Christmas Home Tour

I love driving through neighborhoods all lit up and I love holiday home tours, don't you?  This year we moved to a 1956 home we are actively renovating and I could barely contain myself to wait until after Thanksgiving to put out the Christmas decorations.  I'd love for you to stop by for an open house tour and then head over to my blog world friends for more seasonal fun.

  Ring the bell and come on in.  I'd love to give your a tour.

Bake, Decorate, and Create for the Holiday

Christmas crafts, Christmas foods, Christmas decorations, Christmas traditions are near and dear to most of our hearts.  It started when I was a kid hearing the season music, the smell of a fresh tree in the house and anticipating the Santa watch on Christmas Eve.  My Dad was very excited about the holiday and went to great lengths to make it special for all of us.  My grandmother made hot cocoa as we little kids waited anxiously and the uncles took turns guarding the door to the Christmas room increasing the excitement until everyone was present and ready.  In that spirit here’s a look back at some of my favorite December posts. Each photo is linked to the original post with recipes/tour/DIY’s.  I hope you enjoy it and hop around to some of the other blogger participants in our Look at Christmas Past.  Clicking on each photo will take you to the post.

12 Days to a White Christmas

Welcome to 12 Days of White Christmas in November.  The collection comes from some imaginative and creative friends with white in mind.  You can find the original blog posts with  more glimmering white ideas in plenty of time to inspire your holiday creations at the bottom of the photos.  Be sure to share your lovely whites with us.

Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to my Holiday Home.  This year I traded in my huge tree for a smaller slimmer one.  It leaves so much more room for guests to mingle about.  I pulled a box of Santa’s from storage that I haven’t used in years. I had forgotten how sweet they are.  When I came across three hand painted Santa’s my late Aunt Gracie made I was really glad I chose Santa for this years tree.  She was a talented artist and loved the holidays.  I keep my decorations pretty simple because too much clutter makes me feel closed in.  I hope you enjoy this tour and please share with me how what your favorite decorating items are in your home.

My Holiday House tour 2012.

Let it snow and enjoy nature.

The snowman vignette.  Those snowballs...just styrofoam, no crafting required! 

I'm decorating in two houses this year,  mine and mom's.  I'm spending a lot more time with her because  I can and want to. She's having total hip replacement in January and another in about March.  Several of my blogs recently have stemmed from some great quality time there.  If you still have your parents, I encourage you to take advantage of your time and share it with them.

Mantel

Pecans waiting to be shelled on the hearth.

A vintage decorative box, recycled vanilla bottle,
styrofoam "snow"ball on a vintage doily.

Break time happens here :-)

Fresh greenery and crepe myrtle branches from the yard in our ash bucket
with a few more snow balls.

The kitchen is where the holidays begin, those decorations can be seen here.

At mom's house:  You can see how we changed the old, way too big, fake tree into an adorable table top masterpiece here. the door DIY sock wreath  I made for mom here and check out the cinnamon/applesauce garland here.  If you're interested in seeing the fabulous west Texas sunsets or other things I found cool, check out my Instagram site here. You can find soup recipes that were adapted for the two of us that are heart healthy and diabetic friendly here and here.

Vintage Christmas Decorations

The old tree took up way too much space and wasn't exciting. We decided to make a dramatic change. I made a trip to the limited shopping spots out here and didn't find an artificial tree worth buying. They were either too big or too sparse-cheap looking.  I headed out to the storage shed and pulled out the old fake tree. The top section really had a pretty nice shape. On the way in to the house I spotted a black feed bucket and went to check it out, to my delight a galvanized bucket was inside. I cleaned it up and popped the tree top in.  Yes!

 Digging through some ancient boxes from Christmases past I came across a couple garland strands of silver bells mom didn't remember when she bought and a vintage herd of little deer.  A theme was born.

 White lights, a striped bow, and burlap coffee bag and we have a sweet new space saving tree.

Have you found a way to re-use old things?  Please share!

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