The Lonely Little Xmas Tree

Friday, December 20. Work is done, vacation begins! Walking down Carmine Street, what do I see?

A lonely little Christmas tree, sitting at the curb. But why? Christmas isn't over - it isn't even begun. (And Orthodox Christmas is after, not before.)

Were they allergic? Was it the wrong shade of green? Was it too much of a burden to care for it? Did they give up on Christmas after all?

How cruel to reject the little tree, and deprive it of the only fun Christmas trees get to have before they turn, like all of us, to mulch.

So I decided to take it home.

Trouble was, I was on my way out to dinner.

Three hours later ... yep, it was still there. So I picked it up and carried it home ...

On the subway ...

 

... to my apartment.

Tomorrow I'll decorate it.

You spin me right round, baby, right round ...

I'll be using window air conditioners in the living room and bedroom (ideally in the tops of the windows). In order to circulate cool air through the apartment and into the galley kitchen and bathroom, I need to put a ceiling fan on my dining balcony - more-or-less right over the table.

I know, I know, every right-minded designer anathemizes ceiling fans in the dining room. You're supposed to have a chandelier. (I have a fabulous chandelier - which my cousins will recognize! - for the entry foyer.) But I really need the fan here.

So I'm looking for a ceiling fan that's not too ugly, too country, too bedroom, too tacky - something with a bit of style and decent CFM. It also needs to have a bright dimmable light (since I don't just use the table for eating). I'm open to modern or traditional styles, but not to insanely expensive.

Ideas so far --

1. I saw this one in the store with all three lights pointing down - very striking. But the bottom light hangs 31" from the ceiling, which might be striking your head.

2. This one is canvas! It comes with grey and white blades (you can switch them out - I wonder if you can wash them). You can attach whatever "light kit" you like to the bottom - like the one you see on the right.

3. This is the basic, clean, modern look, on which there are many variations:

4. And this is a fantasy. Super-cool (and surprisingly efficient), but you don't want to ask how much it costs:

What do you think?

Restarting the renovation ...

A lot's happened, in my building and in my life, since I stopped my renovation. Now I'm restarting it again, and hoping to move in by March.

In the interim, I thought more about the bathroom (and also used up all my hardware in my mother's bathroom renovation). I've evolved from modern to a more glitzy-glammy-girly look.

The wall tile, you may remember, is iridescent pale pink glass -

And the floor/side of tub tile is supposed to look like this -

I say "supposed to" because I opened one of the boxes when it arrived, and looked at a few tiles. I expected swirly Neapolitan ice cream, but I seem to have gotten a more quiet streaky vanilla. They say stone may vary - I'm hoping that it varies in a good way once we unpack all of the tiles.

Here are my sconces!



There are three of them - one for the sink, and two for the long wall opposite the tub. They've arrived already, and they're really pretty and twinkly.

I decided to go with a traditional medicine cabinet and vanity after all. I'm re-using the vanity we took out of my mother's bathroom. It's very nice solid wood, and I've bought a new sink top and very cute new handles for it.

(without the new handles)

And here's the hardware I chose, this time around  -