My Happy Holiday Home Tour

Hello and Welcome to my happy home

all dressed up for the holidays.

Last night when I was taking these pictures, a gentle rain was falling.

Our holiday lights combined with those of our neighbors made the gloomy evening much brighter and cheerier.

Welcome in.

Feel free to hang your coat.

I've got my hat & scarf parked here with high hopes that we will see at least one snowfall this winter.  Fingers crossed.

Could I interest you in a cup of hot chocolate?

The foyer table is dressed up for the holiday season.

It will come as no surprise that shades of blue feature prominently throughout my home.

Across from the foyer table is the living room.

The tree in here features my parents collection of ornaments.

This is where I start my day with the tree lights on, a warm cup of coffee and often a cozy Christmas book to peruse.

Just past the living room is the large island that is kind of a central point in the house.  In the fall I purchased this large wooden tray and enjoyed decorating it with pumpkins and gourds.

Here it is all spiffed up for Christmas.

In the background you can see the kitchen.

You've seen it before, but I'll take you in to see a few little vignettes.

This wooden tray was found at the thrift shop.

I added a bit of vintage whimsy and tucked it into the corner where it brings back memories of childhood Christmases.

While doing the dishes, this is the view.

Christmas cards seem to dwindle more each year.

I do appreciate those that I still receive and enjoy seeing them and being reminded of the special people who sent them.

Just past the kitchen is the dining table and hutch.

Everything on the table was thrifted, including the table runner which looked brand new and couldn't be more perfect for the color scheme I was working with.

Finally we make it to the family room.

Christmas music is playing and the fire is lit.

The presents are wrapped and soon it will be time to gather together and make new memories.

Thank you for visiting today.

As you leave through the garage door, my whimsical snow couple and I would like to wish you

A Very Merry Christmas

and

All Good Things in The New Year!

Cozying Up The Gloomy Days

Another dismal day.  So far this month seems to be one after another with sunshine in short supply.  My tree will most likely remain in place for the rest of the month.  The lights stay on all day and help immensely in combatting the gloom.

Since the tree is totally decorated in snowflakes, icicles and snowmen, it looks suitable for this season of winter.

I am secretly hoping to see a bit of real snow before I tuck it away, but it's not looking too promising.

This post isn't meant to be about the Christmas tree as I'm sure most of you have moved on from that subject and into the fresh new year.

Instead, I wanted to share the built ins we added to each side of the fireplace in our family room.

I did put the rest of my Christmas decor away which necessitated shopping the house for items to accessorize with.  Books in blue and white, pine cones and snowmen came in handy as I wait for the snow to fall outside ;).

Before I put the Christmas decor away it looked like this.

A wonderful new place to spotlight my Christmas memories.

Everything from vintage Gurley Santa candles to photos of my boys and grandson on Santa's lap.

This project was done in November when the bookcases were added to the living room.  There was one little problem at the time.

The cupboard manufacture inadvertently sent two left cupboards for the other side of the fireplace.  So, I decked the one side with a few more old memories and the area to the right was a big blank hole.

Christmas photos were taken with that side left out.

I'm happy to say that last week the missing cupboard was put into place giving me one more spot to add some winter touches.

I do love the garden beauty on my 2023 calendar reminding me that although things are looking a bit bleak outdoors, the garden is tucked away resting up before the growing season gets underway once again.

I do hope that your new year is off to a pleasant start.

❄⛄❅

Cheerful Christmas Decorating

The amaryllis that was just planted in my last post has come and gone.  It was in bloom on Thanksgiving and sure was pretty while it lasted.

The cactus that was loaded with buds has also done it's thing for the year.  I now know it is a Thanksgiving cactus.  It, too, added beauty to the house as we celebrated Thanksgiving.

Now they shall both be treated as houseplants until spring when I will move them outside.

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying these days leading up to Christmas.  Are you busy decking the halls or have you already finished?

Mine has become scaled down to a very manageable process.  I must say I am really enjoying it now.  Everything has been decorated for a week.  I do have fun tweaking things here and there.  

The little oil painting above was a recent thrift store find.  It was in a very dated frame and was tossed into a bin with a very low price tag.  I'm sure it had been cast aside in favor of modern pictures found at places like Hobby Lobby.  

The little boy pulling his fresh cut Christmas tree up the lane to the farmhouse transported me to days gone by.  The rolling hills covered in snow provided such a peaceful setting.  When I turned the painting over there was an address label the artist had placed there many years ago.  I don't know why her beautiful work wound up in the thrift store bin, but I wasn't about to let it remain there.

I did set it free from the dated frame and then added it to my hutch.

It's small size makes it an ideal piece to use in little vignettes around the house.

Another thrift shop visit yielded this DECEMBER frame.

Actually it was in a box with 11 more frames.  One for every month of the year and boy are they ever pretty.  

I spent some time last night going through my photo albums in search of a suitable picture for December.  It seems I stopped having pictures printed in 2010.  It sure was a trip down memory lane to look through all of those albums.  I then looked through the albums on my phone and still couldn't find a photo of all of my (small) family together at Christmas.  So, I settled for one of my son and his girlfriend with a snowman they built on one of the only Christmases that we had snow.

At the top of my to do list this year:

Get one nice photo of the whole family together for Christmas.

My Christmas decorating doesn't change much from year to year.

I kind of use the same elements in slightly different configurations.

This year I was craving the comforts of Christmas past in my kitchen.  Grouping select pieces of my vintage treasures with a bottle brush tree seemed to work on the countertops.

Christmas Cheer next to the stove.

Another little corner and a place to enjoy my favorite ornaments up close.

The view from the kitchen sink.

Couldn't resist these cheerful tea towels.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without the sweet little toy stove.

On a recent phone call with my eight year old grandson, he told me that the two things he wanted to do when he comes for Christmas are:

1:  Make blueberry pancakes with grandpa.

2:  Decorate cookies with lots and lots of sprinkles.

I can see I need to add something else to my to do list:

Purchase lots and lots of sprinkles :)

Books and Flowers

While the winter garden lies (mostly) dormant outside, I'm glad we can still exercise our green thumbs a bit with winter blooming bulbs.

There is one thing that is still thriving in my outdoor garden.

Pretty Pansies

While watering them last week, I couldn't bear the thought of watching their pretty little faces shriveling up so I snipped some of the prettiest ones off and laid them out on a sheet of paper.

After bringing them in the house I laid another sheet of paper on top of them and gathered up some of my heaviest vintage books to set on top.

Voila... my homemade flower press.

Those old books come in handy for more than just reading.

Speaking of old books . . .

Have you ever purchased anything on Facebook Marketplace?

I never had until the recent day when I found myself a bit bored and began scrolling through the offerings.  It seems I'm always reading about people who find great items there so I thought I'd see what it was all about.

Before long I stumbled across this beautiful nature library.

Published in 1926 with the titles of

Animals, Butterflies, Birds, Wildflowers, Trees & Garden Flowers and look at the beautiful spines!

I was instantly intrigued so I contacted the buyer to ask a few questions.

In the course of our back and forth conversation I learned

that she ran an antique shop in her small town and had bought the books from a fellow antique dealer.  She had owned them for ten years.  Now that she was downsizing her home she had to let go of some of her things.  She also shared that as a master gardener she loved these books.

When I was downsizing my own home two years ago, most of my book collection had to go.

So, naturally, when I showed them to my husband his first question was...

Any guesses???

If you guessed "where are you going to put them?"  you win the prize :).

Actually he says that often.  In this instance, though, he had a point.

The thing is after also seeing a few glimpses of what was to be found inside the covers of these books, I was a goner.

Though I no longer have bookcases, I put that old saying where there's a will, there's a way into practice.

My little living room is one of my favorite spots to read and dream.

A little vintage vignette in that very room is just the ideal spot for them.

Books and flowers.

Two things that are adding pleasure to this endless string of at home days.

What's adding pleasure to your days?

                                                            

                                                                   

Bringing Light To The Dark Days

It sounds like parts of the northeastern USA are preparing for huge amounts of snow.  Apparently we in NC are included in that storm system.  Although we are seeing it in the liquid form of rain.  If you are in the path of the heavy snow, I am thinking of you today.  With all that we are currently dealing with this holiday season, power outages and other storm related issues are the last thing needed.

 In an effort to bring a little light to this dreary day, I went around the house this morning and lit a few candles and overrode a few of the timers to cheer things up a bit.

This little garden snowman has his mower ready to assist those of you who need help clearing your walks and driveways.  Any takers?

I had fun decorating this area for the first time this year.

This is the view from the kitchen into the "smart space".  That's the fancy name for laundry room.  Considering that I do laundry, work my job daily, check my home computer, wrap gifts, pot houseplants and store much of my seasonal home decor, gift wrap, office supplies, laundry supplies, cleaning supplies and books I guess it is a pretty smart use of space : ).  

The door goes into the garage.  The built in bench is a great spot to put on or take off your shoes.

Since I do spend a lot of time in here it seemed an ideal spot to spread a bit of Christmas cheer.  Even better to make it vintage Christmas cheer.  So I selected some of my favorite old ornaments to hang on the tabletop tree.  The wreath hung there a few days when I had a lightbulb moment.  Literally.  Last year my neighbor had given me a strand of battery operated lights with little clothespins attached.

I decided to put them to use on my wreath to display some of my cherished old Christmas cards.

Ah, the good old days when we looked forward to receiving cheerful Christmas greetings in our mailbox all month long.  I'm one of the people who has been holding onto that tradition even though I see it declining more every year.  This year I bought the cards early.  When it came time to prepare them for sending, the motivation was nowhere to be found.  I found every excuse I could think of to avoid the task.  But, since I had bought the cards I was going to send them.

I've been dragging the task along all week.  Most have been mailed and the rest will be done today.  Last night I was reading about how overwhelmed the post office is.  Chances are the last of my cards will be late to arrive.

Bah Humbug!

I know a lot of us have wondered whether it was worthwhile to decorate when the holiday visitors would be in short supply or non-existent.  I'm glad we went ahead and decorated as usual.  There is a certain comfort to be found in the decorations collected through the years.   Plus, the lights are beautiful every day.  Starting in early December I begin the day with my cup of coffee in front of the lighted Christmas tree.  Evenings are often spent watching a Christmas movie with all of the Christmas lights glowing.  Christmas lights will always be magical to me.  Perhaps more than ever this year.

🎄🎄🎄

Holly Jolly

While I was getting my outside morning light today, I collected some greenery from the garden.  Rosemary and two types of holly. Back when I chose the plants for my garden space, I put a lot of thought into favorite plants that would serve more than one purpose. In other words, they needed to be not only pretty, but also be something that could provide bouquets, be edible, provide shade, encourage beneficial insects, be food for the birdies...  Well, you get the idea. With such a small garden, it was an exercise in restraint.

Hollies that provided beautiful berries made it onto the list.

We grew many different hollies in our last garden.  They do well in our naturally acidic soil.  Even though there were several varieties, I was usually hard pressed to find berries to use at Christmastime.  Sometimes the birds beat me to them and sometimes the plants didn't produce.  Therefore, I researched a size suitable for this garden and learned they were best planted with a male and female plant in close proximity.  When they were planted last summer they looked a bit scraggly.  But, it seems they did whatever they had to do to produce some beautiful red berries.  I was able to clip enough sprigs for an arrangement and there are still plenty for the birds.

🐦🐦🐦

Just the pop of red I was looking for and the rosemary is adding a nice pop of fragrance.

How are your holiday decorating plans progressing?