Camp Whimsy

Dream House in New Orleans

 

Do you like dreaming of your ultimate house? Well when I get day dreaming I look at houses for sale in New Orleans. If I was a billionaire I would live in New Orleans. I saw this house in person when my husband and I took the Garden District walking tour in January 2009. It was the grandest house we saw. Now it is for sale for a cool 12.5 million. The pictures of this house are insane. Who lives like this? Oh yeah, I do, in my dreams.

This is my favorite room. Not too bad. Not too shabby.

 

Alright so this house is decorated a bit more formal than I would probably want, but I am dreaming here and since I am a billionaire it doesn't matter how expensive these furnishings are. 

So there you have it. My 12,072 square foot dream mansion in the garden district. Complete with elevator,  8 full baths, 2 half baths and a guest house where you can stay when you come to visit me. I think I will be needing some help cleaning my dream house. I just dreamed up a maid. She is lovely and I treat her nice, not like that mean Hilly treats her maid (from the movie The Help). In my dream mansion I eat beignets and drink cafe au lait with my maid friend every morning. (Except on Saturdays when we breakfast at Brennan's and Sunday's when we go to Commander's Palace). Then we clean a bit and lounge by the pool eating muffuletta's in the afternoon. At night we go to the quarter to Galatoire's or Arnaud's or Antoine's. And of course, since this is a dream, all of those calories I am consuming don't harm my figure one bit.  I like this dream more and more. If you are reading this and you are in fact a billionaire and you buy this house would you invite me over some time?  I would make a great maid.

 

 

Christmas

Christmas eve morning we had a special breakfast of waffles. 

Yum. I think I would eat these every day if I could.

Christmas eve night we went to my sister's house. Her house was warm,cozy and beautifully decorated for Christmas.

She made a delicious spread of food for us to indulge in.

Yum again.

Then we opened presents. My Mom had a fun surprise this year for our family. Every year she gives very nice thoughtful gifts, but it is the stockings she fills that we like best. This year Mom made GIGANTIC stockings. She made the pattern herself and sewed everyone a beautiful stocking embellished with vintage ribbon, lace, buttons and so on. They were just darling. My Mom is the coolest lady. When I went to my in-laws the next day they asked if my new Ugg boots were a Christmas gift, without thinking I said that they were in my stocking from my mom. They weren't sure what to make of that, and then I realized I needed to explain that the stockings were HUGE so that is how the boots fit in a stocking! I think that gigantic stockings are the way to go, no more wrapping presents for hours and hours, just put them right in the stocking!

And then we had Christmas morning. The kids were very happy to open presents and play with their new gifts. Here is Strauss, quite excited about his new puppy from Grandpa and Grandma. That afternoon we went to my in-laws for more Christmas celebrating. The kids loved playing with their cousins and Strauss even got a ride with his dad on his cousin's dirt bike (very slowly across the lawn), which he thought was AWESOME. I wish I'd had my camera with me to show you his expression! We had a very nice Christmas with our family and I am very thankful for a good weekend. Although I have been pretty sick the past few weeks I am so glad that Christmas was nice and even though I didn't feel so great at least I was able to go to the family gatherings and see the joy my kids expressed throughout the weekend. Today I am feeling better than I have in a while so maybe all of those get well wishes and prayers are working. Since I missed baking for Christmas this year I may have to make something special this week. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family or friends and are looking forward to a great new year. 

 

Merry Merry

Hello there. How have your holiday preparations been coming? The past few weeks I have been very sick so mostly I am just resting and enjoying this time watching the kids run around and play, excited for Christmas. My husband bought Nutcracker tickets to take Audrey on a date. So today I will have an afternoon with just Strauss in the house. I wasn't feeling up to making gingerbread this year so I bought a gingerbread train kit for Strauss to build today while Audrey and Daddy are at the Nutcracker. I haven't even sent Christmas cards this year (shocking!). Maybe I will feel better and can send New Year's cards. We'll see. So here are some final shots of Christmas at our home. 

This year I decorated my tinsel tree with my vintage black and white Christmas cards. I love these old cards. They are funny.

Laurie aka Magpie Ethel sent me this one last year. I LOVE it!

Look at these two darlings, setting out to bring you holiday greetings.

 

I love the wise men on my silvery mantle. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. Blessings, Kim

Christmas Lemons

My little Meyer lemon tree runneth over. I keep her warm at night with a string of big Christmas lights. 

Lemon pie, lemon bars, lemon curd, limoncello, lemon cake, lemon zest, lemonade. Christmas might not be white, but it will be full of lemons!

My Woolworth's Christmas Store

Welcome to my Woolworth's Christmas Store! I've been collecting vintage Woolworth's for a few years and I try to buy things that were sold at Woolworth's in the 30's, 40's and 50's. I never had the pleasure of shopping at Woolworth's, the closest I came was going to Pic 'N' Save on Saturdays with my mom, aunties and great grandmother. I LOVED Pic 'N' Save during the holidays, the shelves in the middle section of the store were full of holiday decorations (made in Taiwan, yes it was the 80's!). I can't help thinking I should have been born sooner. Because I can only imagine the delight at shopping at F.W. Woolworth's at Christmas, when things were made in Germany, and later in Japan. So here is my tour of my Woolworth's Christmas Store...

I love these tiny houses, marked Japan on the bottom. I bought a lot of vintage Woolworth price tags and I use them throughout my display.

My heart skips a beat for tiny boxes of ornaments. I heart them. I hoard them. These blue and red ones are my favorites.

Jingle bells from Woolworth's

This tiny tree is quite possibly the cutest ever. In original box. Marked Japan.

I love the graphics on the box. See the little church with the steeple? So sweet!

This is one of my favorite Woolworth's collectibles, an original 1938 week's worth of menu's from the Woolworth's counter at 441 Fifth Avenue, New York. The back sides of the menu are copied and the front sides are hand typed with the week's specials.

I'll have No.3, the Chow Mein Dinner, please.

Yes, a cup of Woolworth special coffee would be lovely.

Or maybe I will have an ice cream soda, then I can use...

My Woolworth's spoon! My birthday gift from my husband this year. Best birthday gift EVER!

And don't forget to stamp my receipt...

...with this Woolworth's vintage rubber stamp!

I can pick up a Woolworth building post card, or even a set of Woolworth Dominos...

...which feature the Woolworth building on every domino!

I will definitely buy Strauss this bow tie for our Christmas party this year.

So there you have it, my Woolworth's Christmas Store! Every time I look at it I am happy. I hope you have a very merry Christmas this year. 

Birthday, New Job and Finding God's Purpose In Everything

This week was a busy one. Had a birthday in there somewhere. (Aren't these flowers from my mom and dad lovely?) This fall I started working part time with a company and that has been good, but tiring. Missing the days of kids and home being the only things to do on my to do list. But I am learing new lessons and being blessed along the way. Because of this job I met a family last Saturday that has a daughter sick with leukemia and has had a hard year. They live in a small home with their four children and paternal grandparents. I wanted to help them but felt that I couldn't do enough for them on my own. So I prayed and God gave me an answer, I asked for help for this family and it came. God is good. Life is not always easy, and sometimes we don't know why we are in the situations we find ourselves in. But this year, more than ever before, God has been teaching me that there really is a purpose in everything. And he is always working. If I take the time to seek him out I always find him. He never fails. 

Elf is back!

This is our third year with Elf On The Shelf. Each night he flys to the north pole to report if the kids have been naughty or nice. And each morning the kids wake up and look to find the new place he has chosen to hide. This is such a fun tradition with the kids and when they start being naughty all I have to do is remind them that Elf is watching! Elf on the Shelf used to be a bit of a novelty, but now he is everywhere and you can even find him at Target!