January Shifts and Starts

So hi!  Happy 2013.  A week ago we finally put away the traces of Christmas, and I tried to embrace the opportunity to shift some stuff around at the cottage.  Here is a chance to catch you up on what's been happening...

Today was a beautiful sunny (if cold) winter day, so I snapped a shot of the dining room, de-snowflaked on the walls..  I couldn't help but leave up some of the snowflakes on the chandelier and the centerpiece bowl though.  Hey, snow is a winter thing too!  Note there are only four chairs around the table instead of six....

We moved the small table that normally sits in the bay window to the other side of the room for Christmas to make room for the tree...and discovered that the African Violet in the Wardian Case LOVES it there...we haven't had a bloom on the plant since we bought it a year and a half ago, and now look!  So now that table isn't going back.  We took down the tree and that left a big blank spot by the window...

 

...so instead we put two of the dining room chairs in the living room, with a table between them.  Not sure what we're going to put on this table yet...it's just a temporary arrangement till we find something perfect.

  

 The fabric on the table is a gorgeous tapestry given to me by my friend Briony Keith.  Yes, it features trees!

One thing I've never been thrilled about is the set of coasters we had in the living room.  I got them at a garage sale when I moved into my first apartment twelve years ago.  Well of course at my favorite antique and craft store again, I saw this set of really neat "mini-plates" as they call them.  Oh phshaw...they're coasters.  :P

 

There's one for each of the four seasons, and I figure I can rotate out which one sits on top when its season arrives.  Tree coasters?  Can't imagine why that'd interest me....  ;)

The mantle has been de-Christmassed, but I tried to keep a winter feel to it by arranging pine cones throughout the arrangement.  The faerie is holding a glittered winter leaf made from leather by my dear friends Shane and Leah Odom from Mythical Masks by Miscellaneous Oddiments.  I love the little touch of winter magic it adds.

Aaaaand finally something I did today.  Something new in the below picture?  Why yes there is....

 I finally did my Faerie door in the Dreaming Room this afternoon.  Originally I had planned to have ivy and greenery spill out from the trim around the door onto the wall a little, but I think I'm going to live with it like this for a little while.  The problem with doing Trompe-l'œil painting is that there's such a fine line between something creative and sweet and something that veers into kitsch.  I'm afraid adding the leaves/vine might swing it over into the kitsch category too much.  But we'll see.  What do you think?