Never gonna grow up... not never! Oh and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had the best holidays.  I am sending you a singing Christmas telegram via the elves (I hope you speak elvish...  oh dear).

We had a lovely quiet couple of days, lazing around with the kitties.  It was wonderful!  I wanted to finally show you our Christmas decorations before the holidays are completely over.  It seems like they just flew by this year!

Normally we buy a real tree but both of us have been feeling guilty about cutting down a live tree each year so this time we bought a flocked tree.  Boy they sure make them better than when I was a kid...  I guess that was a long time ago...LOL!

 I love the way the snow sets off the ornaments...

I also wanted to show you our Christmas present to ourselves...   TA DA  a lovely cast iron stove!!!!!  

The house we lived in before as well as the ranches we grew up on all had fire places.  We have missed them so.  It was the only thing that kept the house we are in now from being perfect (that and the fact that we don't own it, but seeing as how it's on a 2000 acre ranch and is worth about 100 million I don't thing we will be buying it anytime soon...  unless they will take a check... hmmm...)
Every night in our old home if it was even remotely chilly we had a fire going.  There is just something so magical and comforting about it!    Now our home is perfect!

I am soooooo happy we have this wonderful addition.  Needless to say every night since we got it is has been working.  We even spent Christmas Eve night in the living room on a mattress of quilts and comforters so we could enjoy it!  It was like being a kid again and having a sleep over!  Isn't it super cute?  I have several miniature caste iron stoves that I placed around it which looks adorable.  It has been wonderfully cold here in the evenings too (thank you to the powers that be!).  Even the cats love it.  At first they couldn't figure out what it was with its' crackling and popping and were very tentatively sniffing around it with low slung bellies.  It was rather funny.  Now they all gather around on the furniture and the floor vying for the warmth.  Here is Nipper snuggled in the quilts on the back of the couch.

Here are the kittens snuggled together in the chair next to the stove... 

giving each other a bath, so cute!

"Hey man can't we take a bath in private?!?"

Here is the old patriarch of the cats... Tiger enjoying a snooze on the chaise next to the stove...

I had lots of Christmas cheer tucked in here and there...  the Nutcrackers where hanging out in the china cabinet with a couple of elves.

As I was taking pictures it struck me how even my day to day decor is very whimsical and child like.  At Christmas it gets even more that way.  As you know if any of you have followed me for any length of time I am faerie obsessed so I have my many handmade faerie wings scattered around throughout the year.

 Then also being a florist I love flowers and branches and garlands and such.  So of course I have a garland of Birch twigs up year round laced with faerie twinkle lights.

At Christmas I tuck elves throughout all of it.   Some are playing, some are singing and playing instruments.  I think they have a jolly party when we go to bed at night.   My hubby thinks the mess in the morning is from the cats, I think it's the elves and the faeries!

The little drummer...  elf!

My Mom was a major holiday decor lady (yes I come by it naturally!) so these little guys are vintage just like me as they are from my childhood.  

I guess that makes me vintage too!!!  Can I command a higher price?

My girlfriend gave me this wonderful paper reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe theatre which I put out from time to time, not just at Christmas.   It looks great though during the holidays mixed with my snow globes and the faeries and elves.

On stage is of course a production of...  A Mid Summer Night's Dream which is simply loaded with faeries as well as the Queen and King Faerie themselves!

That's Bottoms as the Donkey on the stage.

Also being a bohemian at heart and possessing tons of great props for my design business I have the house simply stuffed with colorful vintage goodies.

This is a BEAUTIFUL French wedding wreath for a bride set on a velvet pillow...

I believe it was the custom to after the celebration place the Brides wreath on a pillow and set it under a glass dome as a family heirloom.  I think this is a bit more vintage than even yours truly...  LOL!

I imaging if people walked into the house not knowing us they wouldn't know if there was an eccentric Victorian living here, a precocious child or a hippie or what.  They would definitely know the people were cat lovers...  LOL!   And that they loved faerie tales.
All my life Peter Pan has been one of my favorite stories so I have a little vignette that is Peter Pan inspired up year round.

There is a top hat, a teddy and a snow globe of Peter and the kids flying around London and Big Ben.  

That is a copy of a faerie drawing by Brian Froud that I did and though it is not Tinker Bell by a long chalk it is a faerie.  I think the little scene ties in nicely with the Christmas decor.

I had the pleasure of designing a Peter Pan themed event once...  It was for a private botanic gardens that are magical in their own right.  I was in Heaven!
This was the lost boys camp which the guests had to walk through on the way to their dinning tables...

This is Wendy's cottage...  want to move in don't you!

I sure did!

Though in Santa Barbara the rent would have been sky high!!!

The bar was a Pirate Ship

The centerpieces for the tables were a...  Mermaid lagoon

with mermaids...

a pirates display...

and Hang Man's Tree where Peter and the lost boys lived...

Anyway sort of got side tracked...  back to the house decorations.  Here is the garland at night.

Between it and the lights on the tree it was magical at night!

The bathroom has my year round decor of...  faerie clothes...  what else?

Along with wings and some vintage muggle clothes,

Oh... and also dolls...

Can you believe my husband lives here too?!?  And doesn't mind it?!?!

Anyway that is enough for now...  If you stuck with me all the way to the end, I am impressed!  You are either super cool and have similar tastes or super bored!  Either way thank you!

I leave you with a beautiful picture I found on Pinterest (boy can I spend hours dreaming away on those lovely collections of photos!)

I just adore everything about it!  From the imagery which congers up all kinds of wonderful dream like adventures to the message!   ("All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware") I hope you all have the most wonderful new year filled with lovely secret destinations!!!  And I hope you might find a faerie or two there!  

Tons of Love,

Tricia

P.S.  An update on the mean grumpy old kitty Buster that we are trying to reform...  He's coming along nicely don't you think?  Here he is helping me with this post!  He fell asleep that way!