Tuesday, 17 March 2020

Happy St. Patrick’s Day : Decorating with Green

Greetings from our home to yours. Given all that is going on around the world right now, I hope you’re doing ok.

Since the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Toronto was cancelled, as were those in many cities around the world, and nobody will be going out for beer and cheerful music tonight, I imagine that, for the most part, this holiday will come and go with barely a notice. In fact, from what we hear today, all occasions in the near future will pass with little celebration. My thoughts and concerns are foremost with the sick and their families, and my gratitude goes out to everyone contributing to the essential services, and I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of what is going on around the world in any way with my plans to share a little seasonal fun on these pages.

In the past, I only changed displays around once in a while, and decorated for holidays mostly when company would be coming over. But recently I’ve been really enjoying looking into cupboards and moving things around. Anyway, as I was setting these displays up, my mister, Nick, said it seemed like I was decorating for nobody. He actually made up a little song about it, which made me laugh. But that’s not true, because I enjoy seeing things in a different light, and then having something to photograph. Also, I’m decorating for you, my dear online friends!

Last week in this post, I wrote about some pieces of vintage green glass that I’d found at the thrift store in recent months. Today, you’ll see each of those items, plus, pretty well, every green thing that we own. I love a theme and found it enjoyable to poke about the place, pulling out anything that would work. I hope you like what I’ve come up with.

↑ A reminder of the more recent green thrift store finds ↑

Here’s what a few areas in our home are like today. We’ll be looking at them as we enjoy the Bailey’s Irish Creme that Nick made sure to pick up when he was out gathering some things we’d need for hibernation.

Beginning in the lounge area adjacent to the open kitchen …

↑ There’s the “new-to-us” table that we recently found via Craigslist. For today’s purposes, the fact that it’s green fits in perfectly. The plant was a tiny seedling when I bought it nearly three years ago, the week that our dear cat Eddie died, after 15 years together. I got the plant to commemorate the beloved animal and I’m glad to see it thriving. The chair was a curbside free find, discussed in this post. ↑

↑ This vintage card came with a lot that I got from Ebay. It’s hanging on a handmade greeting card display thing, made following this tutorial. ↑

Across from that scene, are a couple of chairs that everyone sits in when they visit. They are vintage frames that were covered in new-vintage vinyl by a local artisan. Funny fact, I very rarely go to casinos but these were purchased with winnings from a slot machine. I won $1,000 one time!

↑ The little table was another curbside free find. The vintage scarf / table cloth came from a shop in Kensington Market. The leather pillow was thrifted, seen in this post. The plant is a cutting from the top of one that had grown right up to the ceiling. It grew so tall that it was bending. So, I cut the top off, rooted it in a jar of water, and potted it up. So far, so good. ↑

Moving to a couple of cabinets in the living room …

↑ The dresser came from a friend who was moving and had no room for it. The cabinet on top was another Craigslist find.

The two larger plants are cuttings from a couple of mature ones we’ve had for literally decades — the one on the dresser is a descendant of a plant that I’ve had since I was 16 years old. It grew from a cutting I bought at the CNE, 3 for about $2. They came in the form of a piece of branch about 4” long, that was sealed with wax at each end. You were to put them in a glass of water and they’d sprout. One of mine did and grew into a plant that I still have today. This baby one came from a branch that I had to lop off because it was getting huge. I put it in a vase of water and roots grew and this plant was born. If you’re into plants, you can see it and the parent of the spiky babies on the left side in the picture of our dining room in this post.) ↑

↑ This clover dish was one of a set of four playing card suits I found at the thrift store, with a club, heart, spade and diamond, previously described in detail in this post. I used the pink heart from the same set in our Valentine’s decorating.↑

↑ The bird is the only thing featured in this entire post that I purchased in a regular retail shop, a home decor boutique on Queen Street West. While I prefer vintage everything, that’s not to say that I don’t also buy things at retail, because I do, aiming for quality independently made items whenever possible. But, apparently I’ve bought no other green things! ↑

If you turn to the right after looking at that cabinet, you’ll see the “flip lid” desk, which happens to be the same one I did my homework on as a kid. This piece of furniture has been with me nearly my whole life!

↑ I made this “cross stitch on paper” shamrock especially for today (following this technique). In years to come, whenever I pull it out to display around March 17th, I’ll remember it was created with hope and optimism, during one of the worse of times in all of our lives. ↑

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all things considered.

xo loulou