Home for the Holidays tour

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS TOUR

So today I am hooking up with Julia from Hooked on Houses, she is also having a holiday tour. Isn't this fun!


This tree is in the master bedroom. A smaller one this year. The star ornaments are from Lillian Vernon. I love them. It is all gold with the white stars.

Upstairs hall table leading to bedrooms. What you cannot see in the picture is a framed picture of Santa. I take beautiful gift bags and cut and frame them for Christmas time.

I had this idea for a simple but elegant look. Pinecones from outdoors and snowflake ornaments.


Thanks for stopping by for the Home for the Holidays tour. Don't forget to stop by Julia at Hooked on Houses for more beautiful decorations.

Home for the Holidays

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Hi there! How have you all been. I have been busy trying to get my house decorated and meet with clients and build a business, whew there is just not enough time in the day. I am hooking up with Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for her Home for the Holidays segment. I love decorating for Christmas, and this year I am feeling a little rushed. So here are some pictures and more will follow later tonight when the lights are twinkling.

Welcome to my home Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. Come on in and join the fun. This is my front porch. The sled was my husband's that he used as a little boy. The ice skates are my daughter's. This porch is very deep and one sided so I try to do a vignette to accommodate that.
Since there is no chance for snow here I use cut tree branches for ground cover, pine cones and red cardinals adorn the trees and ground. Front door was not done so I didn't photograph it.



Both banisters have garland ribbon poinsettia's and layer with two types of ribbon.

Here is the banister that over looks the living room. A close up of the bow.


This is the entry way table. This year I was able to decorate a little differently. Usually we have the Dept. 56 houses, Christmas in the City. So I bought this sled last year that was red and green. I painted it a Antique Bronze color with copper gold accents. Wrapped packages, added a floral and a Santa that was a gift. I used fabric from Joann's to try to get the snowy, sparkling look.


Here is our living room tree. It is real and 10 foot high. It was supposed to be a smaller tree this year but it was such a beautiful shape my children could not resist. I used all white and gold this year and copper accents. It does have lots of ornaments but they did not photograph well.

A close up of the tree!

The mantle in the living room all done in the same white and gold ribbons. Ornaments are hung from the garland and the tree topiary are stocking holders. I have had them for awhile and purchase at Bombay and Co. This might be the last year for these.

A close up of the mantle showing my violins resting on the garland.

I also added some floral to the painting above the fireplace. It is just fun to do.



Come on into the dining room. I have added greenery to the light fixture purchased at Richards.
The vase has Christmas balls, greenery and sparkling gold curly ribbon.
I had these two mirror from Bombay and Co and decided to use them as candle holders. the light reflect off the mirrors and it is beautiful when lite. I love the runner give to me as a gift from a good friend. It is brown velvet with antique ivory sheer fabric with music notes. It is just gorgeous.




This is part one of my post. I need to run some errands and take more photos. I will be back later so make sure you come on back to see the rest of my home. I will be looking forward to seeing all of yours. Remember to go to Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, she has some beautiful photos for all of you.

Ok I'm back. I cannot believe how long it is taken me to do this post. Anyway this is my family room, in the evening.

My Family room tree. I decided to do all red and white with the candy cane as an accent and overall theme. This tree was so cute when I saw it I just had to have it. Again it is real. I love the smell of a fresh tree!
Here is a close up of the top of the tree. The star is a little crooked but my daughter liked it that way so I left it alone! It is always fun to have a whimsical tree.! All the children ornaments are on this tree.


Here are a couple of pics of the same tree in the evening. My camera sometimes does not like to take clear photo in the evening when trying to capture the right lighting! Sorry for the blurriness


This is the bath adjacent to the family room and the guest bath.

Well this is my Home for the Holidays post for today. I do have my kitchen and master bedroom photographed. I will post those pictures tomorrow so you may visit other beautiful holiday posts. Thank you for visiting. Visit my post of February of last year when I was featured in the Valley Times, the local newspaper for their Home for the Holidays article. That was fun!
Remember to visit Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, she has some beautiful photos for all of you. Also The Inspired Room is having a holiday party go there and check it out!
So many Holiday Tours so little time. Check out the Nester for her Holiday Tour Dec. 14th

Met Monday

I have been busy with life in general and have not be posting regularly, I apologize for that.
Welcome again to Met Monday hosted by Susan of Between Naps on the Porch. This week I am going to show you an upstairs office mini makeover. This first pictures are the before. The color had already been chosen and was painted on the wall. Such a warm and wonderful mustard color. The venetian mask was obtained in Venice Italy and is just beautiful and vibrant. It needed it own space on this wall. The Asian hand painted silk print was a gift from her daughter from Korea. I matted and re framed this print and others.

This wonderful chair and ottoman was purchased at Thomasville warehouse and my client just adores it. It needed to be accompanied by a wonderful wall of family photos. Below are some of the photos that I re matted and framed for the wall.




Here are the photos re framed and in the prominent place in the office. The lamp and table were already in the room in different areas. They made a great addition to this corner. ( the fabric in the corner are the window treatments which could not be hung yet oops)

The picture at the top in the center was an antique photo of three sisters, one of them her mother. It is a beautiful picture and we re framed this also to bring out the girls and colors.

It was a treat to be able to use the entire space for these photos. Making a wall collage of photos can be a little tricky. The easiest to find out how to place the photos is to make the collage on the floor next to the wall make all your changes on the floor with all the spacing and then transfer each one to the wall. It is better to vary the sizes and frames to add interest. There is one gap to the left for another antique photo of her dad that needed a new frame.
This cozy corner is now a wonderful reading and relaxing area away from the rest of the home. Next week I hope to had a picture of the window treatment we put in this room.
Thank you for joining me in another wonderful Met Monday. Be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for other wonderful makeovers.

Have a wonderful day and Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Expressively
Sofia

Met Monday

I hope you had a great weekend! I am joining up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for another Met Monday. This week I am featuring a client's new home in a town called Rescue, CA in the foothills of the Sierra mountains. She moved in back in August and I have been travelling up about once a month to help transform her home. She has a lot of items that she moved so we used all she had and try to be very selective in this process. The first room we worked on was as she calls it her Hawaiian room (AKA Jenna's room, her daughter) . This is the room right after she moved in. She has many pieces of antique furniture, very beautiful pieces, so we reused all her pieces.


She had this beautiful iron bed an bedding. She is a Pottery Barn lover, hence the bedding is from Pottery Barn and the red polka dots sheets. The Hawaiian print over the bed had been re frame with a bamboo frame. The lamp you see is a Tommy Bahama lamp with a bamboo shade. We did change the window treatment here adding a bamboo shade to both windows and changing the sheers to matching green on all the windows.

Here is the other side of the room before.
Here is the other side of the room and after. This dresser is beautiful with a marble top that coordinates with the side table that the lamp sits on. Of course she has many, many accessories and I tried to limit what she put on the dresser.

This is the wall opposite the bed. We put up the shelves and added all the Hawaiian themed items that are her daughter's including her daughter's graduation picture. Again the dresser is a secretary desk with a side chair. (another antique). Of course we had to add to the chair a crab that played Under the Sea and danced. (a little crazy) but that is her style. So the only purchase in this room which you do not see is the new frame for above the bed and new bamboo shades for the windows.
When hanging art work or photos around shelves like these, use different sizes and shapes to create interest and keep your eyes moving. all the frames do not have to match exactly but they should coordinate together.


She likes themed rooms and all the items she has purchased over the years. The other guest bedroom which will be the grand children's sleeping placed when they visit is the "Disney room". So again this is the vacant room.
This is the same side of the room with a high boy dresser and mirror. It is opposite the twin bed.
Here is the bed all dressed up with all her stuffed Disney characters. The bedding is a batten burg lace comforter and pillow shams with a red bed skirt. We loved the lamp in the corner that we found at a consignment shop about 6 months ago. It goes well with the print above it.





I love this Antique dresser. We had to polish this dresser and clean it up. We used lemon oil for that. It had been stored in an attic for lack of room in her other house. It is mahogany vanity dresser with a swivel mirror. It fits well with the Disney decor and reminds me of the Haunted Mansion decor. She had many Disney "Cells" that we incorporated into the room along with a few posters. As you know try to create high and lows with your accessories and always use odd numbers for more interest.It took us one full day to complete these two rooms from start to finish. Cleaning and polishing as we went. It was so much fun to do and we laughed while trying to move some of these pieces around. Since they are antiques and all solid wood they we pretty heavy. We did add some cellular shades to the windows that were ordered the day after we put the room together.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these room put together. I thoroughly enjoyed working on them. I stay for two days helping to unpack and put rooms together. I will post more of them at a later time. Thanks for joining me today and also to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for hosting. Check out her blog for great transformations.

Expressively
Sofia

Tablescape Thursday/Wedding Planning

Tablescape Thursday/Wedding Planning

Here we are again for another Tablescape Thursday thanks to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch. I had said in an earlier post that I would share some photos of the Wedding that I helped to plan on October 3rd. I thought today would be good for sharing these photos.

The wedding took place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It is a beautiful old hotel rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and opened in 1909. This year is the 100th anniversary for the hotel.
I will show you a few designs of tablescapes for the place card, cake and breakfast buffet the morning after the wedding. First let me show you where the ceremony took place.

This is called the Sunset Court on the second floor of the hotel. The hotel staff set the chairs nicely accordingly to the bride and my specifications. There is an atrium for the ceiling so natural and mood lighting occurs nicely in this area. We added some florals on stands down the isle as well as rose petals to line the runner. The palm trees were a great backdrop for the ceremony area. In the center was the unity candles that the mothers and then bride and groom lite. It was beautiful.
Here is where the cocktail hour took place. This is a before shot of the place card table.

Here is the same table with the floral arrangement and place card and favors arranged on the table. The floral had fall flowers, tall curly willow and pears.
Here is the gift and guest book table. Instead of an actual book to sign the bride wanted to use note cards and a box to hold advice and good wishes for the newly married couple. The wired bowl was for gift cards. This picture takes place before the guests arrive.



Here is the set up of the cake table. The cake was beautiful. Fresh flowers were place on the cake after it was placed on the table. We added votive candles the throw away bouquet and the champagne flutes and cake knives for the couple.This is a picture of the centerpieces for the guest tables before they are placed on the table. Since I was in twenty places at one time on this day I did not get a picture of the guest tables set for dinner.

The wedding was beautiful and everything went off without any problems and on time. They were a very happy couple. The next morning, we had breakfast for the guests. It was held in the French Parlor of the hotel. This is such a beautiful room and over looks the garden court of the hotel.

We reused the centerpieces from the wedding for the tables at the breakfast. These centerpieces were great because we were able to use them in three different places. The first was at the ceremony.

Here is the buffet table for breakfast. I added rose petals to the plate table and arranged the floral and gave some height to the table as well.


Here is the arrangement given some height on the buffet table and in the background is a leaded glass window overlooking the garden court below.
Here is a picture of the Garden Court from the window . Isn't it gorgeous.
Another picture of the buffet table from a different view and again the interior windows that open and look to the garden court.

This was truly a dream wedding, beautiful location, very well planned (I did that mostly), and wonderful bride and groom. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this day with you all. One last picture of the Anniversary cake in the lobby of the hotel. This cake was done by Ace of Cakes!.
Wow that is all I can say, this cake is incredible. Every tier represents a decade of the hotel with different features of the hotel recreated in this cake. Thanks again to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for hosted. If you would like to see more pictures of the wedding you can go to Peter Bruce Photography. He did a wonderful job photographing this special day.
I had such fun being the wedding planner for this couple!. Any one else need a planner?