Me and Mr. Claus, We Got A Thing Goin' On

This weekend, with no guests or visitors at That Old House,
Howard and I took on the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Claus
and began -- just began -- to decorate for Christmas.

Howard hauled boxes down from the attic

and I emptied them in my usual staging area, our poor long suffering dining room.

Which normally looks like this:

 

And now . . . look, if you dare:

Eeek!!!  Who ransacked the house?

 I had beautiful plans for the big blue and white bowl

that lives in the center of the dining room table.

When Howard went out to buy pine and cedar roping,

I asked him to pick up the biggest poinsettia he could find.

'Cause I just love me a good red poinsettia.

Well, he found a big one, all right.
The poinsettia equivalent of the 33-pound turkeys he used to bring home for Thanksgiving.

Witness:

It is so large, that when we put it in the big blue and white bowl,

the poinsettia hit the bottom of the chandelier!

Oops.

Change of plans.

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In the Parlor this year, we are doing two trees, one on either side of the fireplace.

The one on the left is about 70% fluffed.  The one on the right is 0% fluffed,

which is why it looks like the poster child for "Send This Tree To Camp."

Caption for this shot:  The Awful Truth.  Even the furniture is all askew.

We won't buy the fresh tree for the sunroom until next weekend,

so as to avoid having just sticks in a stand by New Year's.

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Confession:  We did all of the above on Sunday.

On Saturday, the other half of the weekend, we brought more things to my booth at

Somerville Center Antiques, and then saw a charming and very funny production of

It's A Wonderful Life at the Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey.

It was done as a staged radio play - and Howard, the old radio guy, liked it way better than the movie.

I didn't take an unauthorized picture.  I unauthorized-ly borrowed one from the website.

It runs Thursdays through Sundays until December 18th, and the fact that

our daughter Anne is the costume designer has nothing to do with my sharing this with you.

Although that is why we went to see it, but I can honestly say it was a terrific production.
The Jersey Journal agrees, in its review.  :-)

Plus it's perfectly suitable for children, with weekend matinees and nothing crude.  If you are nearby, go see it!

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Remember this table, below?

(The one in the lower left, shown in Friday's post.)

It went into the booth on Saturday, and on Sunday it went home with some lucky person.

Also now in the booth, the set of china I picked up in New York on Friday.

Theodore Haviland Varenne, service for eight.

For so old a set, this china is in amazing shape.

It's perfect -- not a chip or scratch, except that one dinner plate

must have been where decades of sunlight touched it, and is faded in the center.

Is it wrong that I hope no one buys this?  'Cause then it comes home to Mama.

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So today, errands, and finding a garden center that still has pine and cedar roping.

Everyone was sold out yesterday! 

We've got to drape the front entrance, the front stairs, the fireplace mantle . . . and

then it's time to begin hanging these old friends on the trees.

It may take me most of this week, what with one thing and another going on,

but I'll get That Old House decorated . . . eventually.

Meanwhile, I'll be happy when I can see the top of my dining room table again!

From That Old House to your happy home ...

we wish you a season of joy! -- Cass

Link Parties

Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.  Click here.

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch.  Click here.

At The House In The Roses, it's Show Off Your Cottage Monday.  Click here!

Visit Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.   Click here!

Furniture Finds and a Junking Jaunt

Do you realize that while we were busy blogging,
December
sneaked up and slid into home plate?
I had no idea . . . .

Now, for some furniture and a junking jaunt!

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Would you buy this wing chair?

(Pardon the image, swiped from the Craigslist listing.)

I did.  For 30 bucks.

And it turns out, it's a Baker Museum Reproduction chair.

Hiding in ugly but excellent condition upholstery.  The whole chair in in excellent condition.

There is a pair of this same chair, in blue damask, for sale at a Connecticut antiques shop.  See?

For Sale in Connecticut, by an antiques dealer I can only think
is delusional, who has listed them for $3,750 the pair.
They look gorgeous, and I'd love to know if they eventually sell for that.
Because if so, wow.  That dealer is magic.

Anyway, I originally bought this chair thinking I'd pop it into the booth,
but this one's a keeper.  I'm also now shopping for an upholsterer.
I can't let this one go.  Anyone know a good upholsterer in New Jersey?

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Remember this demi-lune table
that I picked up awhile back from a refinisher who got bored?

It's the one on the left, and it was stripped of its old finish and left very "raw" looking.

It's an old Aesthetic Movement table, with a dab of Moorish influence tossed in for good measure.
Or it could be Renaissance Revival, or Gothic Revival, or even maybe Eastlake.

Oh, those Victorians & Edwardians loved their whimsy!

I got busy with a really great product called Feed N Wax (thank you, niece Emily)

and now it looks like this:

I love the detail on this table, and now the wood shows beautifully and the piece has a soft mellow glow. 

"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille!"

And it is going to the booth.  Fare thee well, quirky little table!

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This is one of those days that I toss caution to the wind, and venture forth to meet a total stranger.

And hope I don't end up in the chest freezer in his basement by dinner time.

I'm going to pick up service for 8 in Theodore Haviland Varenne pattern china.
It's flowery, scalloped-y, and gilt-ed-y.  What's not to like?

Picture borrowed from Haviland Online,
a very complete website with loads of great information.

And what price for this set of china?  Same as the wing chair.

Worth the hour's drive, don't you think?

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Happy December, my friends.

Such a restful, placid month. . . .

And those of you with your houses all decorated by now?

Wow.  I am amazed, humbled, and as always suspect we are not the same species. -- Cass

Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!
Miss Mustard Seed hosts the Furniture Friday Feature.  It's a must visit -- Click here!

Dion, Marshmallows, and Howard's Piggies

Tuesday night, by some unknown nefarious means,
our dog Dion got hold of a bag of marshmallows, opened it, and ate them.
By the time Howard caught him, Dion had happily gummed his way
through all but 3 of the puffy white goodies.

It is a law of nature that a whole lot of these:

do not belong in the tummy of this:

Partly because it leads to this:

A dog who cannot move.

I like to think that regret is written all over his face, but I doubt it.

There's another reason you don't want to fill a 20-pound Cavalier with dozens of marshmallows.

Eventually, those marshmallows need to make their escape.

And the wise pet owner knows that Mother Nature, being the merry prankster that she is,

might choose a pretty spectacular means of accomplishing this.

If you are from the New York area, you know John Gotti as The Teflon Don.

Let me introduce Dion DiPoochy, The Teflon Dog.

The dog who, his first Christmas, climbed into a box

of broken glass ornaments, and merrily munched on the shards.

And on a recent Christmas, ate the entire contents of a huge can of Poppycock caramel corn.
(The people at Poppycock were so impressed with Dion's feat that they sent him another can!)

The list of Dion's unauthorized consumption is long, but this time -- as always --

everything ... ummm ... came out just fine in the end.

You'd think a dog of almost 13 would be wiser than to do this anymore.

You would be wrong.

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And just when I thought we had no pictures from Thanksgiving,

this one turns up on my niece's Facebook page.

So I steal it.

Uncle Howard, two-fisting pigs in blankets, slightly dark on their little bottoms.

I noticed for the first time how well his Turkey Shirt is made -- look at the matching of the print

along the placket.  Nice work, Chinese factory laborers.

Can you imagine how nuts they must think Americans are, to wear these shirts?

Well, one American, at any rate.

Tomorrow -- some furniture finds, and kicking around some Christmas decorating ideas. -- Cass

Happy Frank Comes To That Old House

It's been 8 days since my last blog post.
That's almost a record.

So today, before I run out to (probably) buy a chair from a guy

tearing down a house to build a McMansion, here I am.

Posting.  Because I missed you!

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It was a terrific Thanksgiving at That Old House.

We had two turkeys:

That's one of them on the platter, and the other?

Well, yes, it is tempting to say that the other turkey is sporting oddball plumage

in the shape of a turkey shirt bought years ago at Cracker Barrel.

But I won't say that.  Noooo. . . .  I'll just explain that I cooked a huge turkey breast

the day before, to have extra white meat.  That was the other turkey.

Other than this picture, taken of Dion after Happy Frank's Giving Day,

when our gluttonous dog could not move,

(in which, as Dion believes, Happy Frank brought him two adoring small children, turkey dinner snack sticks,

and buckets of handouts from guests), I got no other pictures of Turkey Day.

By now, the dining room table is bare.

There are still some of the Thanksgiving flowers on the sideboard.

And if you look really closely, you can see that the dining room windows are still nekkid.

I did not get the draperies sewn, nor did I recover the dining room chair seats.

You don't really need to look closely.  Bare windows kind of announce themselves.

As do crummy old chair seats.

 But . . .

we had a wonderful holiday weekend!

We were 24 gathered on Thanksgiving, we had Howard's parents here from faraway Florida,

we had the baptism of an adorable great-nephew on Sunday on Long Island,

my brother and his wife stayed with us Sunday night, and we bade goodbye to Howard's folks yesterday.

In between, lots of visiting and eating and laughing.

When I review my "Thank You" list, my list of blessings, our family is right there at the top.

We are very lucky ducks.

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Plus, I am rich!

Well, okay, not exactly rich.  If by "not exactly," we mean "not at all."

I opened my booth at an antiques mall last Tuesday, and that very day someone made a nice offer

on the drop leaf table I'd gotten at an estate sale.  My first sale on my first day.

This genuinely old and very genuinely used drop leaf table now lives in someone else's house.

And now I'm off to hunter-gather some other pieces, and haul them down to the booth.

I've already got the van partially filled.

This is a little more time consuming than I reckoned on, but it's fun.

Although Rudy, our wooden ghost who reminds us when things need doing around here,

is reminding me that it's time to get rid of the Autumn decor, and start thinking about

Christmas.

Yikes.

Have a lovely Wednesday, my friends. 

It's a beauty of a day here in New Jersey!  -- Cass

Tomorrow a tale of Dion's latest feat of derring-do, and the consequences!

Gobbling Up My Time!

I apologize for the lousy quality of the photographs in this post.
They are phone snaps -- and cell phones are not great cameras.  They are not even great phones.


Have you seen the Countdown to Thanksgiving clock on the sidebar?
Two days.  Two days!
Time to get realistic.

For the past few days I have spent more time than I anticipated prepping for

and setting up my new booth at Somerville Center Antiques.

It doesn't look as if it took a lot of time,

but son of a gun . . . it did.

The booth, partially done.
It needs more stuff.

That seriously cut into my sew drapes, recover shield back chair seats, solve the debt crisis

list of things I was going to accomplish before Turkey Day.

My annual To Be Done By Thanksgiving List.

Reality check.

The TBDBT List has morphed into the TBDBC List . . . to be done by Christmas.

The Thanksgiving List is pretty much down to: clean, cull, cook.

Projects can wait; cooking can't.

I am very happy with one thing -- the 5 x 7 lipstick red rug we put down.
I have my eye on a heavy wrought iron screen for the rear of the booth,
that I can back with fabric, and then use "S" hooks to hang things on it.
None of my mirrors or pictures is here yet -- nowhere to hang them! 

So today is a cleaning day at That Old House.

For everyone; Dion DiPoochy is at the grooming salon.

Luckily it is also raining, so it shouldn't take him long to get himself

satisfactorily filthy and smelly when he gets home.

Money well spent, eh?

And now, it's away from the computer and into the conservatory,

where I've got piles and piles of books that until Sunday lived on the white bookcase

that now is holding dishes and "smalls" (I love that term) at the booth.

Where will I put all those books?  To Be Determined!

Have a lovely, serene Tuesday, my friends.  -- Cass