Christmas Decor 2010

I'm an ornament-o-holic. There I said it. I have way way way too many Christmas decorations and my problem seems to be getting progressively worse. You see, I get intrigued by the "it" colours of the season, chartreuse and citrus colours one year, whites and silvers the next, and then I'm drawn to different styles - traditional reds and greens; vintagey kitchy things, or the rustic tones of birch, pinecone, and greenery...which means I've built up a collection of holiday decor items that has no rhyme nor reason.

I can't be the only one. Do you put out all your decorations? Or are you careful to edit and have a clear colour palette for that year's decor? Me, I must put everything out. I mean I get to see these decorations only once a year so I want to bring everything out and enjoy it.

Which is how I ended up with a mostly modern green and silver tree...


...and a vintage red & white scheme right beside it.



I don't have a mantle so I've strung our stockings on the shutters. I love the skate stockings which I found at Chapters/Indigo. The rest of the red & white decor is a mix of Ikea ornaments and the vintage ornaments HandyMan rescued for me.

After I decorated the tree, as you can expect, the little one became fascinated with all the sparkly ornaments. She was pretty good at just looking at the ornaments and not touching too much. I would let her hang up any of the ones that had fallen off... and, well, you know what that lead to... her pulling ornaments off, dropping them on the floor, and saying "Uh oh" just so she could have the chance to hang them up again. Smart kid, haha.

So to save my ornaments and faux branches from further destruction, I gave her her own little tree, complete with indestructible felt and plastic baubles.



And we are a happy, jolly household once again.

Holiday Mix

I was feeling like a lazy decorator the other day... I wanted to start my holiday decorating but I only had a few minutes to put something together before the little one woke from her nap. I was looking for instant gratification, something quick and easy. This is what I came up with.



I pulled out a few things from my Christmas decor stash and sort of just piled it all together... the brown ornaments and cone trees are from Ikea two years ago, the white pinecones are Crate & Barrel, crystal bits from Pottery Barn, and the reindeer and penguins are from Loblaws/Superstore. The reed wreath is Ikea too. I was feeling a sort of natural organic look mixed with a bit of holiday glam so I stuck to a palette of browns and whites.


I used my 3-tier stand (also from Loblaws) and hobnail candlestick holders and cake stand to add some height and texture. I love all the different textures, shapes and finishes. Polished off the look with a white ribbon for the wreath and a latte coloured pearl strand. Easy peasy pretty.

Its a bit more relaxed and simple than how the sideboard looked in 2008:


And in 2009:


But then again, so am I these days ;)

Christmas Decor

I've managed to decorate a few more spaces in our home for the holidays. Good thing, with Christmas only 3 days away! Don't the days just seem to fly by at this time of year?


We moved things around in the living room to make space for the tree. Our Ikea sideboard ended up against a blank wall so I decided to make a little green, brown, and white woodland scene atop it. The little topiaries and reindeer were from President's Choice, the silver santa from Pottery Barn 10 years ago, and the owl from the William Ashley annual sale.



The branch candleholder was from HomeSense and looks very "West Elm-ish" don't you think? I filled out the gaps with pinecones, plastic crystal baubles, and some leftover brown ornaments. I dressed up a spare wreath with some green and brown ribbon and hung it on the wall. Putting the nail in the wall to hang the wreath was strangely satisfying. We haven't touched the living room since we moved in two years ago (that's the original wallpaper you see in the pic. Yuck.) so it felt good to hang the wreath and inject a bit of our personality into the space. How sad that sounds, lol!


And here's the tree. Its pretty neutral with splashes of green and blue. The tree is a 6.5' Nordman Fir which has a lovely light green colour and full branches. I always make the mistake of not putting enough lights on, so this year I strung about 800 of them on there!

I'm not entirely happy with the tree; its a work in progress. I like ribbon on a Christmas tree - but when I try putting it on, it ends up looking like a saggy crinkled mess... so we'll go without that this year. And I'd like a new tree topper and have yet to find that perfect tree skirt so we'll go without that too. I figure I'll be using the same decorations for at least the next decade so I have some time to get the tree just right ;)


And here is my favourite ornament! I wanted something to commemorate Chloe's first Christmas, and etsy seller SeptemberHouse came up with the perfect design. I sent her a photo of Chloe's polka dot red dress as inspiration (a dress I fell in love with and bought when I was seven months pregnant and didn't know if I was having a girl or a boy but felt like I was having a girl and anyway I had three months to return the dress if it turned out to be a boy, ha!) Its so cute. I love the little button closure with the red thread.


Its amazing how Christmas has taken on a different meaning now that we have a child. I've put a bit more effort into decorating and picking out special gifts, Chloe and I will be baking some treats tomorrow, and I'll be telling her stories about Jesus and Santa and the significance of the season. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to see Christmas again through the eyes of a child.

A Vintage Christmas

There were so many treasures we unearthed when we moved Mama HandyLuster out of her old house this summer. Many of them still sit in boxes in our basement - great art books waiting to be displayed on bookcases, a huge set of Le Creuset cookware (waiting for me to become a better cook so I'll know how to use them), little crocheted sweaters that Chloe will get to use once winter really hits - but there was one special box I couldn't wait to open up.



I scooped up these old Christmas ornaments from a big box of decorations Mama had. When I first saw them, I knew they'd add the perfect colourful and childlike element to our tree so I packed them in a box. Unfortunately, HandyMan didn't quite have the same sentiment and accidentally gave them to the Goodwill when he was cleaning out the garage this summer! When he told me, my pregnancy-feuled emotions at the time went into overdrive and I was wailing about how our unborn baby would no longer have this piece of HandyMan's history and how he just had had had to get them back to me! Trouper that he is, HandyMan went back to the Goodwill and scoured through the musty dusty bins to find the little guys. Now that's love ;)





They're a little worse for wear, some missing arms and legs, hoofs broken off, trees fallen, but nothing some glue couldn't fix. I knew just the place to use them. I wanted to add some holiday colour to our hallway and recycled this idea from last year. Picking up on the candy stripe theme of our front door wreath, I switched out the green globes with candy cane ones I picked up at Ikea last year. The vintage ornaments were the perfect final touch. Sugary sweet! There's something about having a child in the house now that makes me want to add bits of colour and whimsy here and there.


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Thank you all for your comments... final tally for my Cans For Comments drive is 76 comments so I will be donating 76 non-perishable items to the Daily Bread food bank!! Way to go!

A Little Stripe of Satin

When you live on a street where all the houses look the same, where every second house has a black door and a red wreath, sometimes you want your place to stand out a little. And when you have a 7 month old and you've been reading The Cat In The Hat too many times, this is what you come up with :)

- All you need is some red satin ribbon and leftover white paint.
- Lay the ribbon down on a spare piece of plastic or any type of surface that you can get paint on.
- Put three pieces of painters tape side by side on an angle across the ribbon. Remove the second piece of tape. This will expose some of the ribbon which you will paint white.
- Reusing that second piece of tape as a spacer, add more pieces of painters tape until the full length of the ribbon is taped.
- Make sure to press down on the edges of the tape so the paint won't seep underneath.
- Paint all the exposed parts (I did two coats) and remove the painters tape after the paint has dried. You may need to use an exacto knife to get the tape to remove cleanly.

Take your ribbon and loop it through your wreath. You'll notice that the unpainted side of the ribbon is visible on the back side. So that you don't see this, just put a fold in the ribbon so that the unpainted side flips towards the door. Secure the fold to your wreath with a safety pin. Et voila, a Cat In The Hat / candycane striped ribbon.


Another tip: We didn't want to put a nail in our nice new door to hang the wreath, so we secured the ribbon on the top of the door using a thumbtack.

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Wow! Great response to my Cans for Comments post. Day 1's total so far is 25 comments! Woohoo!! Keep the comments coming.