Alterations: Seaport Holiday Shopping

Gingerbread display in shop window, Lunenburg, NS

Clearly you can tell by the date of my last post,  I'm a Designer not a blogger!  Its hard to believe its been 2 months since I've been back with any updates.  "Alterations" is a fitting theme for this post.  My attempts to write a post always fall to the bottom of my to do list, especially this past year as my personal time has been consumed by our house "alterations".  At this point our alterations don't look nearly as beautiful as this gingerbread house - I love the symmetry and simplicity of this and I'm dying over that bric-brac detail!  On the technical side, I'll be making "Alterations" to the blog and transferring all the content over to a new site in the new year so part of me has been postponing (or procrastinating) any updates until that's done.  I'm desperately in need of a simpler platform for blogging, hopefully the technical changes will allow me to write posts faster and more frequently.  In the meantime, Christmas will come and go before that happens.

I'm always get captivated by the holiday spirit and the natural beauty of the season.  So although I have a back log of projects to post about I'm feeling more in a holiday mode than work mode right now and I can't resist sharing a little holiday spirit while I have the chance....
 

Storefront window boxes adorned with pine boughs and berries.

We're spending the holidays on the East Coast this year and last weekend we went into Lunenburg for a bit of shopping and lunch.  There is no town more charming than the seaport town of Lunenburg (a UNESCO heritage site)  known for its colourful heritage buildings that are tiered up high overlooking the picturesque harbour.  Its not a place that sees many tourists in the winter so I thought I'd share some images of the town all dressed up for the holidays!

The sign taped to the door says, "Merry Christmas we are sold out of scallops".  Not surprising since they are known to be the best scallops in the world.  The back of this building overlooks their fleet docked along the waterfront. Their bright red and white shingled buildings are iconic landmarks of the harbour.

I'm not one for organza bows but I liked the placement of the sprig of berries which gives this wreath a modern vibe.

The Lunenburg Furniture Company. No holiday decor but the red door on its own is pretty festive.

Not only my favorite shop in Lunenburg but one of my favorite buildings too.  This distillery is located in a former blacksmith shop, the late 19th century building is one of the towns most noted landmarks, and has been carefully restored to maintain its original character.  Ironworks Distillery.  (Unfortunately this daytime photo doesn't depict the festive lights in the windows.)

I'll admit this is a favorite place of mine, for the product and the interior.  130 year old timber and beams.  Hand crafted spirits made from local ingredients and distilled on site in a copper still.   The smell of a wood fire… The still is quite a sight and occupies a prominent corner of the retail shop.  Standing next right to it you can taste sample and purchase some holiday cheer.  Also, their bottles, labels and packaging are so beautifully designed.

With this much colour, you don't need to anything more than greenery and white lights!

The beautiful, Pentper General Shop.  The grey on grey gives this heritage building a contemporary vibe. (sorry for the reflection which obscured the gorgeous pinecone wreath.)  Pentper.

The shop was closed when I stopped by the other day, this image is from a previous year... a peek at the heritage-meets-modern simplicity inside The Pentper.

If the buildings aren't brightly coloured, they are high contrast black and white.

Hope you enjoyed this photo tour of some holiday style in Lunenburg!

 All Photos:  Carol Reed

Comfort & Joy

My bedroom 'dressed up' for the Holidays.

As the holidays drew closer I was craving the comforts of my own bed more than ever before.  Having been away for a few weeks on an extended road trip, we arrived home to a house in the midst of construction - it looked like one of my job sites, not my house...and they were clearly behind schedule.  Another two weeks of living thru and around the mess had me counting down the minutes until all the trades would be out the door and I could put the house back together again.  

The sight of our living room upon our return from the East Coast.  Not the welcome home I was expecting!  : /  It took another two weeks for all the work to be finished while we stayed at a brother's house.  When they were finally done, it was just six days until Christmas and pretty much the entire contents of our house were still packed away.

The first room I needed to put back in order was our bedroom.  A little touch of holiday greenery was enough to instantly put me in the spirit of the season and make the house look festive.  Ahhh the comforts of my own bed with all my own things around me once again.....

I plan on spending lots of down time here over the next few days,,,setting goals, making plans and dreaming big dreams for 2012.

To be able to enjoy the comforts of a crack'lin fire with family on Christmas day was truly joyful.

And sipping delicious hot teas from my new Iwachu iron tea set will bring me comfort & joy for many years to come.  I'm absolutely in LOVE with the sculputural lines of this tea pot,  I plan to leave it out where I can see it all the time.  Thank you Santa!

From my home to yours,

 I wish you Comfort & Joy

 this Holiday season and

 in the New Year ahead.

Peace,

Carol

All Photos:   Carol Reed

That's A Wrap

This week I hope that everyone is celebrating the holidays by spending time with friends and family and just relaxing after all the craziness of the pre-holiday prepping.

I barely managed to get my gifts wrapped and under the tree in time for our family celebrations.  I've been wrapping my gifts this same way for over 25 years,,,,,but each year they look a bit different because I embellish them with whatever I have on hand so every year it varies.  Even when I was a kid, instead of buying the fancy (and expensive!) Christmas gift wrap I used to pick up rolls of plain brown paper at the post office or office supply store,,,,this was years before it was trendy.

I always have large rolls of black paper and brown kraft paper on hand for my gift wrapping needs year round.  On top of this I use plain twine, raffia or wired ribbon. During the holidays, I add fresh pine or cedar (whatever I have on hand) and then top it off with ball ornaments or pine cones, again, I just grab whatever I have.  Using a hot glue gun instead of tape keeps the branches and pine cones in place and there's no tape visible on the paper seams.

Every year during boxing week I buy a large package of ball ornaments to use on gifts the following year,,,last year they were all silver, this year I used these dark chocolate brown balls.  You can find them in practically every colour imaginable and if you buy them on sale they cost next to nothing - I think they're prettier than bows.

My other favorite gift adornment is pine cones.  I collect them throughout the year so I'll have a large bag handy when I'm wrapping. This one was sprayed with a little bit of fake snow.  A silver paint pen is perfect when you don't have any gift tags - you can write your message directly on the package.  Normally I use metal rimmed round white price tags from the office supply store but my large stash of them finally ran out this year.....

I pick-up bulk rolls of wired ribbon at Costco or a gift wholesaler in a few different colours, this year I used silver one and bronze (I've had the same rolls for 2 years and there's still lots left).  The wired edges on the ribbon are a fail safe way to make super easy bows and twists.

My family used to think it was weird, wrapping gifts in plain brown kraft paper,,,,and now,,,,many of them do the same thing.  These days you can find rolls of kraft or black paper just about anywhere but what I love about them is that the fresh greenery and pine cones (your topping of choice) become the feature. You can pretty much add anything you want to embellish this basic wrap, in the past I've used gingerbread cookies, candy canes, fresh flowers and even dried fruit - you can't go wrong.  But I think the best part is the hand crafted look of the package.  I'm not the type who plans out my gift wrap ahead of time - this method of always having basic plain wrap on hand allows me to embellish with whatever I have in the house (or from outside) even at the last minute.

Despite all the simple beauty of these gift wraps,,,,I was outdone by a sibling this year.  Under the tree at my moms was a gift box addressed to me that looked like it had been shipped from around the world.  It was sooo mysterious, I can't tell you how exciting it was to open it up.  I needed a flat head screw driver thought because it was a wooden box with stapled edges.

My brother made then entire box which had labels on it from all over the world....(this pic is from after I destroyed most of the packaging to open it)...

And the gift inside was handmade too......a solid walnut serving board made for me by my brother.  Aren't these the best gifts ever!  We don't even exchange gifts among my siblings but he made this for me anyway - so it was a complete and total surprise.  I love it, thank you no.2!

Now that this Christmas is a wrap, I'm going to find the time to relax by the fire this week and enjoy a couple of new design books Santa left under the tree for me.

Happy Holidays, from my house to yours!

All Photos:  Carol Reed