Not the North Pole

I'm heading to New York City today with DH and 'traveling granddaughter' Jasmin. Hold that snow, sleet or rain, please! Send it Santa's way, he knows how to deal with it. You may remember we planned this same trip for last year. Then, just as I stepped on the gas and headed toward the airport, phone rang and dear Delta told me all flights to the Northeast were canceled.........due to snow, ice, and wind, a powerful storm.

Fingers crossed please. I would really like to share images of the city dressed for Christmas. Hoping and wishing it all works out for us this year.

Weather Update:

It's beginning to look and feel a lot like Christmas, all around the town we're leaving. A chance of snow flurries here in North Carolina later today........after we fly out. BUT, an accumulation due in New York later tomorrow and Sunday..........looks like we will enjoy an early White Christmas in the city and that will be awesome.

Thank goodness we bought real snow boots, they may get a workout on the snowy pavements of New York! I'll be posting from the city during the coming days.

Hidden Christmas Beauty

I thought my Christmas decorating was complete! Have you ever done this....................opened the door to a little storage/hiding place only to discover more beauty?

Yesterday, while searching for something while packing my travel bag, I found these perfectly lovely trees staring back at me from the cupboard of a little hallway table. Oh yes, I do remember buying them early in the year, knowing they'd be perfect for this Christmas. Tucked them away in the cabinet as I didn't want to crawl through the attic to stuff them in the monstrous green storage boxes.

I thought these filigreed trees very lovely topped with stars. Their soft patina is similar to mercury glass, but with a matte rather than shiny finish. I'm so happy I found them in time!

Kick off the covers...........................

.................and get going. Lots to do today.

Hope Santa remembers I've been nice and puts a tiny something in my stocking come Christmas Eve!


No sun peeking out today to flood the dining room with bright Winter light, murky fog and drizzly rain again........................

................but the snowflakes glitter a little in the window.

Sitting here in the early morning I check my 'to do' list......it's long, I must get moving because at the end of this week I'm off on a trip.

No, not Paris unfortunately...............some year I truly would love to experience Christmas in the 'City of Light'. Some of you thought I might be crossing the pond and spending the Christmas holidays at home in England. No such luck..............but I would love to be there, strolling the streets of London in all its Christmas finery, then traveling South to the Devon coast and enjoying some time by the sea in my home town over the holidays.

Keeping fingers crossed for good flying weather later this week. "North Pole"? Someone asked if that's my destination. No, but it can be almost as cold where I'm going!

From the fading Winter garden

Yesterday was cold and dry, chilly rather than freezing. The kind of Winter day when it is still and quiet in the garden without a breeze to rustle the fallen leaves. I bundled up in sweater and scarf, thick socks and tall boots. Wrapped white lights around the front porch railing, then took a break, sipping hot chocolate while watching a bold woodpecker fly back and forth to the feeder for supper. DH raked........and raked, for several hours.

It was hovering around freezing at 5 PM when dusk settled over us like a pale blanket as we pulled the last leaves down to join the mountain at the curb. I'd pruned back some frost-damaged plants, then cut the last hydrangeas to dry, and together we hauled those leaves, brown, crinkled, and dried to such a lightness they can dance in a breeze.

I leaned over the back fence and snipped the pyracantha berries -planted in my neighbor's garden - he doesn't mind. Added trailing variegated ivy from one of the many urns around my garden. Nature now fills the bare spaces around the house.

We will soon be having some large trees removed because they are dangerous. I have a nice feeling that this will mean a much smaller mountain of leaves next year.............hopefully more time sipping hot chocolate and less raking on these cold Winter days.

Pink Saturday

Beverly, our Pink Saturday hostess at How Sweet the Sound, has suggested that we share a favorite holiday decoration today. I really can't pick just one thing so will share some of my favorites around the house which are quite simple vignettes I've gathered together and placed hither and thither. I read somewhere, just recently, that the Christmas spirit should be everywhere in your home, even if just one tiny thing in each room - that's what I'm trying to accomplish.

Meanwhile, outdoors, a favorite for the past several years, is my Victorian gazebo with a Christmas tree decorated with Nature inspired objects such as pine cones and wooden ornaments. There are two large paper stars and strings of clear fairy lights. In the dark of night, the entire gazebo glitters and gives the now somewhat dreary garden a new lease on life for Christmas.

Wishing you each a wonderful weekend. Everyone is very busy now as Christmas draws near. Remember to take time out from your decorating and holiday preparations............stop for a warming cuppa, take a breather in the cool air, sit by a glowing hearth and listen to carols and seasonal music.............or, like me, start packing a suitcase and take a holiday trip!

No, not off across the pond again, but will be somewhere very 'Christmassy' for few days........if the weather doesn't let us down like last year!!!!

Almost too busy for blogging

Feel like you need to put your skates on? The days fly by far too quickly, don't they?

Are you up to your eyeballs in tinsel and glitter,

holly and ivy and no time to 'twitter'?

Your lists grow longer, gifts, food and booze,

all you really want to do is kick off your shoes.........

.......sit down and snooze - or at least have time to blog!!!

I am literally covered in glitter.......after hanging this otherwise very pretty, silvery mistletoe garland from Jo-Ann's in the dining room. Wow did it shed!

I still have to organize my time for baking Christmas cookies.......meanwhile I love these cookie ornaments.
I don't have to shop for a real tree but I did head out to the garden center this week. For my dining room I chose a creamy white Poinsettia named Polar Bear. Just 10 mins. from my home is the second largest Poinsettia grower in the country - wonderful displays and so hard to choose as they are all beautiful, healthy and perfect. I added a lacy fern to soften it and an Aspen candle with an outdoorsy perfume, named Goddess. The engraved 'silver' lid is beautiful, reminds me of antique powder bowls.

Homewood Gardens, Raleigh, NC

Perhaps my Christmas decorations are becoming less traditional now......not so much red and green, much more neutral. I love the softened look which seems to suit my year round decor which has become more decolored. I do love colorful decor, have had it myself over the years, and am always amazed at those of you who pull it all together so well.

Here's some color in the hallway...........do love the 'old world' Santas in rich colored velvets, and their little helpers.

More peeks at Christmas decor next time.

Junk Gypsy is my name........

..............finding hidden treasure

is my game.

Porcelain glove form from 1987 - found at ScreenDoor in Asheville, NC - my other favorite place to hunt.

Who would have known that in my 'golden years' I'd be on the hunt! Traipsing through antiques malls, vintage and re-sale shops, flea markets, even wonderful furniture makeover shops hidden away in dreary old warehouse buildings..........places that are boiling hot in Summer, but freeze your extremities in Winter as you poke around, muffled in scarves and gloves, looking for something special. Me, who used to like everything perfect, non-chipped, no cracks or crazing, perfect paint, polished and shiny. Things are much different now.

Then there was France, the entire country a repository of beautiful old things for the home. You know how my eyes were opened there, and my heart leapt so much I was in danger of never making it back to the USA!

Here is my wonderful 'name tag'. Perfect for my forays into junk land. Remember my recent weekend in Charlotte, NC and my three visits (in two days, no less!) to the fabulous Sleepy Poet? It was there, amid an amazing array of treasure, I found Janna's two booths full of the best stuff. Artsy Fartsy Junk Finds is the name..........really fabulous vintage, painted, chippy, tarnished, much-loved, mostly neutral shaded items are her game.

Janna and her hubby also craft beautiful jewelery from found items, adding special words. When I opened my little parcel from Janna I was thrilled with my necklace. It has already brought interesting comments when I wear it, which is often! I also bought another but as it's for a special someone for Christmas I can't show you until later!

Do you have a special piece of simple jewelry you love to wear? Something made by a family member or friend. Perhaps not expensive, but pretty and meaningful to you. If you can't get to Charlotte, do visit Janna's online shop and see more of her special jewelry which you can purchase online............and check out all her other fabulous finds.