Christmas Simplicity

Just one week before Christmas and I'm done decorating! 

I am listening to the most beautiful version of Andrea Bocelli and Mary J. Blige singing "What Child is this" as I type. You see Todd surprised me today and picked up some  Christmas CD's for a steal and they sound amazing on the new, really old large speakers that a customer of his was throwing out and told him he could have if he wanted. Thanks Karen!! He place one of the speakers in the stairwell and the acoustics are nothing short of incredible because of the old plaster walls and ceiling.

I was excited to see how our decorations would look in our living room and dining room with the custom blue I created that I now call "Bye The Sea Blue" I have always loved a simpler look when it comes to Christmas and even though I was oh so tempted on more than one occasion to buy more decorations, I was good and didn't and I think that it all came together pretty well.

I love my feather trees and the I think these red berries that my friend Tracey gave me one Christmas have got to be my favourite. I repainted the peace sign a soft grey and the base on the candle holder a deeper turquoise.

I finally filled our frames with family photos, some frames are new, some are thrift store finds I painted white and one of mom's paintings is in center below. I have had this red wreath for many years as well and love how it pops on the blue wall.

 It feels magical and cozy at night.

 I also love my little sparkly stars. Inexpensive burlap garland is casual and warm against the blues and whites.

Of course I can't forget my seashells and mixed them in a antique ironstone bowl with large pine and sugar cones for an easy centrepiece. 

I adore this antique topiary tree that I found for $20.00 quite a few years ago. I had added some white lights to it and think this is the perfect spot for it in the basement stairway landing just off the kitchen and just makes the kitchen glow when turned on. A cute Christmas verse on the chalkboard, spruce branches in a pitcher and Christmas balls in the colurs of sand and sea are easy to do and easy on the eyes.

Although there are still items on the to do list still to do that make it not picture perfect,

it is all perfect to me, 

right now. 

Enjoy the next week. 

In the midst of craziness, don't forget to take a moment for yourself. 

Pour a glass of wine, put on some beautiful music and light a beeswax candle and relax even if for 10 minutes.

And my prayers go out to the families of Connecticut who have suffered such a terrible loss.

It is so very very tragic and unimaginably sad beyond words. 

Bah Humbug and Natures Bounty

As you may know, they have already started playing Christmas music on the radio at the start of last week and every time I heard one, I would reach over and turn down my radio,  saying to myself, gawd it's not even December yet! 

Then on Saturday, on my lunch I find myself drooling, when I spied at the local grocery store all the  gorgeous fresh greenery and decorative shiny balls, pine cones, faux pomegranates all on long sticks,  oversized large berries in red and gold and picture perfect birch logs for your urns. No word of a lie, I could have dropped $100.00 easy but that wasn't going to happen, but what it did do, was

it somehow got me into the spirit a little already!!!!

There are those people,  who are all ready for each and every holiday season with tons of time to spare and as much as I wish I was,  I admit I am not one of them but then when we were blessed with unseasonably sunny, warm weather this weekend we decided to take advantage of it for once and put up our Christmas lights instead of doing the usual freeze your hands and bum off thing. 

 So while I still had visions of gorgeous urns dancing in my head, I coerced

 Todd to drive me to cut branches from some road side trees for ours. I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to find some nice ones but we only had to drive east for a few minutes and then took the next dirt road north. I always wanted to see what kind of houses were on this dead end road since I drive by it on my way home from work each and every day and much to our surprise there was only one house on the entire road which meant lots of trees belonging to no one were mine for the trimming. 

The first stop, I excitedly jump out and am looking way up at some beautiful feathery branches to trim that are mostly out of my 5'1ish" reach, then I look down to my absolute horror to find at the base of my feet a half eaten massive bird carcass!!!  Of course I was freaked out and had to ask Todd to cut my branch that I couldn't reach but really I just couldn't stand the site of that poor dead bird anymore and couldn't wait to get back in the truck.

We  stop a few more times and I make sure to properly and responsibly trim the trees and end up  getting my feet soaked in a mucky area just to get to some red dogwood branches. At this point Todd keeps saying to me, you've got enough, you got enough but I know it takes a lot to make a nice urn so of course I ignore him and keep trimming.

Once I think I may have enough, we go back to the main road on the hunt for some fallen birch logs and I have almost given up when Todd spots a bunch of large branches just off the road and thankfully not in swamp land! 

Then when we are almost back at our front door, literally just a few doors down we make one last stop at the side of the road to trim some gorgeous red sumac. 

When I get back to the house I trim some stunning blue green spruce branches from our backyard  trees. We added some leftover potting soil to stick the branches in and after layering my branches I topped it with some pine cones I already had and some silver disco balls I bought from the bargain store for $5.00 each last year.

Then to make it just a little more earthy and rustic instead of chopping up the leftover large branches I decided to just casually lean them on either side of the door for some visual height and texture.

And while I'm at it all, getting more and more into the spirit, I can't help myself and end up bringing out my mini Christmas tree for the front porch.

LED lights will get nestled in the branches for a pretty night time display.

To be honest it was really hard to walk away from that grocery store without spending any money for our uns but I am so happy that I did and ended up with stunning urns without spending a cent and so I can officially say, I'm in the spirit,

well,

almost.

Are you?

Getting a little Christmas on

This weekend was nothing short of spectacular weather wise, and I was in the mood to stay home yesterday and try to add a little festive decor to our home in spite of the fact that we are under renovations in our living room and front hallway.

  

 My little tree graced our front porch antique table

and holds a special meaning to me 

I kept it simple and used very little to create an uncluttered

impact with decor I already had.

I simply adore sugar cones, there beautiful shape and texture

Our front door is one of my favourite things about our home with all it's aged crackled patina and original old wavy glass. 

The sun poured in and even though this is an uninsulated and unheated porch it gets  as warm as the rest of the house on winter days like this and is such a cozy place to sit. 

A strand of red berries and lights make our back porch  glow and is welcoming to come home to when

it is dark after a long day.

After a trip to Ikea to return the chairs and one ottoman I couldn't resist the great day and got outside to trim some branches off our pine, spruce and cedar trees for our window box on the garage. Then I took a drive to mom and dads for a quick hello and to steal some dogwood from their back yard which was the reddest dogwood I've ever seen. When we put this planter box up last summer, I had grand visions of it at Christmas and it has turned out much to my liking at no cost at all.

Hope you have a great week!