Look what I got for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

 I have been informed over and over by 'Big Sister' that I am now 'cool'!!  So I guess this is what you have to do to be a 'cool mom'.  Get yourself a jacket that sports the team your kids love:)

Christmas Decor - Part 4 - My kitchen

Christmas Party -2010

 Centerpiece.  Lightbulb is quirky but I like it!  Another one of my very favorite things!

 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.  -John 12:46

 There should have been 12 of us.  A table was added to mine because my table only holds 10 comfortably.  Extra table was borrowed from a friend.

 Dollar General candels become beautiful when wrapped in vintage music paper!  They only carry one size but I stacked them to make a tall candle:)

 I loved how the sunshine was coming in the windows:)

 One couple had a child sick with strep throat so they cancelled at the last minute:(  So the extra table became our wine and cheese table.  Wish I would have remembered to get a picture when the cheeses were on the table.  We filled my wine pitcher - had never used it before so it was fun to have an occasion to use it!

 Last minute brainstorm sent me back to Dollar General for more candles to wrap in music paper.  I then dug out every votive holder I had and lined my steps with them!  So fun and since there were no kids invited it was a wonderful time to do this.  Also kept anyone from going upstairs where I hadn't taken the time to clean!!!!

Christmas Decor - Part 3

My living room.

More sticks.  I bought this huge glass vase at Home Goods on our Columbus shopping trip in November, for this exact purpose.  It was only $30 and I just couldn't leave it there. 
And I'm so glad it now graces my living room instead of sitting on a shelf in the store.  It is SO much happier now!

I decided my old suitcases that I've been using for storage could also double as decor.  And it would get them out of my bedroom which I have been calling the 'store room' lately.

I've had this vintage clothes basket for several years now and decided that it really is too cute to be hidden away in my laundry room.  In there it was always burried under a pile of dirty laundry.  Here it shines in all its vintage glory, holding Christmas presents.  After Christmas I will find another fun thing for it to display!

Speaking of 'vintage' my brass french horn in officially 'vintage' this year!!  20 years this Christmas!  When I was in high school we decorated our classroom for Christmas one year.  A friend bought this horn as part of the decor but she didn't want it when the decorations came down.  So I bought if from her for $15.  And I've never regreted it! 

My large wooden scissors are one of my very favorite things.  (I know I have a lot of 'very favorite things'!)  I thought they needed a prominent spot this season.

Glittered deer was a purchase from Damask Designs last year when I was privileged to be at her shop during her fall sale!

Little Sister, Big Sister, and Middle Sister.  Arn't they adorable?  If I do say so myself.

Folding wooden tape measures, folded into crown shapes.  I saw this idea several years ago in a Pottery Barn catalog and I loved it.  Obviously!  These are vintage.  Restoration Hardware sold one this year and I picked one up for my hubby to put in my stocking.  It is really cool. If you are in the market for one I highly recommend it.  You can also fold them into a star shape for the Christmas season.

Large, red ampersand is also from Damask Designs.  She has the coolest stuff!

Jesus artwork is Sid Dickens.  I love his work!

I sew for a lady that makes the best greenery wreaths at Christmastime.  I sew, then she makes me wreaths.  It's a great trade:)  This year I put one at each of my living room windows.  (did you know that the new trend is to leave the wood work off your remodeled rooms??  That is what I'm telling myself anyway since it's been 3 years since the remodel and there is still no trim put back!!)

20 inch boxwood wreath hanging on a cute old door that came out of the upstairs.  The door is just too cute to get rid of and it finally made it into my decor.  It even has felt pads on it just like all the other furniture gets before it is allowed to touch my wood floors:)

Post card from McMaster and Storm.  So wish that was still a brick and mortar shop!  But hey!  They are on ETSY!!!  http://www.swanandshears.etsy.com/  Check it out.

Paper Whites.  From the same lady who did my wreaths.  http://www.cthelilies.com/ Great stuff, great prices, great lady!

tree stump cake stand and gold crown.

Another shot of the suitcases.  Just because they are cute.

Only piece of furniture left in my living room that is not white.  Found at a garage sale for $15.  I would have slipcovered it by now but I really want to reupholster it.  Think I could manage that??

And finally, the whole room. 

This was the evening of our Christmas dinner with friends.  Girls were at my Mom's.  As a friend said when she got here, 'isn't it amazing how great your house can look when you don't have any kids around!'  Amen.  Right now my living room is covered with Polly Pockets.  It rarely looks like what I would prefer it look like.  But I don't have a toy room and they all share a pretty small bedroom at the moment.  So this is their play area.
And we live with it!!

Christmas Decor - Part 2

I love to decorate.  As the following pics will attest to.

 Yes, those are deer antlers on top of my china cupboard.  They are borrowed.  I have been bugging my hubby almost every autumn of our married life to get out there and use his crossbow and get me a buck.  He hasn't used the bow since we've been married.  Maybe next year...

 Stairway.  Greenery.  Ornaments.  Ribbon.  Poinsetta from my hubby!

 Clear ornaments stuffed with boxwood and some white flowers.

 My tiny trees find a new home each Christmas season.  This year they adorn one of my doorway transoms.

 I have a 'thing' with sticks this year.  Christmas decor - Part 3 will show some more!

 My china cupboard gets decked out each year.  Here are this years vignettes.

 I love sheep.  The spiritual application.  The serenity.  Someday I want to live in the country and own some real sheep!

 Some of my vintage ornaments.  Gotta love vintage!

 More Sheep.

Another nativity.

vintage candles

beeswax angel candle

 Another favorite ornament.

 Vintage Donkey print.

 I love this picture of Simeon holding Baby Jesus in the temple. 

old doll head got decked out too!

A few of my very favorite things!!  The spool of ribbon if from Anthropology and was a fun, surprise gift from this wonderful lady!  I met her in Indy a couple weeks ago to deliver her daughter's flower girl dress and she gave me this all packed up in a really cute white box.  The rest of the stuff came from McMaster and Storm back in the days of their brick and mortar shop!

Did you see Country Living's pattern paper stockings?  They used iron-on lamination from Jo-Ann Fabrics.  I did the same thing only with paper from a vintage map book.  I used the listings of all the city's and I love the look it created.  I did a pattern paper one too.  It will show up in a later post.

Nativity that got missed in my first post!

This year's curtain embellishment.

Another transom display

My wire tree of blown glass ornaments ended up on top of the lockers in the school/sewing/computer/craft room.

Shelves above Middle Sisters desk in the school/sewing/computer/craft room.

Another nativity that didn't make it in the first post.  Not because it is less significant but because the pics were already loaded to this post and saved as a draft.  I didn't want to take the time to re-upload the pic!  This one I found one year on ebay and couldn't pass it up.  I stay away from ebay most of the time now!!

I'm really liking the look of my faux fruit in this glass apothecary jar.

The 'craft' corner of the school/sewing/computer/craft room!

My village houses ended up in the school/sewi.... room too;)

After using some of these 'garage sale find' bells in a friends house I decided to hang some in my own house.  They hang above my sewing machine.  There is supposed to be a shelf on the wall but it hasn't made it's apperance yet so I hung the bells!

My 'nook' in the dining room.  I'm loving the white look:)