Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

You are here: Home / Archives for home decor

2013 (mini) Farmhouse Christmas Tour

   Hello again! Merry Christmas week from the Lazy W! I am so glad you stopped by, and I wish you could be here in person for hot tea and shortbread while we wrap gifts, brush horses, and watch the paperwhites grow. Instead, will you take a quick tour of our Christmas silliness?

   
   This is our entryway tree. She’s a scrappy little Red Cedar beauty which Handsome and his Dad dug up from the Pine Forest while our nephew was visiting recently. It was originally destined for the Apartment, but this spot seemed just perfect. (She was lonely in the Apartment all day.) I wrapped her in burlap, dressed her with some very old, very skinny sparkly tinsel and just a handful of other ornaments, then filled her base with my wedding veil. For some reason, romance is swelling in my heart even more than normal these days. There is no electricity here for a string of lights, but natural sunlight bounces all over this tinsel most of the day. I love it. I will have a really hard time saying goodbye to an entryway tree next month. 

   This is our tree tree. Also real, but not from our own forest. This year I had lots of fun staying with metallic ornaments, raffia, and sewing-pattern tissue poofs for the main she-bang. I personally love this aesthetic. More importantly, there is meaning here. Judy, Handsome’s Mom who passed away recently, taught me to sew and in fact gave me my first sewing machine for Christmas the first year her son and I were married. So for me at least, this is a really quiet, pretty way to have her with us at Christmas this year. I will never forget that gift and everything it has opened up to me in life.
   Beneath our main tree sits a wicker “Moses” basket, filling gradually with gifts for a thousand beloved people. For wrapping this year, I decided to just go crazy and not match a single thing. Lots of fabric, lots of mixed papers, lots of hand-gathered poofy corsages instead of foil bows. Buttons. Torn book pages. Twine. Dried zinnias. I can’t finger knit yet, but I can finger crochet, and that has been part of the mix as well. If it’s fun and pretty, it’s gonna be wrapping fodder this year.
   
   Does anyone remember this darling deer? Handsome painted her and three other plastic lawn creatures as a surprise gift for me this summer. I remember loving them all so much I just laughed and laughed!! She is a hollow planter, so I brought her in from the garden, rinsed her out (all over my clean kitchen floor, by the way), and filled her with faux evergreen and a few ornaments. I think her bright blue against all the Chrismtassy stuff is gorgeous. And it’s another reminder of love, so there ya go.
   Friends, I am officially part of the antlers craze. This is my contribution: A mounted set of antlers from Handsome’s grandpa Eddie, dressed in more faux evergreen, two mink stoles (random estate sale purchases), some tinsel garland, and a single hammered silvery ornament. I don’t even know if any visitors have noticed this yet, it hangs so high and out of the way;  but I did text a photo of it to my friend Marci one day, and now I’m showing it to you. So it officially exists.
   
   Our mantle is decked out in a mix of fake evergreen branches and cuttings from my garden and the forest. I added a string of lights, a handful of ornaments, feathers from our yard birds, and two huge sewing paper tissue poofs. The most important part, of course, is the message on the chalkboard:
For unto us a child is born,
unto us a SON is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace.
   Speaking of messages, this sits in our guest bathroom all the time. It’s a garage sale oil painting bought forever ago, onto which I glued magazine and newspaper letters to spell out the famous Home on the Range lyrics…
Where Seldom is Heard…
a Discouraging Word…

   We are far from perfect, but we do try to keep this atmosphere in our home all the time. We want very much for the farm to be a place of peace and relaxation, safety, uplifting, laughter, silliness, love, and nourishment. At Christmas especially, this is so important for people. So needed and appreciated.
   
   I mentioned paper whites earlier? They are growing like gangbusters! Check back in later this week for a review of my new favorite garden product. For now, just know that my collection of half a dozen mason jars boasting straight, tall, bright green stalks is a wonderful encouragement to me when I sit in the living room to read, write, or work on something. It’s just beautiful.
   I guess that’s about it. There’s much more Christmas around the house, but the photos didn’t all turn out. That’s okay. You probably have things to do anyway.
   Every day here is so full. So different. So steeped with love and longing, work and pleasure, reconciliation and miracles. I feel very blessed to say that at the Lazy W we enjoy Christmas all year long, but this week? Things are gonna be magical.
   Thanks for being here! Have a fabulous, magical, love-filled day!
And the Skies 
are Not Cloudy All Day…
XOXOXOXO

Go see all the beautiful, imaginative homes!
Christmas welcome

Interim Autumn Decor

   Hello there… Despite temperatures nearing ninety degrees today, Oklahoma is firmly in the grip of autumn. Football fans have their weekends planned far in advance. High schools are enjoying homecoming festivities. Scarecrows have sprouted on so many grassy, hay-bedecked rural corners. All of that, AND two thirds of everyone’s social media is full of pumpkin-spice latte updates.

   Other than cleaning out the summer gardens (mostly) and changing out just a speck of artwork downstairs, I have so far done very little in the way of autumnal nesting. Life is not only full every single day; the seasons here in Oklahoma are in that wonderful transition time. Cool mornings. Warm afternoons. Often downright cold nights. Then hot again. And while many plants are slipping into the elegant beauty of dormancy, just as many are still going strong, Still washing the farm with color and glossiness, life abundant.

   So to answer Mama Kat’s  lively question about what we have done to celebrate the fist days of fall, I have only a few photos to share. For now. Next week may be a whole new story…

I love our cranberry red front door now even more than we first painted it.
Those dried corn stalks are cut from my garden. 
I consider them a consolation prize, because we only yielded 
three paltry ears of sweet corn from the entire bed this month.
That’s more than ever before, but still… Lots to learn.
I think this front door area could use more oomph, 
maybe raise the corn stalks?
…but I still love the warm entry to our home.
This is our anniversary garden bench, the rusted metal treasure Handsome gave me over the summer.
It moves around the farm, but right now it is perched at our front door.
It’s cushioned on one end with fun pillows, including the one from this love story,
and loaded on the other end with some potted flowers, an old pitchfork, and two watermelons.
I haven’t purchased decorative pumpkins yet, y’all.
Free melons from the Lazy W garden with cool old stems and vines still attached suit me just fine.
And do you see what I mean about a blend of summer and fall plants?
I am crazy about sprinkling pansies in with everything else. Cabbages next.
Filled with sweet potato vine, vinca vine, some pansies, and a few old castoff junk items, 
this weathered old clay pot is my favorite.
It has nothing to do with the fact that my youngest daughter painted 
that blue “Welcome” sign years ago and my heart feels her bright smile every time I see it.

   So there you have my slow beginnings. My interim autumn decor. Thanks for visiting! I wish you could come to the Lazy W and sit on this bench and drink coffee with me. Or play with the llamas. Or scruff the buffalo. Or collect eggs then cook something fabulous with them and discuss great books. Or watch the sun set behind the pond and wait for bats and screech owls.

   Happy autumn, friends!

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
 fluttering from the autumn tree.”
 ~Emily Bronte
XOXOXOXO

Apartment Windows

   You guys, I am about to blog about something I have not previously attempted to blog about. About which, about, blog about this… Whatever. Dangling prepositions are hard.*

   I am about to write about my house.

   The inside of it, not the garden. (gasp!) Specifically, the upstairs Apartment. If you’re addicted to home interior blogs like I am, then brace yourself. You are gonna be grossly underwhelmed. But I am excited about some upcoming spruce-ups and thought I’d share.

   If you want to, you can click here to see some window dressing ideas I have collected on Pinterest. Yes, I have a Pinterest addiction. So do you. If you don’t admit it; you’re not an honest person.

   Anyway, below I will highlight some of my favorite inspiration photos so far.

   First, some Apartment facts:

  • It is the only room in our home with windows on three sides. Even on cloudy days is gets plenty o’ sunshine. The natural light in there is really really beautiful.
The mess here is NOT really really beautiful. I know this. This was a million years ago, just when we moved here.
Now… the whole big room is “finished” at narrow sliver beneath the rafters
to the left of the window is a tiny attic bathroom. I love it. 
  • It was originally built as my girls’ Apartment, and may serve in that way again some day. Right now it serves as a guest room, a sewing and arts room, my sometime-writing office, and more. 
  • The color palette is flexible because so many projects are in the works, but basically this is the only room in the house where I am fully indulging my love for mixing greens and blues.
My sweet, smart, beautiful youngest chicken helping to decorate the alcove where her bed once stood.
She added to the blue sky mural I painted, dozens of glow-in-the-dark stars, which still shine at night.
This photo seems like it was taken both a hundred thousand years ago and also yesterday.
  • Except no bright lime green curtains anymore, please. More on that below.
  • The Apartment has four sets of windows: Two sets on the north side, behind the twin beds, and one set each inside alcoves on the east and west ends of the long room. I am not sure that all four sets have to match. 
  • The room is carpeted. I think that matters a little bit when choosing window dressings.

   Okay. You are now basically an expert on the Apartment. 
  On to the inspiration photos:

   1. Long and Loose  I like these drapes for their length and big, elegant, pleated skirts that puddle so nicely. Perhaps they could afford to puddle even a bit more. What about the oatmeal color though? Really pretty, but perhaps too bland for this creative, energetic space. Again, long and loose. That is nice.

Muraca Design website

2. Balloonish and Bunchy  I like these for their more pulled together balloon poofiness. Except I have tried living with lime green curtains in this sun-filled room for quite a while, and I Just. Can’t. Do it. Anymore. This is probably the only shade of green in the universe that make me want to puke. I need pink. Either hot pink or salmon or something pretty and glow-ish. But I do like this shape. Or navy blue? Or even black? Would that look too funeral-parlorish? Or maybe this playful shape and volume would offset the heft of back. Like, long curled eyelashes.

boho glamour blog

#3. Bohemian Paradise  But you know what? I really like… I mean, I LOVE these Bohemian curtains. Silk hankies and runners sewn into patchwork panels. Simple. Complicated. Colorful. Smooth. Interesting and dreamy. Love em. They make me want to burn sage and listen to Camelia Jordana. I have nothing bad to say about these other than that I would probably need to sew them myself. And I take forever to finish sewing projects.

Babylon Sisters Etsy shop

#4. Preppy and Modern  And how about these fresher, bolder, preppier graphic drapes? I groove the breath of clean air offered by the drapes below. But will this trellis pattern, like chevron, soon run its course? I mean, I am usually the last person in the world to worry too much about trends and following them, especially with interiors. HOWEVER  I don’t want this space to look a decade old all of a sudden one day. You know?

Castle Creek Designs Etsy shop

   Friends, this space is important to me. I love the Apartment and all it has been and all it can be in the future. It needs to always be free to work hard and hold the promise of so many heartfelt dreams for our family. The window in this space connect all of that work and dreaming to the view of our farm fields. So the curtains are important!
   I would love to hear your opinions! Lay it on me.

*that’s what she said