around the dining room...

I have struggled with getting the house back together after Christmas.

Where to put everything, and the cleaning, oh the cleaning!

The struggle comes from wanting to have a more minimal look to our home, 

and a minimal approach to our life.

So that means edit, edit, edit...

This post is full of pictures so I am going to 

  keep the banter at a minimum and let the photos do the talking for me.

OH, except to tell you how much I love this oil painting 

that I found at a garage sale years ago for only $5.! 

I know, right???

Why was anyone getting rid of this awesome guy?

ok, I'm done now, back to the pictures...

These French linen lavender heart sachets are now available in the shop

The Old White House

I should have turned on the fireplace for you!

I couldn't get myself to put the twinkly lights away, and I'm so glad that I didn't.

They bring such peace and happiness to the room.

I don't know how long things will stay like this because

I haven't been able to get out to the barn to bring in 

some of my favorite treasures!

We have a whole lotta snow over here...

see the deer tracks on the frozen river?

Captain loves the snow!

I hope that you are staying cozy warm these days!

now, on to the bedroom and then the kitchen, 

and the living room could use a makeover too...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

love,

t.xoxo

a look back and a peak into the new year...

Happy New Year to everyone!  I don't usually make new years resolutions, I have told myself that they are silly, and that I won't stick with them anyway.  I got to thinking though that maybe I wasn't giving myself enough credit...  I can stick to things if I put my mind to it and really WANT  to embrace change,  I can honestly say that for the first time in a long time I have felt a wonderful stirring in my soul about the possibilities of a new year.

I have goals set for myself, my family, and our home...

I love my time here in blogland

so many of you have inspired me to really dig deep into the creative recesses of my soul

to release the fear of trying new things, one of those things being the idea to share what I've created with all of the blog world, without fear of rejection or being misunderstood...

to make what pops into my head and then post about it, and sell it.

I have to say a huge THANK YOU to those of you who opened my eyes to the world of JDL, oh my gosh, I am in love!  That is definitely the direction that our home is going to take, white, warm, industrial,  with natural wood elements and romantic.  Who would have thought that industrial and romantic would work together?  I love it!   So I am going 'shopping' in my little white barn and hauling my finds in the house.  I have been doing this a little at a time, but now it is time for a major overhaul by swapping out some of the decor in here.  Right now I would say that the house just have too much stuff!  i can't  believe I'm even saying that, but believe me Duane is happy to hear me say it!  So the things that come in must have purpose as well.

I don't want to look like this guy anymore!  I have hung on to some things thinking that they were bought to be sold, but have yet to list them on etsy or get them over to Lambs Gate.  Well, this is the week that I will be getting this stuff out of here one way or another!  I want theoldwhitehouse to take on a new look and so will be going in a new direction with it.  I am so excited to actually HAVE a direction!  Really!!

 The dining room was my jumping off point!  More makeovers are on the way!

I want to look more like this guy, peaceful and content...

I want to do more of this, sewing and sharing, so you can expect more tutorials than before...

I will be making more of these because I love wearing them and so love to share them!

I see my art taking on a whole new direction as well...

I think I've always been pretty organic in my artwork, but I see even more on the horizon...  I've repurposed for so many years that my kids probably thought that was the only way to create something, I am excited to create again, these last couple of weeks all I've done is crochet scarves for my family so I can't wait to get out the glue and junk and jewelry again!

and then there is my baby...

my line of natural laundry soap and lavender dryer sheets, I believe more deeply in this product than anything I've ever done before.  I feel like even in a small way I am making a difference ... not only the green impact that I feel I can make but a impact on my families income as well.  So this means alot more work and dedication on my part, but I feel it will be worth it.

 2011 is going to bring more 'green' into the lives of the Hein family in more ways than my soap... Hannah and I have become vegetarians.  John was home for a longer period of time than usual, he is a vegan and so was a great teacher and motivator for us.  I am thrilled and empowered by the feeling of giving my family a healthier lifestyle.  Even though not all of us will be vegetarian, the ones that are not will still benefit by having more vegies and grains in their diets!  I gotta believe that part of the positive feelings I have for our new year is that I am starting it off right!  I didn't want to just start another diet, they have never worked for me, I felt deprived and starved and so would cheat every chance I got... this doesn't feel like that, it feels right.   This is one of the reasons that I did not do new year resolutions in the past, they seem so redundant.   I will be 50 this year, and I want to be a strong role model for my children.  I also want to show them my fun side, they see my silly side on a regular basis but I wanted to show them the side of me that likes to play too, so for Christmas I asked for Just Dance 2 for the WII, and oh my gosh it is so much fun!  We played again last night and it feels good to dance and get excersize without feeling like it's work!

Thank you all for stopping by and leaving comments, they mean so much to me!  Blogging has brought so much LIFE into my life!  Thank you.  I hope that I can inspire you this new year and give back a little of the inspiration that you have given me.
                                                                   Love,
                                                             Theresa xoxo

decorating in bits and pieces...

Lets just say I'm going to do everything in small stages this year... the decorating is coming along and I am enjoying the process of doing it bits at a time.  I am constantly adding here and there and it will go on right up til the 25th so this just feels right. today.

My chipped up swan has made it all over the house both inside and out, I keep her indoors in the winter because she has endured enough damage and I don't know how much more she can take.  She wears  a delicate stran of pearls that also couldn't take much more wear.  This sits on the garden table I brought in from the patio, along with a little cloche with a spoon ornie in it that I made last year.  (boxes are still not upstairs, so I am using what I find in the workroom)

Now that I have taken the pictures a couple of times I want to add a little somethin,somethin to the table yet, I'm hoping the somethin is in the boxes!

Here's what I mean about adding... I remembered that I hadn't shown you these clock ornies that I made from a download over at justsomethingimade and well, I think there pretty cute so I changed the large rusty candleholders in the back.  Those were actually old rusty lamps that I found at a sale way cheap because the man couldn't believe anyone would even want them!  Yay me!!

 here is another version of the clock ornie all on the same download.

o.k. now on to the kitchen...

I moved the furniture around a bit (on Thanksgiving morning no less)  and really like the new arrangement, ofcourse ask me again in 3 months or so and you might get a different answer!
the light on this side of the kitchen changed as I was taking pics. so bear with me o.k.?  The little bird on the lid of the tureen is from Michelle Palmers etsy, isn't he adorable?  The banner I made with vintage white ladies hankies, some are embroidered and some are plain.  This one didn't sell at the show and now I'm glad it didn't because I love it in here!

 a close-up of the center, I ironed on the Madonna and child from Graphics Fairy.

Here is the little garage sale find fireplace in the kitchen.   I plan on painting it white and chipping it up a bit when I come up with the time.  note to self... find time!  I added the little chalkware cherub that I found at the GW this week.  These are my favorite new pictures of the kids all wearing the famous yellow mustache, love them... the pics and the kids ofcourse!

o.k. now to finish off this post of bits and pieces, I just wanted to show off something Hannah is making for a Christmas present...

I know... how sweet is that?  She started it when she was sick with the flu.  She just needs to fill in the snowflakes, she  did all of this without asking for a bit of help.  Her stitches are what she figured out by herself,  I hope the person who gets this will appreciate the love and care she put into it. 

Well that's it for today.  Most of the roping ended up inside, I couldn't get it to hang outdoors and well it was really cold out.  I like it in here, the kitchen windows got some, the mirrors, the fireplace in the living room, more pics to come!

I hope you are enjoying the process as much as I am!  Theresa xoxo

let the decorating commence...

Yesterday I went to our local fruit market and bought some cedar roping to hang outside, I'm hesitating going out there to get it hung up because it's 29 degrees out there!! So that's why all of my smart neighbors were putting their decorations up two weeks ago! go figure.  So I started inside to get the juices flowing...

I know I'm a week late but I just finished this advent 'wreath' this morning and I needed to show you the beautiful exvoto tags I bought from Rosemary over at Ozma Of Odds  they are really gorgeous and I knew when I opened them that I needed to use them on something special.  I love how this turned out!

These tags are stunning, truly.  I wrapped the dollar store candles in music paper that I printed onto vellum paper so that it will glow nicely and then just attached it with double sided tape, and tied the exvotos on with creamy string, tucked some cedar from the yard inside the old toolbox and waalaa!

One mantel down and 2 more to go!  I wish all three were real fireplaces, this one is simply the mantel, one day I would like to put a little electric fireplace in here.

  While I was at the market, I noticed that they had a couple of boxwood wreaths for sale as well!  Honestly I was doing the happy dance, went back inside to pay for those and get out of there before I saw anything else that I couldn't resist!  I planted boxwood this year just so that I could do things like this one day, but if I were to take any clippings from then well, lets just say I would only have little stumps in my dirt.

I quickly took the old picture down that was there and replaced it with the wreath tied with burlap (all while making dinner mind you).   Did you all know that in the floral section of Michaels you can find a roll of burlap ribbon that is about 6" wide?  I didn't and that caused another happy dance while in the store... hmmm,  no wonder my kids don't want to go shopping with me anymore!

This morning I replaced all of the cabinet card pictures that were hanging here and put up some of the vintage Christmas postcards that I found while cleaning the workroom.  I have a new mantra... cleaning is good, cleaning is good, cleaning is good...

I just love the graphics on them, so sweet and the little notes on the backs are even sweeter.

the view from the bench at the table.

So there you have it, the decorating has officially begun here at 612.  Now I'm off to brave the cold and do a little of it outdoors.  We'll see how long I last,  maybe some of the roping will end up inside!  Here's hoping someone will have hot cocoa waiting for me when I come in.

I'm joining in the fun over @ TeaRoseHome, stop by and see all of the inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful Sunday!  Theresa xoxo