Merry Christmas!

These hand-carved wooden Santas are my Christmas favorites. They are carved by Herman Hollins (e-mail: folkart@aol.com). He lives in the Richmond area, and Willie introduced me to his beautiful work. The Santas actually look like Herman, the artist. I have collected many of them throughout the years, and I like spreading them all throughout my house.

It's December the 21st - Courtney's 30th Birthday!

We celebrated Courtney's birthday in Richmond at the

Jefferson Hotel where Courtney & Chris had their wedding

reception.

It's beautifully decorated for Christmas, and it's such a joy

to stay there at Christmas time.

Christmas Decorating Continues

At our house we have a VERY large collection of Christmas decorations. I'm working on sorting them out, passing them on to friends and family or donating. In the meantime, I am still searching for places to put all the decorations.

Our family room tree is pretty funky with round big brightly colored lights and decorations collected over the years. It gives off a warm andhappy light, and it's fun to watch TV in this room with the tree lit.

The dining room buffet has the white Vietri santa, and I love his simplicity. My friend Verna introduced Vietri (imported from Italy) to me, and now I just love that too.

The window with shutters at the stairway was calling out for a wreath. You may recall that I found these old shutters in Rehoboth at a cute little antique store (Early Attic). They were in my garage for 3 years, and then Jan suggested that we get Steve (the iron worker) to make us a window. So we did, and it was installed. I found the artifical wreath at a very cute little store in Vienna called Peartree Cottage (small, but oh-so-cute). Jan hung the wreath for me using one of those Command hangars (they are sticky on one side and then they should be able to come right off leaving no mess). It takes a village sometime to get a project done.

Upstairs in the hallway I placed my big Santas from Nancy Thomas. She is a folk artist here in Virginia, and Willie introduced her to me. I have collected her prints for many years now. For the moment, I like the Santas standing guard against my library wallpaper.

With Christmas just around the corner, we are almost done decorating. Bob takes care of the exterior, so we are pretty lit up there too.

Decorating for Christmas

Rosa picked up another floral arrangement at Alexandria Market this morning. The designer is Linda Hunter (ld3king@aol.com), and she is at the Saturday market in Old Town. For $65, I consider it quite a steal. They last a long time. The market starts way too early for me, so thank you, Rosa, for picking this up for me.

Courtney's 30th Birthday Celebration

We spent the weekend in Richmond celebrating Courtney's upcoming 30th birthday! We had a lovely party at the Jefferson Hotel, and it was decorated beautifully for the Holidays. Courtney and Chris had their wedding reception here two years ago, so we are particularly fond of the hotel. Bob and I had a great suite for this visit!

New Awning

My awning was replaced today. My old awning had broad white stripes and it was so hard to keep the white stripes clean, and it was looking a little shabby. So Jan and I chose the new awning with narrow yellow stripes, which should be much easier to keep clean. I'm liking it!

Thanksgiving Day at Linda & Michael's House

Here is Little Ava (3 years old) helping with the Thanksgiving preparations. This is Linda's granddaughter and Lauren's daughter. Brother Sean was watching football. It was a happy day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving Eve. The fall decorations will be put away soon, so I thought I'd give you one more photo. I think the little white pumpkins are nice on my antique Swedish chest--understated--something I'm not so good at.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! This is my friend Verna's favorite holiday! I stopped by Veronica's house today where she has several tables set for 27 guests! Veronica has a wonderful spacious house where she could set up 4 tables in the living room and dining room. She even had turkey plates on the table--so inviting and hospitable.

Enjoy your day!

Jennifer's Townhouse - Old Town

I sold this townhouse in Old Town yesterday--thought you might like to see the nice renovations the owner made. I sold this townhouse in 2003 to Jennifer for $238,000. When she bought it, I was concerned that the renovations to this old house might be a huge project for a young single woman. However, I was wrong. Don't these renovations look great? It was quite a mess when she bought it. Now here it is 7 years later, and I sold it again for $440,000. It was a happy real estate story--a great investment for Jennifer.

Isn't this a beautiful and bountiful fall arrangement? Rosa picked it up for me at the Old Town Farmer's Market today. If only I woke up at 7 a.m., I would certainly join her on the Saturday morning trip to Old Town.

Fall is in the air, so I needed to change my flowerbox for the season. My geraniums were still in bloom when I pulled them out of the windowbox. I fill the box with pumpkins and gourds and it just looks like fall to me.

Shopping in Leesburg

This is a darling shop in Leesburg that my friend Cathy told be about. It's full of folk art, old furniture, and all sorts of creative house accessories. It's called the Cottage, and it's located in the heart of Leesburg on King St.

Their blog is: http://www.thecottagegals.blogspot.com/

Check it out--so cute! I also go to the French store next door which carries Vietri pottery and very French things and cute cards. Then I'm off to the Lightfoot Restaurant for a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich! It's a great outing.

Movies: I saw Morning Glory, and it was actually much better than I expected. It was light and funny (and yes, fairly predictable). Rachel McAdams is cute on screen as always, and Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford were just what one would expect. I did laugh out loud several times, so that makes it a winner for me--not great--but pretty good.

Cupcakes: Maureen called me to ask about cupcakes over the weekend. I told her all about Lavender Moon on Royal St. in Old Town. By the time I finished telling her about all the delicious cupcakes in pretty pink boxes, I just had to go get one. Flourless chocolate is a most delicious flavor, as is smores. So so delicious! I recommend this place!

My living room - I still love the periwinkle and lime green colors in this room (Design by Jan, of course). I have an old dark wood secretary that belonged to Bob's mother in the corner where you can't see it. We are thinking of painting it white to work with the Swedish furniture in the dining room.

Photos: Nancy, Joanne, Christine and me. This was taken at Courtney's wedding. An update on Joanne: she is feeling good right now as her chemo is finished. Next week she will probably have some surgery again, and we'll see at that time what the next step is. Christine is in college at Montana State University in Bozeman.

Shopping: I went to visit my favorite stationery shop today to order Christmas party invitations. I just love Hawthorne House in Occoquan. It's worth a quick trip to Occoquan to get the best service from Diane and Fred. I heartily recommend this shop--great gifts, stationery, Xmas cards, wedding invitations (yes, Courtney's invites came from here).

Saturday, Nov 6

Houses: My cute listing on Powhatan in Old town is under contract. I'm holding my listing on Beech Tree open on Sunday--a great buy for $439,000 in Wilton Woods.

Getting less showings on my listings as we move into November. Great interest rates still at 4.25 percent.

Movies: I went to see For Colored Girls yesterday. Tough subject matter, sometimes hard to watch. Tyler Perry did a great job filming this. Read about the movie before you go to see if it would interest you.

Books: Just finished John Grisham's new book, The Confession. His legal tales are hard to beat--a good read and I recommend it.

This is my first blog--I don't know if I'm doing this right or not. I'm spending Halloween doing an open house (business as usual). Cute townhouse in Springfield.

Went shopping with Jan today. Went to J Brown's in Old Town--simply the prettiest home accessories shop in Alexandria. Then we stopped by European Concepts on King St--another really interesting shop. Finished off with a browse through Reunions--always good browsing there.

Sold my cute townhouse in Old Town on Powhatan this week. It's such a good location and it's so nicely updated--great house.