I know you don’t need to hear from me that Christmas is coming fast!  I am definitely feeling it, though.  My house is finally all decorated, though, gingerbread houses have been made, and I’m almost all done with my Christmas shopping.  I’ll be sharing some creative gift wrap ideas tomorrow, but today I thought I would share my kitchen decorated for Christmas along with the gingerbread I made earlier this week… I made the same gingerbread I’ve been making for the past few years.  You can find the mini gingerbread house templates and recipe HERE. Each year, I make some of the same houses, but I’ll also try some new ornaments shapes and gingerbread house templates.  This year, I made some mini houses that sit on the side of mugs… I got that ! …and I hand-cut some ornaments based on 17th-century embroidery designs.  Because, why not? As far as

I wasn’t planning on doing much Christmas decorating beyond the living room and dining room, but once I had the Christmas music playing and the tree decorated, I felt inspired and just kept going.  I love it when those moments of inspiration and energy happen. I don’t want to go overboard with trees and decor, but I want to add little touches and hints here and there.  Some greenery, pinecones, a pair of mittens.  Just simple things that make a statement about the season, but aren’t overt Christmas decorating.  So, that’s what I did in the foyer… A large ironstone bowl that was displaced when we shuffled furniture for the tree in the living room tops the pine chest.  I tucked in a few pinecones I collected from the ground around pine trees near the entrance of our neighborhood. I also added a over the antique coat rack.  I wasn’t

Our 2020 Christmas tree is finally decorated!  And, I realize that I’m saying “finally” like it’s December 24!  My tree was decorated on December 7 and that’s not late.  It just feels late when I’m scrolling through Instagram and seeing all of the holiday home tours and my tree is still just wearing lights.  We all need to work on our own schedule, though, and this year, my tree was finished a little later than usual and that’s okay.  It’s up in plenty of time for Christmas! I haven’t changed my Christmas tree decorations dramatically over the past few years, but I’ll just tweak things here and there.  Some years I’ll use certain ornaments and other years I use different ones.  I always reserve the right to add more or less and I like that I can get different looks without having to buy anything new. grain sack tree skirt

Last year, I shared a budget-friendly Christmas bell decorating idea post showing six different ways to use some store-bought sleighbells.  You can find that post HERE.  Since I received great feedback from that post, I decided to do another one this year for a set of bells I bought last week. Like the bells I purchased last year, was also from Target and came on a red & white door hanger… You know that red isn’t my color, even during the holidays, but I loved the bells.  They have a nice shine to them, they are heavy, and they hand a handmade look about them.  I think they also have a pretty ring, very important for a bell!  I knew when I bought them that I would want to cut them off of the hanger and use them in different ways. Christmas bell decorating idea no. 1 All of these