Christmas Decorating 101.

so i am finally getting around to posting some pictures of my home.
call it a...

Christmas House Tour

 2014

 

without walking thru my home.
although you would be more than welcome to do that at anytime...
as long as you are fine jumping over mounds of laundry.
it seems there is always some somewhere in the house...

:/

Christmas is my most Favorite time of the year.
i love to decorate for Christmas.
i love all the lights. and greens.
i think it makes a home feel so warm and cozy.
and then good smells and candles burning.
yep. cozy.

it is for these reasons, i decorate (most years) before Thanksgiving actually gets here.
i am totally able to be thankful for all the Lord has blessed me with
sitting beside a Christmas tree...at my Thanksgiving dinner.


some people don't like to mix the holidays.
i am not one of those people. :))

and please, please, PLEASE note...

i am inspired and encouraged by reading blogs and flipping thru instagram.
i LOVE it.
i get so many fun ideas, so much information.


i know it is hard for some.
they feel attacked, and un-creative, and discouraged.
that is not my intention, so if you feel that way, while looking at this blog,
either stop right now, or

please DON'T you dare feel that way.  :)))
know that i am posting these to inspire you, as others have inspired me.
i rarely do decorating the same, from year to year,
i just don't,
so this is also for me to remember THIS year.

know that much of what i do, is inspired from magazines, pinterest, instagram...so many sources.
don't think i am super creative,
i don't know that i am.

just a really good copycat. :))
with yard sale finds a lot of the time...

i hope to find a few more K's for the stair well down into our basement...
the big black one, i got at A.C. Moore, and spray painted it, and the turquoise one, i purchased at Home Goods- one of my most favorite stores...

this centerpiece on my kitchen island, was totally pinterest inspired...i had everything already, and just put it together. i think i got the *fake greens at Flower and Craft Warehouse, years ago. The deer i got at a yard sale this summer, which i was COMPLETELY tickled with, because deer are so trendy right now. the Christmas balls came from Walmart, years ago, and the big pine cones I smuggled home from Chile. I was sure they were not going to be in my suitcase anymore when I got home, but surprise, of all surprises, they were. Yay!! The candle holder was also a yard sale find...there is a teeny chip on the top rim...but i bet ya don't notice unless you totally stare at it, in person. ;)

i think the scale came from walmart, when kaycee was a baby...so that's 10 years old already. :/
the greens came from Henry's Greenhouse...one of my most favorite spots to visit and get ideas from this time of year...you can find them here.

this black cupboard came from Goodwill years ago, for a couple bucks, and I spray painted it black...you can see the pathetic job i did from this angle...but only from this angle. ;)) the globes were collected over the years...for they are pretty trendy right now too. ;))

 

this cupboard had doors on it at one time, and i took them off. i used to have it sitting on an old table, but since have gotton rid of the table, and was tickled when i could bribe my husband to hang it for me. ;)

my lovee, kaden, had to sneak in a picture. he is really a pretty cool kid...but i think he might know it. :/

these glass jars are from walmart, and yard sales. i spray painted those 2 lids...they look way cuter that way in my opinion. ;)

my pinterest inspired, chalkboard painted, wood slice. Also pretty trendy right now. i just LOVE them. a little piece of nature inside.

my newest art gallery wall. the kids have to do this barn picture in art class in 2nd? grade i think? so hopefully curriculum doesn't change, (haaahaaahaa) and in a few years, i will have each childs barn picture hanging here. i spray painted the frames red, because i like a pop of color. some verses printed off the computer framed and hung. and the deer head i just got at Home Goods. i just had too. it wasn't even on clearance, i just flat.out.bought.it.  please know, i do do that sometimes. ;))

 

the candle, and reindeer were each purchased at yard sales. the reindeers horn is actually broken off a bit, but you cannot tell, unless you really study him, and his leg was broken, but i hot glued it, and it's hidden in the greens (which are actually from a broken down fake christmas tree).

this picture is taken in my sunporch, which i just painted all white, and am totally in love with it. i have lots of greens, and trees and lights in this room, right now, and it looks so festive and pretty in the dark, especially from coming in from my driveway. ;)) again, yard sale red twig wreath, and a reuzit swiped sign that i painted chalkboard over.

this sign was pinterest inspired as well...i had this big old board in the basement for awhile now. so, i painted it white, and wrote these words on it using a sharpie paint pen. my most favorite thing to write/paint with now. i ordered them online, have not found them in craft stores just yet.

this Christmas tree is from 1961, i got it at a yard sale this summer. i love it. it has instructions from 1961 with it, on old newspaper. classic. i wrote the verse on the canvas behind it. i LOVED it when i saw it on pinterest somewhere, printed on a tea towel.

this piece of furniture i got at an auction for two bucks years ago, and refinished it. you can see it is not all old...the drawers were replaced with some kind of plywood, or something? but it's fine for my home. ;)) i have been collecting pieces to my nativity for years...i really love it. mirror is from reuzit, and i painted it roughly... tree is from  yard sale. that gorgeous map in the background is from my mother in law. whoop. whoop. :)) she used it for a "blind" in the sun porch window at my father in laws desk, years ago when they lived here. i rescued it from her basement, in her new home, (not enough people saw it down there.) :))))

a chalkboard painted wall underneath my living room stairs...

this pine cabinet used to be in my bedroom. it works really well down here now. it stores my tablecloths and burlap and such. the wreath, was from reuzit i think?, the candle pillars also collected over many years from yard sales, and painted...the goose was from an auction when we were first married...and the window sash i found in the basement, and just pinned an old quilt to the back... i took the double doors off behind this chair. they used to seperate the sun porch from my living room, and they took up SO.MUCH. ROOM. i pretty much had them opened all the time anyway, so now, they are in the attic...and i LOVE the space so much more...and gives me a little more space to play with. ;))



i love.love.LOVE writing.
i write on lots of chalkboards and chalkboard walls often in my home.
i enjoy making signs as well.
although it is all free hand...so it's not perfect.
i like to call it unique. :))
i have no tolerance for stencils, and rulers, and taping when i am painting.
call me impatient?

 :))

i would say this post is long enough.
 i didn't make it to the basement or upstairs,
but there is not much decorating there anyway.

lots of trees and lights.
my love is real trees, but alas, my marriage suffered from getting a real tree,
so i succumbed to fake ones for the last few years...
your welcome honey. :))))

all my trees have come from yard sales.
i do miss the scent of a real tree...i did put some real greens up this year...
which smelled good for a couple days...

thanks for stopping by.
may your December be filled with hope and anticipation
as we look forward to celebrating the Birth of our Saviour, Jesus.

xo.
Mis.