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?

Merry Christmas!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

wind squall

snow, briefly

Merry Christmas and Blessed Winter Solstice,

 Happy Winter Holidays 

to All!

Christmas Cheer

Hello! Earlier this week my friend Elle [L] and I made our  lists of holiday and household must-do's and headed out to get a lot done before the cold weather arrived [today! brrr]. L is very efficient; if I go out with her, we get things DONE. And yet...in the midst of  buying trash bags and picking up dry cleaning, returning to Trader Joe's in search of the elusive onion chutney and bacon wrapped dates---we made time to stop at our favorite home and garden nursery for some Christmas joy.

Truly we weren't even shopping---I got a few more bulbs for January, L got some air plants for her always dying fairy garden. We watched with a twinge of envy though as a woman bought dozens of poinsettias and little trees and many festive pine/ candle/ berry arrangements. She said she was having a big open house party this week. Wow.
She must have had a generous budget! And  I could spend hundreds of dollars here, because the ornament selection is amazing.

The store is in a waterfront town, so they specialize in coastal Christmas.

Even coastal mantel decor.

We  liked the little starfish trees here, and seaglass bottles, white pillar candles.

Many other inspirations, too: good easy ideas for deck and porch pots.

I made a version of this one for my front doorstep, but with Trader Joe greens and a burlap bow. I'd like to add some holly too. I can't have any live greens or berries in my house because they can be poisonous if Mo eats them. As indeed he will.

This is the shop from the outside. Nestled among the greenhouses and floral workshops is the original mid-1800s farmhouse. I love that quirky window left of the front door.

Beautiful big slim trees, real. This room smelled so wonderful.

More trees and fireplaces.

Gorgeous poinsettias.

I love the pink shades.

I thought the birch logs with tiny pine trees and bows were interesting and "woodland" or Nordic.

More ornaments..

 They feature these city buildings / landmarks ornaments, but sadly all the NY ones were gone.

Tiny fairy snowmen....

A blue bucket full of fluffy snowmen.

The amaryllis were too expensive at 19.99 per bulb, but I got 5 paperwhite narcissus in a new unscented variety, for January flowers.

Someday L and I hope to go to the city, for the outdoor Christmas Markets. HERE But for now we're happy that we still share this outing every year, begun when we'd go to Fortunoff's to see the tiny trains and villages and all their gorgeous trees. Long gone now, but our tradition lives on.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...