Notes from A Cottage Industry

A cottage Christmas on Norman drive

    Hmmm, it's supposed to be Inspiration Friday, but I think the home tour will count as all we needed for inspiration this entire week, don't you?
     Here's the final little bit of the 2007 virtual holiday home tour of my little piece of heaven. I was so wrapped up in  doing the posts on the other tours, and browsing through all of the wonderful homes, that I didn't get all of my pictures taken of my own home. I'll have to add a shot later when the sun comes up of the cottage from outside....but for now,
....please, do come in!Can I take your coat? Yes, this is on my entry hall table...

And here is my bunny buggy, behind the chair, facing the entry...all full of ivy and stars...

and to the left is the kitchen, which you've seen oh, so many times before, but let's walk through anyway...

You've seen the dining room already, so here's just one quick peek in there...

oh, and let's get a cookie or two....

The living room, where the Christmas tree and my wonderful angel are placed...here is a shot of her in the daylight, but before I added very much of the garland and such to Christmas her up....

Here's my thrifted backyard bird feeder, all covered with snow from the last snowfall...

*sigh* I think that finishes up the first annual virtual holiday home tour. Thanks ever so much for joining me and following along. This has all been so very fun and I can't wait to do it all again next year!

The 2007 Virtual Holiday Home tour continues....

    My, oh my. This has been absolutely the best time, peeking into so many charming homes! (and there are so many more to come as you will see!)
   Let's see if I can get this uploaded more smoothly today, shall we? I  had a few hiccups with Typepad yesterday (I am going to blame typepad anyhow...)There are more pictures of my home at the end of this tour, but let's start off with Sheryl's darling home...

Wonderful, wonderful blog! Now, let's get on over to Rhoda's house and take a peek...after that, we simply must swing over to Monica's home.

Ooh! Nice. Look at Deb's place. Always so beautiful.

Let's see Cathy's sweet home. I love her outdoor picture!

Now, on to Lorrie's place. (ooh! I am a big fan of hers too!)

Now, on to dear, dear sweet Becky's home. Look at the darling bird in her Christmas tree!I just love it.

So, when we finish up at Becky's we'll have to head over to Christi's and check out her holiday decorating too.

All of this is so pretty!Have you all been to Karla's Cottage? She did a home tour as well, and it is wonderful!

After we finish at Karla's we must pop on over Kim's to and take a look see...She has two sites, you know!Busy, busy girl!

Next stop, Janet's home. Her photo is one of my favorites....just lovely!

Hmmmmm, maybe we need to take a break to go re-fill our cocoa.
     OK, back to touring! Let's see Amy's house next. (great pictures Amy!)

*sigh* So much to see. Now, Mary's home...darling blog for sure.
Oh, look! Cielo's   house now... lot's of table setting ideas here!

Katy's new to blogging. It's too cute for words.

Let's see, do we have time for another? Oh yes we do. Let's see Crystal's home.

Oh, you know I love birdhouses!Now on to my sweet friend Carol's house.She has the table set for us!

Oh, this is so inspiring. Onward we go, to Meredith's place.

Great ideas with fruit for the season... We simply must stop by Gail's home as well...

I have these ornaments also, and I love them. Oh, let's not forget to go by Jen R's home. Looks like she's been cleaning...

adorable idea with the scarf on the towel bar!

My, my, my!Look what's happening at Brookside Cottage. Let's stop and see Joyce..

That Santa is one Cutie Patootie!Let's hit just one more fabulous bloggy home...Linda has some darling ideas to share! Aah! I want one of these! (Really, I do...so adorable.)

OK then, last stop on the tour bus people, we're back at my humble abode.

     I feel like you've already seen all of my cottage, but I have more pictures of it to share with you tomorrow, but please forgive me if I am repeating items you have seen in past posts...
I was actually going for a "Less is More" Christmas look, but when you scale back from 15 rubber made tubs (and a 4.500 square foot house) to a more appropriate sized cottage for one inspired middle aged woman and her two dogs, well...it's hard to do. I still have a holly jolly Christmas happenin' everywhere in the cottage it seems.
Perfect example? The first two photos I just shared...uh... we are still in the dining room, people!I promise you, it doesn't look like Christmas overkill though...subtle, but abundant (is there  really such a thing?!)

I will share the other rooms in my cottage, "Christmas style" tomorrow. (I fear we are on Christmas overload here in Blogland right this minute and we need to rest and regroup...anyway, I know I do.)
   *sigh* I don't know about you, but this has been a very special part of my Christmas holiday season this year...visiting  with old friends, meeting new friends and looking forward to a very blessed year ahead.

Welcome to the 2007 Virtual Holiday Home Tour

     Merry Christmas and welcome to the 2007 Virtual Holiday Home Tour. There are so many wonderful homes to see that this could take a while. In fact, it will take us at least two full days to actually browse through this many holiday homes! We'll see twenty homes (!!!) today to inspire us.(Ladies, please bear with me, if I have somehow mixed up your photo, or deleted it...this was a bigger challenge than I estimated...)**edited to add** After checking the post this morning, the pictures are not matching up at all with the links, and I have no idea why not! Please click on the highlighted words to go to the home tour blogs...I think it has to do with the varying sizes of the different pictures maybe...hmmm...
     You'll want to put on some good Christmas music and get yourself a cuppa something warm and toasty to drink while you're looking...
   The first home on the tour is my own humble abode,(photo above) right here on dear little Norman Drive in Reno.    
     The top photo is looking into the dining room from the living room. I love my cottage, and I love it even more with all of the Christmas decorations about...the photo below is one of the two chairs in the far end of my dining room.

    These chairs are usually in the living room, on either side of the hutch, but since I wanted the tree where I could enjoy it from both rooms, I swapped the chairs with the one I had in the dining room. This is the big advantage in going with neutral colors and having all your rooms coordinate- you can move things around any time, and it will work!

Anyway.

This is my favorite spot for curling up in, late in the evening, with a fire going, and my pups, and a cup of cocoa. *sigh* Heaven on earth.
I love it so much, that I want to share a photo of it from the other angle...

And here is a shot from just last night at the dining room table, where I had friends over for dinner.(If you look really hard, you can see part of both cozy chairs down there at the end of the room by the French doors...) Aah, Christmas cozy.

Here is the tree, looking from my favorite spot in the cozy chair, looking towards the living room. See? It's the perfect spot for my tree.

I'll share more of my Christmas cottage tomorrow, but for now, let's move this tour along!
     It's time to tour the rest of the homes!

Stop in and see Nancy's home...

and make to see Donna's home too...

followed by Holley and Roxy's home...and then, of course, go see Emilie's home...

and don't forget to see Jessica's home....
Oh! And Theresa's home...

and make sure to see Angela's home too...

followed by Cathymac's home...

And Kelly's   home...

Then head on over to Rhondi's home...and you must see Andrea's house....

Are you getting tired? Well, there's more! Go on over to Kari and kijsa's house next...

Now, go see Poppett's home...Oh, and Kaylyn's as well...

then there is Mrs. Poppins house, which is all the way in Sweden!

Oh my! That's all I think we can fit in for today. I surely had no idea there would be so very many wonderful homes all over to see, did you? Tomorrow I will share the rest, along with a few more of my home.