Dining Room & Kitchen

We've been working on the living & dining rooms and the kitchen on and off this year.  All the walls got a fresh coat of paint and we bought new window treatments...they're hanging in the dining room, but the living room draperies are in a drawer.  I'm thinking next year..... 

I have a new fixture for the kitchen...I got a great deal on a chandelier on Craigslist.  It needs  paint job before it gets installed. We're thinking of something like this to replace the fan in the dining room.  But finished or not...I'm really happy with the Christmas look in these rooms this year.  I'm not so happy with the look of the dining room table...we were wrapping packages! That is a totally natural look though.  We use that table every day and it always has something piled on it!!

We'll be mounting another rod in front of the current one shown here...I have an old crocheted tablecloth that will be re-purposed into a valance for the patio door.  Another "next year" project.

I was hoping the Amaryllis would bloom for Christmas....that's not going to be happening!  This little vignette sits on an old cupboard door on one of my highchairs. When it's time to use the chair we'll just pick up the cupboard door and move the whole display.

I love my new red bird ~ thank you Peggy!  He works perfectly with this old birdhouse made from barn wood.  Those are my very favorite quilts stacked there ~ I found the second one from the top at the thrift store several years ago.  It's a twin size and it's beautifully quilted. What a deal it was too!! $2.89 plus tax!!

These silly guys came home with me from the last craft show I went to.  They were living in a big basket with about a dozen other cats...now they're living way up on top of my hutch. The gold one and the white one are made out of sweater sleeves and the black one is from a piece of wool.  They were selling for a whopping $3.00 each!! The same vendor made my new "Turn on the Twinkle" raggedy too! 

We built this wall between the living and dining rooms about ten years ago. I like defined spaces ~ I also like these cute little elves!

Another peek at my tree.  This time with the lights on.  Bill bought the Poinsettias for me.  This one is sitting in a pretty basket now...no more plain green pot! 

When we added the wall between the living and dining rooms we also removed most of the wall between the dining room and kitchen. We gained much needed counter space and also some cabinets below it.  These old tool box came from an auction. I bid $10.00 and no one else bid higher...lucky me!

The bottle and glasses are from Ikea.  They're just waiting for some Egg Nog. The little mugs are for hot chocolate for the grandbabies. I found them at Crate & Barrel.  Actually I saw them on the cover of a sales brochure and had to go and get them.  I think it had something to do with the "cuteness" of the little guy modeling with the mug!

Well......back to the wrapping! I'm almost done.  Thanks for visiting!

P.S.  Today is my daughter-in-law Johanna's birthday.  Because it's so close to Christmas Day we've decided (with her blessing) to celebrate her half birthday instead!  So until next summer.....