christmas in the living room

I spent most of last week hurrying about, trying to get the house in order for this year's Holiday Home Tour, a charity event here in town. It was a lot of work - my favourite kind of work - but a lot, nevertheless. We cut down and decorated four trees, I made garland for the stairs, set the table, wrapped gifts, arranged flowers and tried my best to keep everything tidy. Saturday saw 250 people come through the homes, and the event was a huge success. I loved meeting some of you who came out, and George stole the show. He entertained all the ladies walking past from his bassinet, all smiles and wide eyes. We even made the local papers!

On one hand, it was nice to know that come December, everything would be finished so I could enjoy the month. But on the other hand, I kind of missed taking my time transforming the house. Though nothing is stopping me from adding bit of Christmas here and there still.

Anyway, here are quite a few photos of the room. It looks similar to previous years, mostly because this is what I'm drawn to. I did, however, add a few hints of blue and green to mix!

Our trees are all cut in the wild on a neighboring farm near my grandparents' farm. We can go in and select trees to help space out others, which helps prevent overcrowding. They are never perfect, but I love the look of them.

It's a fairly sparse tree, so I keep it simple with white lights and my favourite ornaments. The mercury glass feels so traditional, and sparkles beautifully from the twinkle lights.

I keep the rest of the room quite simple, with just some fresh greens here and there.

I love that you can see the wreaths from the windows outside. We have them on all the windows around the original stone house. (I'll post a photo.) I also love that you can see the tree from outside, as it's in front of the window.

I always love the hints of blue in the Cedar Berry and Juniper. The ribbon picks up the blues and green from these boughs perfectly.

And an assortment of blue pots planted with bulbs on the coffee table, another inspiration for the hints of blue.

I loved this pretty dusty blue ribbon.

And I love the classic navy and moss green velvet ribbon. The pretty tags and wrapping paper are from Everyday Occasions. I will post in more detail on those later, as it's one of my favourite parts of the season, as well as the other rooms.

living room mantel

I was struggling this year with what to do on our mantel in the living room. Some years I drape Cedar roping over it. Others, I tuck greens among the glass cloches. Truth be told, I kind of felt like just leaving it untouched this year. I mean the tree is pretty enough!

But it really is a beautiful mantel, and it deserves to be dressed up for the holidays.

Of course, by the time I went to purchase Cedar roping, it was all sold out. So I grabbed the largest bundle of Scotch Pine I could find for all of $14.99, and made my own. I have this really full burlap garland that is about 6 inches wide, so I used that instead of rope, and wired my greens to it. I had to keep it a little short as our youngest would pull on it if it dangled within his reach.

 

I then wove it between the bits on the mantel, tucked a few pine cones in it here and there, and done!

 

The Scotch Pine boughs are very sturdy and hold their own in the garland, which I like.

It also smells heavenly... which I like even more.

 

christmas in the kitchen

We awoke this morning to a winter wonderland!

And all the snow makes the whole house bright. So I made the most of the light and thought I'd show you the very minimal Christmas decor in the kitchen. It really is just tucking a bit of greens here and there. No snowmen tea towels or special Christmas dishes...

I like using Juniper for the shelves as it has pretty blue berries.

And I love that I can see just a glimpse of the tree from the kitchen.

But one of my favourite things about our home is my white dishes against the stone walls. It's such a pretty contrast.

I even made the most of a quiet snowy day and snuggled with this little one for a bit this afternoon.

oh christmas tree

It's the 8th of December, and I've had our Christmas tree for nearly two weeks, and I'm finally getting around to showing you what it looks like.

It's perfect.

However, I'm going to be honest. Right now I have two boys home from school, snuggled by the fireplace - one sleeping, the other reading (the littlest napping upstairs) - and I would much rather curl up with them and enjoy a quiet afternoon than go into lengthy detail of my tree.

Instead, I'll share lots of photos and keep my comments to a few.

This year, we visited the farm of a family friend (neighbors of my grandparents), who has been reforesting some of his land. However, he's running into overcrowding and in order to keep the trees growing healthy, he needs to thin them out to give them room. We decided they would make the perfect old fashioned Christmas trees. So into the woods we went.

 

While I add a new decoration or two, I've settled into a collection of ornaments that I love, so the look hasn't changed much. I didn't put as many on this year as the tree was quite a bit more sparse.

I added a new tree skirt, something I've been looking to buy for a while. This one is from Oliver and Rust and it's burlap with a cream lace fringe. (The pillows on the couch are also made by her.)

My ornaments are almost entirely mercury glass, most of which are from Pottery Barn or Homesense.

And while we have another tree in our family room, filled with the boys' handmade ornaments, a few special ones do get put on the living room tree. Like this snowflake Hudson made, or the thumbprint heart Willen made (note how they've decorated them - or not decorated them - to suit my taste!).

 

It really is my favourite tree. The only thing it's missing is the real tree scent. For some reason it doesn't smell as strong as a real tree from a tree farm, but there are plenty of other greens in the house to make up for it.

Next up is the fireplace!

Christmas in the Living and Dining Rooms

Only four more days until Christmas.

There isn't much I've added to the living room for Christmas, just some greens tucked here and there.

I did have a large garland draped over the mantel, but it was real, and it dried out so quickly. I couldn't deal with the mess. So I just removed it and replaced with my my larger glass cloches with nests under them, and some simple greens tucked around them.

You can also see the backs of the wreaths from the outside windows, and even though they are the backs, they are still pretty.

I used an old salvaged window and ceiling tile to hang some boughs from on the old pine cabinet. It adds some height and character.

I love the beautiful patina.

The simple decorating continued into the dining room - it just has so much character itself, I don't feel the need to add much to it.

I hung a garland over the doorway in the kitchen. It just looks gorgeous draped against the stone work. It's also not near the fireplace, so it's stayed fresh enough.

Just a simple painting on the mantel. We've had a few gatherings and people are always congregating around the dining room table, so it just doesn't work having much on here. It just gets in the way.

I did put a potted tree on the buffet in this gorgeous basket I recently purchased. I used an old linen towel to hide the pail and then tucked a few gifts and pine cones around it.

 I'm looking forward to setting the table for brunch on Christmas morning.