an “uplifting” entrance
2010
hee! hee! hee! hee! hee! I am ever so pleased with myself this afternoon. Is that okay? Sounds a bit pompous, but this afternoon I carried out a wee bit of advice I found in an intriguing book “Living Oprah”. Carol-Ann was reading it on the holidays. I had a look – and was captivated.
It is a kind of “sociological” look at the phenomenon of Oprah Winfrey, her television programme, magazine, and website, and chronicles the efforts of one woman – Robyn Okrant – to adopt every piece of advice, purchase each product, cook each meal, read each book etc. that Oprah demands for one year. It’s very funny and quite interesting. Kiss your husband for 10 seconds a day. Buy a fire pit from Lowes. Wake up feeling refreshed. Cook shrimp. At the end of the year, Robyn is exhausted and feels more stressed than ever before. But she declares there were many good parts – especially the meals, but she decides that she is more of a “Martha” person than an “Oprah”!
Anyways, one of Oprah’s suggestions is to lift your spirits each day when you come home. Hmmmmmmm …. easy to say, I thought, but how does one achieve this? The entrance way, Oprah says. Make your entrance way beautiful and pleasing and it will help make you feel lovely every time you come home.
We generally come home via our back door. I can’t remember why this happened but back door it is. We open the back door, and there in front is a wee built in bookcase in a wee corridor with a sweet internal window above it. The window looks in to a cosy nook where we have our kitchen table and chairs. Turn to the left and you enter the kitchen. Turn to the right and you enter Abigail’s bedroom. Since we moved in, these shelves have accumulated all the woffle that we are too lazy to put somewhere else. How does this look – blah, that’s how.
Not anymore. The little crocheted flowers you glimpsed yesterday are part of new bunting. I LOVE bunting made from old checked blankets – it adds such a lovely cosiness. I even managed to keep the original label on one of the pieces I used.
And the detail of the crochet looks so sweet against the slightly felted wool of the blanket – this one is the leftover strip from the doggles’ quilt. To make the flowers, I’ve used a combination of Brown Sheep worsted, cascade ecological, and the cascade 220 scraps from my ripple blanket. And followed the principles outlined by Lucy in her instructions for flat circles. She uses a half treble – I’ve used a full treble and much heavier yarn – and then after three colours, I added the edging from her flowers.
And the shelves. Abby and I cleared them of their woffle (currently in two laundry baskets awaiting later distribution), I gave them a wash, and then …. finally unpacked the last box of china from the tumble down house in Brisbane. These are all the pretty pieces I have collected over the years – they used to live in a little art deco china cabinet that is currently stashed in the garage, and I couldn’t think of where else to put them. Ha! Now they are in the perfect spot.
Right where I can see them each day when I come home. Adding prettiness. Reminding me of our love for cooking and setting a sweet table. And of course, the different people who gave them to me, or who was with me when I bought them. The antique glass jelly moulds are from my Nanny Dougall. The Villeroy and Boch tea set was from Nanny, Grandad and Aunty Anne for my 21st birthday. The little yellow bowl on the top shelf is one of the first things I bought when Julian and I moved in to our first apartment. The red heart shaped bowls were bought at Wheel and Barrow at the James Street Fresh Food Market – my favourite place to shop for fruit and vegies – with Mum for a Valentines Dinner. Lovely stuff. The candle holders – they are simply little glasses covered in wee quilts that I made a few years ago. I’d completely forgotten about them! I’ll have to pay Abby to light them before I come home from work each night. That’s after I pay her to sort out those laundry baskets.
Yes, I’m quite chuffed with my efforts :-) Oprah, I feel uplifted already!
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A beautiful entrance — it would definitely give a lift with the pretty colors and fun memories. I love your new bunting! I will be inspired by and aspire to have a lovely entrance…somewhere in this house.
I wondered where you were going with those little crocheted circles yesterday! Clever of you. Your entry way is bright and beautiful. Oprah certainly gave sage advice in this case, didn’t she? And your efforts to follow it have produced a cheery entry way. Abby will earn a few pennies, too! ~karen
That is incredibly cheerful indeed! I love the pink cups with the chicken feet, those would make me giggle each and every day :)
Funny about the Oprah book, I have a local friend who was telling me she was reading her unauthorized biography. And all of what she was dishing I was comparing to what my friend who’s worked for her a LONG time confides in me as well. Such as object of discussion she is!
i love the idea of putting tiny quilt bits around candle holders. your pretty china collection is lovely. mine is tucked away in the top back of my pantry. someday i’ll find a cute cabinet like yours. :)
This is beautiful Lily! You leave me uplifted and inspired to do something like this in my own home. I love the crochet and the tiny quilted candle holders. What a lovely idea!!!
So THAT’s what you were making! Nice job, Lily. It looks lovely and very cheerful to greet you as you walk in.
Your beautiful post was a terrific uplifting way to start my day. Thanks.
That really is an uplifting entrance! And I really love the quilted candle light covers – I just might borrow that idea and make some of my own :-)
fantastic idea! our entry could use a lift!
so pretty….
How could you not walk in your house with all of that fantastic color and not be uplifted. Everything looks great. I love your banner and those fabric votives are wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing and inspiring me.
Lily- The Living Oprah book is fun! I know her! I followed her blog during the last several months of her Oprah year. It was a hilarious project and Robyn was very thoughtful about it while she also had a bit of fun with the ridiculous “assignments”.
I love your beautiful nook! I can’t imagine that there are any corners of your home that don’t have something special, colorful, and personal to savor.