Christmas Festivities

Hello Everyone! We have a dinner every Christmas with some close friends. This year our friends Katy and Tim hosted. I had to take a picture of their pretty table. I didn't take the picture with a flash, (the flash makes everything look garish to me!) hence the yellow looking walls. Here's Katy below:
They are such a fun couple - we always have lots of laughs.

Instead of seeing Santa this year, we took a picture by the side of his cabin. None of us had the patience to wait in line:
I think I'm pretty much ready for Christmas. The baking and cards have all gone out. I just need to wrap gifts and clean the house for Christmas brunch with family here at our house. Are you all ready?

A Wintery Mantle

This year, I decided to go for a more Wintery scene for the fireplace mantel. I painted a mountain aspen scene, with lots of texture. I pulled some of the chartreuse and blue colors from the painting and purchased some velvet chartreuse colored pillows ($10 each at Cost Plus), and used some silvery-blue pillows that I already had.

To go with the Winter theme, I used some leftover crystals from the chandelier project on some branches I cut from our trees. Here’s our mantle last year:

It’s a completely different look this year. It’s a nice change from my traditional red that I’ve always used. Here’s a closer up of the mantle this year:

I’ll probably teak it some more as the month goes by. For now, I like the more simple look. By the way, I’ve linked this post up to Layla’s mantle party. Click here for some more holiday mantles!

Weekend Plans

My husband cleaned up the yard and trimmed up some trees a few weeks ago. He left some branches out for me, because he knows I LOVE using branches. See the crabapple branches out above? Perfect for the Christmas decor. I laid out a scarf that I'm using as a runner to catch any falling crabapples. (Need to iron scarf) I've learned that if I leave them alone and don't move them, they will dry right there on the branches.

My youngest has been asking me all month the put up the Christmas tree. This is finally the weekend. She is so excited. We have an artificial tree, because I start holiday decorating so early. Why bother with all the work if we can't enjoy it for a while? Plus, my first job out of college was working for a major insurance company as a claims adjuster. I'm not good at remembering to water my plants, so watering a big ole real tree...it would probably end up all dried out by mid-December, start a fire....

Have any of you all started your holiday decorating? I can't wait for all the blogger holiday links to start, so I can peek into all of your pretty homes!

Holiday Chandeliers

I love chandeliers! I have 9 chandeliers in my home. I think they add a touch of class to every room. My two daughters even have one in their rooms. I often embellish them with crystals, or other interesting items. They are not forgotten during the holidays either. They are easy to decorate with some crystals, jewelry or other similar wire, and your imagination. Here are a few that I've embellished:

The chandelier over my kitchen island is embellished with some fruit picks from the craft store.

Over my kitchen table is a "winter wonderland" chandelier with some twigs from the yard and "ice crystals"

My dining room chandelier: a simple garland from the craft store wrapped around the arms.

Look at this: red velvet. Over the top and gorgeous! Found at Twigs.