Christmas Tour 2015

Merry Christmas, everyone! Welcome to my lovely Christmas house. :-) I’ve had a lot of fun decorating this year, and hosting little gatherings with friends. Christmas is a wonderful time to get together with friends and share my pretty decor and delicious baked goods. (Cookies and fudge, anyone?! Would you like a warm cup of tea with that too?) Anyway, I wasn’t going to post a Christmas tour this year… BUT then I got Matt on board to buy a bigger tree (!!!), so I figured it would be fun to share the changes here too!2015_ChristmasLivingRm

2015_Tree_lightsI had a hard time convincing Matt that we needed a bigger tree. The big ones easily run between $600-$1000 if you want a pre-lit tree… and it was hard to justify the “need” for that cost. Then it dawned on me that people MUST have big trees they want to sell. So I checked craigslist and we landed a pre-lit, 9′ tree for under $100. Matt did spend some hours replacing bad bulbs, but to him it was worth it since the tree was so affordable. He was very patient and went limb by limb to replace the bad lights. (Thanks, Matt!) And now I have a 9′ tree in my big living room and I’m so pleased! Happy Christmas to me!

2015_ChristmasTree

2015_ChristmasVintageOrnamentOur little tree fits nearly perfectly in the music room/library (a.k.a. the Jane Austen Room!) and it is SO PRETTY in there. The tree sits between the chairs, in front of the window. It can be seen from the street and I just love it. I selected “vintage” looking ornaments from our large ornament collection, as well as music themed ornaments for this tree. We just inherited some beautiful old ornaments from Matt’s grandmother, and they are perfect on this tree. I was short on garland since the big tree needed all of what I had, but I found a large spool of ribbon from my Grandma’s collection and used that instead. I love it. I topped the tree with a folded paper star from Target (and it was only $3.00!). The whole tree is just perfect!

2015_ChristmasLibraryTree

I added some garland to the window in my kitchen. On it I hung food related ornaments, and I think it’s adorable. (It also makes me realize that perhaps it’s time to get serious about hanging some kind of window covering in that window..!)

2015_ChristmasKitchenWindow

I have a few fun little spots around the house too. Here are a few I love.

2015_ChristmasSnowmenBooks

2015_ChristmasEntry

2015_ChristmasGingerbread

2015_ChristmasPiano

 Oh, and my cats are cute.

2015_ChristmasKitties

2015_ChristmasTheo

2015_ChristmasKiki

Merry Christmas! :-)

Christmas Tour 2014

Since it’s our first Christmas season at our new house, I had a lot of work to do in the decorating department this year! I had to find places for all of my items. And I’m loving how things turned out. Here’s a quick little tour!

We’ll start in the entryway. I put together this adorable arrangement that makes me smile every time I pass it. :-)

Christmas Entry Way

From the front door you can see our Christmas tree! But before we go into the living room, we’ll visit the Jane Austen Room. I love how this room’s Christmas decor came together.

Jane Austen Christmas 2014

My grandmother made the ceramic angels on the piano.

Christmas Piano 2014

Inspiration for the tray came from The Fancy Shack.

Christmas Tray 2014

Jane Austen Christmas 2014 - tray and chairs

Christmas Bookshelves 2014

Let’s move on to the living room… It turned out really nicely too! I really wanted a bigger tree this year, but I couldn’t get Matt on board… I’ll try again next year. ;-) This living room definitely wants a taller tree! But even with the small tree, my living room is so pretty!

Christmas Living Room 2014

Christmas Living Room-2 2014

My favorite arrangement this year is above the fireplace. It’s so pretty. I really love the wreath on the window — it’s making me think I should do seasonal wreaths there more often!  Here’s a close up:

Christmas Mantel 2014

The kitties really like it when we have the fire going. Here’s Theo being adorable.

Christmas Theo 2014

I put some garland on the stairs. I started with really simple (i.e., cheap) garland, added some picks with pine cones and berries, some bells with red bows that used to be my grandmother’s, some beaded garland and some ornaments. Pretty!

Garland on Stairs 2014

And last, but not least, here’s an overview of the living room from the stairs:

Christmas Living Room

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!