Christmas Project: Boxwood Wreath

Hey y'all, I am decorating and crafting up a storm! I am trying to finish up the last projects so I can get started on the candy making and baking! I saw the cutest boxwood wreaths in some of the catalogs full of Christmas decor this year but they were pricy! So I decided to utilize the resources in my very own yard and make my own!

I trimmed my boxwoods and gathered up some basic supplies.

I wired and taped together small bunches and then wired them to an old embroidery hoop, using floral tape to cover the wires.
Then I hung them in my dining room!

cute, right?? And all in it cost me two dollars worth of supplies! Gotta love that!

Living Room Christmas Part 2

I decided to take the airplane painting down for the holidays and switch it for this mirror. This mirror is super heavy so I leaned it against the wall instead of trying to hang it.

 I am always amazed how it all comes together. I try to start with an inspiration piece, a color story and then let it evolve. I decorated the tree almost exclusively with the decor I bought at the yard sale this summer as I mentioned in my previous post Christmas Inspiration.

the trim and beautiful crystal ornaments were all part of my summer purchase

I used the iced branches and red berry sprigs as a base and just layered in until it looked full and festive!
The red branches are from my red twig dogwood in my yard. I skipped pruning it all summer so I would have plenty of nice long branches to decorate with. I used them on the tree

 and on the garland.

I focused a lot on repeating materials this year for a flow through the main floor. Neutrals and metallics with small touches of red. As you can see here I repeated the ribbon rosebuds. The crystal draping is repeated from our dining room chandelier.

Repeating those small touches of red.

For a tree skirt I just picked up a yard of faux fur at the fabric store and swirled it around the base. After the holiday I can add a backing to it and make a beautiful throw for the winter. This antique truck has been in my husband's family for generations. He played with it as a child and it pops out of hiding every holiday season to add a little family history to our holiday.

I recycled our feather wreath from 2014 fall decor into a holiday wreath with just a few extra feathers and an ornament I picked up on a recent family trip to Gatlinburg at a Crackel Barrel I popped into to go pee. I accented it with more of those ribbon roses. (I got the whole pkg of roses for 6$ and used them all over the room! What a deal! and I love the little rhinestones in them for some sparkle)

I used a metal wreath hanger to easily add it to the mirror and the gold garland I lucked into at the huge Christmas shop we found in Gatlinburg.
I will tell you more about the 25 I topped it with in another post!

Living Room Christmas Decor Inspiration Process Christmas Tour Part 1

Happy decorating to all my fellow Christmas elves!!  I have been pulling out the trees and baubles and garlands and lights for weeks now! I am happy to say that I am nearly done! Just a few finishing touches and projects to complete.
 Our living room is always one of my first decorating hot spots when I put my Santa hat on and get down to business. I found some incredibly fabulous ornaments and trim at the World's Longest Yard Sale this year that gave me a jumping off point for this room.

I have done nuetrals and metallics in this room for a couple years in a row now and wanted to mix it up a bit. I decided to add small touches of red but tried to do so in a fresh way. It started with a big bouquet of mini rosebuds in a rich red and a big bunch of white baby's breath. I fell in love with it and decided I wanted it to last all season so I found some ribbon roses in the wedding section at the craft store to replace the fresh ones so I could keep the look all season.
 Remember the floral pick with the antlers I found and couldn't figure out what to do with for a few weeks last fall? I finally used it in the dining room centerpiece with hydrangeas from the yard. You can see more of that tablescape here I decided to reimagine that container and pick for the library table in the living room.

I used the antlers, an old holiday pine centerpiece and boxwood cuttings from my yard and the little ribbon roses. I think it came out pretty well.
 So that is where I started and just let the rest come together piece by piece. I will share more as I get a  little more finished!

Thanksgiving Feasting! Recipes and More!!

Happy Gobble Till You Wobble Week!
 I am the sole Thanksgiving cook for our family. Mostly because my food issues and allergies are so severe I can't risk cross contamination if someone else cooks. Last Christmas we had a walnut incident that was pretty scary  so........ I cook to survive!
 Our menu this year is Appetizers: butternut/apple soup shooters with rosemary and pastry leaves garnish,shrimp cocktail, veggie trey with ranch dip, vegan cheddar bacon cheeseball and crackers, pumpkin fudge and spicy pumpkin seeds. Entree:Tofurkey roast stuffed with wild rice and veggies, turkey breast and roasted turkey drumsticks for the carnivores Sides: mashed potatoes and vegan gravy, baked sweet potatoes with a protein powder cinnamon butter, dressing with roasted mushrooms and garlic, dried cranberries and sage veggie sausage, cranberry cheese puffs and dinner rolls, two kinds of cranberry relish, sauteed spinach and mushrooms with maple glazed tofu and fresh made rye and lemon croutons and sparkling cider for the kids and white wine for the adults.. Dessert: mini pumpkin pies and a cool whip and marshmellow fruit salad and coffee. All this for 6 people. Kind of ridiculous I know. But it was delicious!

My recipe for the soup is one I just made up. I microwaved the halved squash till soft and pureed it with a little veggie broth and rice milk and added 1 cup mashed potatoes and 1 cup applesauce. Salt, pepper and a dash of garlic powder. I made it thin enough it could be drank from a cup and then I scooped it into tall soup shooter glasses and garnished with rosemary and pastry leaves I cut from extra pie crust when I made the pumpkin pies.

They were adorable and delicious!

 The cranberry cheese puffs I didn't get a picture of, they disappeared to fast!
 I merely cut strips of puff pastry and layered them in muffin tins pastry, cream cheese, whole berry cranberry sauce, puff pastry and rubbed the tops with vegan butter befor baking till golden brown and bubbly. They were so good I intend to make them again for Christmas morning and add a powdered sugar drizzle.
  Spicy Pumpkin Seeds were simply roasted pumpkin seeds I sprinkled with red pepper powder and baked on the same pan as I was roasting the tofu with maple glaze. They kind of mixed on the pan and made magic.
 This year for the mini pumpkin pies I used arrowroot for a thickener for the first time instead of coconut milk as I have started reacting to coconut. I was a little heavy handed with the spices but I like it that way. And I liked how solid they set up. I will definetly try them again. I only used a little unsweetened apple juice and a few tablespoons of maple syrup to sweeten and I liked the lack of refined sugars.

My family gobbled it all up and loved it. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of food, family and love also!

Black and Gold Christmas Dining Room Part 1: Tablescape

 Happy Holidays, my friends!
 I was so excited to decorate our dining room this year. Our fall decor was a new direction and I LOVED it. I stumbled across some really beautiful china and just ran with it as a theme.
 I have done a 12 Days of Christmas theme the last few years and had intended to do it again, even bought some supplies for new ornaments in that theme I was going to craft but when I found this china I just let it flow. We have a new table in there if you remember my painting project from the spring, you can see that post  here
 I loved the appetizer dishes I found for the fall decorating in the dining room this year and knew I wanted to continue that color story for Christmas. You can see my inspiration here

Fall table setting

 I went to my local antique market looking to expand on the beautiful cream and gold theme and found some beautiful Mikasa gold rimmed bowls. Pure dumb luck, I stumbled upon all new plates and saucers and side bowls at the Goodwill!! Another day out adventuring landed me some stunning silver plated chargers and we were off and running! I used them for Thanksgiving this week and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. I was not going for over the top Christmas-y settings since it was Thanksgiving so these will be getting a little tweak as I set them for Christmas.

But my family enjoyed the beauty of the table and room for the holiday! (and a little sneak peek of the whole room, which I will be writing up later!)

I will update with a photo of the whole table all set for Christmas very soon!

Neutral and Calm Christmas Family Room Tour! Part 2

Grab a cup of cocoa and come on in! I am all about family, my family, my babies!!! Never more evident then at Christmas when I can literally pull memories out of boxes of newspaper and tissue. This year has been chaotic so I am keeping with the theme I have been following all year of simplifying at every opportunity. I have found that the neutral, muted colors make us feel warm and peaceful and calm in our home. Lowering the visual noise has really helped.  We always decorate our family room tree with our collected over time and life memory ornaments. It has the boys baby ornaments and ones we have picked up on vacations and of course all the ones they have made for us over the years. So lots of crazy colors and variety. I wanted to find a way to keep those memories and traditions without blowing our calm environment to shreds.

 I started with our flocked tree and a very simple base finish instead of previous years, layering in boxes and presents and decor items and tree skirts I just simply wrapped the base in a blanket and some burlap and tied it with a simple ribbon. Then I added 2 colors of decor mesh in a spiraling angled line up and down the tree and added some truly beautiful faux magnolias I found at At Home and some dried cotton branches and dark feathers tipped in gold paint.

During decorating early stages, I decided not to use these feathers and moved them to the mantel

Sometimes I have to live with it half done for a day or two to get the creative juices flowing and get it just the way I want it. I am a very visual person.

ignore all the wires I will tuck them behind some baskets of gifts once the wrapping starts! 

The night before Thanksgiving we gathered around the tree and added our treasured memories to it. I always go back and move a few around later to be sure my favorites are easy to find and that the most delicate are as secure as possible and every year we have a few new ones to add. I am still putting the finishing touches on but here is what we started with and a few snaps of the family reminiscing with each bauble they found in my baskets of ornaments.

Ready!

Decorating Wear? check!

Helper elves? check!

Unhappy helper elves? check! Teenage angst???? In triplicate! check, check, check!

And this one is just excited that I made cookies to keep the elves happy!!

Stinky elf? check!

Reading his Christmas wishes list of many years ago, they love seeing what they wanted when they were little and how much they have changed. Me? I miss when their list had toy trains and teddy bears on it.

Even Husband Darling gets sentimental about it all

I am just happy everyone participated and for one more Christmas I have all my little ducks tucked in under my wings. Merry Christmas to you and your family from our family here on the ridge!

Curb Appeal 2.0

hey y'all,
we just had our whole yard lanscaped! Now y'all know I am a gardener and LOVE plants! Flowers! Dirt!!! I love it all. I am a Master Gardener, certified through our county extension agency and know gobs about plants and dirt but what I don't always know is how to put it all together. And so I brought in a professional to consult with. We needed  lower maintenance and easy peasy because we just don't have time to spend hours and hours, weeding and deadheading and edging. And just getting the mowing done is a challenge some weeks. I wanted it to be beautiful and have texture and interest in all 4 seasons and of course blooms! I even knew a lot of the plants I wanted to use but not how to pull it all together. Jake Jackson, of Jake of All Trades, in our town came in and did magic, y'all. His crew was amazing and he knew just how to take my ideas and make them a reality! It was amazing! Now it is clean and gorgeous! We have one area in the back that needed to wait till spring to be finished because of weather and water issues so he will be back to help with that in the spring but we are over the moon with how it all came out in just 4 days!

Adding a built in firepit here in the spring and additional plants. I knew what I wanted but they were not available this time of year so I opted to just mulch the beds and be patient to have it look the way I pictured in the long run.

 Now obviously my plants aren't in bloom here in KY in mid November but come spring it is going to pop with color and even know it has structure and interest. Exactly what I asked for! We couldn't be happier with it!

We filled in gaps and removed some plants that spread on their own a little to much or just require to much maintenance.  I will admit to some serious internal struggle to remove some of my beloved friends...er...flowers and plants but I know in the long run it is better for us and will look better then neglected plants I don't have time to give the care and attention they need. We chose hardy shrubs and plants that can take a lickin and keep on tickin. Some have already died back below the mulch for the year so this is not exactly what it will look like in the spring but I can see it in my mind's eye and can't wait to see it come April showers and May flowers!!!