Sunday, December 7, 2014

Merry Christmas 2014!

Christmas!  It's my favourite holiday.  And I am one of those Christmas decorators who likes to make sure that every room of the house has at least a touch of the holiday inside.  Every year, I try to do a little bit more, and this year I'm really happy with the decorations I accomplished.  Here are the decorations last year, and here are the ones from 2012.  I tweak a little bit every year and add to things too.

The outside front got an upgrade this year, with wreaths hanging from the windows.  Silly me just realized this year that I have the sort of windows in our house that make it quite easy to hang wreaths.  The only window in the front that is left un-wreathed is the bay window center, so that our tree can be featured there.  I'm extremely happy with how the front looks this year.  New door color!  New roof!  New decorations! 


This year, after trying and failing to get any spare greenery from Christmas trees twice at Home Depot, we hit paydirt the third time.  I loaded up the car and wound up with enough for the window boxes plus a little vignette at the back gate.


This year, we put our usual Christmas ornament wreath on the back door, but I added a garland of fresh greenery to the back deck.


The arbor gets a twist of garland and branches draped from the top.


One thing I noticed while contemplating my decorations this year was that for the last two or three years here at the house, I've done the exact same decorations on the hall table.  Like, exactly the same.  So this year I wanted to do something a little different.



Branches in vases replaced the asymmetrical display of my bust that normally sits on the table the rest of the year.  The deer-handled silver bowl I love so much is still front and center. 


You guys get a candid shot of the fireplace...I forgot to move Corvin's toy mouse collection from its usual spot at the base of the fireplace tools.  ;) 

Anyway, this year I'm really happy with the fireplace mantel display too.  Other than the fact that I broke my precious old-fashioned lettering "Merry Christmas" sign that normally sits up there.  (sad face)  Ah well.


 

The dining room!  We went a bit lighter on the snowflake flurry in here, since the princesses weren't completed last year.  Since I also got my much-desired new chandelier in here this year too, I was excited to drape a garland from its arms this year.  




 We tuck the table that's normally in the living room in the corner of the dining room at Christmas time.  This year, we have a new Niroot Puttapipat book to add to our collection, Jingle Bells.  Niroot's silhouette Christmas card from last year is framed behind it, along with my Iseult statue. 


There's still a definite snowflake theme in here! 


 The upstairs bedroom has gold filigree ornaments hanging from the branches at the windows.


 This year, I twined a garland at the base of the bed, and hung a mini-wreath with gold ribbon at the top wall.



In the Dreaming Room, the smiling bust that normally sits in the entry sits on my work desk with a holiday wreath on her head.  The Merry Christmas scenery globes I made last year sit to either side of her.


 Throughout the house on our crystal doorknobs I hung bells to ring out the season.


 Last year I decided to put my collection of glass bird clip ornaments on their own tree.  The tree was too small, however.  This year I took advantage of a sale at Balsam Hill to buy a pre-lit organic-looking tree with pinecones and berries.  I looooove how it looks!! 


Here are a couple of new ornaments from this year.


The raven might be my new favourite.


Another jingle bell on a doorknob.


The downstairs bathroom has a vintage embroidered tea towel I picked up this summer.


And an old embroidery and rocking chair music box.



The Noel ornament I always hang from my fairy's hand on the coffee table in the living room is now hung by a small wreath pin given to me by a friend, instead of a wire hook.  I love how that looks!


My usual arrangement of poinsettias, Christmas lights, and holly and ivy on the top of the bookshelf in the living room is made a trillion times better by the addition of my Wendy Froud troll girl.  


I love how the light shines through the hole in her holey stone in this picture.


And this year we got a new Christmas tree!  Ever since we've been together, we've used my parents' old Christmas tree, the same one I've used since I was 10 or so.  It was about time to get a new tree, and this year we traded in our 6' tree we put on boxes to make it taller for a 7 1/2' tree.  


We really have a Niroot Puttapipat Christmas.  In the living room, I display another gorgeous pop-up from his book, The Night Before Christmas, in front of the two original artworks we own by him.  


Here's another bonus shot of the mantel after dark, with the lights glowing.  


 And we have the lit garland on the stair rail, and our family Tomte sitting on the bannister. 


Last year's Christmas vignette in the kitchen came out again!  British Santa, and two jars with little holiday vignettes inside.  



Merry Christmas!!!!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Frosty Morning and Cookie Day 2014

The other day, I woke up to a lovely hoarfrost.  The world was covered in a thin layer of icy fuzz.

The frost just makes everything beautiful, even though it's perilous to the plants.  



I think my favorites in the yard were the blackberry canes. Covered in frost, all the shades of green and brown were so subtly lovely.  They looked like velvet millinery leaves for a vintage hat. 



Today was our annual cookie making day!  Three generations...my Grandma, Mom, and me...come together and make cookies.  Peanut butter and Hershey Kiss cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, and frosted sugar cookies.  


The first two types of cookies take about two hours or so to make.  The sugar cookies take the rest of the day.  But I love them!

My theme for the shapes this year had a bit of a theme....




At the end of the time, we asked my dad to take a picture of us.  First he took a selfie.  


Then he took what is, in my opinion, one of the best pictures I've seen of the three of us together.


It was a good day.