Hello there, Dear Ones....how are you today? I have a very long post for you today, one that is filled with pictures of the Christmas decorations around our home. Some of you asked to see, so....here you go! :) If Christmas decorations bore you, then you might want to skip this post! LOL! Don't say I didn't warn you -- there are a lot of pictures! Hee.
The first couple are of one of my favorite features of our home in the winter. We have two fireplaces here (the other is in our bedroom -- romantic, right? ....until you want to go to sleep and then the fireplace is still burning bright! Haha!). Anyway....that was a little side-track. So this is the fireplace in our family room. On the mantle above the fireplace, sits our big tv and to the left of the fireplace there, is our Christmas tree. Remember the story of our tree? And that link also has the tutorial on how we put our Christmas lights on the tree. (LOTS of lights. Those years of working visual displays in retail paid off!)
Anyway, you can see why I love this room in the winter time. Glittering Christmas tree, cozy crackling fireplace and Christmas movies all at the same time! Mmmmm. LOVE.
What a great fire -- I know it looks sorta weird in the picture, but that really was a gorgeous fire that night!
Some of the ornaments on our tree. We have a lot of them and most of them are vintage inspired, which I absolutely love. It seems that we add a few to the collection each year and yes, the tree is quite full of lights and ornaments but OHHHH, how it sparkles!! Having so many shiny glass ornaments just adds to that sparkle and when you turn out most of the other lights in the room, the tree really is spectacular! Happy sigh....
If you're just starting out, buy those really inexpensive glass ornaments. They usually come in big boxes and you can get silver or gold or different colors, but they'll really go a long way to adding sparkle to your tree for not much money. Then you can do like we've done over the years and added new, more meaningful ornaments and retired some of the cheaper plain glass balls to make room for the new ones. That way you can still have a pretty tree without feeling like you have to spend a fortune all at once.
Here's our tree in all it's glittering glory. I had to lay down on the floor to get this shot, but I'm really glad I did -- I like it a lot!
A couple more tree shots -- the top half and the bottom half.
And here are a few close-up ornament shots. I apologize for the blur in some but I didn't want to use the flash and wash out the colors of the lights glowing on the tree.
See how old-school some of the ornaments look? I just love that.
The above photo has an ornament in the upper right that's not old-school at all, but is a John Hancock Tower ornament -- we bought it on a weekend getaway in Chicago one year. I love that memory!
The tree and the fireplace. Ahhhh. The photo below, may well be my favorite photo of this entire series. Isn't it cool???
The fire is just so glowy and cozy while the camera is focused on the tree. Totally an accident -- I was just shooting lots of pictures that night, but I looooove how that one turned out!
It may be hard to tell, but the above photo has a bright pink mercury glass (vintage-inspired) ornament right in the center. We found it at Nell Hill's several years ago and bought about a dozen of them. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to put those bright pink, vintage-looking ornaments all over our tree each year. They're SO pretty! (And the best part is, they were only a couple bucks or so each!)
This is our dining room table. I have a two-tone red runner in the center of the table and have red and white candles, ornaments on the trees, candle holders, etc. that we've collected over the years. I love the whole red/white centerpiece. By grouping like colors of your decorations, you can really make more of a statement with what you have on hand.
You can always shop for fun additions to your decoration collection after Christmas when things are really on sale. Plus, it'll be so fun to get those bargains out next year for the first time and you'll feel so great about the deal you got on them! :)
Damask votive holders.....so me, right?
This is in our living room -- the piano is in this room and we have two little end tables on either side of the love seat that I like to put little trees on. On this table, I also added a plate of 'ribbon candy' candles that we found one year. There is also a glittery santa in the frame -- that is a vintage looking Christmas card that I framed! I think my SIL gave me the cards a long time ago and one year, I decided to frame a couple of them. Why not, right? They're such pretty cards!
I call these trees "the white trees" as all of the decorations on them are white and silver. Again, they're REALLY inexpensive decorations but by grouping the colors together, they have maximum impact. (Now, let me just back up and say that I don't do a color theme at all on our big tree!! I LOVE that our big tree is full of COLOR -- lots of colors of lights and ornaments...that's just what makes me happy!)
This is also in the living room.....the sofa and the coffee table in front of it. Here, I grouped some mercury glass candy dishes and candle holders that we've collected with some cool new wood-look candles (Nell Hill's) and a cute little woodland tree with green glitter on it. I love the contrast of the rustic tree/candles with the shiny silver from the mercury glass.
This is the little tree that greets you by the front door. One year, I found a great deal on a set of 3 of these tall, skinny trees. I think they were about $15 for a 2ft, 3ft and a 4ft tree! So, I have mini trees all around the house and those are what I do little themed color schemes and such on. This one is just white lights and inexpensive satin ornaments. The ornaments came in a huge box of 50 for maybe $5. I got them years ago, I think from Walmart.
This is the hutch in the dining room....it's where the Nativity scene is set up. We had a Nativity scene growing up and it was always so fun for us kids to set up the stable with some hay in it and then place each figure just where we wanted it. Happy memories. Do you let your kids do this?
The photo above is back in the family room -- it's the side table right by the love seat. That's my laptop in the photo, right next to a vintage brown/cream bowl filled with vintage-looking ornaments. OH, this photo makes me happy. Isn't that just about the best teal/green color ever???
These blue and silver ornaments are currently sitting in this wood bowl on the kitchen table. I think my sister gave us that bowl. (My Grandma had wood bowls that we'd eat popcorn out of when we were kids. Goodness, we thought those were the coolest bowls ever. And my other Grandma still has some wood silverware that I have to admit, my siblings and I still fight over....just a little bit. I want to eat with the wood-handled fork!) Anyway, I'm rambling again, but the mini ornaments all came from Crate & Barrel.....some last year and some this year.
This fun little birdhouse was a gift from a friend a few years ago. It's currently on the kitchen table too.
A few more ornament shots.....that Santa is another one of my favorite ornaments.
The Eiffel Tower is another fave, not because it's vintage in any way but because it reminds me that we have stood on the Eiffel Tower in real life and that's another fabulous memory. The glittering bird is a new addition this year....it's really, really sparkly in real life.
And lastly, another rather large, but beautifully sparkly vintage-inspired ornament that we bought on our last trip to Nell Hill's.
Do your ornaments bring back many happy memories for you? Do you add a new ornament (or a few!) each year that will bring you many more happy memories in years to come?
I hope I haven't bored you today with all of these pictures of our decorations but some of you had asked and you know I love to take pictures and share with you!
I hope that you're having a great day so far. I've got some work to do in the studio....time to get crafty!
Take care and we'll chat again soon!
