Day after Christmas 2012

A few shots around the house today during the snowstorm.

December Fun!

Christmas season is ramping up!  I've had the pleasure of being Santa's lil' helper at two different library visits at different locations recently.  Hooray for Santa!!

Today was our annual "Three Generations Cookie Making Day" at mom's.  Here, Grandma is showing me how to make her candy cane twist cookies, dad's favorite.

By this point, most of our cookies were packed away.  We made Russian Tea Cakes, candy cane twists, peanut butter with kisses (Tom's favorite), diabetic-friendly peanut butter forked-cookies, and frosted sugar cookies (my favorite).

A Little More Yuletide Around the Cottage

Yeah, I just can't help myself.  My spreading of Christmas cheer around the house won't be sated.

 First I added a swath of iridescent fabric around the bowl on the dining room table, and snowflakes hanging from the chandelier.

Then, bothered that all our festive decor was downstairs, I added a vase filled with evergreen and faux berries to the Dreaming Room.

And bedecked the bottom of our bed with ribbon and a mesh bow festooned with greenery.

(blogspot cuts off the right side of my bed in this blog frame, but click the image to see the whole thing)

What will be next?  Hmm...I don't know, but I do know it will be something...I just can't help myself!

Christmas at the Cottage 2012

 Welcome to Catty-Corner Cottage, Holiday 2012.  We invite you to come inside and stay for a while.  The Christmas decorations took a while to get up, and of course if you know me, you know that there's likely going to be more going up throughout the season, but the base is at least finished. 

The house looks lovely at twilight with the lights of the Christmas tree winking in the bay window, and the lush evergreens in the window boxes silhouetted by the setting sun.

My friend Shane got me started on the hobby of "Wildcrafting" for the holidays, or going out to nature and finding dried and fallen branches, evergreens, etc.  I love the resulting look.

The evergreen lavender stems create a base for this wildcrafted arrangement.

The new arbor gets a simple twist of evergreen and a small wreath.

The base was a twist of faux garland, but then I stuck various evergreen and holly into the twist.

I remember when we first saw the house it was in December, and I was fascinated by the twisting winter branches of the Hawthorn in the back yard.  I still am!!

The back gate by the garage gets a metal basket full of evergreens.

Let's go inside!

We'll start with our entry in the daytime.  I made the bunting draped on the tapestry from vintage Christmas Carol pages last year.  You also get a tease in this photo of the dining room all bedecked.

The entryway table is smothered in greenery, and a wreath hangs from a ribbon atop the mirror.

The entryway is even more magical at night.

I had a feeling it would be a nice touch to put a couple of swags above the doorways in the entry.  But my goodness, for whatever reason I just could not find anywhere that had artificial evergreen swags.  Wreaths and garland, sure, but swags were nowhere to be found.  So finally I found plain evergreen swag bases at Michael's, and just made them myself!

Another shot of the entry table in the daytime.

The entry with a teaser shot of the Christmas tree.

Voila!  Made a swag.

The swag is mimicked nicely by the painting around our Toby Froud Green Man above the front door.

The bust on the entry table gets a sprig of festive greenery in her hair.

I don't recall who gave us this holiday card last year, but I loved the sentiment and tucked it in the corner of the mirror.

I really love this silver bowl with deer on either ends. 

Okay, here it is...the dining room bedecked with 58 (I counted) hand-cut snowflakes I created last year.  Note the larger snowflakes hanging from the corner cabinets.   I still want to decorate the chandelier with white and silver twigs or branches or something.

Another view of the dining room.

On the table I put a vase with silvery glimmering greenery, and surrounded it with
glittering snowflakes in the bowl.  I also picked up glittery silver chargers for the
plates on the table.

Now we'll move on to the living room, where I have a display on the side table of an incredible pop-up book by Niroot Puttapipat of The Night Before Christmas.

I wish I could claim that I draped this tapestry on the chair for Christmas cheer, but really a lot of my decorating I leave out year round just works well for Christmas too.  :)

A bookshelf in the living room displays poinsettias, and Rossetti's ladies are ready for the holidays.

Even the copper watering can gets a touch of greenery.  More greenery is mixed with white lights on the tray.

A view of the left side of the living room, including the fireplace with stockings hung with care.

On the center of our coffee table is a faerie holding up an ornament inspired by Mucha. 

The centerpiece of any holiday home is the tree.  Ours has colored lights and a mix of my German wood ornaments and fiber-tailed glass birds, and Tom's Spider-man ornaments. 

The centerpiece on the mantle is this retro Christmas sign I couldn't resist at Hobby Lobby last year.

A mix of lit greenery, books, candles, and ornaments fills the rest of the mantle.

Even the gargoyle from Labyrinth gets his own little Christmas hat. 

So there you have it...Catty-Corner Cottage is ready for the holidays this year.  Well...maybe there's room for a little more.................

The Holly and the Ivy

Tom and I spent the whole day today from 11:30 - 7:00 working on Christmas decorating at the cottage.  And we're not even quite done yet!  I can't wait to share pictures of everything once we're done!

In the mean time, in honor of my favorite holiday, I did a rather unusual photo shoot on Saturday.  The Holly and the Ivy: A Yule Green Woman.

c. Jason Lykins

c. Frank Tuttle

c Frank Tuttle

c. Thomas Nuth

c. Thomas Nuth

Autumnizing

Our house has been de-Halloweened, and is now Autumnized.