Lighting up the night: Cape Cod Style

I wanted to share my iPhone pics of these amazing lighting displays that have been illuminating Sandwich, MA on Cape Cod the past few holiday seasons. Each year, there are bigger and better than ever.  Many are right on Rte 6A between Barnstable and Sandwich Center.

Riverview School

Titcomb's Bookstore - note how the light sculpture mimics the statue under their sign?

Sand Dollar Realty

Sandwich Glass Studio

Love this angel!

Hard to tell from the angle, but a baseball player

The Beehive Tavern

St. John's Episcopal Church

And my favorite (and worst photo!) is at The Weather Store which specializes in weather related instruments, weather vanes, cupolas, etc. It's the God of Wind, blowing - so cool. Another interesting thing to note are the lanterns hanging off the ends of the porch roof - they are lit by strings of light as opposed to a single light bulb, and look really lovely. Something to tuck away for future use.

I hope you had a lovely holiday yesterday, whether you celebrate Christmas or just enjoyed a day off at the movies. I'm dying to see Les Miz - anyone seen it yet?


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From my hearth to yours

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Drive-by Shootings: Christmas Houses in Hingham, MA

One of these days I'm going to get a ticket or get into an accident! Hingham, Massachusetts is a beautiful coastal town south of Boston that has many original Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian homes. Christmas decorations tend to be simple, elegant and natural.

 

 

 

 

 

This final house is in Duxbury, Massachusetts but I took the picture and figured I'd include it!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Holiday House Touring: Newburyport, MA Pt. 3

Well, it's been a crazy busy week, couple of weeks really, and I got side tracked from finishing up my Newburport Holiday House Tour. So, here are the final two properties I wanted to share. This property was a newly renovated Federalist style rowhouse building in Brown Square. Love the curved exterior

These are three-story condo units and very traditional and formal. The holiday decorations here were accordingly formal and very pretty. Loved the centerpiece on the table below.

The house was so crowded it was hard to get decent photos. This was a little corner of the kitchen with the charming little antique drop-leaf table.

Houses in downtown Newburyport are very cheek by jowl as you can see through the kitchen window.

And here is the house next door. Don't you love the colorful brick?

The next house (yes, another gray house!) had my very favorite space of all the houses on the tour.

The main part of the house was nice enough, but the real star is the new addition kitchen. From the original house, you walk into this fresh and open space.

Love the Holly Hunt pendant lights!

These pics don't really do the space justice - the view out the window to the rustic old barn looked like a stage set backdrop it was so perfect.

(I do think they could have removed some of the items from the counter by the stove.)

The Christmas decoration were generally all natural plant based and very sparse, but the room itself was so fantastic it didn't really matter.

Note the art piece on the wall - which features beach glass, shells and stones. Gorgeous - it almost looks like a specimen display.

Anyone know the make of this chandelier? I've been trying to find out. The metal almost looks like something that's been submerged in the sea for a long time and is all rust and barnacles.

A fantastic plate rack.

And here is the butler's pantry. I see in the photo that there were business cards which probably were for the builder or designer - wishing I'd picked it up!

And finally the backyard and barn. Lovely. Of course, it's December in New England so everything was dead and trimmed back, but this must be beautiful in the summer.

This is the most open space I've ever seen in a private yard in Newburyport.

The entire front yard (which is maybe 10-12'deep from the street) was given over to a garden. I will have to remember to stop back next summer to see what the front yard looks like in full-bloom.

And that's it! There were other properties, but these were my favorites. I hope you enjoyed the tour. You can see Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Have a great weekend!

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks! Subscribe to ::Surroundings::

Lessons and Carols

Thinking of the little children and the heroes among us.



(apologies for the inevitable ad)

 
All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
~by Robert Fulgham~

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything.  Play fair.  Don't hit people.  Put things back where you found them.  Clean up your own mess.  Don't take things that aren't yours.  Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.  Wash your hands before you eat.  Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.  Live a balanced life.  Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.  Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup.  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup ~ they all die.  So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all:  LOOK.

God Jul: Happy Santa Lucia Day

I'm a little late, but today is the Feast of St. Lucy (Santa Lucia) a 3rd century early Christian girl who was martyred in the name of her faith and is the patron saint of those who are blind. The name Lucy, (or Lux, Lucis), comes from the Latin for "light". Lucy was blinded for her devotion to God and unwillingness to marry a non-believer. Santa Lucia is revered by Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans and Orthadox Christians alike. Santa Lucia Day is particularly important in Scandinavian countries and is marked by a ceremony with young girls all dressed in white to mark Lucy's purity. One girl is selected to wear a crown of evergreens with white candles.

There is something just so elegantly beautiful in natural simplicity, isn't there? God Jul (Norwegian for Merry Christmas!)

All images and credits here.

I also wanted to thank my Skirted Roundtable pal Joni Webb of Cote de Texas for including my work in her recent post on fitting out book shelves in interiors. Very honored to have my work included amongst that of Suzanne Kasler, Phoebe Howard, Brooke Giannetti and other fantastic designers. It's a great post - so click here to read

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks!
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