Home (The Whimsical Installment)

Home gives us a sense of place, which I've come to realize is something I treasured about my old, brick Aquin High School, the truly historic buildings of Eureka College, the rolling hills of countless trees and mining towns in Cambria County, PA, the cityscape of Pittsburgh, and more specifically, the tight intimacy of the row houses in the Bloomfield neighborhood, as well as (blush) the Great Hall at Hogwarts, the quaint, winding Diagon Alley, and lived-in coziness of the Weasleys' Burrow.  So, in addition to the cleansing of some old stuff from the Cluver decor collection, the process of making our oldest house yet come to life, I cut loose with the new items I added and the arrangements I chose.  It's just stuff, but it makes me happy.

The large canvas on an even larger platform of distressed boards is an idea I stole from a magazine for this over-sized mantel, and I knew that as we moved into the benefits of small town living that a cityscape would offer a nice balance.  My choice, of course, is Pittsburgh, and where to go for the image -- my amazing cousin, Jessi!  

The addition of this lamp keeps the Steel City theme going in this living room along with the long-loved metal frames we moved from our Forsyth home.

And in those frames we've always had pictures of "home."  In these first two the seemingly dichotomous elements that informed my hometown of Freeport -- dairy farms in the immediate area and stretching far into Wisconsin and the trickle over from Chicago several hours to the east.

The bridge that, in our era at Eureka College, connected the residential side of campus to the academics and dining on College Avenue.

This frame had in it the smiley face water tower of Watseka, but now that it is a part of our daily lives, this frame is now for an image of our home of Forsyth.  This pic is a bit different than the others and may be replaced in time with a different image from there, but the kids requested a night time view of coming into town from Maroa, "like on all those nights coming home from basketball games when we were little."  So, this mama stood out along the highway lookin' like a weirdo or God knows what, walking and snapping pictures.

The storm windows we salvaged ten years ago when we had new windows installed at the Forsyth house moved with us, and they're now painted with mirror paint and lend some reflected light to the tall stairwell area, but with an aged, mottled look to the glass.

This unusual beauty I snagged from Hobby Lobby on an "all mirrors are 50% off" sort of day.  It's a nearly full-length mirror in the upstairs hallway, which is functional for checking the fit of one's attire, and it's a little whacky -- I half expect a wizard of eras past to appear within the wooden scrollwork to offer his opinion. 

With a bigger master bedroom, we splurged to upgrade from the 20 years in a double bed (yes, double -- not queen) to a king size cruise ship of slumber.  There are still a few more touches I will add in here (like a shelf running the width of that center wall, above the narrow closet doors and lantern...maybe for an owl cage and old books?), but it's got a good start toward cozy and interesting.

One never knows when a potion will be necessary -- to cure flesh wounds or 

to unpetrify someone who has seen a basilisk.  Bezoar has too many uses to list.  

Skele-gro for broken bones, Moon Dust, and then my two favorites  .  .  .

"Liquid Luck," about which one is warned "Giddiness, recklessness, and 

dangerous overconfidence if taken in excess."

Truth serum.  

Pinterest grabbed my attention, and I couldn't resist this for the laundry room.

We inherited this long, wonderful, enclosed front porch; yet, it posed, 

for awhile, a decorating challenge...

...until we broke it into zones, using beloved old furniture and the purchase of 

a new bench to create a sitting area,

and paired a wonderful library table left by the previous owners 

(thank you, Bramstedts!) with some of our extra chairs.

We found it a good place to put to use some of my many trunks that 

have been used in different rooms of our past houses.

A simple faux-grass wreath on the front door, a sea grass mat to welcome feet from outside, 

and a white-washed old crate to catch the mail.

Then the porch turned to fall with great fun had by me .  .  .

Additional, frivolous pics to come as I get the chance to punch up a few more rooms (and/or if the kids clean theirs satisfactorily enough to photograph).  In the meantime, happy last week and a half of autumn to you and yours as we approach the day of gratitude for harvest, health, and home. Then, it will be the season of preparation for winter holidays, and I'm thinking the porch trunks would look great with some "brown paper packages tied up with strings"...and black script inked upon them.  I haven't yet figured how to pull off, conveniently and effectively, floating candles for our hallway  . . .  Hmm  .  .  .

(P.S. To clarify, the "potions" are decorative elements inspired by Pinterest.  While the threat of being fed 

silver glitter and beads suspended in hand gel might scare the truth out of someone, 

that Veritaserum is unlikely otherwise to possess any efficacy.)