The clock that followed me home...

After the water damage we finished a few other projects...

like a revamp of the family room fireplace from this...

to this

The old mantel came with the house and a lot of people liked it.  I didn't hate it, but the Hubs disliked it intensely.  We lived with it for over 10 years while we took care of other more pressing projects and then decided to change it while everything was already a construction zone with the water damage repairs.  I designed a simpler surround and used a herringbone stone mosaic that matched the hearth area, which we didn't change.  

Now I can't imagine why I didn't change it sooner - but it was way down on the list of things that needed to 

be done...

you know... 

THE LIST.

That dang list just seems to get longer and longer!

I was soon off on another trip to Utah - this time for fun...because after water damage - you need some fun..

and this time with the Hubs, which was even more fun!

Running around Salt Lake we stopped at a few of our favorite antique shops and there was this clock...

IT SPOKE TO ME...

It said, 'bring me home...'or maybe it said 'you need me'

hard to tell exactly, as I don't speak fluent clock,

but the gist was the same.

It had beautiful workmanship, the patina of age, gorgeous wood tones...

So the clock came home to stay...

We arranged for it to be shipped via some guys truck coming to California...

and the guy delivered it to the wrong address - the right house number but the wrong street..

Barbi and her husband nearly had themselves a nice antique clock...but we finally figured out where it had landed and The Hubs and Rob (friend and neighbor) rolled it home.

It was much bigger in our house than it looked in the huge warehouse where I discovered it. Taller than my 8' ceilings, so that narrowed down the possible places it could be placed.  I could put it in my bedroom as I have a vaulted ceiling there - but it has a definite tick-tock going on and bongs pretty good on the hour - 

so, no.  

That left the living/dining room area - also vaulted - 

but also occupied by the even taller french clock we found several years ago; 

or 

the stair landing.

The staircase landing became its new home, but it wasn't a happy pairing with the very large, very bronze colored mirror we had there.

A few weeks later, while still trying to decide what to do about the clock/mirror situation, The Hubs brought me a photo of a mirror he fell in love with at an antique store.  It was very pretty, very old rosewood, and he loved it.  It is rare he finds something he really loves, and so it came home too.  It also wasn't a good match with the clock which now left me with two large mirrors that didn't work on the landing and no solution for what would.  I decided a little shuffling was in order. 

We moved the smaller antique mirror and the surrounding botanicals that were over the living room sofa to the  landing.  This mirror/botanical group and the clock seemed to get along quite well.  No name calling or face pulling, and the new mirror worked over the sofa.

The new mirror went over the sofa.  It was a tall mirror and it nearly reached ceiling height - which actually gave it more presence and raised the eye.  Now, what to do with the original landing mirror....

why is there always a problem to solve?

Which brings me to my next project...

as the clock tick tocks and bongs...

I have GOT to get the living room curtain problem solved...