December 2009

Can you believe that Christmas is less than a week away???? I am loving my white lights and decorations so much, I'm already sad thinking about having to take them all down. Next year, I am getting my glitz on earlier, so I can enjoy it for longer!

I went with a much smaller tree this year, a little silver one that I think might be just the right size.  It sets on a table top and below that, I've set a display of little trees and a bird cage full of lights.

For a tree skirt, I used the table cloth that I got from my Great Aunt Caroline's home. Her mom, my great grandmother, made it with squares cut from a WW1 silk parachute and hand crocheted squares. 

The silver tree has so much sparkle to it, that I know I will never do a green one again! I've loved the white tree that I used in the past, but this one is even better.  And since it is so small, I can overload it like crazy!

The table it sits on is in front of a mirror, so that the back of the tree shows. I used plenty of decorations on that side too.  Which saved me from a problem I have had in the past, a front heavy tree from so many things loaded only where they can be seen on the front side!  One year, the big old tree came crashing down because of that!   I have always had to tie my tree to the curtain rod with fishing line so that never happened again.

That won't be a problem this year, since the tree is so balanced!  The mirror idea worked out so well, that next year, I will hang an even bigger mirror behind the tree.   Or maybe a wall filled with mirrors?

My ornaments are a little of everything.  Lots of clear glass balls, vintage gold and silver balls, hand made things, bits and pieces of jewelry, keys, and sentimental things from the past.  I have birds on the tree that were mine when I was a kid, and also a couple boxes of Martha Stewart clip on gold and silver birds that look old, but are actually from KMart, two years ago.

The little lamp shades are from a friend's shop. They clip right onto a light bulb.

There are boxes of ornaments that didn't get unpacked this year, my precious hand painted ones for each family member are still packed away.  I will add to the collection again, I paint and date one for all of us every Christmas. But this year, I thought maybe Sugarwings was still a bit grabby and was worried about breakage.  But she has not bothered the silver tree one single time, since she has her very own little pink tree to work on to her heart's content.

If you would like to make some of the sheet music stars, I have a how-to from last year HERE.

By having neutral furniture and walls, I can change the room to any color scheme by switching out curtains, pillows and accessories. For the holidays, I went with all white.  But there is a big splash of color in the painting that I brought in.

For my antique sales in the past, I had cut an 8'x4' sheet of ply wood into an arch shape and painted a winter mural on it. I used to sell vintage ornaments off of hooks that I put onto the painted tree.  But for now, I thought I'd haul it into the living room for the season.

Yes, its over the top.   But that's kind of what I like about it!

PS- the Somerset Life issue that I showed you in my last post won't be out until January.
This copy is an advance one. I still haven't had a chance to look at it, and I can hear it calling my name to relax and sip eggnog by the fire and read it….