~ The Guest-Room Of Perfection ~

Good morning ladies. How was your weekend? I hope you are all safe and warm and surrounded by the ones you love as you as you make your way through this last week before Christmas.

Above is my tiny pink living room. Since this room is already pretty well filled with goodies that endlessly sooth my soul I only added a couple of Christmas touches. The stag needlepoint pillows have replaced the cabbage rose ones for the winter.
An old cut glass bowl with simple sparkly pink ornaments in it on my mother's end table in the corner finishes off my favorite room in the house.

This old, rag tag bough, with some left over pink ornaments from the dining room tree, fit on the banister that leads upstairs from that room. It is lit with white lights that must make an unusual site from the street. The opposite banister has colored lights and red ribbon on it. I know it sounds weird, but with Christmas magic, and from the entrance it amazingly works. Well it works from the inside anyway, hehe.....

You saw how many gran's we had here last weekend in the last post. This is the table I had set up for them in the foyer. It worked out well for them to do crafts on while the adults socialized in the back of the house. Come to think about it, I don't think they ever did get around to making the ginger bread house from the kit that was waiting for them. Oh well, I will take it up north with us when we go on Thursday and they can work on it an Mom's.


We did a fun thing this year that I will show you tomorrow. Today let's see the upstairs before I added the surprises that awaited our guests.

Our room got a good going over so our youngest son could have a place to store his things. We made up a bed for him on the sofa so our room was his place to stow his bedding, clothing and the like.

Our bathroom is action central when the girls start primping. They love to get into my makeup and jewelry. Last Saturday when we were getting ready for our big dinner party on Saturday night the hair, jewelry and eye-lashes were flying.

Just thought you might like to see my new pink and white monogrammed towels. John wanted to know where his towels were. I told him that upstairs linens are only monogrammed in the lady of the houses initials according to Emily Post. Bless his heart, he laughed and resigned himself to using his soft old green towels.

Come on in. I will show you around the guest-rooms that are ready for company. This is the Currier & Ives room. These C & I prints of the four seasons hang on one wall under this old plate shelf that holds red C & I transfer ware plates and a platter.

A C & I lamp shade tops the green glass bedside lamp.

The bathroom between two of the guest-rooms is freshend up for company.

Fluffy clean towels await their arrival.

A small sample of my collection of rose plates stand ready over the light fixture to welcome them home.

Even the waste basket got a bath in anticipation of their arrival.

The blue and white room with its diamond shaped checkered old quilt and matching pillow shams on the feather bed covered with a scalloped white spread is clean as a whistle.

One of these days I will get around to painting this chair white. The fabric on it matches the curtains that are stashed in the closet from our old house that need to be refitted to cover the windows in this room.

These are the windows that they will eventually cover;)

OK, moving down the hall to the last guest-room.

The hunt room.

This needle point chair is waiting to be piled with clothes.

The ancestor pictures hold sentry over the bed.

This little corner of the laundry room cheered me while the washer and dryer was buzzing.

I hope you enjoyed this visit and the tour of our guest-rooms. If you are hosting guests this Christmas at your house you might like to see what Miss Emily Post has to say in her book, The Personality Of A House, about The Guest-Room Of Perfection:

"The essential requirements of comfort for every guest-room of perfection, whether it be in a palace or in a little but well appointed house, include:

1. A bathroom of its own.

2. A delightful bed.

3. Plenty of light and air.

4. Choice of pillows.

5. A perfect dressing-table.

6. A good light to read by in bed.

7. Heat in cold weather.

8. Cross-ventilation in hot weather.

9. A sofa to rest on.

10. Situation as free from noise as possible."

Her book, first published in 1939, is one of my favorites.

Stop back tomorrow if you get a minute during this busy week to see the surprises that we had for the family when they got here last Friday and we will take a look at the downstairs all decked out for Christmas.

Blessings and much love,

Sue

~Show and Tell Friday~

Yesterday when I was around visiting, Cindy's post with her fall decor caught my eye. I love the way she uses blue and white and the way she used it in her fall decor had me in a swoon. Anyway, I went back today to look at it again and saw that she hosts a Show and Tell Friday. Since I did not have time today to post the post I have been working on I decided to join in the Show and Tell fun. I hope you enjoy my blurry little offering.
When I had the store we carried the Halcyon Day Enamel
line of boxes. They are precious little boxes that The Queen of England has commissioned from the company and sometimes gives out as gifts.

Well, they were a little high end for my tiny shop so when I closed the store they became part of my private personal collection. I know, I know if I had not bought these high end little treasures and a few things like them I would probably not have had to close the store. Be that as it may, these little boxes are sweet little reminders of a lesson learned and on the other hand many fond memories that were created along the way.

As my husband reminds me I am not the Queen of England.

When the urge strikes me to venture back into retail I look at my little boxes, some of which have been given to me, and I remind myself that even the beloved Charlotte Moss closed her shop.

I hope you enjoyed this little Show and Tell 'All' Friday. To see other Show and Teller's or to join in go to Cindy's at My Romantic Home and look around or sign up.

~

Enjoy the weekend blogger's. I will talk to you next week.

~

Hugs,

Sue

Let's Make The Bed

We like to start the week out with a fresh bed so usually on Monday morning I take the old sheets off and smooth out the matress pad to dust if off a bit.
Then select a fresh set of sheets from the linen cupboard and iron the pillow cases if I have the time.
The fitted sheet is put in place and smoothed out. Next comes the top sheet that is put on backwards so that when you fold down the top you get the finished edge showing. Try to line it up so that you get equal amounts of the sheet on both sides. To do this I stand at the foot of the bed and hold the bottom of the sheet with both hands placed equal distance from the center of the sheet and kind of throw it on the bed. At that point it is close to being centered. Then go to the head of the bed and adjust the flat sheet so you have equal amounts of the sheet on both sides of the bed. Fold back the sheet, smooth it out, then tuck in the foot part and make your hospital corners by pulling the side of the sheet up at the bottom and tucking in the part that is left over, then let the sheet fall back into place.
Next take your comforter and center it on the bed like you did with the top sheet. Fold back the top and bring the flat sheet down a bit over the comforter.
Try to make sure that the top sheet is covered by the comforter and that it is straight along the edge.

To get that look you see in magazines, that also provides nice soft cushioning for reading in bed, put a couple of Euro size pillows up against the headboard or wall.
Then put your clean, pressed pillow cases on your sleeping pillows and prop them up against the Euro pillows.
Next take an extra set of pillows and cover them with some kind of complementary pillow cases and put them on top of your sleeping pillows to keep the dust off of them during the day.
From there you can do what ever you want to add some decoration. Currently this big pillow that used to be downstairs gets plunked in the middle to kind of fill in the space between the functional pillows.

Thanks for coming along with me while I made the bed and thanks for all the sweet comments, awards, and tags you gals have been leaving. It has been a busy week around her so I haven't had much time for blogging but I want you to know how much I appreciate each and every one of you.

Hugs,

Sue

~Lily of the Valley~

Isn't this Lily of the Valley wallpaper cute? It would be so sweet in a cottage or vintage travel trailer.
We don't have either one but if we did I would try to find a way to use these pretty pieces as inspiration.

Blessings to y'all on this beautiful summer day!

Hugs,

Sue

wallpaper pictures are from Thibaut which is listed in my side bar

Flying In The Master Bedroom

This week on FlyLady's website we are Flying in the Master Bedroom which means that each day this week you get an e-mail that gives you suggestions for things you can do for 15 minutes that will keep your MB clean. After Flying for so many years I sort of instinctively begin to focus on the room that is coming up next. Yesterday I totally pulled apart our old four poster bed and gave the linens, from pillows to dust ruffle, a good cleaning.
The rest of the week I'll work on detail cleaning all the rest of the junk, I mean accessories, that are in here.

I hope every one had a good weekend. It was pretty cold around here but the rain held off for the most part. John played in a golf outing yesterday which gave me a good opportunity to get all the bedding washed. He gets a little nervous when he sees semi damp things strung all over the stair way railing as they finish drying ~ Best to do it when he is otherwise occupied ~

Have a good Monday and stop by for a chat if you get a minute. I'll try and get around to visit every one this week.

Hugs,
Sue

Keepers At Home

This little picture above is of some of my favorite things that are on top of our tall dresser in our bedroom. There is a bigger picture of the bedroom back a few posts. All of the furniture in it is from junktique shops. The bed is from an auction that I went to as a drive by. I told the country auctioneer how much, which was not much at all, that I would pay for it and then left to run some erands. When I stopped back after running my errands the bed was propped up off to the side and he told me that I had won it. You just never know when you might get a good deal.

The dressers and desk are from an old shop from down here that Sarah and I used to stop into when we were in the area before I moved down here. I had been looking for old Federal Style furniture to go with our bed and finally found it some 120 miles from home. Transportation is alway an issue when you find a great deal miles from home so I've learned to always factor that into any decision to buy something big before actually deciding to get it. We eventually managed to get it home, I really can't remember how, but it has worked for us for many years.

The little green compact in the left corner of the dresser was a gift from Kyle and Carrie that they gave me at their wedding, it is one of three that don't show up in this picture and I have fond memories of each one. One of the other ones is a silver heart compact that has mirrors in it that Dana got for me for Valentines Day years ago when she was working as the manager of the handbags department at Neiman Marcus just after she graduated from college. The other one is also a mirrored one with the Eiffel Tower on it that Sarah tucked into a gift.

The little pink and green books are propped up by a pair of book ends that were left in our old house by the previous owners. The green dogs were bought new for the living room but during the decluttering made their way up to the bedroom and are very happy there as is the green ceramic melon. The covered lamb box holds safety pins. The pretty little lady statues that have their arms and other bits glued on them because they were much loved are Dana's that I used to buy for her when she was a little girl. Judy used to buy the big ones for her daughter and I thought that was such a sweet idea that I adopted the practice on a smaller scale for Dana. I wonder if Staci still has hers or if they are at Judy's house like Dana's are at mine?

Any way, I got on this subject after reading Lady Lydia's post about "Contentment At Home" that you might enjoy if you have a few minutes. Blogger is being touchy about when it decides to let me post pictures. My plan was to post semi-finished closet cleaning pictures this morning but the above picture popped up and it made me think about Lady Lydia's post so I wrote about this instead. When I start writing posts I really never know where they might lead me.

God bless you all and I hope you are content with what ever and where ever your day may lead you.

Hugs,
Sue

The Presents Are Wrapped

Yesterday I finished wrapping the presents that we had at the house. Now I would like to crawl back into my cozy bed and relax the rest of the day but no such luck, there is always more to be done, isn't there?
When I took these pictures the dreaded, 'no more room on memory stick', message appeared on my camera. It is probably a blessing because it would have broken my heart to have run out of memory during all the Christmas festivities. So, instead of fretting I'm giving the glory to God for gently reminding me to add getting a new memory stick to my To Do list: finish stocking stuffer's for five boys; one more fun thing for SDIL ;); one more guy thing for TSIL ;); pick up dry cleaning; wash and gas up the car; memory stick from Target, where I hope I can get most of the other things done too; pace around hoping that my LL Bean order, that has several gifts for above mentioned five boys, arrives before we have to leave to go up north to be with family tomorrow at noon; try and save enough time to get a mani & pedi; pick out and lay out clothes for four days of festivities for John and I. John has his company Christmas luncheon today and will go out with the guys after that so I will have a long day to fit everything in, hopefully even the mani & pedi.
Thank you Lord for giving me such a fun To Do list for today and please bless those who's to do list is not so fun. We have all had more of those lists than we like to think about so I'm thanking God for this fun one with all the gratitude I can muster!!!!! All glory and honor is yours dear heavenly Father.
Have a blessed day ladies!