Gone To The Beach: 12.19.2016

Monday, December 19, 2016

All Through the House

"T'was the [week] before Christmas and all through the house..."
Hi! I'm taking a break from present wrapping to show you around my holiday decorated little house. Now, I am not one for tasteful quiet---oh so chic?---restrained and frugal holiday decors. Nope, the more the better, and big and busy is best! I love Christmas and every moment of tarting up my home in all its glittery finery. No, I don't spend-spend-spend. Instead I have many cherished handmade pieces, like my Noah's Ark and the pink ornaments wreath from my brother, my handmade angels in their antique christening gowns.

I collect red and white or red and green quilts, lovely old linens, and faded glory old mercury ornaments from the flea. Usually I get my boxes out the weekend after Thanksgiving, and add as the days pass until every corner of this little house is filled with Christmas joy.

Eight bins, under the bed: 3 with good ornaments, 1 w/antique ornaments, 1 w/ wreaths and mercury glass, one w/faux holly and pine, bottle brush trees, and wooden angels, one w/lights and lighthouse tree topper, one to save (no need to open), with childhood ornament treasures.
But this year because of my health issues I have had to make a very small Christmas instead. It's actually not so much the decorating that's difficult, it's the taking down and putting away over just a few intense days, and this year I knew I could not do that. Plus the challenge of shopping for, cooking, and producing two big back to back holiday dinners may be hard. I realized I needed to conserve my strength. So things are different. Not bad, just---different. Quiet.

First the best news: Santa came early and brought my big gift from my family! A new living room rug. I am thrilled. It is so interesting, so beautiful, and so soft and warm. I love the already distressed effect, good to hide any Mo accidents or other spills.

I've never had a rug here that was not white/ ivory/ pale sand/ so going for the slate blue was a big leap for me. This company shows up all the time on FB and other online places, and their rugs are so beautiful. Wide range of pricing, but some, like mine 8' x 12', was under 250.oo with free and very fast shipping. I'm thrilled, the old rug was stained and so sad looking.

I love how the blue works with my red and white Christmas style. I did have to put away my pickle-green pillows, and instead used the white with indigo coastal pillows. With all the other holiday decor I think the colors work great.

I made these red and white Father Christmas toile pillow covers about...oh 15 years ago? I love toile and especially love that the toile's scene here is Santa Claus and a Tree and toys, very Night Before Christmas. They button on and off and are an easy quick change from my dark blue pillows.

We decided not to do our 8' real tree either. That was very hard for me to accept, but one's health, and living pain-free is more important than this odd yet beloved custom of putting a huge real tree in one's house.

I got a tiny 2' tree at the pop-up junky Christmas store.

The ornaments are my stash of antique German glass ornies and some beloved others.

quilties, note the madder calico and double pink on this cow!
Can you imagine cutting up this quilt top? Sinful, awful.
But I rescued it and have cherished the cow for years.

And old and tarnished silver glass glitter star topper.

The tiny village at the base is by my dad.

It is our Illinois town's Main Street, in his imagination via old photos, c. 1875. I have another very large village of Brewster MA, our family's Cape Cod home, with tiny perfect replicas of the lighthouse and sea captains' houses, and historic places. It includes a skating pond and a windmill, and a harbor with docks and fishing boats, pleasure boats, and Captain Al's fishery. It's too big for me this year, so I'm happily using Main Street instead.

A few other familiar views, tweaked and trimmed and festive.

I couldn't hang my collection of almost 40 hand blown ''floats'' or glass orbs. I just hung the newest, most beautiful one.

In my bedroom, besides using my red and purple quilt, an Illinois Mennonite beauty from my mom's small collection, layered with my shredded but beloved red and green beauty,

I put out a tiny Snowman quilt and added a few of the red Shaker boxes and wallpaper bandboxes in shades of red and green, as well as the usual blues. I love these snowmen!

Oddly some of the red [and one dark green!] boxes are missing, they are one collection I never seem to keep in line and all together. In fact they were ALL lost for about ten years, lol, in my MIL's basement. So sad.

And so this is as festive as it's gonna get. But I think in the end we'll have to go dig into the 8 bins after all. I can't do Christmas without our handmade stockings!

Do you have favorite heirloom or sentimental decorations that you love seeing each year?