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!

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.

Still Got the Blues

I really struggle in the picture taking realm. I wish I could get the camera to see what my eyes are seeing. But most times I take a picture I think that it looks nothing like what I see IRL.
Then there are the times that when I take a picture and I say "Whoa, this is tragic." It happened with daughter #2's room and while I didn't change things right away, I DID change things.
It also happened with my upstairs fireplace.
My living room used to a golden yellow. It was a beautiful color, but with my red couch it felt a little like ketchup and mustard to me.

So one night this summer I repainted the room (which connects to the kitchen) and rearranged it.

But that is a post for another day.
The built-ins around the fireplace were very similar in color to the new walls. I couldn't have that. I was still using the paint chip from my dining room so I just picked the darkest shade on there. Paladian Blue.
Then I restyled it, emphasizing whites, reds and only things I love.

This is the left side of the fireplace.

Now we'll zoom in on some of the "stuff."

Here is a sand dollar that Little Man found in Florida and brought me back.

Hanging behind that is a poem I wrote in first grade about my favorite stuffed animal Rosebud. I won first place for it in a city wide contest!

I love that you can see the eraser marks where I was trying to get my final draft just perfect.

Of course my familty has a prime spot. Beside them are some number orbs that I made out of ping pong balls. All the orbs have numbers that are important to our family like birthdays, anniversaries and code numbers that mean something only to us.


I found a pair of these kruel work pictures at an antique store and fell in love with them. The lamp, well sometimes a lamp is just a lamp. No story there.


Along with a piece of transferware, this shelf holds two special pictures. The bigger one is my mom as a child with her mother (my grandmother, obviously). The small picture is of my dad taken in Korea while he was serving during the Korean War.



This white pot and wire basket aren't sentimental, but I really like them. Like I always tell my BFF if you love something go for it; you will probably always love it. If you are getting it just to fill a space it will not last in your heart very long.

(But she'll send me text pictures of things and say "do I love this?" to which I will have to tell her if I would love it or not. She kills me-but in a sweet way!)


Finally rounding out this side is a ceramic copy of my elementary school, Atkins-Porter. It is especially important to me now since the school was torn down many years ago. I can remember many class pictures being taken on those steps as well as trips down those steps to get on buses for field trips.


This is the right side of the built ins. The stuff over here isn't as sentimental, but it is still stuff that I really like, not just space filler.

I have some of my china and a metal sign that hubby got for me. It says "A man's house is his castle, until the queen arrives." He calls me the queen. The bottom shelf holds a basket of dog toys. It's pretty cute to watch the dogs reach up to get something out of their basket. They haven't learned to put things back though.

The old leather books are commentaries of hubby's and I have the matching kruel work picture over here as well.

I love this arrangement so much better than the old one. I think it is the simplicity of focusing on white with touches of red and the fact that it is stuff that I really want to see all the time.

I think next week I'll show you all my classroom. I have several things in there to show off. I just wish I had taken before pictures. Just for a hint, it started as the school science lab. Let your imagination run wild!

Come "Clocher"

Here's my environment as I blog on a wonderful Sunday morning:

Isn't that lovely. What a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. We have a Christmas musical at church today, but hubby and I decided to sleep a little later, relax a little longer and go to the service at 3pm.

But I digress, onto the business of the day.

I'm a few days late, but I'm linking up with Marty at A Stroll Through Life for her cloche party. Ever since I started blogging, I've seen those little glass domes all over blog-land. People make them out of cheese domes, upside down candle holders. All kinds of things.

I love them.

I have 4 cloches on display for Christmas. Let's start with my fav:

This sits on top of my curio cabinet in my dining room (thanks Mrs. Savvy for the help on figuring out what that piece of furniture should be called!) It is my favorite vignette of this season.

Afterall, it does represent the reason for the season!

Next up is a cloche that I stalked at my favorite flea market until it went on sale for 1/2 price:

I love the base on this one. It is like mossy stone.

Here is a tiny cloche that I got at the same flea market (actually the same booth) as the stony cloche above.

I love this guy, so vintagey, so Christmasy, so lover-ly.

Coming up are the cloches that are in my kitchen:

You all know I love me some ornaments. I especially love red and white ornaments. These were perfect to go along with my transferware creamer and white cake plate.

Here is my newest cloche addition. My friend, Jenny, gave this to me for Christmas this year. She makes fun of my bird addiction, but you notice that she is an enabler!

Drop by Marty's for some more ideas of things to go under glass!

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!