White Picket Fences

Christmas and New Year's seems like a months ago already! The decorations are down, except for the tree and wreaths outside and the house seems bare and naked.  I miss our home being all decked out and I miss the anticipation of guests and joyful gatherings. So what is a girl to do? I decorate, on a much smaller scale of course!

The chair is still out of place because my tree is still up-undecorated but up. I have to cut the lights out of it and haven't found time.

Growing up a military brat made me jealous for large family gatherings that included aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. I grew up watching The Walton's Christmas specials and the like, earnestly desiring those family Christmases. That way of life was so appealing to me. I dreamed of "one day" when I would have a home for longer than three years where my family would gather around. I imagined candles in the windows at Christmas and white picket fences. 

A transitional vignette from Christmas to winter.

At times, I do romanticize about days when there was no television, internet, or even electric lights! When a candle in the window was really a candle and lanterns were the source of task light at night. Stores did not entice one in at ridiculous hours or on days that were considered sacred, holy or meant for family gatherings. There were no cell phones on dinner tables or relatives texting someone from the safety of a corner somewhere. They were quieter times when  "noise" was made by many voices talking to one another...nice to imagine but not our reality these days.

I still have to have some of the ocean represented so I left the starfish in the cloche with boxwood and a pinecone

I left the greens on top on the hutch. They are dry as all get out but not being bothered up there.

 A few days after Christmas I stopped at Joann Fabrics for thread. I never make it out the day after Christmas in spite of what I try to tell myself. By the time I get out everything is well pick over but this year I found some good stuff on sale! 

One of mom's Thomas Kinkade prints with greens and painted pinecones.

These cute little cardboard houses were meant to be ornaments. 

Cardboard tree ornaments with a little sparkle.

They light up and warmly bathe the houses and the white picket fences with a welcoming glow, bidding the passerby to come in and rest from the cold. 

Simple construction....maybe I should make some...

Don't you want to go inside?

The next aisle over I found glass cloches; ideas were formulating!

Mister is the music minister for our church and each year at Christmas the congregation graciously gives him a gift in appreciation for his work. This year the gifts were attached to a little birch tree that lights up on a timer. I did not know what I was going to do with the tree afterwards but now it was fitting into my plans nicely. 

I couldn't decide to use one or two cloches. I like both for different reasons.

Last Christmas my dad sent a painting that had belonged to my mother. She had found it a little shop up north. It is a scene of a New England village covered in snow. It was painted on an old bread board and I have admired it from the first time I saw it. In the painting are little houses and bare white birch trees and a wooden, picket fence and a quiet stillness that only winter seems to possess.  

I put the elements together: the houses covered by the cloches, the painting and the birch tree along with a miniature Christmas tree strung with lights. and suddenly now my house doesn't seem as barren and I get to hold onto my dreams a little longer. 

At night.

We do not have the huge family gatherings I had hoped for as a young girl. Life has not afforded me those times here in this life. Mister and I both lost our moms to cancer and family is spread all over. I am blessed with great church family, though.  Maybe it is all meant to push my eyes heavenward when one day there will be such a home-coming and family gathering that can never be matched here on earth. Maybe God intends that the hunger for such things cannot ever truly be fulfilled this side of glory. I look at the painting and beckoning lights and dream of the one eternal day when the house of God will be eternally filled with His Light and filled with all his children, finally home...
                                                                      while I linger.

Linking up to these parties:,
Shabby Art Boutique, My Flagstaff Home, Up To Date Interiors, Lambert's Lately, AKA Design, Imparting Grace, Too Much Time On My Hands, The Charm of Home, Craftberry Bush, From My Front Porch To Yours, Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson, Blesser House, Must Love Home, A Delightsome Life, A Vision To Remember, Life With Lorelai, McCall Manor, Olives n Okra, French Country Cottage, Pin Junkie, Chic On A Shoestring, My Romantic Home, The Cottage Market, DIY Vintage Chic, Blooming Homestead, Pieced Pastimes, One More Time Events, Finding Silver Pennies, Thoughts From Alice, DIY Showoff, Coastal Charm, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, Sand & Sisal, Creatively Living, Plucky's Second Thought, Karen's Up On The Hill, Create With Joy, Strangers and Pilgrims On Earth, Inside the Fox Den, The Dedicated House, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, A Stroll Thru Life, Elizabeth & Co, Ladybug Blessings, Our Home Away From Home, Cozy Little House, Kathe With An E, Savvy Southern Style, Blissful Bee, The Newlywed Pilgrimage, Simply Designing, Ivy & Elephants, Crafty Allie, Handy Man Crafty Woman