Christmas In My Kitchen

My kitchen is full of the smells of cookies and delicious treats pretty frequently this time of year. But more then any food my Christmas decorations perk me up and make me feel cheery. This year my boys old toy trains are holding things down. This is an adorable new SILVER tree! I picked him up in the Antique Mall in the late summer and I like the way the metallic shimmers.
The only problem we are having is this

As you can see, not everyone in our house loves trains! This is Gingy the gingerbread cat, yes, that is actually his name. He's a King Kong style monster.

 I'll be sharing about our hot cocoa station next!!

Dining Room Christmas Tour Part 2

Welcome back, friends!
 I have gotten a little farther along my decorating path and thought I would share a few more photos with y'all!

Our dining room gets a ton of light but it makes it kinda tricky for an amateur photographer such as myself. I am going to try several different times of day so I can get better pictures for you. But for now, I added a love seat to one side of the table and my kids love it. I have leather covered chairs at the other spots and those fabulous Blessed cushion covers are a fall Hobby Lobby find.
I decided to switch out the more casual curtains I usually have in here for these black and gold ones that used to be in the living room. These added an incredible amount of drama and then I added some bead garland on top of the sheers for sparkle. I decided to go with a white tree in here this year for a change. I added only gold balls and a few new black wooden ornaments from Michaels. The home sign usually hangs in our front hall. The big gold star light hung over my bed last year and I love the patterns it throws all over the room in here in the evening. Just in time for dinner most nights.
I am still decorating and changing a few things around but here are some more photos

I used some printables from Pinterest and hand painted in the gold parts

my hutch has gold and white patterned paper on the back wall and is holding my new found cream and gold china and a few decorations. Check out my blog post on how to make these sweet little boxwood wreaths here

I found this sweet cardboard nativity in this stunning black and gold at HL at 50% off the other day and put them on top of my son's keyboard. I needed a tray big enough for all the pieces bu I was already using all of my bigger ones so I spray painted an old pizza pan gold and it works perfectly and when my son moves the tray I don't have to worry about him breaking these! He is practicing his song for his Christmas piano recital.

Much of my nutcracker collection is here on this shelf above my sideboard and wine rack. 

I placed my tree in a metal bound wooden crate and topped it with a grey fuzzy skirt tucked in all around the tree. I will add more clear and bright pics as the season continues! 

Thank you so much for dropping by and please come back!

Christmas House Tour Hallway

Hey y'all,

Welcome!!!! Come in! Today I thought I would share our hallway all decked out for the holidays with you! In retrospect I should have shared it first as you would be greeted here if you visited me but that requires more forethought then I generally apply to things, lol. Welcome, anyway and please come in!
 This year I decided to keep a consistent color story throughout the main floor of greys and neutrals with sparingly added spots of red. Here I kept the red to a few baubles and dogwood branches tucked into the garland. This Merry Christmas sign has been in my arsenal for about 9 years and this year he got a fresh color and a prime spot!
Our hallway is also our drop zone. This is, in theory, where my children would leave their school flotsam of instrument cases and backpacks,shoes,socks,jackets and because I have boys it could also mean socks and even pants. Though I refuse to hold a conversation with any child not wearing pants. Rules are important ;)
 Also our keys and sunglasses and items like that and hooks for anything I need to remember to leave with, which sometimes even works, are in our hallway.

 But more importantly, this is where I put all kinds of family photos. I have a couple of fabulously rustic ledges that hold a ton of frames full of my loved ones and our memories. I have an addiction to baby pictures, I can't help it.

 This is an area always in flux. I am constantly rotating out pictures, frames and tiny accessories on these shelves but my favorite time of year is when I load it heavy with Christmas memories! As you can see I leave not a square inch of space. Yes, it would probably be more decorator perfect if the frames matched and I pared it down but I don't care, I love every picture and hate to miss out on seeing any of them.

A few more photos of our hall decorations this year

Above the hall table I usually have a few small terrariums and glass bubbles with sedums inside but for Christmas I decided to switch them up with a faux chandelier thingy I saw on Pinterest. I used inexpensive shatterproof balls just in case it would fall or be smacked by a flying ball or sock.

Check back soon, I will be sharing our kitchen decorations very soon!!