Christmas In The Country

Come on in!  Grab yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and I’ll show you around! 

First up we have the kitchen.  The kitchen is still in the remodel stage.   But that didn’t stop me from decorating for Christmas.  As soon as you walk in our back door, this is what you’ll see straight ahead:

I made it myself.  Isn’t it pretty?  This is the first wreath I’ve ever decorated that I am truly happy with.  I wanted soo badly to hang it on the door, but we live in an old fixer-upper and the doors and/or frames swell up and it’s hard enough to get them shut ‘without’ anything hanging from them.  So… I hung it at the end of my kitchen cabinets.  Maybe by next Christmas, we’ll have the kitchen completely finished and I can hang it from the door.

Now if you’ll look to your left, you’ll see my pretty “snowflake swag curtains”.   Just because our windows haven’t been framed out yet doesn’t mean I can’t have some curtains, right?:
 
Just look at that morning sun shining in:




Now, let’s walk around and look at the kitchen countertops.  This is on the left hand side of the stove:
  
(OOH!  A Christmas cookies cookbook.  Chock full of delicious goodies.  My son and I are making some tonight.  You’re more than welcome to stay and have some.)  Sorry,…I have ADD…let’s get back to the left hand side of the stove:

And this is the right hand side:

My mom gave me the little salt/pepper/sugar/creamer set.  The creamer (on the right) is missing it’s head I think but I think this is the cutest little set.  And who couldn’t love a snowman…even if he is headless. 


Ok, let’s grab that cup of hot chocolate and head on into the dining room:
 
I love how my little tree turned out.  I’m also lovin’ those cute little fuzzy snowflakes from the Dollar Tree. 




more snowmen…it must be the kid in me:



This little fella has sure been working hard decorating our trees:

with the help of his beautiful assistant of course:

And who can trim a tree without some beautiful Christmas music:


The table is full of mail, book bags, craft projects etc.  So I won’t embarrass myself by showing you that.

But you’re more than welcome to join me in the living room (aka “The man cave”).

This is our “family tree”.  The majority of the ornaments on this tree is either handmade or has special meaning to us.  This tree as hubby puts it : “has to sit in front of hubby’s recliner for his viewing pleasure”…lol:

He likes “LOTS” of color…I like browns, golds, creams, and white.  We just combined them all:





We found these beautiful mother of pearl deer ornaments at the Goodwill for $2 for the set back in the summer.  They originally came from Home Goods and were priced at $7.99.  We are using these as “our ornament for 2010”.  

(the little bear couple swinging on the crescent moon in the right hand corner was “our ornament” from 2005.)


Well, that’s the end for now.   I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Thanks for stopping by!

Go here for Part 2: The rest of the dining room

Linking this post up to:
The Nester's Christmas Tour Of Homes 2010  Head on over there for hundred’s of beautiful Christmas Home tours!
Coastal Charm's Open House

Good Morning Sunshine!

 

I’m so glad to see you!  And thank you for the beautiful performance you put on for me today!  There’s nothing any better than sharing my morning coffee with you.

 

How can something as simple as putting cheap snowflakes in the window be so breathtaking?

 

This morning’s “show” was beautiful!  I had snowflake shadows on my cabinets and walls.  I had sparkly snowflakes in the windows.  White sparkles…red sparkles…copper sparkles…. oh, it was so pretty. 

I tried to capture just how beautiful they were so I could share it with you, but my photography skills suck.  This is as good as I could get, so please enjoy:

(oh…pardon the dust on the light fixture, the maid quit…lol)

Do you see that big white glob outside the right window?   I think my car is under there.

 

Here’s a shot of my “snowflake curtains”:

 

 

Catch ya later! 

Oh… I almost forgot… for those of you requesting a tutorial for the wire angels, I’m working on it  : )

More Angel Ornaments

 

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was going to make some of my coworkers some of those wire angel ornaments.  Well, that’s what has been keeping me busy lately.  Here are 8 more angels ready for a new home:

 

Each one different:

 

 

 

 

I love this one:

 

But I would have to say that this next one is my favorite.  The Swarvorski crystals just sparkle:

 

 

Which one do you like the best?

 

Linking this post to:

Made By You Mondays at Skip to my Lou

Make It for Mondays at Cottage Instincts

DIY Project Parade at The DIY Show Off

Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple

Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog

Boardwalk Bragfest @ Bobbypin’s Boardwalk

Jingle Bell Swag and a Little Angel Ornament

 

Finally finished another Pottery Barn Jingle Bell Swag knockoff.  In case you haven’t seen them yet, here’s the one from Pottery Barn:

 

I love these!  If you’d like to make one, HERE'S THE TUTORIAL that I did last year.  And I’m still trying to figure out how to make a stupid bow!  This bow looks “a little” better than the one from last year, but I’m still not happy with it.  I’ve tried one million different tutorials, but if there’s anyone out there with a step by step “bow tutorial for dummies” that’s easy to follow, please give me a holler!  

 

 

And here’s a little wire angel ornament that I’ve been making for the last few years:

 

  

 

I will be making a bunch of these this year for Christmas gifts for my co-workers and neighbors. 

Here’s the one I posted about last year:

 

 

These are so simple to make.  If you’d like a tutorial for these, just let me know.  I’d be more than happy to provide one.    Well, guess that’s it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned because I’m sure I’ll be making something else…lol…

Even More DIY Ornaments

 

Are you getting tired of seeing my ornaments yet? 

 

These are just some miniature glass ornaments that I picked up at the thrift store.  They were too plain on their own, so I jazzed them up in fishnet stockings (not really stockings…it’s the mesh bag that my turkey came in…lol) and then I added some lace and wire.  

 

More book page ornaments with some bling added to them.  I originally made these to hang in my kitchen window but after throwing them on the tree for their photo shoot, I sort of like them there.

 

And another recent thrift store purchase:

Isn’t she pretty?  She stands about 9 1/2 inches tall and winds up to play “Joy To The World”. 

 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Hopefully I’ll be able to finish a few more things before Christmas gets here!  Catch ya later!

 

Linking up to:

Funky Junk Interiors SNS

Snowmen Melt My Heart!

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Brrr…It’s Too Cold To Craft!

 

Well, I didn’t get any crafting done yesterday.  I went upstairs to my craft room to work on a few things and it was 48 degrees up there!  No thank you!  It’s officially time to shut the upstairs off for the winter.  (Don’t you just love old houses with no heating?)

So what’s a girl to do?

Give up crafting for the winter?  I think not!  Spend thousands of dollars for a new heating system?  Not in the budget this year. 

I turned my dining room into a temporary craft room.  Gotta love those baker’s racks!  So now when you eat at my table, you’ll have to look at my glue sticks…lol… 

Wanna see?

 

 

 

I went through and labeled everything so I could find things a little easier:

 

 

And here I got a little “label happy”:

OOPS!  I smeared the dry erase marker  :)

While this isn’t everything from the craft room, it is enough to keep me going.  (and if I need anything else I’ll send the young un’ upstairs to get it for me…lol)

 

Ahhh!  Now I’m downstairs where the wood stove is burning.  Nice and toasty…Much better!

Just goes to show that where there’s a will…there’s a way!  Now I must get back to my crafting…catch ya later!