to know that your support has meant a lot to me.

Coral and Navy Tablesetting

I was at the thrift store this week doing what I do best on Friday at noon, when I found not one, but two tablecloths I liked. As soon as I saw this coral one I knew that I wanted to use it this weekend when we were having dinner guests.  

I paired the coral tablecloth with our Blue Willow dinner plates and used the blue and white Pottery Barn serviettes.  Don't you think coral and navy are such a lovely fresh combination? Orange and blue are opposites on the colour wheel so I assume that is why the coral and navy really seem to highlight yet compliment each other.  
In the centre of the table I used our collection of brass candlesticks from the $20 thrift store challenge (which you can read about here) - love the combination of heights and shapes.  And I bought some white flowers for the table - because the table needed white flowers to pull it all together.

Do you want to know something strange?  Do you see the nails on the wall on either side of the piece of art on our wall - that is where the fruit plates are supposed to go.  I took them down to hang the Christmas plates there.  When the Christmas plates came down in January, I hung some faux snowballs on the nails until Valentine's Day.  Now that Valentine's Day is finished I thought it was time to hang up the fruit plates again, but the trouble is I can't remember where I put them. I've looked all over the house ... and nothing ... nadda. I've been walking around asking everyone - if you were me, where would you have stored the plates? I'm hoping they show up soon. So strange, eh? Have you ever lost something like that?

Linked to Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill,
The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush,
Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life,
Totally Tuesday at Madcap Frenzy