Christmas Tablescape

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are ready for the chaos that will now ensue!

Today I'm sharing my table all set for a holiday gathering. 

Now let me give you some details on how I got there.

First decide how you want your table decorated.  Since my living/dining room is 'L' shaped and pretty small I will usually keep the same theme in the entire space otherwise I think the house looks disjointed.  Now if you have a separate dinning room you can have a different theme than the rest of your home.  You could use the dinning room's wall color to inspire your decorating or even the style of furniture you have in the space.  Example - If you've got red walls you could use a red and gold in your decorating.  If you have more traditional furniture you could use a more traditional/formal or Victorian theme to decorate the room. 

This year my theme is Woodland Wonder so I have a lot of trees, deer and natural elements.  I pulled that into my dining room area as well. 

I tried several tablecloths and settled on the light blue one.  I wanted one that wouldn't take away from the place settings and the centerpiece I made.

Next decide on your plates, napkins etc.  I found Christmas plates and cotton towels at Walmart.  Yes these are kitchen towels.  They are cotton and large and I thought - PERFECT for napkins. 

They go well with my theme. 

I decided to make my table less formal this year so I opted for my white everyday plates.  I LOVE white plates, they go with everything and you can mix and match for an eclectic look.
I put the large white plates down then laid the 'towel' AKA napkin over it.

On top I put these cute Christmas plates I found at Walmart.  Each one is different.

Then I added silverware, glasses and a coffee mug.

My next step was to decide on my centerpiece.  Again keeping with the rustic outdoor theme I found a galvanized bin at Walmart.  I filled it with some cut tree branches and pinecones.  Then I added 2 strands of battery operated lights, 2 lighted sticks and several more pinecones and ornaments for a bit of bling.

I simply must have some bling!

 

 

Then I stood back and looked it all over.  I thought it still needed something else so I bought 2 small trees and put them on each side of the centerpiece.

Finally I added something a bit shinny because well lets face it I love bling and anything glittery or shinny.  I added a few mercury glass tea lights and finally the salt & pepper shakers from my childhood.

 These are 'supposedly' a set....I think it is a bit odd but hey I'll go with it!

TIP - Make sure your centerpiece looks good from all sides, remember even though you may pass through the room and see the same side every day someone is going to see all sides of the table when you sit down to eat. 
To make sure the centerpiece looks good from all angles I will sit in each seat and look at the table from each viewpoint. 

Finally I decorated my buffet with the same theme.  I took several faux trees; some with lights and some without, placed them on my buffet and wrapped them with that roll snow. 

To finish the effect I added these large deer, pinecones and some more cut wood from an old tree. 

 These deer have a bit of glitter on their antlers and necks....must have some glitter!

At night the overall effect is cozy with the lights off. 

I'd love to see your dinning table decorated for Christmas!  Do you go all out or keep it simple?

Now to the outside.  We are having some issues with our roof lights and we've still got snow on the roof so my husband hasn't been able to get up there to see what's going on yet - my guess is squirrels.  They love to pull the bulbs for whatever reason. 

We still have a bit of snow on the ground as well.  The exciting bit is that the weathermen are telling us that we could have a true White Christmas with snow Christmas Day!  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  How magical will that be!!

Between family, friends, parties and kiddos activities I hope you take some time out for yourself and to remember why we celebrate the season.  Of the small child born so long ago who preached peace, love and understanding.  It is during this time of the year that I hope those values are reflected by the world we live in.  With all the stress and horrible happenings lately please take time to remember there is still good in this world.  Let us be kind to one another and love our fellow man.  I know we can make the world a better place, one good deed at a time. 

Thank you so much for reading and your support I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas and a joyous and happy New Year.  I'll be off next week but I'll be back in January showing you some tips on storing your Christmas decorations.  I'll also be sharing a really easy and tasty white chicken chili recipe as well as my winter décor and some Valentine's Day crafts.  So please come back! 

Again,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Victoria

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Christmas home tour

Happy Holiday's!

Today I am going to share my home decorated for the Christmas season so grab a cup of tea or hot cocoa and let's get started. 

When you walk in the front door you are greeted by my Christmas gift.  Prior a small glass table stood here and I've always wanted something bigger with storage and my husband found this table and I love it, love it, love it!!!

 On the top I put my glass balls.  This is an easy craft and looks great lit up.  I used these last year on my mantle, you can see that here. 
When you look out from my entry you can see my mantle and tree.

 This year I kept my tree silver/white and blue.  I have snowflakes in different sizes on the tree. 
This is one of my favorites and it is from the dollar store.

 I also have several large snowflakes on the tree; because of the tree's large size (9ft.) I can get away with several of these large snowflakes.  They are also from the dollar store.

 I love deer and have several on the tree as well. I just tuck them into the tree.

You can even see that I have blue and white snowflake lights! 

 

Next to the tree is the mantle.  This year I was intent on going with what I was wanting to do last year... Here is my inspiration.

 



My husband is not a fan of very rustic so I had to be careful how rustic/farmhouse I went but he does like the outcome.

I got the bells via Amazon and the stars at a local home store (At Home).  The orb is older from Target.  I got the windows from a local antique store. 

 

My home is small only 1100 sq. ft. on the main level and the tree is big, really big, so I have to get a bit creative with furniture arrangements.  For this Christmas I moved the china cabinet to a small wall opposite the mantle.  It houses my collection of Rudolph items. 

 



 On top I put several trees.  They don't really go with my theme but I have to consider my husbands likes as well and he isn't a fan of the very rustic. 

 In front of my couch I've got my coffee table that I decorated with the same candleholder that I used at Thanksgiving. 

 I got it at Kirkland's.  You can buy them already decorated but I chose the plain one so I can use it every season.  For Christmas I bought some large pine picks and put them around the piece. 

If you turn to the right there is my dinning room.  I'll be sharing this next week but I decorated my buffet with its sad broken leg (yep still not fixed cause that is how I roll) with a lot of faux trees and some large deer. 

Several of them light up but I'll share this next week in detail. 

 

In my kitchen I've got my Moms old salt and pepper shakers and a Lenox Santa.  I remember having the Santa and Angel on the table every Christmas.  Supposedly the Santa and Angel go together which seems very odd to me but hey I'll go with it. 

 

 In my metal fruit tier I put some small faux pine, a silver gravy boat and tucked an ornament in for a great effect. 

 On the ledge of the window between my kitchen and dinning room I've got my collection of Nutcrackers. 



The small one is actually a smoker for incense.  My husband got them last year when he went to Germany for work.  I sent him to the Chriskringle festivals.  I am sure he and his work colleagues were confused but once they went and saw all the food and got some glug (warm wine drink) they had a lot of fun.  My husband said they went every night. 

 

Now heading downstairs I've hung several deer head and Santa pictures on the wall.

 I've got my Irish Santa on the landing.

 

Once in the family room I've got some pillows on my large couch.

 



I've also got a small tree in the family room.  This year I bought a new one from Walmart.  It is 6 foot tall and flocked.  I really love it but if you buy a flocked tree BEWARE - it makes a real mess when you put it up. 

 



Here I hung the banners I made from Christmas cards.  I also decorated this tree entirely in Target dollar spot gift tags... yep gift tags.

 

I just tied them to the branches!!  I also added the chalkboard placeholders that I bought for Thanksgiving.

 I topped it with a snowman's hat the I got for $5.00 at the home store At Home.  Super cute!



My bookcase is next to the tree and here I places several more Santa's from my collection.

 

 In the bar area of our basement I placed another tree.  This one is decorated with a golf and fishing theme for my husband.  I even have a fishing Santa. 



 When decorating don't forget area's of your home that guests frequent like bathrooms.  I put a candle and a Santa in my main bathroom along with nice Christmas hand towels for guests to use.

On doors throughout the house I've hung the 1970's plastic melted Christmas thingies.  I don't know what to call them but we had them for all seasons and my Mom has given them to me.  I just love them and they remind me of my childhood. 
I've got several Santa's

A wreath, snowmen, Christmas trees and even Rudolph. 

Well that is it!  I hope you enjoyed the house all decorated for the holiday's.  Next week I'll share my dinning room tablescape and my outside - we do it up BIG so make sure you come back! 

 

I'd love to hear back from you.  How many tree's do you put up during the holidays?  What do you decorate with, is there a theme? 

Thanks for stopping by I appreciate your support.

 

Victoria

 

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Door 'wreath'

Sorry I am a bit late in blogging this week I've had a series of unfortunate computer issues to deal with but now that everything is resolved I can show you what I did for my Christmas door 'wreath'!

You know I like to be out of the box a bit so what better type of door wreath could there be but a picture frame?  None you say and I'd agree!

I got the frame on sale back in August and knew I wanted to make a Christmas door wreath out of it.  I played around with bells, ornaments, bottle brush trees, snowflakes and even Santa's on the frame - the possibilities are endless. 

In the end I chose the cheapest and most glittery one to do but that is how I roll.  I love glitter and anything shiny and as usual there is glitter everywhere from this project.  (insert big BIG smile here)!!

To complete this just like I did you will need a few things.
Dollar store snowflakes
Dollar store ornament
Dollar store bottle brush tree (I took the base off the bottle brush tree to make it easier to place on the frame)
Glue gun and glue sticks
Picture frame

I played around with the arrangement and originally thought I'd get fishing line and string 2 of the snowflakes from the middle of the frame however, you really couldn't see them well until you got right up on the frame so I opted to not do that.  (maybe if they were a different color it would show up better)

I think it would look great turned horizontally with a few plastic ornaments hung from the frame.  Heck you could even glue ornaments directly to the frame!! 

I do like my outcome and it took me all of 5 minutes to do and cost me $13.00. Here is the breakdown:

Dollar store large snowflake pack of 4 - $1.00
Dollar store small snowflake pack of 4 - $1.00
Dollar store 'Joy' ornament - $1.00
Dollar store bottle brush trees - pack of 3 - $1.00
Picture frame (on sale) $9.00

TIP - So the picture frame doesn't bang around on my door I put furniture pads on the back of it in each corner.  Since I've got hardwood floors I keep these on hand in all sizes and shapes.  I find many uses for them throughout the house.

So what do you think?

Pretty! 

Do you have an unusual door wreath?  Did you make your door wreath?  I'd love to see your creations!

Please stop back next week when I'll be sharing my entire house, inside and out.  You must see the downstairs Christmas tree that I decorated in the card banner I made and dollar store and Target dollar spot Christmas gift tags! 

Thanks for stopping by!
Victoria

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