Silence for over several weeks.  Must be thinking…”what’s with this woman? Either she posts daily, or she goes silent for days”!  Well, my excuse is that for a change, I’ve been doing more than I’ve been thinking.  In fact, yesterday, I crossed off 3 to-dos off of my list.  Normally, if I can turn one to-do into a ta-done, it’s a great accomplishment.  Yesterday was an extraordinary tour de force!

This past weekend, the goal was to make the house post-holiday presentable.  Bare shelves, where Santas and snowmen stood at attention less than a month ago, needed to be refilled with pottery, plates, and random other ”dustables”.  Mission accomplished, but just barely.

Finding the right pieces to fill two prominent shelves into a pleasing arrangement can be a  daunting task.  Even with the right stuff, it can take days of shifting bowls and other “tchotchkes” (Yiddish word for knick-knacks, or in my vernacular, dustables!) until a combination that pleases my eye is achieved.

It became apparent during this process that I have lots of tchotchkes, but they are entirely wrong for this house. Our previous residence sported a vibe that I would describe as a “beachy British Colonial”.  There are lots of Caribbean-themed pictures, starfish, and even a silver-plated Pottery Barn crab in the collection, but they would look sadly out of place in this mountain home.  Clearly, I need more (different) tchotchkes.  Thrift stores and consignment shops, here I come!

The pictures in the dining room, which change with the seasons, went from pine cones and wreaths to flowers and birds…harbingers of an early Spring, we hope.  As an aside, I found awesome, and very inexpensive, picture frames at Wal-mart back in the fall, that make it a snap to change your wall art on a whim. The frames are a thin black plastic [so thin, you can’t really tell what the material is].  A mat and a piece of glass complete the package.  The glass easily pops out of the frame, and just as easily pops back in.  In typical Wal-mart fashion, they did not reorder them (I’m guessing they were too popular?).  Being  very familiar with their refusal to restock the really good stuff,  I bought as many of them as I could, but really wish I had more!

Sigh.  January always makes me want to change the house all around.  New Year, new look, I suppose.  And we have an entire downstairs that need some serious love.  However, with the decorating budget at an all-time low, thanks to the construction projects of 2014, I am going to have to fashion any changes with a sewing machine and paint.  Sounds like a challenge I can’t refuse.  Repeat after me:  “Necessity is the mother of invention”!

Stay tuned.

Bear update!  Sometime during the wee hours of the morning, Bear went out the doggy door to relieve himself.   I didn’t hear him go out, but his return created quite a ruckus.  He thoughtfully brought a frog into the bedroom (who knew that frogs are even around in January-February, and even so, how the heck do you spot and catch one in pitch darkness?).  Greg chased the frogger around and finally captured it in a towel. By the time he tossed it back out the doggy door, Bear was back in bed, snoring… :>}