Christmas Part II

A little more cheer for you!

Below is the strange little pass-through room in our house decorated for the holiday. I added the big red shiny bow over the doorway after opening up the surprise gift from Santa on Christmas - a laptop! woot!

I also finished framing the print I had done last year. Great frame that I just painted. The laurel is real, but did not smell strong enough to make a difference from it being artificial. The mini baby blue disco ball hanging down from the light really was a perfect location for it & it sparkles and sparkles:

We also hung the Santa light along the bottom of the side table (how CUTE is that!?) and I used the wreath from the centerpiece (see below) and placed the flowers in the middle. The Christmas napkin holder was also gifted to us & looks great:

I did not take any pictures of the table all set (after all that work!). It was SO busy and it just got away from me. BUT, I did recreate a place setting while doing the dishes this morning:

The BEST part about this place setting:

China is from my grandmother Lucy,

Stemware is from my great grandmother Frances,

Silver is from my great Aunt Marion,

Napkin rings are made from gifted bows from S's parents!

It is a great way to keep those not with you in the holiday.

Here is the centerpiece I made for the table:

The table ended up too narrow for a center piece; I was able to use the components in other places.

As for the napkin rings...here is how that came about...I wanted to use things I had around the studio. I have a jar of red pipe-cleaners that turned out to be perfect, and I went through my buttons to pick out a few that were my favorites:

More of the red bows that adorn the banister were used to make the napkin rings. I used the center bubble and the tails:

I also used the wire that held it together for the buttons.

I had some golden ribbon from taking apart the wreath:

They looked a little large while I was working on them. I knew they would look different on the table. The end result was very festive and lovely!:

Christmas!

The past few weeks have gone by in a blur! This week past in particular. I had off since Monday, but I've been keeping busy!

We now have an artificial tree (gift of J & M, thank you :)
I LOVE ornaments (surprised!?).
This is an ornament from the first year my parents were married (the Currier & Ives):

It just happened to be in the Santa Section!

A great idea is to save gift tags if they are pretty - especially if they are sparkley - and hang them on the tree too!:

And I have a hodge-podge of garland. I made some bottlecap garland, I have a few short strands of red beads, and my favorite is below! A's handmade garland as a gift last year:
I know, enough of the tour of the Christmas tree (I could go on...)!
Let's talk about other decorations, shall we?

I dripped the fans to look like ornament chandeliers! They came out very prettily:

I had made some tissue paper puff balls and also had some strands of beading that I have for another project that added the final touch. The beading is like the garland on a tree - finishes it!

What's that? Want to see the big picture? Surley:

Hang tight! More rooms/holiday decorations will follow shortly!
xoxo

Christmas Decorating Part I

It must be December - the Christmas Cactus is all in bloom!

Beautiful, no?


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We have been gifted a lot of wonderful Christmas decorations! How exciting. I, of course, LOVE to decorate! Yay for Christmas.

So, here are the beginning projects:
Mantle with reindeer. We do have additional lights for the wreath & around the mirror and real greenery for around the mantle which will smell like Christmas! ...coming soon...

Santa is just to the widow-side of the toy soldier. He's hard to get into a picture b/c he lights up so the exposure does not match up with everything else. BUT, here he is so you are not missing out (he's about 4' high!):

And for a bit of the 306 charm, Her Royal Badness has put herself among the decorations (SO bad, but SO cute!):

We were also gifted lots of garland and red bows.

There's no better place for garland than around a banister:

Love it!

December!

Here's my holiday card for my work peeps:
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone!