Before It All Comes Down

I can't motivate myself to take my decorations down yet. Kind of like I couldn't really motivate myself to put them up in the first place. Not sure what my problem is this year, but I'm hoping that this lack of motivation doesn't last long.

At any rate, I cleared off some surfaces and tried to snap pictures of some of my favorite vignettes this year. I didn't put nearly as much greenery or lights up as I usually do. AND! the lights that I did put up seemed to peter out on me. Could be because they are years and years old. Who knows?

Here is my entrance:

There are lights in that greenery. I didn't get them plugged in until around December 23rd and the timer never worked-so, those lights only lit up the first night. Whatev...

I was on a bit of a cloche kick. Who am I kidding, I'm always on a cloche kick. And a button kick. And a plate kick. And a red kick. You get the idea. But I did like the nativity set under glass.

Next up is the kitchen.

I have a ton of counter space, but this counter is a thorn in my side. For one thing, the wall had a horribly placed light switch/outlet plus a sink. Also it is clutter central. But I did manage to find an arrangement for the wall that I think I actually like. I'll talk more about that another day. For Christmas, I just put some ornaments on a couple of the plates.

This corner holds a vignette I love really just because of the polka dots.

The "Ho balls" (or "OH balls" depends on how you read them) are some that I bought and some that I made. The white ones are ceramic and bought. The red ones are red ping pong balls that I painted "ho" onto with a paint pen. I love them! Here is a close up for comparison of the two varities.

Last up is the sun porch. Some other changes have taken place in there, but let's just look at the tree and one corner.

I bought the burlap birds from Ballard's and the red snowflakes I got last year on clearance.

Thanks for dropping by! I'm off to procrastinate a little bit longer!

The 2011 Mantles

For those of you who were bored with me only showing previous mantles(Elise :) ). I'm finally showing off the 2011 mantles. And my new white brick...

There are lots of people having mantle parties. Check down at the bottom and go visit them. If you haven't done your mantles yet, you are sure to find some inspiration or some more pins for pinterest if nothing else!



I'll start with the upstairs mantles.

My "Fa la la" has made it's 3rd appearance, the window is back for it's second year. This year I decided to use my red, silver, and blue ornaments that were on top of my kitchen cabinets last year.

I just stuck them on white and or glass candlesticks that were nestled among the garland.


This vignette sits on the hearth. The presents are just empty boxes, but I love that blue and white polka dot paper too much to let ALL of it get ripped to shreds!



Alright, let's move downstairs.

This mantle is very similar to the upstairs one. I used some favorite ornaments that I found at Kirkland's about 5 years ago. I'm using more black accents downstairs so I used black candlesticks and black polka dot ribbon in my garland.



On the hearth I stuck some miniature trees into red buckets and added some light green filler.

Here's a full fireplace shot. What do you think of the new white brick? That one oddball brick had some interesting writing on it and I didn't want to paint over it.

The new paint job definitely lightens up the downstairs. I've done some rearranging down there, but I may wait until after Christmas to share the new views.

I'm linking up at:
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
From My Front Porch to Yours

Southern Hospitality

Stories of A to Z
Thanks for stopping in, drop me a hello so I can return the friendliness!

Christmas on the Table

As my kickoff to the 2011 Holiday Blog Posts, I'm linking up with Layla for her "Tabletop Party."

There are lots of ways to interpret that,

but I chose to feature the two tabletops that we eat off of.
First up is the one we gather around the most-the kitchen island. I try to keep this area simple because we are usually spread around it and I need room for the ketchup and ranch dressing!

I took an off-white urn that hubby bought me at an auction for about $7, filled it with red ornaments (with some bags in the bottom for filler), stuck in my favorite light green eucalyptus and some sparkly berries. Then I tied a big red bow on it just for kicks.

Then I leaned this big ole paper mache ornament on it. I don't even remember where I found this, but it was one of those things that I loved the minute I saw it and I had no idea where I would put it.

I forgot to mention that I put it all on a tray. To make it easy to move if I need more room for ketchup and ranch dressing.

Next table top is my dining room table.

Honestly this room doesn't get much action

because I am too lazy to carry everything the extra 10 steps.

I started with a polka dot table runner, added a silver tray and gathered up a large reindeer and silver trees.

I added some greenery and different tones of silver ornaments.

I hung these "peace," "joy," and "noel" ornaments from the chandelier.

"Toile" a Good Night!

Yes this is a re-do of a post from last year.

Some suey.

(private joke among my SIL and her family, but I'll let you in on it).

One of Sandy's favorite expressions when she got frustrated with her hubby was to say

"So sue me!" Her son, who was about 4 or 5 at the time, got frustrated with his dad one day and said "Some suey, dad!"

Anyway, here is one of my favorite Christmas pictures. My youngest, at the age of 3, watching the "grown-up" kids Christmas program.

May you all take some time to sit in awe of the manger.

Have a wonderful Christmas and be thankful for the ultimate sacrifice.

Decked Out Dining Room

Man, this time of year is busy for a blogger!

There are so many parties going on and I want to go to them all!

Sometimes I feel like I'm chasing my tail.

I'm going to try to keep up ya'll just hang in there with me.

Today I am joining in with Savvy Southern Style and All Things Heart and Home today I am sharing with you all my dining room.

Here is how it looked last year:

And here it is one year later:


The past year I have changed out the light fixture, added shelves, hung roman shades and added an old window as a divider.
Let's mosey around the room:
This wall is my silhouette wall.

I have a silhouette of me and each of the kids from the wedding.

To go along with the silhouettes, I simply added white and silver plates, a couple black and white pictures, some greenery and a couple ornaments to dress this area up.

Scarlett sits below the shelves and she gets a little spiffed up for the holidays, but

she doesn't need much help.

I just add an ornament to the silver tray, some pepperberries to a topiary, and another ornament to the lamp. Done.

Moving on around the room, here is my favorite vignette this year.

It sits on top of my china cabinet

(I don't really think it is a china cabinet, but I don't really know what to call it.)

And finally as you walk out of the room here are some hand drawn pictures of my kiddos:

Thanks for stopping by! There are lots more parties coming up, keep checking back!

Little Touches Here and There

Okay, so maybe little is an understatement.

If you saw my house IRL, you would probably laugh in my face at the "little touches" comment. Honestly, I don't think there is a surface in my house that hasn't been touched by the Ghost of Christmas Decorating.

It's a disease, Have-to-Make-It-Cute-itis. I'm sure there's a twelve step program for people like me. I just haven't looked for it yet. They haven't covered that kind of counseling in my school counseling program, so I just deal with it on my own.

Anyway, there is another party that I'm a-linking up to so I have to share with you all some of my vignettes. Boy, do I have them. Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality is hosting, so come on over and play Tom the Peeper with me and check out some of these ideas.

I have lots and lots, so I am organizing them into categories and I will try not to talk too much. We'll see how that works out for me.

Up first are my vignettes with plates. I love 'em, ya'll know that. So of course they will creep into my holiday home.

I explained here how I got that little plate stuck in the middle of the larger one.

These sweet reindeer I painted using my kiddos' hands to make the antlers.

Next, and largest group, are the vignettes with ornaments.

I know, it is SO original to use ornaments for decorations for Christmas. You are all amazed with my creativity.

But I am totally addicted to ornaments. I could shop for ornaments in the middle of a summer heat wave or the day after Christmas and get equally excited. As a result, I have many.

I have them hanging from the banister:

I have them hanging from lamps:

I pile them into bowls and other containers:

Along with some mercury glass ornaments, I have some ping pong balls that I painted "HO" onto.

I was so excited when I had the idea, I didn't even want to cover the black writing that was on one side of the balls because I would have to wait for paint to dry. I just turned the balls so you couldn't see it!

I also scatter ornaments, and other things, on top of the kitchen cabinets:

I like to think that most of my decorating involves greenery, lights, and stuff that I use most of the time(plus some ornaments here and there) instead of having to change out my entire house when December rolls around.

Here are some ways that I add greenery to put Christmas around:

We're almost done...here are some of my favorites sights around my house.
This is the view on the wall as you go downstairs:

This sits on my kitchen island. I fell in love with that gygo ornament (imagine that) and had a moment of inspiration the other night about where to put it.

You can also see my roman shades in the background that have inspired my new hints of blue.

I went pretty simple on the dining room table. Just a favorite nativity scene and some more greenery, all set on a tray:

Last, but certainly not least, is what I think is my favorite vignette this year. This one sits on top of my china cabinet. While I have more pieces to the Willow Tree nativity set, I just went simple with Joseph, Mary and Jesus and set them under a glass cloche.

I'm also joining up here, come see!


Thanks for stopping by again!