Home for the Holidays 2009

Merry Christmas! I’m SO glad you are here. I can’t wait to celebrate with all of you.

Come on in the house and let’s visit a little while. I’ve been waiting for today when all of you would drop by. The arrangement on the front door is new this year. My friend, Cindi, who helped in the Holiday House made some of these to sell and I bought one. Yes, I cheated and didn’t make my own. 🙂 Actually, I did add the 2 big pinecones to it and I really love it on the black door. And that’s a new white Welcome done with vinyl on the door too.

On the foyer table, you’ll see the new tree I found at Ballard Designs and it’s really a good looking tree, very happy I got it. I decided to keep it fairly simple here and add my big hurricane lantern, with the tall tree and a few gold and white pieces.

I had all of these gold and white ornaments already and they work great on this prelit tree.

This cute little sparkly white and gold deer has been with me for a few years.

And this is the hurricane lantern I got last year from Linden Street (JC Penney) filled with 3 flameless candles that I got at Michaels. I love these things! They really flicker just like the real ones and create a nice ambiance. I tucked a few fresh cedar greens around the bottom on the silver platter.

A faux wreath hangs on the railing looking up the stairs.

I had to add some Christmas cheer to my antique mirror. Those Merry Christmas letters seemed to fit right in this spot and a couple of mercury glass votives flank the sides, along with some white pinecones I spray painted last year.

I found this cute brown cone at a yardsale 🙂 and love to fill it with fake berries and real greens. Those berries look real and I found them last year in Marietta on closeout for about 50 cents a stem. You know I love those bargains. The fresh cedar greens make the look and I cut them from a tree in our nearby woods.

Here we have ye big tree! It’s a 7 1/2 foot prelit fake. I’ve been doing gold and burgandy for many years now and will probably not redo this tree anytime soon. I still love it when it’s all glitzed up. I looked for those urns for fake trees for the last couple of years and haven’t spotted any lately, so I painted this plastic garden urn with some brown metallic paint and will share that with you later. Easy to do!

Here’s the tree topper I did for the Birmingham News and I’ll share how to do that with you too. Another easy project!

I tuck the tree here in this corner by the sofa and it’s a perfect spot to enjoy it.

Been practicing taking some artsy shots with my camera and I love how this came out. Glass balls in a gold box that sits on an end table, with some golden beads draped over them, an easy way to do a table display.

White glittery JOY spells out a greeting above the door to the hallway. This is a piece of wood molding tacked above the doorway that I painted many years ago. I love this piece and it will move with me wherever we go.

My cute nativity scene has been with me for probably 25 years now and I love adding it to this little table in the living room. Burlap comes in handy for a backdrop.

Are you planting any paperwhites this year? I did it last year and had so much fun watching them poke through and grow tall with blooms. I threw my 3 bulbs in the garage last year after Christmas and there they have been sitting. Imagine my surprise, when I picked them up and saw some green shoots already coming out, just waiting to get back in some water, along with a couple of babies. 🙂 So, hopefully I’ll be rewarded with those wispy white blooms again in a few weeks.

And my other container of fake paperwhites will stand in until the real ones bloom. I brought out a white yardsale birdbath that I’ve had, adding some red and green balls, real greens and a little fake snow for a wintery effect. I love this!

Another yardsale iron birdbath holds more tiny ornaments and greenery.

And there you have the tree and mantel in the livingroom.

The tree at night, looking back towards the front door.

There is something magical about a Christmas tree.

Moving to the black console table, I loved all this silver last year so much, I did it again. My hubby really likes this table too. One tip I’ve learned is to group like colors together for an instant collection. Most all of this is silvery tones and they all work together.

My favorite iron yardsale urn stands at center and the rest of the silver pieces are the accents. Some is mercury glass, some glittery silver, silver ornaments, all different, but the tones unite them all. Picked up that glittery Merry Christmas at a thriftstore.

I kept the little quail bird on top cause I just think he’s so cute. With the addition of some mercury glass ornaments, the urn fits right in for Christmas too.

That tall piece is actually 2 silver pieces stacked together, both yardsale finds. The tall cone on top is just a silvery Christmas tree glass topper. I’m completely ga-ga over mercury glass these days. Just found those pretty little votives to the left at Old Time Pottery this year, really cheap.

These 2 silver pieces (pedestal and tray) are both yardsale finds and look so pretty at this time of year. I found a whole bag of silver ornaments sometime back at a yardsale too, not sure if they are vintage, but they look to have a little age on them. And all mixed in with the new mercury glass ones, it’s all pretty.

Love the sparkle!

And another yardsale find, this silver candleabra makes another great item to use on this table. I just added a couple of pretty sparkly ornaments on top, with some silver pinecones hanging below and that’s it. You can be sure I’ll add a few more mercury glass pieces to my collection when I find more on sale.

So, that wraps up my house this year! I hope you enjoyed the tour and I can’t wait to see your houses all decked out for Christmas too. Please add your link on, so that we can all come and visit you too.

If you missed the kitchen, diningroom and mantel and would like to see it all, just click on these links for the rest. I’ve been decorating for Christmas like crazy!

Wintery Dining Room

Lime and Red Kitchen

Bronze Mantel

And please be courteous and link back to this post and my party, so that others can join in the fun. I’ve got a busy 2 days ahead and hope to get by every single link and it might take awhile, but I’ll sure try. I’ve got the Lovelady Christmas party tonight that I’ll be helping with and tomorrow night, we host our own Holiday party right here at our house. 🙂

I’m joining in the following parties around blogland too:

Julia at Hooked on Houses Holiday Party

The Nester

Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick

Melissa’s Friday Linky at The Inspired Room

Have fun looking around blogland and be sure and leave lots of comments for everyone. We all enjoy that too!

Home for the Holidays 2009 Participants