The Joy of Books

It's no secret that I love books.  For as long as I can remember, I've loved books, and they've been such an important part of my life.  In fact, I met my future husband in a bookstore where I was working part-time.  He came in to look for a book, and he found me.  :)

I can't imagine a home with no books in it, can you?  It would seem rather cold and impersonal to me.  Not only do I enjoy reading books, I love the way they look and feel.  I have a Kindle, and I've finally started using it.  It's certainly convenient, but it could never replace "real" books for me.

New Puppy Pictures

Happy Monday everyone!  I have a few cute, cuddly puppies to show you.  The breeder that we are getting our new Scottie puppy from sends e-mails to us (and the owners of the other pups in the litter) at least once a week, with updated pictures and info. about the puppies.  I love that she does this!!  They are three weeks old now, and they will be able to go home with their new families at eight weeks old.

This weekend, Jane shared that they all got their nails trimmed, got their first wet feeding, and were introduced to toys; then they promptly crashed after all the excitement.  :)

I'm Having a Moment...

I could start this post by saying I've been having a lot of senior moments lately.  But I decided that wasn't entirely true because I've been having senior moments all my life.

For example...I seem to be misplacing things a lot these days.  When you decorate your space for Christmas, do you have trouble finding your normal accessories when it's time to put them back out, after the Christmas decor has been packed away?  My mother-in-law and I were talking about that a few weeks ago -- about how good it is to get the Christmas decs put away and how spacious our homes feel now.  My MIL said she often can't find her regular "stuff" she put away when she put her Christmas things out.  I was thinking that I shouldn't have a problem with that because I organized my Christmas decs last year, and I did things in an orderly manner this Christmas.  Hahahaha.  Remember this picture from last February?

Snow Men Brighten the Winter Days

Hi everyone!  Have you had a good day?  We spent the day running errands, so I'm glad to be sitting down, finally.  One of those errands involved buying a new, much-needed grate for our fireplace, so now we can have some cozy wood fires in our den. 

The Christmas decorations are finally down and mostly packed away.  I enjoy them so much when they're out, but our house feels much more spacious once I've put them away again.  I used to feel a little melancholy after packing all the cheeriness away.  Then I discovered that if I put my snowmen out in January, it helps to jolly things along during the long cold months between Christmas and spring.  :)

Frosty Winter Note Cards

Hello to you all!  Are you having a good week?  It's that time again -- Vee at A Haven For Vee is hosting her monthly Note Card Party.  If you've never participated in the Note Card Party, I urge you to give it a try.  It's a fun party, filled with friendly bloggers; I'm always glad for a chance to participate.

We don't see so much snow here in North Carolina, and for that reason I think we often long for a really pretty snowfall.  Since we haven't had any of the white stuff here this winter, I'm once again thinking of snow and snowmen.

"Frosty"

Scottie Puppies

Many of you may know that I have a real affinity for these little guys --

source

Oldcastle Surfaces Featured My Granite Countertops

Back  in the first week of December, I was contacted by Laurel Clarke of Oldcastle Surfaces, a granite countertop company in the southeastern U.S.  Laurel had seen my "before and after" kitchen post and wanted to know if she could feature pictures of our countertops in Oldcastle's new granite colors chart.

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day or Twelfth Day, in Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican churches.  We're Protestant, so this religious holiday is not officially celebrated in our churches; I never knew what it was when I was growing up.  But I think it's a lovely observance, and I now consider it the official end of the Christmas season at our house.

Favorite Chairs

I was recently contacted by Chloe of One King's Lane to ask if I would write a post featuring a statement chair in our home.  She included a link in her e-mail to a resource page on the One King's Lane website, along with some basic questions for me to address in my post, such as:  Which era is my chair from?  Is it a centerpiece or an accent to the rest of the room?  What design elements (pattern, texture, color, etc.) of the chair do I love most?   

It took me a while to decide which of our chairs to write about.  I don't have any of those wonderful French accent chairs that are so popular at the moment and so timeless in their classic appeal (unless you count our French Provincial dining chairs).

We have two vintage, mahogany ladder-back chairs that we use as accent chairs in our foyer and living room.

A Fresh New Start

Happy New Year 2014 everyone!!  I really had intended to write a New Year's post yesterday, but simply could not find the time.  I may have mentioned in a few of my recent posts or e-mails that my husband took an extended vacation from work over the holidays.  He works on many IT projects (usually concurrently) at his job, and 2013 was a tough year.  They were so busy, he was barely able to take any time off during the year because of urgent project deadlines.