Minimalists -- Beware!!

Don't you just want to go there??

I have a new found love of Victorian Style. It all began with a wing-back chair that Charles picked out from a consignment store. Slowly, I have found that I love this look (and feel). I love to feel like I am in a different time, perhaps chatting with Mr. Darcy. ;-)
Victorian Style is suppose to make minimalists cringe. It is all about extreme color, and pictures, and things everywhere! I thought I was a minimalist -- I was WRONG! I love the character that is forming in my living room. It is beginning to feel like "home".

Here are a few pictures from our home. Mind you, we have MUCH work to do, one piece at a time. Curtains will make all the difference, I think. Anyhow, we are having fun. :-) The TV has got to go though, and it will. It is taking shape. Though you really can't tell from the picture!

I just cannot capture the beauty that I see (and feel). My camera is not letting me! It is really something you have to "feel" The lighting is all wrong, too? And I can only capture one corner at a time!

These are some friends we found left in grandma's house, as we were trying to salvage her things. I LOVE them. After clearing away the inch of dust, they are really beautiful. You can feel the romance between them. :-) They are just dying to get closer.

So here is my beauty. I found this rocking chair of Grandma's covered in dust and a potato sack as the material for the pad. I washed it off, and shined it up with some wood cleaner. With my brilliant mother's help, we found material (my dad picked it out!) and we added padding, recovered it, and it is awesome! (the picture does NOT do it justice!) I had just enough material left over to cover a foot-stool, which was in ill-repair. Pretty good mom? It is nice to have with the rocking chair.
Now, we are not purely going for the Victorian look (I don't think rocking chairs qualify) but more like what my dad calls an "eclectic" look. I think that title fits better, especially since you will find Nat King Cole singing in the background, rather than classical music.

This is our Norman Rockwell hallway. The pictures are called, The Four Seasons. It shows the progression of a couple through the years -- from Youth (Spring) to Old (Winter). I LOVE the pictures, they just make me SMILE! We even got the track lighting (a weird stroke of genius in the middle of the night!) it gives the pictures the attention they deserve. :-)
I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing old things back to life. I have tried to respect what we have of grandma's and we have tried to display her things in a new light, and with life -- I feel she would be pleased. As we have been going through old pictures and learning about family members, I feel as though my ancestors are reaching out to me through the pictures. They were once full of life, and love -- as real as I live now. I love having pictures of my ancestors in my home. It makes me feel alive!