Merry Christmas!

Hope that you are having a lovely holiday with the ones you love

May you have a very retro Christmas

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I had a little fun browsing some old Christmas images on google today and wanted to share a few with you.  Some fun Christmas tree inspiration...guess I need to track down some icicles for next year!

Window shopping-if only displays were still so cool  via

A Victorian Christmas via

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I just love the little dresses via

there are tons of mid century Christmas photos on this site via

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how fun would that be?  all warm and cozy in an airstream while watching the snow fall  via

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And if you're really inspired & now want to get retro crafty....some free retro Christmas downloadable fonts....

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O Christmas Tree!

I love Christmas trees.  The way they smell and the warm fuzzy childhood memories they bring back.  I remember decorating our tree each year as a child and rocking out together as a family with the kiddos in their jammies and with Christmas music & snacks.  We each had our own box of Ornaments that we got to put up.

While Ben didn't really show much interest in doing ornaments this year, he surely enjoys looking at our tree (lucky for us, it is only looking and he understands not to touch it). 

Since we've been married and in our home, we have pretty much gotten an ornament each year to help us remember something big that has happened in our lives in that year

2006-a pine cone marks are move to Oregon, along with the purchase of our home & getting married!  A big year!

2007-we got our beagle Porter

2008-a little Penguin to mark the crazy snow storm in Portland (this was nothing for any town that is used to snow but 18" shut down Portland for almost 2 weeks) that led to our flight to Los Angeles being cancelled and us deciding to pack up the car late at night and drive to Los Angeles in order to make it home for Christmas

2009-we don't have an ornament yet for 2009 but in '09 we found out that we were expecting a little man and we also took an amazing adventure to Peru

2010-Ben's arrival; a little owl as his room is decorated with owls

2011- [entire satire] a mouse to hallmark our battle to get them outta our house; not funny now & even kinda creeps me out but I hope I will look at this next year and be able to laugh

Next year I would love to figure out some fun, inexpensive ways to spice up our tree!  I bet Ben will be creating all sorts of fun craft items to put on the tree by then :)

Stair research

I am not fully committed to our new stair plans discussed here and here as of yet.  Still really trying to find examples of straight (non-turning) staircases in historic homes that are part of a main living space (our dining room).  I have found a couple pictures which sorta prove that this has been done, but 99% of the pictures show staircases that turn or have winders.  Best case scenario would be us finding a way to have the staircase that goes upstairs start in the hallway and being able to adjust the rise and run to code (it appears that currently the rise is to code at ~7" but not the run (code is 9" and ours is 8").
Our staircase will also be pretty narrow at 34" so I feel like that may look strange.  36" is the current code but it looks like we may be able to get an exception.  I am still a little confused on weather we really need a permit being that we will be rebuilding the stairs using the current space we have and not starting from total scratch.  I will probably let the contractor we use figure that out. 

Anyways, here are some pictures I have found of old, historic cases.  If anyone has any other info on stair cases, please share.

I am unsure where this group of pictures came from as I collected them a long time ago. 

these stairs turn but not for a long while, however they are quite wide & regal

a great example, in a main living space & straight the whole way up, however wide

these have a winder at the top but appear somewhat narrow, however they are tucked into the corner of a living space

this is a picture of Steve's cousin's stairs-they live in a Bungalow in Lincoln, NE; in their living room, my guess is they were rebuilt at some point; steep & straight up with a door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These old pictures are taken from Stickley publications dated to the turn of the century

as seen from the sketch, these stairs have  winder but they are front and center in the living space and narrow

these stairs appear straight & narrow

more straight and narrow stairs, however they are just off the living space

these stairs wind right away but they are framed in the way that we would most likely frame ours

straight non winding stairs at house entrance, but they are tucked to the side

Lots of decisions to make, I was going to measure everything out during nap time today to see if it would work to put the stairs in the hallway but I couldn't find one a tape measure and now the kiddos are awake.  Maybe tonight will be the lucky night.

It's the holiday season

doop dee do, dip-er-y dot.....

We're in full holiday swing over here at our casa. 

I love the holidays, especially the tree, decorations and time to just chill with family.  Had fun decorating again this year and using all the pass me down decorations that we have gotten between our two families.  Also added a few vintage Christmas ornament balls to the mix this year.

Dining Room

I took a hurricane from our wedding and a few cups/serving pieces to make our buffet decor

this cute little ceramic light was made by my friend Jason-he sells them too & now has multiple sizes

 

 

sweet Christmas luv birds

 Isn't this little elf gnome the cutest little guy?

above our mantel is this awesome vintage jewerly tree-it lights up too!-got it for $3 at an estate sale and then embellished it with more jewels I found at another estate sale for $1....not bad for $4


And a cute little penguin in the kitchen

Zoo Lights
so many lights turn your pix allllll crazy like

this one's for you

and of course you gotta attend the winter ale fest in Portland...we always take free pictures at the lottery booth and this year's theme for the lottery is ugly sweaters-way too much fun dressin' up after a couple beers :)