Valentine's Sun Room

Oh how I love Valentine's Day.

My mother always made each of the holidays quite special.

Valentine's Day was certainly on the top of the list of days she

worked so hard at making fabulous for us.

As I married and had children, I too made holidays special.

Breakfast was the first thing that was different.

Pink pancakes!  

Mom always did this for us, and so I too cooked pink pancakes

for my children.  It was always a favorite.

We have recently added on a sun room to the back of our house.

It really has become the favorite room.  Even in the winter

you can sit on the couch and look out over the yard, in the warmth

of the house and enjoy the winter, and of course in the

summer, spring, and fall it is quite our favorite room as well.

I decided to decorate the sun room for Valentine's Day this year.

The rest of the house still has winter snowflakes, polar bears 

and white everything, and I wanted to have it stay this way

for the winter.  White on white.

But the sun room can bring me smiles of joy and love.

Valentine's day.

When we added the sun room, we just added right on to the outside of our

house, so in this room, there are windows and the outside of the

main house as 2 of the walls.  The other 2 outside walls are panels

of glass that give the view of the back yard with french doors 

that open up to the back yard.  

We added furniture, some of the furniture is from my garden

like the lounge chairs.  They have red floral pillows (Ralph Lauren)

and black and white pillows, with a grey stripe throw over the top of the 

padding.  Then a pink tablecloth is thrown across the top for the

pink Valentines look.

The table is covered in a red and pink, two separate table cloths, on top of

the other, and then my fun Valentines items on top.

Our walls in this room are very distressed, and for the most part I will leave

them that way, I may fix a few spots.  

I have a darling silver tea set on the table! 

Remember, I love silver!

On the shudder I added a piece of wood Dana found for me in the forest one 

day with a heart in it.  I have saved it for many, many years, and still to this day

love it.  I will probably keep it here all year now.  It has been in the laundry

room, and just now graduated to the sun room.

Sometimes when we buy things we wonder what will we ever do with it.

That is the cute winter lady on the shelf.  She just represents 

Valentine's day for me.  She wears a coat with hat and gloves, which

for me, this is February!  This year most mornings are at 4-6 degrees Fahrenheit

and just 2 days ago 0!

I still to this day don't remember where I got these cherubs,

but I really love them.

I made this cute heart with Robin's Nest products and dew drops.

I just pack it away and bring it out every year.  So Fun!

I made this banner this year for all my grandchildren's pictures.

I'm still missing a few kids, but I love having it up,

they are my valentines.

I also made this Love banner years ago with Robin's Nest

products.  I still love it! 

And used it on the window this year.

One day I will post our couch and what it looked like when we started.

Such a good find, and such a beautiful couch!

The box in front of the table was mine in high school.  It just recently became

mine again after mom and dad passed away.  

I sure fits the decor of this room.  Casual elegance.

Well there you have it! 

The sun room at a glance with Valentines all over.

There is a table set for a quaint brunch on the other side of the room.

I will post that in a few days.

Happy decorating!

Robin

Winter Whites on the Mantle

It is winter here where we live.

I love the winter, sometimes I complain about the temperature.

This morning when I left the house it was 4 degrees!

Woah, that is seriously cold.  But none the less I still love my home,

and where I live.  Here is my happy place.

I recently grey washed the rock on my fireplace.

It has made all the difference in the world for me.

There were lots of hours working on my husband to let me lighten the

fireplace, even now as I work with it, add the winter whites

to the mantle, I realize, it was really the perfect update for

my living room.  It is so cozy, and feels so much bigger.

Love the new look for sure.

The white against the light grey, Yes! 

Just what I wanted!

I decorate the house in winter whites during the winter.

It is refreshing especially after all the bold reds and greens

of Christmas.  I love the change.

Aren't these polar bears the cutest!

When I owned my store years ago I fell in love with them.

They came just before we sold the store and closed.

These were one of my fun saves.  I wanted to

have them for Christmas, but over the years I have changed

how I decorate the house for Christmas.

Now they are packed in my January box.

They are perfect for the winter, I love bringing in these

cute polar bears and white snowmen.

and white snowflake dishes during the winter cold season.

The cool thing about winter whites is you can use just about

any white item to decorate with making the home feel so bright.

I love the bright feel especially in the middle of winter.

You don't get the dol drums of the winter when the house

feels so light and white.

The white trees are also packed away for January.

This year our January is quite white.

The last few years we haven't had very much snow,

so with white on the ground, I wanted to give the house

a white feel as well.  Bright and cheery!

Here are just simple items in my house that I have brought to

the mantle and living area for the January winter feel.

White old windows, white bowl full of old books with

the covers torn off.

My angels that represent my 2 angels in heaven, and books covered in 

brown paper, with the backs to the rock.

The twists of thread that look like white trees are thread that is used

in Ethiopia to make dresses and gabi's.  We lived in Ethiopia for 2 years

on a humanitarian mission.  Behind the thread is my piece of redwood

that we purchased in California this year on our Coastal

vacation.  It is made into a bowl.  

Tell me what you think of this winter white mantle.

Books, platters, greenery, that is all it takes to create this fun

mantle.  You can do this too.

Happy New Year!  2019

Celebrate the winter with decorating with white!

Robin