Recently I transferred all of the pictures from my android phone to SkyDrive. It took some time to figure out how to get my pictures from SkyDrive to Blogger to do my last post... it was ponderous! Not only that, but the method did not always work and I really wanted to find a way to upload more than one picture at a time. Fast forward to today when I found out the quick and easy way to get pictures from SkyDrive to Blogger! I am really loving this!
Photo of a watercolor at a hockey rink we recently visited in NJ
(2) Then Upload" pictures from the SkyDrive folder on your computer, the same as you would any other photo on your computer. My SkyDrive is listed on the left side of the File Upload screen under Favorites.
(3) To upload more than one picture at a time, press "CTRL" while you click on the pictures you want to upload. The picture names will all be listed under File Name on the File Upload screen.
We usually don't start taking our Christmas decorations down until after the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6). When I do, it always gives me another chance to admire my mother's hand made ornaments once more before I put them away for the year.
My sister and I have received at least one of these beautiful ornaments, hand made by our mother, every year for many years, until the company that created the designs stopped making new ones. Most years we were given our choice of designs from the catalogue. I don't remember the names of them anymore, but some of my favorites were: the ones with traditional Christmas scenes, the blue and gold "Byzantine"one, the green and gold art deco one, "Nutmeg" (white with bronze and gold), and the royal looking peridot green one. The red with the silver is striking too, and for some reason reminds me of Swan Lake... There are a lot of pretty gold filigree finials, pearls, crystals, sequins, and they all have beautiful and different hangers...I have 22 in all! This year I noticed they were looking a little dusty, so before putting them on the tree I used a pastry brush, and I gave them all a good dusting off. Photoed some of them to share before hanging them up and putting them away for next year.
Mr. and Mrs. Santa
Detail of Mr. and Mrs. Santa
Art Deco
Christmas tree
Byzantine
Royal Peridot
Citron
Cardinal
Detail
Red and Silver
Covered Bridge
Detail Covered Bridge
Nutmeg
Santa
Detail Santa
Pink
Detail Art Deco
Detail Nutmeg
Detail Byzantine
White with lots of pearls, silver bugle and seed beads; reminds me of a flapper's dress from the Roaring Twenties
My mother also knit these beautiful Christmas stockings. My stocking with Father Christmas and woodland animals:
In the detail you can see Father Christmas' soft fuzzy beard and the wooliness of the sheep:
I enjoy making a new and different wreath for our front door every year at Christmas time. This year inspiration came from the Nov/Dec issue of Traditional Home magazine, which features a pretty Virginia stone house, I noticed further detailed in Loi Thai's wonderful blog, Tone on Tone: A Light and Airy Christmas (includes photos not shown in the magazine, and some nice close-ups of the wreaths.) I kept admiring the pretty blue ribbon, possibly chambray, that I was not able to find locally (guess I could have made my own...) I was so happy to finally find some light blue silk ribbon at Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax -- which has a gorgeous selection of ribbon, and they assured me that it was alright to use silk on our outdoor wreath, which would not be protected from the elements (we'll see). Here is my version, which I started from a boxwood wreath bought at Home Depot, then added magnolia and holly leaves/berries from our yard, blue silk ribbon, and silver jingle bells, saved from past years' wreaths:
Our
Christmas tree this year -- so far unadorned, as we just got it yesterday. Knew right away it was "the one", and it even
had a little birds nest in it! Further inspection confirmed it had a
straight, single trunk -- which makes everyone happy!
O Christmas tree!
The soft mossy nest found in our tree is, I think, a chickadee nest.
Yes, it is the first day of autumn! At least while it is still September I wanted to do a post about this cool house that we stayed at on Deep Creek Lake over the summer... I really wanted to keep some pictures of this home, because it was such a cool house and we will never be able to stay there again -- it has been sold, and is no longer available as a vacation property!
Lakefront property on Turkey Neck area of Deep Creek Lake -- view of the house from the lake. Inset picture is view of the lake and dock from the house.
I always try to find interesting homes to stay at on our vacations -- usually original/rustic or contemporary/modern. We thought of going for a historic property this year -- circa 1800's with a lot of land for the dog (and us) to run around in -- but the idea was out-voted for a vacation on the water, which narrowed down to a vacation on a lake -- Deep Creek Lake, which from past great vacation memories made us want to go back, but maybe to a different, less rustic house... This one was a mid-century modern house. Having grown up in a mid-century modern home in upstate New York, I have always loved this type of house, and was so looking forward to visiting after seeing pictures online. It was designed and built in 1963 by Earl Zepp,a local builder -- see footnote at bottom for more information. I am so disappointed the house has sold as we would have loved to have stayed there in future years -- we all enjoyed it so much. Here are some pictures I have taken of the house, mostly from when we arrived and were first setting up:
This property is all about the outdoors -- with over an acre of lovely shaded property and the
lake, the windows and deck were oriented to take advantage of the views
View of the lake from the master bedroom window
View of the deck from the master bedroom sitting area
View of the lake from the deck
The house itself featured many built-ins and closets galore! All over wood paneling sometimes gave the feel of being aboard a yacht... fitting considering the house is down the road from the yacht club and the builder, Earl Zepp, was once a member.
Love the built-in bookshelves in the foyer -- you can never have enough bookshelves!
View down the bedroom hallway towards the foyer and living area -- skylights and closets all the way down the hall!
I found the area behind the accordion doors intriguing. It was
apparently an artist's studio, however currently serving as computer
room, with some art displayed on an easel. It also acted as a pass
through to the foyer and contained more closets for storage!
Living room view to the foyer
Living room
Loved the big windows and how you could see through beyond the deck as the house angles toward the bedroom area
Above a close-up of the soffits with concealed uplift lighting
fireplace
Detail of the window and door latches -- I loved the windows and doors! They were all wood framed and slid along a curved grooved track on the frame.
Dining area with kitchen to the right behind the fireplace, and office, laundry room and guest suite beyond the far door
The floors were parquet and in mostly in good shape except for some water damage near the corner of the kitchen and fireplace. The small kitchen had been updated and did not go with the rest of the house (sort of French Country). Having redone our kitchen a couple of years ago, I would love to be able to redo this kitchen! Somehow I did not get a picture of the kitchen, except this one (try to ignore the beer can and toilet paper -- remember, we were just unloading the car!):
Country kitchen out of place-- would love to redo this kitchen
The kitchen could be closed off entirely by the wood accordion door
This is the office -- a nice, bright room with built-in everything off of the dining area and kitchen. It connected to the laundry room (which also had a whole wall of built-in storage) and then via a glass door and long hallway to the guest suite of the house. I always felt like "Get Smart", complete with theme music, walking down to the guest suite!
In case you are not from the 60's and don't know the opening sequence from "Get Smart", here it is:
Here is the thing about ranch houses... whenever you want something it is always at the other end of the house...especially at night. In that respect it is similar to living in a two-story house where you are always going up and down the stairs.
The original house had been added on to ... the architects did a great job. What used to be the bedroom end of the house is now a workout room. The Master suite and new baster bath were added on:
Original master bedroom, now workout room
You have to go through the workout room to get to the new master bedroom and bath:
Was good sleeping weather -- at least 10 degrees cooler than DC area, where we fortuitously left our home as the air conditioner broke with temperatures staying at over 100 degrees-- you just can't plan that!
master bedroom
master bedroom sitting area
I have only one photo of the guest suite, which is at the end of that long hallway past the office and laundry room, (cue "Get Smart" opening sequence). The incredible length of the hallway was not put to waste, however, due to the gallery-like atmosphere of having pictures and sculptures displayed throughout. The guest room was one incredibly large room -- a whole apartment with another smaller kitchen, living room, a table and chairs, more closets, a queen-sized bed and these built-in pull down galley style bunk beds:
Pull down bunk beds built into the wall
Finally, a few photos to share of the setting, which perfectly completes the house:
Rhododendron blossoms -- the house was absolutely surround by mature rhododendrons
a campfire night
Deep Creek Yacht Club from our boat (a pontoon boat -- not a sailboat, but better for fishing and lots of room for our party, including our dog, Olivia!)
The dam at Deep Creek Lake, Stocksslager area of lake -- it is very deep here
Andrew taking a supervised turn behind the wheel -- he is very responsible
Olivia relaxing on the boat
My handsome guys posing on a bale of hay. Lots of beautiful, rolling farmland surrounds the lake.
As if on cue, a full moon reflecting off the water
Footnote on Earl Zepp:
This passage, from a 2000 history, "The Deep Creek Yacht Club at
Turkey Neck", is what I could find on Earl Zepp, as well as one similar
style house that had been for sale in Oakland, MD
