The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

My "beach angel"

Christmas is the most magical time of year.  It's unconscionable to say otherwise.  It may not always be one's favorite holiday of the year, but you cannot argue that it is not the most spectacular. I'll admit that our consumption economy and the advertising blitz that surrounds Christmas is partially to blame.  I want to jump into the pages of the candle-lit, boxwood and magnolia-draped Pottery Barn magazine just as longingly as the next person...and quite possibly buy the couch, lamp, and rug while I am there.  But, I do believe, always, that the magic of Christmas is deeper than that. 

At church this morning the announcement was shared that a gathering would take place in the afternoon, inviting parishioners to share what family traditions make this season so special to them.  We couldn't go, but it got me thinking.

Christmas is magical because when you sift through obligations to buy gifts, expectations to smile even though you are breathless with stress, and pressures to wear something sparkly at every party you are invited to despite having nothing of the sort in your wardrobe, one thing always remains...tradition.  For many the traditions are religious, for others cultural, but for all they are deeply treasured and quite often revered.

We could spend endless blog posts reciting family Christmas traditions. I'll spare you from all of my favorites except for two:  1. Making Lithuanian sausage and vitatus with my dad and Grant (though very special to me, I will not provide a visual of the sausage making process) 2. Decorating the Christmas tree.

Since the year I was born, my mom has made a point of giving me a Christmas ornament.  More often than not, the ornament has something to do with what happened in my life that year - the Wedgewood Longtail ornament the year we went to Bermuda, the sterling silver bell from "Santa's Sleigh" the year that we fell in love with the Polar Express, one of the Hooper Strait Lighthouse which was the backdrop of our wedding reception in St. Michaels, Maryland.  Other ornaments were give just because they were tricky - the "beach angel" ornament made of an oyster shell and raffia from the Bethany Beach, Delaware annual art show, the wooden Santa with a movable arm which I fell in love with one year while on a shopping excursion in historic Ellicott City.  The ornaments were always either a surprise, or whisked away for safe keeping until we were ready to decorate the tree.  Then, gingerly each year, they were put in a shoe box with my name and finally given to me when I was old enough for a Christmas tree of my own. 

 Of all the Christmas decorations that fill a home, ornaments are among the most personal and telling of life stories.  For that reason, our Christmas tree is always simple.  No fancy ribbon, bows, or tinsel.  Just dangling little memories on illuminated display. 

Painted wooden birds from Nervous Nellies Jams and Jellies
in Deer Isle, Maine



My Wedgewood Bermuda Longtail



From our trip to Pebble Beach last year

Grant's new "tradition" - a shot glass rests in a Adirondach

chair ornament...

...and miniture Scotch bottles hang on the tree

A bell from Santa's sleigh

Our 2011 ornament from a beach vendor in St. Lucia

A beautiful wooden ornament of Trinity Church in
Newport, Rhode Island



This has nothing to do with Christmas ornaments, but I wanted to share my
kitchen table centerpiece...an antique candle mold filled w/hand blown glass
balls, eucalyptus, candles, and holly....not to mention my awesome burlap
ribbon w/real red jingle bells.  Thanks, Aukie!





Fall, O Glorious, Fall

One of my favorite pumpkins this year - the orange
stripes are so fabulous!

I love Fall.  Not just a little bit, I am obsessed with the season.  In my perfect day, the weather would be 65 as a high and into the 40s at night.  There would be a slight chill in the air, so a jacket is a must and a down blanket becomes essential when falling a sleep at night, the windows slightly ajar.  Leaves would crunch like music under your feet, apple cider from a local orchard would be stocked in the fridge, beef stew would be simmering on the stove while football would become my background noise as I curl deeper under a blanket to finish a good book - a cup of french press nearby.  Pumpkins, mums, and cornstalks would abound.

It is no wonder that Fall decorating is my favorite - maybe even more so than at Christmastime.  I think I love the colors most: deep reds, yellows, burnt orange, smokey blue and gray, corn-husk tan, dark purple. And I love the elements I get to work with - the incredible texture of pumpkins, the fascinating height and movement of cornstalks, and the unruly shape of grasses, cabbages, and sweet potato vines that bring outdoor pots alive.

This is the season where one can bring the outside in - where inspiration for decorations is the outdoors.  Fall is such a beautiful season that brings endless possibilities for the creative soul.  The most wonderful and interesting decorations can easily come by hiking though the woods, grabbing an armful of fallen leaves, or picking from a patch. 

The top of my kitchen table centerpiece

Most importantly, every well-decorated Fall home needs pumpkins - everywhere! I am a huge pumpkin person - and in true Liz fashion, the uglier and more peculiar the pumpkin, the better (with decorating, I yawn at the thought of anything too normal).  In my world, orange pumpkins are only bought for carving, roasting seeds, and making pie.  My centerpieces are pumpkins.  When guests visit, I will cut open the tops of my small ones, carve out the flesh, and make then into vases stuffed with blooming mums (this is totally a Martha Stewart idea, but one I absolutely love!)

Use this season to open up the house - there is nothing better than a Fall breeze dancing through open windows.  And think of all that is outside as an extension of the house.  We have full glass front storm doors and until it gets dark, the doors must stay open, so the porch pots and pumpkins can always be in view inside of the house. 

My rule for Fall decorating is simple: make all decor feel like you do this time of year - happy, cozy, and decadently alive. 



Just couldn't resist the stem on this one



Sampling of the cabbages in our window pots

Our front stoop

Side yard pots and my beloved cornstalks - wouldn't
be Fall with out them

My favorite pumpkin of the season - the picture doesn't do it justice

Ode to Maine

Around the beginning of May every year, my mom starts wearing Coppertone suntan lotion as perfume. She calls the scent "ode to summer" and it kicks off the summer season for her and for all of us who know and love her.

On the other end of the summer spectrum, I travel each August with the Bartletts to the family house in Deer Isle, Maine on Penobscot Bay - a little south of Bar Harbor.  As my mom's Coppertone scent marks the beginning of summer, this annual retreat always marks its end.  I cannot imagine a better farewell to the sumertime months than time spent in Maine - where days are lazy, scenery pristine, and nightime blanketed with down comforters and stars as far as the eye can see. 

Never have a been to a place that inspires my creative juices to flow so feverently.  A large reason for that is the artists havens that define life in Maine - be it arts and crafts, painting, cooking, or beermaking, Mainers love to be creative.  And those who visit learn to, too.

The Bartlett home in Maine is an artists' escape. The town is known for the renowned Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and Grant's grandmother, Anita, was an artist herself - so our house at home and the house in Deer Isle are draped in her beautiful art.  Though I never met Anita Bartlett, I can completely understand how the Maine setting inspired her.      

These Maine sea urchins are in our bathroom

I have found my best home pieces on these journeys north - and not just pieces that cost money (although most do).  On kayaking excursions to the little islands that dot Penobscot Bay, you can find the most interesting finds.  Driftwood is in abundance, though hard to bring back on a kayak.  But, my favorite finds are dried sea urchin shells, with and without the pricklies, which made for amazing decorations in class jars - or stacked in pots.

A couple of years ago, I came upon an original oxen yoke (still in a distressed blue color) that I had absolutley no use for, but knew that I had to have it.  The man in the antique store offered it to me for $60.  As usual, I did not have cash on me, but before I could offer to write a check he calmly said, "just take it and mail me the money when you get home." huh? what? I couldn't believe it.  Maine.

Grant and I have purchased two beautiful watercolors from local artist Jill Hoy (and we are grateful to have been given two more by our parents as Christmas gifts), who has also done work for LL Bean. Her shop sits on a steep hill over looking the harbor in Stonington, Maine surrounded by the most amazing pots overstuffed with flowers.  We cannot afford her beautiful oil paintings just yet (which literally make you want to jump into the picture and never jump out), but we are hardly settling by having her watercolors.



This may be my favorite sign of all time



Many artists move to Maine in the summer to set up shop and sell their art.  Wouldn't that be the perfect life? One such shop is a lady from California who sells friends' art and her own jewelry out of a little store on Maine Street in Deer Isle.  Last year, I purchased three of my favorite "bathing beauties," made with gold leaf on small wooden board.  Another, is a charming British couple who spends summers in Maine and winters in the Virgin Islands.  She is an artist and runs her studio out of their newly renovated home.  By day, they have large screens which divide the living room from the showroom.  By night, it looks like one house - and often times the two are blended together.  The picture is of the sign on their door. Maine.



 
We recently returned from our end of summer vacation and I always come home with more ideas than before I left.  Those are good vacations - the type that inspire while recharging the soul.

The Jill Hoy painting in our kitchen

One in our foyer (our VERY small foyer)

In our guest bedroom

...and the first Jill Hoy we purched - from Jill herself

My favorite bathing beauties

The oxen yoke in our basement - awaiting its new home in our kitchen when
we can figure out how to rig it above the sink - over the window

The Tale of the New Kitchen - The Final Chapter



 View as you enter the kitchen - Sunshine Biscuit, our
wooden fish is in the background which is a purchase
from our trip earlier this year to St. Lucia

Well, folks, the glorious time has come when I bid farewell to the kitchen renovation series that has been my blog over the last two months.  For me, it has been a glorious story and one that has (thankfully) finished with a happy ending.  We are truly thrilled with the finished product and though there were some bumps along the way (I spilled super glue on the new hardwood floors while putting away boxes which required emergency board replacement surgery. I tried to hide it from Grant for the first 10 minutes but had to spill the beans when my efforts to clean it up totally failed), we are happier with the end result than we thought that we would be.

In fact, it has been most fun to watch people's faces when they see the finished kitchen for the first time.  The best so far has been my friend, Katie, who, despite having seen our old kitchen a zillion times, did not see any of the construction process, and was blown away when she walked into the finished product.  Grant and I couldn't help but smile from her reaction.

Original View from the kitchen entrance

As with any final chapters, writing this post has given me good time for reflection about our renovation journey.  I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but anyone who has done a significant home renovation (especially our G'Burg friend Cary who, with her husband, is building their own house) knows that it is a journey of highs and lows, excitements and disappointments, cost overruns and few savings (very few, but some), and loads of inconvenience.  I have grown that much wiser and am eager to share my tips:

1. Take the time to live in your space before beginning any renovation.  Despite wanting a new kitchen immediately, Grant and I spent almost 2 years thinking about how we work in the kitchen and building a wish list around those habits.  The result is an incredibly efficient kitchen with just enough "flare" to be perfectly unique to our style.

2. Obsess over the budget with the construction company before you sign on the dotted line so that you have few if any additions to the labor cost during the project (with the exception of my glue mishap, we did not have any labor overruns).

3.  Ask dumb questions of your contractors so that you are always on the same page...we did every day! Like - what exactly is shoe molding and do you plan to plaster that huge hole in the ceiling?

4. Inspect your space each day to make sure things are being constructed as planned.  We noticed that our sink base cabinet was not cut-out for the farm sink and initially thought that the contractors would cut it out at some point.  Because we inquired, we found out that there was a communication disconnect between the contracting company and the installation guy and he was not planning to cut out the sink cabinet at all. Thank goodness we stayed on top of it!

5. Be really nice to your contractors. I left a friendly note each day thanking them for their work.  A little sugar goes a long way.

6.  Always be thinking about space.  Whether a bathroom, basement, kitchen, or outdoor yard - how can you maximize space? This is especially true in a small house like ours.  With regard to our kitchen, our only options for storage capacity were up and out.  For this reason our cabinets go to the ceiling and are 3 inches deeper than standard size (a foot is standard).  Though we need a step-stool for the upper shelves, we have a ton more storage space than we would have otherwise and it really makes no difference to the eye.

7. Be honest about what you can feasibly do yourself.  For us, we did not have the time or ability to do demo or install the flooring.  The only part of the kitchen that we did ourselves was paint, since our estimate was $1500 to do so.  It was about all we could manage and we are so glad that we did.  The rest of it was completely worth the money for someone else to do.

8. Try to look at all of the materials that you plan to use before making a decision to purchase.  This is especially true of granite purchases as granite varies so much.  The first pattern we picked out did not settle well on our minds and we went back to pick a new slab.  Funny enough, the granite counter tops are among our favorite part of the entire kitchen.

9. Kitchen-specific advice - if renovating a kitchen, get new appliances.  Period. Just do it.  Grant talked me into the purchases and it was totally worth the extra money.

10. Take Pictures! Before and after photos are priceless (and who knows, maybe you can make it into a magazine one day).

Even better than having a fabulous new stove that boils a large pot of water in less than 10 minutes, a cool ice maker and water dispenser on the fridge, a fabulously wonderful farm sink for washing dishes (which is now my new favorite chore), and a charming built-in bench for a seating nook is that we now officially have a true home renovation project under our belt.  As an amateur decorator w/a fascination for design this is a huge feat and one that has not scarred me in the least. I am ready for the next home renovation.  So, stay tuned... basement redo coming Fall 2012.

In the meantime - here is the 360 degree tour:

View on the left as you walk into the kitchen. 
The long cabinet is a pantry

The small paintings of peppers, radishes, and carrots were handpainted
by a family friend, Nelia Cheney

I found this at an antique shop near Onancock, VA - an old stove
grate that fits perfectly over the stove







View when you walk in your kitchen on the right

View looking at the entrance to the kitchen

Love my new Dash and Albert indoor/outdoor rug!

The Tale of the New Kitchen - Chapter 5

This was a tumultuous week as far as kitchen renovations go.  I was waiting patiently for a kitchen snag to happen.  I waited, and waited, and waited some more but nothing went awry. 

Until...last Thursday when the kitchen floors were installed - improperly.  So inproperly, in fact, that they "pop" when you walk on them - kind of like firecrackers.  We bought the new click-lock hardwood planks that do not require glue or nails and are praying that this is not the norm for these kinds of floors.  We also noticed, after more careful inspection, that the padding was installed upside down, which could affect the moisture control under the subfloor and the leveling of the floor.  So, after an entire day of debating what to do about it...we decided to have our contractor rip up the entire floor and start over.  Are we terrible customers? No, but we felt awful making the call to ask that it be redone (don't worry, we bought our contractor a 7-11 gift card as a small thank you - we assume he likes 7-11 by the Big Gulp cups that are always in our kitchen each night).

So - that aside.  The kitchen really looks good.  Grant and I painted this weekend (thanks Ashleigh and Ryan Smith for the burnished clay recommendation) and the countertops were installed which are simply beautiful!!! Estimated completion date is Tuesday or Wednesday (even with the floors being re-done).  Can't believe the project will be finished two weeks early.  So, as we approach the final chapter, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.