Christmas made in the South

In order to kick-start the Christmas season in style this past weekend, my friend Cheryl and I went to "Christmas made in the South", the premier Craft Fair here in Jacksonville.

Fa-la-lalala!

Between seeing all the various lovely and amazing crafts, trying the delicious dips and tasting the heart and soul warming mulled wines, coffees and hot chocolates we had a grand girlfriend time (which was long overdue) and even scored a couple of really cute Christmas presents (Cheryl) and some yummies and additions to the decorating bin (me).

Checking out the goodies

The first vendor booth that magically drew us in was a treasure trove of vintage photoghraphs. We we even met fellow Springfield neighbors for a quick chat over pictures from the first heydays of our neighborhood.

This vendor graciously allowed me to snap pictures of her booth. She sure had the cutest snowman ornaments at the fair!

Cheryl picked up a few more of these bent wire ornaments. The tree sparkled and twinkled and looked simply stunning. Too bad it doesn't go with our current decorating scheme at all.

So lovely!

We spent quite some time playing with the "tester" toys at this stand: puzzles, catapults and other old-fashioned games that just never grow old or boring.

This one won the "best smelling stand" hands down: whimsical ornaments crafted from Cinnamon bark and scented with Gingerbread or Cinnamon oil.

Two of these cute little mice came home with me. Now, the Ugly Duckling smells like

a cinnamon roll.

Puppets! Fuzzy wuzzy handpuppet babies!
They also sold accessories for your puppet baby.

Thoroughly inspired, back home I broke out the first garlands and strings of light to get started on my Christmas decorating. It's a work in progress, happily stretched out over the next couple of weeks. The Christmas tree - contrary to popular American tradition - comes last. In my family the tree was bought just a week before Christmas, got a few days outside to stretch and was brought in and decorated just a few days before Christmas. The many lights on it, however, remained unlit until Christmas eve when the Christkind (english: the Christchild) brought the presents. That's a Christmas memory that's hard to beat: seeing the Christmas tree blazing with brilliant lights, all a-sparkle, while Christmas music played softly in the background. For a few moment, even to us children, the presents were entirely secondary ...

Before we were allowed to open our presents we had to do a little "schtick": it could be reciting a poem, singing a song or playing something on our instrument (once we started taking music lessons). We're continuing some of those traditions with the Little Man and over the past years we've come up with a pretty neat combo of German and American Christmas traditions. This year, since it's our first Christmas at our Ugly Duckling, we won't be traveling but staying home so expect to see a few posts on how we roll at Christmastide :o)

Featuring Historic Springfield

[Greetings from beautiful Springfield! source: cardcow.com]

While we're packing and moving and posts about projects are very likely to slow down I've been thinking about what possible entries to post in the near future.

Gradually the nature of our online diary will change: less major building/remodeling posts, more decorating and moving in updates (although I have no plans to turn this blog into a regular home decorating blog at this point. There are so many talented bloggers out there, I don't think I have much to add to that).

What I do enjoy and find the most rewarding is encouraging people to try a historic home, if not in Historic Springfield then perhaps in another historic neighborhood. And I would really really love to feature other "Ugly Ducklings" turned "Swan" to show how beautifully these grand old ladies clean up and make fabulous homes for you and your family.

So, dear Springfielders, I'm looking for volunteers who would like to see their historic Springfield home 'crashed' and featured on the "Little Old House" blog.

Drop me a line! Come on, you know you want to!

Reach out and inspire others!

Meet my sink

Last Saturday I escaped for a quick trip to Orlando, catching up with a couple of girl friends during a brief visit a bachelorette party and going on a husband-sanctioned shopping spree at IKEA.

You see, my kitchen design revolves around that clean vintage image of white shaker-style cabinets and a big honking sink. It tickles me pink that that is also the style that would have been en vogue for the Ugly Duckling back when it was brand new and shiny

[1920s kitchen, source: antiquehomestyle.com]

Big sinks, especially those fancy apron sinks, don't come cheap but IKEA comes to the rescue in this case: their Domsjo sink comes in 3 different sizes ranging from cute small prep sink over the great single-bowl to the humongous double-bowl.

[Meet my sink: Domsjo single-bowl sink]

So I drove down to Orlando, picked up my sink [danced a quick happy jig that it was in stock] and used the opportunity to chat with one of their lovely IKEA kitchen designers about the revised layout for our kitchen and the order process. Our contractor had made a couple of good suggestions and we've decided to 'flip' the kitchen around. Now the sink will be underneath the window and we will have room for a built-in breakfast nook on the other side. Kind of like this one here

[1920s kitchen, source: antiquehomestyle.com]

Now all we need is electricity at the Ugly Duckling. Oh, and a working toilet would be great :o)

The Little Man Cave

By now you probably think there is no stone left unturned and that my statement that the Ugly Duckling is basically livable (except for the gross kitchen and missing hvac system) is a major exaggeration. There are indeed areas in our house that only need touch-ups!

Case in point: The Little Man's Cave

[Before]

His room, the second largest after the master bedroom, only needs a thorough cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. Scratch that. It only needed a major cleaning and the little Man insisted on painting it his favorite color: green.

This weekend, after some prep work and painting the ceiling on Saturday, the little man and I went over to the Ugly Duckling to get started on his room. Anything we do in there won't affect any other area we're working on and/or are doing some form of construction so it's a great place to start.

Little Man choose Glidden's "New Grass Green" for his walls. It's a bright cheery Granny Smith apple-green but it's not too overwhelming and it pops beautifully against Behr's Ultra Pure White on ceiling and trim work. We will add some navy stripes to his closet wall as an extra special feature (and so he doesn't feel like he's stuck in a green box)

[Little Man painting away]

With my trusted little helper by my side we actually managed to give all 3 walls a nice coat of paint. It's a great color but the starker contrast between ceiling and wall color does make the lowered ceiling more obvious [when the Ugly Duckling was upgraded to central heat and air, the owner unfortunately lowered the ceiling to make room for the necessary duct work, rather than running it through the attic or crawl space]. I do plan on painting the narrow part of wall above the window to match the trim and might try to bring the walls "down" by adding not too wide crown molding. Maybe the window treatment will ease the effect as well - we'll see!

[More green on the wall]

And again, here's the mood board for the room so you know where we are going with this. We have plans that include built-in book shelves and a daybed/couch for sleep-over guests in the Little Man's Cave. So stay tuned - there's more to come!

[created on polyvore.com]

Stove Pipe Dreams - The kitchen

The biggest project we need to tackle, aside from updating plumbing and electric, hvac system and the repairs to the floor, is the installation of a kitchen for the Ugly Duckling.

The room measures a solid 11'x12', in no way huge but not teeny either. It has a window to the backyard, a door to the future mudroom/laundry area and a walk-through to a teeny hallway with an archway to the dining room. While I'm NOT a fan of open-living concepts and prefer my kitchen to be its own separate room, I still wanted it to feel open and airy with clean contemporary lines, yet a twist of classic details to fit into a historic home.

So, here is my kitchen wish list

- white shaker-style cabinets

- dark butcher-block counter tops

- wood floors (hopefully we can preserve the original floors under the gross linoleum)

- either library pulls or some sleek brushed nickel handles

- either white wainscoting with yellow or apple green on the walls or just paint and a white subway tile backsplash around stove and sink

- open shelves instead of upper cabinets above the sink area
- farmhouse sink

Using a cabinet planner I came up with this first draft for our kitchen:

You're peeking into the kitchen from the laundry-mudroom. There's the window to the backyard on the right and across the room to the left you see the walk-through to the diningroom. Straight ahead is the wall with room for the range and over-the-range microwave. Counterspace is sacred, oh yes, it is! To the left is the sink and dishwasher side of the kitchen which will get two rows of open shelves (which are not part of the program so I can't include them. Just like bin pulls and a farmhouse sink...boo). There's room for a cute little bistro set in front of the window for a small eat-in nook.

Then a thought hit me. Maybe I should do a little research and see what style kitchen would have been in this house when it was build? You know, just to see if that was something that we could combine with our modern creature comforts and aesthetics to a harmonious, albeit slightly anachronistic combination, what with stainless steel appliances and such? Just cause we're like that. So I used my trusty search engine and here's what we found ...

Welcome to the 1910s

If you look closely the cabinets resemble shaker-style cabinets and are clearly white. I love the hutch on the left side. Open shelving, big white sink - a really cute kitchen even though the individual furniture pieces, open cabinet doors (Looks like she's got a hubby who leaves them open all the time!?!?) and the random accessories (Miniature rocking chair? Huh?) make it look a little cluttered.

Welcome to the 1920s!

Hellooooo darling! White shaker-style cabinets, bin pulls, open shelves and a big white sink. Check, check, check and check again! Interesting to see an actual patterned rug in the middle of the kitchen and I wonder what that little R2-D2 shaped thing is underneath the sink ...

Looks like we're right on the money when it comes to rehabbing our house with a kitchen that is both contemporary and close to historically appropriate for our little Ugly Duckling :o)

2 more weeks 'till closing!

Arborlicious

You know why I want a picket fence?

That's why :o)

[picture found at Decorfortheoutdoors.com

[picture found at YHhomeimprovement.com]

[picture found at woodworkersworkshop.com]

'nuff said :o)

And the lamb fell in love with the lion ...

... and got herself a clawfoot tub for long luxurious "up-to-your-neck-in-bubbles" soaks.
Heh ...

One of the many things I adore in our historic rental apartment that we've been living in for the past 6 years is the clawfoot tub in the only bathroom. It's charming, it's quirky and it's simply perfect for a nice bath on a cold winter afternoon. It also has a shower rig and a wrap-around shower curtain for quick showers and is as versatile as it gets. I'm loving it! I also love the original penny tile with its baby-blue border design despite its cracks and discolored grout. I don't love the original farmhouse sink with the two faucets (one for hot and the other for cold water) and it'd be awesome if we had at least another half bath but for the past couple of years it's worked as well as it could. Did I mention that I love the clawfoot tub?

The Ugly Duckling has currently 2 full baths and an upstairs kitchen. None of them, however, have a clawfoot tub ... *sigh* Our grand plans have us chopping the downstairs full bath into a half bath to create space for a laundry area in the mudroom and turning the upstairs kitchen into a fancy master bath. WITH a clawfoot tub! Not like that would surprise you after my confessions above, n'est-ce pas?

So while we continue the waiting game for the closing date and the begin of our renovations I get to design budget-busting looks on polyvore and browse idea books on Houzz for inspiration. Wanna see?

traditional bathroom design by san francisco architect Doma Architects, Inc.

[Alright, so that's not really a clawfoot tub. It's a free-standing tub but it's gorgeous and I love the airy traditional yet fresh look of this bathroom]

traditional bathroom design by architect Coburn Architecture and Interiors

[There you have it, a real clawfoot tub! Fantastic!]

contemporary bathroom design by boston architect LDa Architecture & Interiors

[Here you get a sneaky peek at a clawfoot tub; again, bright and airy and crisp]

traditional bathroom design by portland interior designer Kirstin Havnaer, Hearthstone Interior Design. LLC

[Look, another free-standing tub. And wainscoting. And the fresh airy brightness like in the other pictures. Notice a trend?]

I love how clawfoot tubs don't care if it's a contemporary sleek bathroom with concrete countertops or a frilly frou-frou oldfashioned salle de bain - they fit right in into any kind of setting. Husband and I mix up to a "farmhouse meets NY City loft" kind of style and I'm telling you, the tub dots off our Ts and crosses our Is.

After poking around on the net and playing with polyvore's editor here's what I came up with for a first draft. Mind you, it hasn't been run past the husband for his approval but I think it balances the feminine and the masculine with the contemporary and the historical quite nicely. What do you think?

Master bath by Littleoldhouse

We're digging penny tile and think that using a dark charcoal, almost black penny tile (maybe with a border pattern of white penny tile along the perimeter of the room) will nicely ground all the bright white and light grey we have planned for the walls and ceiling and fixtures. We're torn on either using wallpaper or a monochromatic stencil (creating the pattern through using a glaze rather than a different color) to add a bit of visual interest so stay tuned for further development of this thought. We'd like a vanity from an old dresser with crisp ceramic vessel sinks. And of course a clawfoot tub. Maybe a corner shower. Maybe. We need to take the measurements over at the house and draw it out on the floor. Maybe even use blue tape to lay it out on the floor? Hmm ...

Oh, yes, color! We love the clean, almost austere look of this mood board and since this room gets a LOT of sunlight we'll actually be able to have a live plant or two in this room as well for a pop of color. We're still debating the matter of curtains: airy white Roman shades come to mind.

So, what do you think?

Get your Advent Calendar on

This year is one of the precious rare years when we will be staying home here in Florida rather than traveling the world to visit grandparents. Let's hear it for Christmas in Florida! Woot!

As somebody who grew up with sub-zero temperatures, snow and lead winter skies let me tell you that I can get into the Christmas mood just fine without the aforementioned three, thank you very much. All I really need is the crisp scent of a real fir tree, a dash of cinnamon in the air and the Ratpack having a Christmas ball on the stereo and I'm all set.

Advent, the 4 weeks preceding Christmas, is my favorite time of the year (and how cool is it that Thanksgiving, my favorite adopted holiday, perfectly heralds the season as a kick-ass kick-off event?). Counting down to Christmas using an Advent calendar is an old tradition in Germany and of course we have to have at least one every year too. Currently our advent calendar consists of little plaid bags filled with goodies that are tied to a garland but browsing the bloglands I have come across so many cool ideas that I'm tempted to craft a new one.
How about this one here? How whimsical and sweet is this lollipop tree?

[Found at Garnet Hill]

Or if this is just too much candy for your taste, then how about this alternative Advent tree with small bags waiting to be filled with treats of all kinds (including notes, trinkets, toys, etc.)

[found at SnickerdoodleCreations]

Now if you live in a house with a fabulous staircase and have a thing for that rustic Scandinavian flair aren't these vintage buckets the cutest? I bet it would work just as fabulously with shiny new tin buckets and some bright trim for a bright pop of color or a more contemporary look ;o)

[found at The Little Scandinavian]

This adorable baby sock advent calendar is both classic and whimsical and just really hits a spot for me. The crisp green, white and red color scheme and the whimsy clothes line with wooden clothes pins is really right down my alley (and again, it's a concept with loads of potential to make it match your decorating style)
[found at Martha Stewart online]

feel the need for a bit more bling? Are you looking for a more adult approach? Maybe you have a persnickety teenager who doesn't want to be left out? I really like these pyramid shaped boxes turned advent calendar a lot - using fancy scrapbooking paper (Damask patterns, anybody?) and beautiful beads, this version of an advent calendar might be just what you were looking for:

[found at Rubberstamping.about.com]

And last but not least this little number here. What a great excuse to hop over to the craft store to pick up some sweet scrapbooking paper and other supplies to whip up this cute Advent calendar? I might just try it this year ...

[Found at Splitcoaststampers]

Do you use Advent calendars in your family? What does yours look like?

Killer projects: Door to Trumeau mirror

This has got to be one of the coolest projects in blogland ever:

Suzanne over at "Meridian Road" took an old door and turned it into a classy antique Trumeau mirror. Check out her tutorial here:

[Before]

[After]

Trumeau mirrors were all the rage in 18th century France and generally hung between two windows to bring in more light into dark rooms. They are usually rectangular with the mirror at the bottom and a highly decorated ornate top with friezes and other ornamentation.

Low price trumeaus usually sell for about $500 - $900, the next price group ranges in the $2,000 - $4,000 range and can go as high as $20,000 for a rare antique in excellent condition.

Here's a neat one I discovered on Etsy in Dakotas Vintage store and it's a steal at $75!

[picture Dakotas Vintage]

And here's another one found at Ruby Lane - Caroline's Collectibles for just $150 - love the very French garland ornament at the top

[Found at Ruby Lane]

Now all I need is my own house with an entry hall to house such a delectable piece. Or maybe it could go into the bedroom ... ? I might just go hunting for a door once this stupid cold wears off.