Double Parlor | Making it Lovely

Archive - Double Parlor RSS Feed

Happy Holidays

December
22 Bookmark or Share 26
comments

Eleanor and August had a lot of fun decorating the tree this year. The front part at least, up to about four feet high. They kept saying “I could do this all day!” and in fact, they did. Over multiple days.

I stepped in when they were done and added ornaments to the rest of the tree, and I spaced theirs out a bit. Brandon’s mom gave us some of the ornaments she had collected over the years from when he was a kid, so those have been added to our tree now too.

I also picked up an ornament representing each of us and painted the hair to better match ours. 2014: the year we became a family of five! (!)

I didn’t go too crazy with the decorations this year because it wasn’t easy with a baby always on my hip. There are little touches here and there throughout the house though, like on this little table in the dining room.

I also swapped out the tassel on our secretary for a soft bunny ornament decked out in red and green. It’s cute, but mostly I did it because I figured the kids would like it.

You’ve already seen the fireplace, but now our stockings have been hung from the mantel. Those gold initials were from Restoration Hardware, but it looks like they stopped carrying them this year, so I’ll have to find a ‘C’ from elsewhere that matches.

There are a lot of exciting projects and opportunities coming up for me in the next couple of months. It’s hard to juggle everything with Calvin being so little, and with Eleanor and August too, but I can’t complain. I’m planning projects for the house, responding to press inquiries that I hope will turn into something more, scheduling campaigns, and even contemplating a part-time job offer that has come along for something that I’d love to do.

Sometimes you just have to jump in and say yes.

I continue to be grateful for this blog, and I’m glad to be able to share my life, my finds, and my home with you. I’m going to take off a little time between now and the new year to spend time with Brandon, the kids, friends, and family, but I’m looking forward to meeting you back here in January. Happy holidays, everyone!

Double Parlor, Holidays, Library, My Life, The Victorian House • 26 Comments • December 22, 2014

Death of a Houseplant

December
17 Bookmark or Share 53
comments

When do you give up on a houseplant?

I brought home my fiddle leaf fig in October, 2012. It dropped some leaves, but I quickly figured out how to keep it happy and it thrived. It grew about a foot taller over the next year, but then we moved. My brother-in-law cared for the plant while we were in Wisconsin, spending some time with family while we waited to close on our new house.

He kept the plant outside, so it went from being indoors in one location for a year, to being outside, and then inside again in a new location, all in the span of about a month and a half. I gave it the same Southern exposure it was used to, but maybe the thing was stressed? Then I brought home a much smaller fiddle leaf fig from IKEA (which soon died), and I think it gave the other a fungus. It smelled and looked awful, but I tried to save it! I removed as much soil as I could and repotted it, adding a bunch of cinnamon for good measure. (Supposedly it ha anti-fungal properties? I’m sure I read that somewhere.) I successfully rid the soil of mushrooms, but the fig tree was losing leaves fast.

I was watering it the same way I always had, but we have radiators here and I think the air was drier in the other house because of its forced air heating system. I cut back on the amount and frequency of water and that helped, but it never properly recovered. Tenderly, I would wipe down each leaf with a damp rag while whispering encouraging words. Grow, my darling, grow! OK, maybe not the last part, but I did remove the dust from the leaves regularly. They continued to drop occasionally though, and for the last few months now it has been looking like a Seuss tree.

Don’t call it a comeback. I think it’s time to say goodbye to my fancy blogger tree, right?

Double Parlor, The Victorian House • 53 Comments • December 17, 2014

The Fireplace Mantel, Decorated for Christmas

December
8 Bookmark or Share 21
comments

This post is sponsored by Target.
Shop Home Décor for modern luxury made easy.

Confession: we waited until after Thanksgiving to put our tree up, but I started bringing out the Christmas decorations for the rest of the house a couple of weeks ago! The fireplace is sporting a mix of decorations that we already owned with a few new additions from Target.

I really liked this holiday berry garland, but I used the silver ornament garland that we already owned and then added a few loose gold ornaments to fill in some bare spots. The candle holders are the same ones you saw last month in the dining room. I picked up several small and large bottle brush trees in both silver and white to add to the mantel, and further staggered the height by propping a few of the trees up on small upside-down bowls that are hidden behind the ornaments.

The brass deer are vintage. I loved decorating with them each year in the old house, so it’s fun to see them here on top of the fireplace. You can pick up this guy if you’re looking for a new deer of your own, or maybe just a small ceramic stag head for kicks?

Had the vintage painting leaning on the mantel been something more precious, I probably would have hesitated to string the “happy holidays” glitter banner across it. It may not be the greatest work of art, but I think it is the perfect backdrop for those sparkly letters! And speaking of sparkle, behold. Glitter! Gold! Silver! It’s all very merry.

Our stockings will soon be hung by the fireplace, but that isn’t the only change to come. My sister is hosting a Christmas party this year and she asked if she could borrow some decorations, so I have a feeling some of these will be moving to her apartment soon. At least I was able to enjoy this setup for a little while first! Besides, what are sisters for? (For stealing all of your cute Christmas decor, apparently. Ha!)