Saturday, November 26, 2011

Revisiting Last Year's Christmas Mantel ...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!  Are you still full?  I sure am!

Before I share our holiday home, I thought I'd show my sweet, new blogging buddies what our Christmas mantel looked like for the past few years:


It was filled with sequined nutcrackers of varying sizes:



Littles fellas perched on top of festive holiday nuts:


And, lots of sparkle and beaded garland:



It glowed and shimmered when it was all lit up at night:


While I loved the *blingy* look, I decided to do something different this year.  Lemme tell ya' ... I was stumped what to do until my sweet 5 year old kiddo inspired me ... can't wait to share it with you !!


Have a great day and happy decorating!




Sunday, November 20, 2011

"IT'S ...

beginning to look a LOT like Christmas (sing it with me now) ... EVERYwhere you gooooo !!"  Yes, folks, Dasher and Dancer; elves; Santa; and the "reason for the season" have landed in our home. 

Being the tease that I am, thought I'd share a few peeks!









I love our cute visitors we get to enjoy for the season!






I look forward to showing you more very soon.  For now, I'm enjoying decorating others' homes for the holidays, too !!

I'm linking up with:

Dittle Dattle/Amaze Me Monday
Coastal Charm/Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/Tuesday's Treasures
My Backyard Eden/Make it Yours
At the Picket Fence/Inspiration Friday

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Nautical Christmas Tree ...

Last year, I was truly flattered to have been hired by local business owners, to decorate the Christmas tree in their shop, Marine Service Center (where they sell all things fast and fun on the water), as well as to spread Christmas around their home.  In years past, the Christmas tree at their store had been a nautical themed tree in blue, red, white and gold.  With the permission of the owners, last year, I traded out the gold accents for silvers ones ... added nautical rope and burlap, along with snowflakes and branches at the top.

This year, I was happy when the owners asked me to come back and "play" again.  They didn't want to change anything from what I had done last year, so, I was happy to recreate the nautical tree again ...

Just a few pics:




I loved adding the nautical rope ... truly something one wouldn't expect to see on a Christmas tree!



Down below, I wrapped the presents in blue paper, along with white boxes (with red ribbon). 


I'm now busy splashing Christmas around their home and look forward to sharing those pics with you, too!

In the meantime ... LOOOOOK what is FINALLY up and blinging away in our dining room !!  I'm in LOVE and can't wait to show you our Christmas dining room!

As always, thanks for stopping by, friends ...




Sunday, November 13, 2011

Fall Breakfast Area

Happy Sunday, folks ... and, come on in!  Welcome to what *used* to be our Fall breakfast area.  It's all looking like Christmas right now, but I wanted to share with you what it looked like just last week! 

There are a few changes to this area since I shared it last time.


The biggest change being that I painted the table base Annie Sloane Old White, and I also asked my sweet friend to recover our chairs.  It's actually extra fabric that I had stored away! 


I also added a bit of this fabric to the center of the table, layered on top of a *burlap-y* looking fabric.  I then placed a grapevine pumpkin on a cream cake stand and covered all of that with a large glass cloche.


I also added "EAT" above the window ... I painted the letters Old White, followed by Chateaux Grey (to tie in with the neighboring dry bar, which is done in the same colors).


A view of the breakfast area from the great room ... you'll spy our Family Fall tree, which has become a tradition in our home every Fall now.  For the last two years, it has been in our sitting room, but, this year, I decided to place it by our breakfast table so that it would feel more "present" during the Fall.  I loved sitting at the table, and staring at all of the pics ... lots of memories always come flooding back, and I love that:



Crazy tree topper:


I fill this tree with special family pictures ... moments which we are so thankful for ... like the first moment I held my son:


Special sayings:

And, fun times with friends (like the day last year that my husband and I renewed our vows for our 15th wedding anniversary, surrounded by great friends, on the beaches of Punta Cana):


The family tree has since been moved to another room, and I look forward to sharing that, along with the rest of our house, which is now all dressed up for Christmas!

In the meantime, come on over and party at these wonderful blogs:

Dittle Dattle/Amaze Me Monday
Kristen's Creations/Share Your Creations Party


Thanks for stopping by,




Thursday, November 10, 2011

Simple Snapshots ...

Just a few snaps of a Fall afternoon taken last week ... I love the sun streaming into the sitting room:


Love how it highlights random leaves and branches ...


and how it bounces the reflections of the mirrors onto the walls:


Wait until you see the sun reflecting off of the Christmas tree ornaments which are in here now ... yippee!

Have a great day,
everyone,






Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Fall Dry Bar

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is only a few short weeks away ?!  I can't ... where has this year gone ?!

I thought I'd share part of our breakfast area today.  Some of you may remember that I painted our dry bar this past summer ... it went from this:


To THIS (I painted one coat of Annie Sloane's Old White chalk paint, followed by two coats of Chateaux Grey).  I then distressed it a bit and waxed (clear).  I also removed the center, glass doors to allow for more of a display area.  Here it is dressed for Fall:


My white ceramic roo from Home Goods (last year), nestled on raffia and a glass cake stand:


I filled a cream soup tureen with a few Fall picks ... you can see the *Menu* chalkboard peeking through in the back that I created out of black poster board and chalkpaint markers:


Another one of the beautiful, handcrafted velvet pumpkins that I won in a giveaway hosted by a sweet blogging buddy, Lela:


Up above, the shelves have a few little pieces of Fall, too.  I recently bought the stainless "Give Us this Day our Daily Bread" piece from GoodWill for only $2!


Simplicity:


And, you may have spied my new rooster prints that I found at Kirkland's earlier this Spring ... perfect for Fall!


Admittedly, though, I have to laugh because this area no longer looks as it does in the above pictures ... it has already been transformed for Christmas!  And, I look forward to sharing it all with you soon!

In the meantime, come on over and play at these fabulous parties:

Dittle Dattle/Amaze Me Monday
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/Tuesday's Treasures

As always, thanks for stopping by!