More of a Plaid Christmas (or how I nearly lost my mind)

Wow, I must admit I'm amazed and happy, that some of you guys still like the stuff I did EONS ago. If that is truly the case, then I will share a little more about what went in to June and me working on this house.

Let me start with the hall...................

It's only because we were (O.K..... still are) such good friends that we didn't come to blows hanging all the @#$& pictures on the walls.

 Let me just note at this juncture, that we hung them as part of our service with no extra charge. These kind of perks were part of what was covered in the mark up of all the crap, (oops, I mean high end items) we sold. Jim, our enterprising client, had a book of prints of Scottish men in kilts. Sooooo.....he went off on his merry way and had them framed and then delivered them into my lap and said "HANG THESE SUCKERS UP!!!!!" Actually, he didn't call them suckers, that's just my  own little embellishment to this story. IT TOOK US TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!! I think..... it was a long time ago, it may have just been one..... but I think it was two. LOOK AT HOW MANY THERE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is just the upstairs hall!!!!!! They had to ALL LINE UP!!!!!!! Vertically, horizontally, emotionally....
He had them matted in three different colors, the man was on a role, I tell ya. So we had to make sure that gold wasn't next to gold, and red wasn't next to red, and green.....you get where I'm goin'???

Here's the downstairs (I shared this with you just two days ago)

You were probably so busy imagining having to vacuum up the needles from the knocked over tree (TWICE) that you didn't notice all the prints on the wall to the right. AND THEY WENT UP THE STAIRS TOO........
By the time June and I had finished hanging these Scottish men from Hell, we were being really polite to each other. It was either that or start throwing punches. I don't know what her problem was, why couldn't she anticipate my every need??????? When I needed her to hand me the hammer, couldn't she just know?????? I mean, we had been working together SINCE THE STONE AGE!!!!!!!

I used to love tassels, the more the better, I stuck them on everything. Now I temper some of my urges and don't use them so much, but I wanted a little flourish to this chair when I had it redone. I called it "Betsyizing"

Here's a nice little shot for you guys who celebrate Christmas.......

It's an easy way to add some holiday cheer with a simple ivy plant. Buy a cheap little ivy plant that has some long tendrils.......
plop it in a pretty pot or basket.........
jam a stick into the soil of the pot.......
wrap the ivy around the stick and tie it with a pretty Christmas ribbon. VOILA!!!
O.K..... I didn't do this, I think Gary McBournie did, either that or the guy we bought all the Christmas stuff from. He was a florist.



Here's a different shot of this room than the one I showed in my last post!!!!!

We wanted the look of an olde Scottish library, so not only did I have the walls covered in plaid fabric, but I found a resource for lots of oil paintings that looked like they had been bouncing around for a while. They are actually new!!! (well new now, this was 1994, remember) The guy who sold them had a truck that was outfitted like a gallery storage unit and had the pictures on racks that we got to paw through and pick out what we wanted, haul them into the house, see what looked good and buy them right then.
As for the fabric, there is a wonderful store in Quechee Vermont called Scotland by the Yard (http://www.scotlandbytheyard.com/celtic-products/). Isn't it wonderful how everything has a website now???!!!
I wanted authentic tartan plaids, and boy!!! They gots them all!!!
We did the dining room up to the rafters in holiday stuff!!
Here's a picture!!!!!.....

I stuck more tassels on the back of the host and hostess chairs. I thought I was very clever.
We covered the walls in more old "master" paintings. Some of them were really good. I don't care how old or authentic something is, I just care if it looks good and the person whose home it goes into likes it.

Here's a different shot of the kitchen, we were very excited about the tartan patterned towel!!

The kitchen floor became one of my trademarks (in my little delusional mind). I take a cleanly sanded floor, add a wood stain of my choice (here it is golden oak), then apply one coat of polyurethane. Then I had it stenciled with a dark green glaze in a diamond pattern. I would draw out the floor to scale to work out the layout of the diamonds. Yes I am a control freak. Then I would have two more coats of poly applied. No, I didn't do the labor myself!!!! I was a high faloutin' designer!!!! (besides, I didn't have the time, 'cuz I was working all the time for my clients!!!)
The other end of the kitchen had a breakfast area, here's a picture!!!!

I came back later with my own photographer to take this shot and the next one. The photographer is Sam Gray, he does beautiful work.
Look at all the plates over the windows!!!!!
June and I really did get a little testy hanging these babies.
Why can't she tell WHEN I WANT THE #$% HAMMER????
O.K. Last shot is of a close up of the table, and then I'm done. If you look closely you can see how I used my little dogs as napkin rings.
It's beautiful here in FLORIDA and I'm going for a walk.



























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1994 Christmas, sort of.....

Since it's that time of year (Christmas), I felt maybe I should post something that relates to the holiday. Since I'm Jewish, this will be on a story published about a job I did for some clients of mine who actually celebrated the holiday both in its true spirit and all its glitz, many, many, many, many years ago.
This was an article in Traditional Home Magazine, and since it was sold in 1994, I accept that the style is a little (hah!) dated. But the story is a good one, so I am going to mine it for all it's worth.
You gots to use what you can in blog land.
HERE'S A PICTURE!!!!!!!

The gentleman of the house was from Scotland and wanted a touch of plaid in every room. Being one to oblige, I smothered him. There was plaid on the walls, there was plaid on the floor, there was plaid thrown over the backs of the furniture. If anything stayed still long enough, I covered it in plaid. He loved it (as least that's what he told me), and his wife Peggy was a real good sport. 
National magazines shoot their stories a year in advance, but it can sometimes take a little extra time to get the photo orders, so by the time the photo shoot order had come through it was the middle of January. Try to find a Christmas tree in the middle of January. Did I mention that this was a story on Christmas we had to shoot in the middle of January???????
We had to find a place that not only had a tree left over, but the other stuff we would need, like garlands and bows, etc. Actually, we just didn't need a left over tree, but one that would look O.K. in a picture. OY! OY! OY!!!!!
We found a place around an hour from me up on the north shore of Massachusetts. I went up there with the Traditional Home regional editor, Estelle Bond Guarelnick, to choose what we needed and cart it back to the shoot location. Now, if you know about real Christmas trees, you know what happens to them after they have been hanging around for a few weeks. THEY SHED!!!!!
So we gingerly strapped the thing to the roof of Estelle's car (she had me drive, I still remember this day clearly) and we went barreling back down Route 95 with it waving jauntily in the breeze. Since I didn't know that much about decorating a house to the nines in Christmas Cheer, I had to call in the big guns.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO................................
I had a good friend who was also a designer who just happened to be another Traditional Home Magazine favorite. You might know him. Gary McBournie. He came to my rescue. He LOVES Christmas decorating. We met him at the house with all our greenery and sparkle, and he went to town.
Not only was he kind enough to help, but he brought his plaid sweater vest so he could work as a prop also!!!
Here he is pretending to be at a party at their house.

Every one's laughing 'cuz it's not even Christmas. That's Peggy and Jim, the home owners and happy couple. That's June sitting down, she was my right hand and best friend. She ran my office and went to the movies with me when we had a slow day. Notice how I said  "WAS" my best friend. The @#$& retired on me, just 'cuz she's 13 years older than I am. I still allow her to visit me in Florida, because I am a gracious and loving woman, not one to hold a grudge. 'course, if she hadn't LEFT me, I wouldn't have retired either, and then I wouldn't be writing this blog, and you guys would be missing out!!!
Here's a picture of the Christmas Tree!!!!!!!!

Notice how sparse it is??????
The photographer's assistant knocked it over TWICE!!!!!!!!!
Then we had to redo the decorations and ribbon, AND vacuum up all the needles off the dark carpet. What an idiot. I can understand knocking it over once, I mean, I'm pretty klutzy, but TWICE?????
This tree was cut down over a month ago, it was FRAGILE!!!!!
Look!!! More plaid!!! The rug was custom made to match a traditional plaid called Hunting McLeod that I also covered the chair in. I thought I was very clever. To get a good price on the rug, we had to order a lot of it, so we put it in the living room, dining room and lower and upper halls as well as on the stairs.
Here's the living room, remember, this was 1994.......

For the last picture I will show you the kitchen, it's amazing how my taste has changed in the last 17 (yikes) years. Wait a minute, the only thing I really am not so happy about is the wood carving detail on the plate rack at the end of the island. So the look is a little dated for today, but I guess I still like it.

I like the look of the wreath hanging from the drapery pole. It's a nice way to add some visual warm to a long expanse of window in the winter.
I still like lamp shade hanging lights over kitchen islands, it brings a nice touch of softness to the hard surfaces.

And I still LOVE cabbage roses, always have, always will.


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