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!

Deck the Mantles...

The first thing I decorated this year was the mantle.

It seems the easiest for me to do. A little greenery, a little pretty thing or two and Christmas is officially here.

This year's mantle is sorta similar to the one from last year, except with my new blue touches in the house, I decided to go more blue and red instead of green and red. Thus my green square wreath didn't make the cut (on the upstairs mantle at least).

In fact, this mantle went through a couple versions before I finally feel like I got it right.

Allow me to give you the run down...

The garland

This garland is like 15 years old.

Okay, maybe more like 10, but it is in BAD SHAPE. Regardless of the condition, I learned a few years ago to add stuff to the garland to "gussy it up." My favorite thing to add is this light green eucalyptus.

I love the contrast.

There is really no rhyme or reason. I buy a bush or a stem and cut the heck out of it and literally just stuff it in the blank spaces.

Then I add in my red toile ribbon (surely by now you would know (surely by now you would expect to see some toile from me!) Finally I shove in bits of red pepperberries I hacked off a large garland.

Here it is all plumped up and purty:

You can see how I tried to tie in some of the blue from my built in's and roman shades with the plate. But how is that transferware plate just floating on top of it?

Wish you knew? Okay, I'll show you:

Those are Command Strip picture hangers. Basically it is like velcro.

It holds really well. That plate is actually off my dining room wall where they have been hanging like that for a few months.

Along with the mantle, I have a big ol' hearth to accessorize too. Here are some close ups of that area:

Here is a parade of pictures for the upstairs mantle:

This is the view that greets me at the top of the stairs every morning.

It makes me smile. everyday.

Oh, don't go away please. Come downstairs with me. This part of the post won't be as long. Keep in mind I do the same tweaking with the garland here too.

A few lights, a few shoves with some greenery snippets, some glass beads, a little ribbon and there ya go. Fat, fabulous, expensive looking garland.

I did go with traditional red and green downstairs for two reasons. One, it matches and two, I love my polka dot ribbon. (toile and polka dot, my two weaknesses)

I spare you almost all of the wordy details and just show the pics:

Thanks for sticking through such a long post! I'm linking up with Layla and French Country Cottage, so if you REALLY want to be impressed by some decorating skills, come visit the party!

There are lots of Christmas parties coming up and I plan on posting quite a bit throughout this month, so keep checking back!

In case you didn't know, December is the "Month O' Decorating!"

Let the merriment begin!