I'm so excited to share my holiday home with you today. This is stop #17 of the Home for the Holidays Christmas Tour. Hymns and Verses is just one of 30 blogs who are sharing their holiday homes with you!
I hope you've been enjoying the tour this week. If you missed any of the homes shown on Monday and Tuesday, you can catch up - the full schedule is at the bottom of this post.
Three words that would describe my decorating this year - Fast and Furious! In just two days my home went from fall to Christmas! Christmas carols on Pandora and a very patient and helpful family got me through it! Here we go - here's my 2013 Holiday Home!
This year I placed my grapevine reindeer right at the front door to great you! My husband said - Reindeer don't belong on a porch - they should be in the yard, but mine are the friendly kind that want to greet my guests! I picked up a small tree and placed it in an old orchard basket. I decorated it with a pom pom garland, plaid ribbon, and word ornaments.
The wreath on the door has a pretty, white wooden snowflake in the center with just the right amount of glitter and some white and red plaid ribbon!
Come on inside and see what I did in the living room.
This year I purchase a new faux flocked Christmas tree and I love it! I really like the look of a flocked tree and thought about making my own, but saw this one at Walmart and the price was right! It is decorated in white and silver ornaments - some that I made, some that I've had for a while, and of course, few new ones - some pretty mercury glass balls and glittery bird nests from Home Goods. I found the mirrored star for the treetop at Marshall's and love it!
My mantel features my DIY silhouette nativity with German glass glitter that I made last year (you can get the instructions HERE). I changed it up slightly with a different, more rustic chalkboard frame and a twig star. I found some birch slabs at a local shop and used them as candle bases for my glass hurricanes.
Beside the fireplace is a little vignette on my antique trunk. Sometimes the tiny things get missed in a big home tour, so I wanted to feature a few of those little details today. This little silver bird just felt right under the glass cloche.
And, here's one of my favorite little Christmas decorations, a simple water globe with white reindeer and white wire trees.
I hung some large pinecones from ribbon in my front windows. This year I added some white paint and glitter to the pinecone tips to make them sparkle in the sunlight! A simple chalkboard hangs above my antique library table.
On the tabletop is an old silver bowl filled to the brim with silver and white ornaments, a vintage inspired white sheep, and some mercury glass candle holders.
Now let's head into the dining room!
As you can see, red and white is clearly the color theme this year!
I recovered my dining chair seats with a $5 tablecloth found in the clearance section at Home Goods. I also picked up the matching napkins - also in the clearance section. The centerpiece on the table are just twigs in a rustic vase that I had used on my fall mantel HERE. I removed the fall leaves and added some tiny red, white, and silver ornaments. Tied to the back of each chair with bright red ribbon are some fresh greens.
I dressed up my corner cupboard with some more red, white, and silver ornaments, a Christmas cloche with a vintage style Belsnickel and reindeer, and some pewter pieces.
My antique water table once again serves as my hot cocoa station. I found this sparkly, white bottle brush tree at Goodwill for $6.97! I made the paper garland around the mirror and added red bead garland.
Here's a close up of the hot cocoa station. The silver nutcracker is a Goodwill find from last year!
My old door message center got a Christmas makeover with a simple boxwood wreath and a few more red and white touches.
I made the linen jingle pillow last winter to sell in my Etsy shop.
I had so much fun decorating my new kitchen! If you missed my kitchen makeover, you can see that HERE. Over my kitchen window is a fresh pine garland with some red ribbon and a tin star.
I made the reindeer artwork from the same $5 tablecloth that was used to cover the dining chairs.
On the countertop sits these adorable glittery penguins next to a vintage jar full of candy cane sticks.
Now let's head outside to the back porch.
Since I got the new flocked tree for the living room, I decided to put up my old tree on the porch. To decorate it, I used large wood stars from Michael's that were purchased after Christmas last year on a deep discount. The other main ornaments are just red, white, and gray yarn wrapped balls - because styrofoam is so expensive, I bought a whole bag of glittery styrofoam ornaments from Goodwill for .97 and used them as my base. You would never know there is gold glitter under those yarn ornaments!
My childhood red tricycle and my boy's red wagon filled with packages sit at the base of the tree. The little bear was added last minute and looks like he belongs there.
The table in front of my glider holds an old Coke crate with some vintage mason jars filled with sand and tea lights and surrounded by fresh greens.
Even the swing is made cozy with a warm throw a vintage teddy bear.
Another little table has a crock filled with fresh greens and these adorable cowboy boots that were a gift to my now 23 year old when he was one! My friend was in college in Texas and brought them home for him! I've kept them all these years and love how they look here!
I hope you have enjoyed visiting with me today!
I'd like to take a moment to thank One Kings Lane for being a sponsor and also for giving away a $200 gift certificate to one lucky reader! We also have other great giveaways as part of a Santa's Gift Bag! There are several chances to enter! All winners will be announced next week.
As promised, here's the complete schedule for the Home for the Holidays Christmas Tour.
Worthing Court
French Country Cottage
Atta Girl Says
Town and Country Living
Decor Adventures
Lilacs and Longhorns
Tuesday
Marty's Musings
Mom 4 Real
All Things Beautiful
Making Home Base
The Happier Homemaker
The Lily Pad Cottage
Wednesday
The Everyday Home
Craftberry Bush
Celebrating Everyday Life with Jennifer Carroll
AKA Design
Hymns and Verses
Our Southern Home
Thursday
Stone Gable
Adventures in Decorating
Newly Woodwards
Setting for Four
Back Porch Musings
All Things Heart and Home
Friday
Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Cottage at the Crossroads
Top This Top That
Domestically Speaking
Mommy is Coocoo
Shabby Art Boutique