Christmas Tour 2019 - Part 1. Outside, the Entry and the Library.

Our sweet Greeter Guy (as I call him) greets everyone with a shy smile

 and a big shell full of chippy Christmas ornaments in every color. 

Rain or shine he's cozy in his plaid scarf.

In December there's a second greeter at our house.

 The big gold Santa (Mollie's fave) is on the front porch. He was a Goodwill find

 (in the middle of the Summer) and people looked at me like I was crazy for hauling a 5 foot tall, pretty ugly Santa out of the store in 90 degree heat!!

See his before here.

Our garland is a faux base with lots of fresh greenery wired in! 

You can barely see the "faux" underneath.

It's such an easy way to create full, manageable garlands.

We are using this gorgeous, blue plaid ribbon again this year.

We love it so much.

No filter needed - those are the true colors!

The swag on the back gate got the same gorgeous ribbon. 

In the entryway we have a small champagne colored tinsel tree

 with some little Chinoiserie ornaments I made last year.

 All the details and how-to's are here.

I just noticed one of the green Chinoiserie lamps got turned around while we were dusting -oops!

 I added in a little Audubon.
 I think Chinoiserie and Audubon birds are perfect companions!

Just a little touch of palms and palmetto fronds (lowcountry gal here)

 complete the decorations in the foyer.

I have had the nativity on the bamboo table for about 30 years.

 It goes in our entryway every year. 

Our cozy Library (or Snug as the British say) is home to the blue and white Chinoiserie Tree.

(This is also where several porch plants are spending the Winter)

There are a few more touches - magnolia, palmetto fronds and ornaments 

tucked in here and there.

This is one of my favorite spots during the holidays!

Hopefully I will have a few more cheery spots to share before the big day is here!!

UPDATE: Christmas Tour Part 2 did not happen due to a family medical emergency.
 I didn't even take any pictures to show later :( 

Here's to 2020 and blogging more regularly!

Lately...

Just a quick "catch-up" post. 

I attempted my 8th One Room Challenge this Spring but it did not come to fruition. 

If you are not familiar - you post your room redo process on 6 consecutive Thursdays which means you have 5 weeks to complete your project.
 I was going to refresh my kitchen. 
Out of the 5 weeks I knew I was going to be gone 2 weeks so it was a bit ambitious at the start. Then I missed a couple of Saturdays for work and conflicts 

and you cannot rush a kitchen refresh project!

I wanted to do it right.

Hopefully I will be showing you some kitchen improvements 
along and along as I get to them. 

I have completed several other ORC's

 so you can check out the links at the bottom of this post.

I have been cleaning my porch and prepping it for Summer relaxing!

We plan to enjoy our porch this Summer since last Summer we spent doing construction in every spare moment.

Decorating the repaired porch was my last ORC.

The pictures above are from last Fall but I'm always moving things around!

I found this cute bistro set , in perfect condition, at a thrift store. 

I added a couple of benches to the porch this Spring.

I love the checkerboard weave on top. This bench has storage in the seat, too. 

It's a very versatile bench and has been in our family room, library and now the porch!

I added the bench below as well.

The finish wasn't great and after trying to revive it I decide to spray paint it.

I love it in this blue!!

It's so fresh and crisp.

The porch is ready for naps on the bed swing, lunches at the various tables and relaxing with a book (or a baseball game on the TV) so now I'm on to projects in the back yard.  
Or garden as the British say!

Lamp and fan strategically placed for napping and reading!!
#illbehereifyouneedme

Plaid Ribbon for the (Christmas) Win!

Mollie and I saw this ribbon at least a month ago and we both instantly loved it!

I recycle my bows for a year or two, until they start to look rough,

 and then I like to change it up. 

You can see last year's sparkly stripe here in the kitchen windows.

We have started "decking the halls" and we are loving it everywhere we put it!

It has so many colors in it and the blue background is such a beautiful shade.

This one is on the front door.

Evergreen wreath is a Black Friday deal from Lowe's,  magnolia leaves from a friend's tree and a BIG bow. I may add some battery operated fairy lights. I'm not sure because I tend to forget to turn them off at the end of the night

 and then the batteries are kaput in no time flat :)

Trader Joe's boxwood wreath, more magnolia leaves (it's the South - we can't help ourselves!), fairy lights (the wire is far less noticeable in real life)
 and the fabulous blue plaid ribbon!

Our giant gold Santa got in on the blue plaid ribbon too!

We are just getting started. 

There's more Christmas decorating to come!

Plastic Pumpkins Go Glam

I realize that painting plastic pumpkins is not a new and exciting idea 

but this turned out pretty cute 

and took about 5 minutes so I thought I would share.

We had an event at church and I wanted some Fall-ish decor

 but I wanted something a little different and fun.

And very inexpensive.

I bought plastic pumpkins for a dollar. 

(I saw them at the thrift store today for a quarter 

so you could really create these for a bargain.)

 I used my favorite gold spray paint to change their look from plastic orange to classy gold. 
It is amazing what gold spray paint can do!

 Then I drilled a hole in the bottom the same size as a bamboo garden stake I already had. 
Make it a snug fit.
 I pushed the pumpkins on to the stake and used a little bit of black tape to wrap around the stake right under the pumpkin so it would not slide down. I used a 1/2 inch wide strip so it blends in with the bamboo markings. 

Then I went to Lowe's near the house and bought all the clearance mums they had!
I paid a dollar per mum so this was a pretty big look for not much money. 
Everyone kept talking about how fun they were and because they were so inexpensive we put them everywhere and then I sent them home with the volunteers at the end of the event!

Everyone had a big smile on their face!

ORC Pre-Party...

Here's a little One Room Challenge Recap:
If you aren't familiar, the One Room Challenge is a blogging event that takes place biannually. Within a five week  period those participating completely transform a space and give weekly updates on the progress. The sixth Thursday is the Big Reveal!! 

My first ORC was also my most recent ORC.

Wait, what?

I really had no idea what I was jumping in to when I did my first ORC- our Guest Bedroom. I never quite "finished" it so I went back last Spring and crossed the T's and dotted the I's.

Spring 2017 One Room Challenge:

Here it was after the first time it was an ORC room:

I definitely "punched things up" the second time around. It just needed a little more attention!

My Fall 2016 One Room Challenge was our Master Bathroom:

It was all about the coral faux bamboo china cabinet.

(You have a china cabinet in a bathroom?  Yep!)

And before the Master Bathroom I redid our Library.

 It was formerly the Dining Room

 but turning the room in to a Library several years ago made the room more useful for us.

Spring 2016

It's all moody and glossy black with lots of bamboo and blue and white touches.

The only room in our house that doesn't have white walls!

Before the Library ORC, Mollie and I did a Mother-Daughter ORC project and gave her bathroom the bohemian chic look she loves.

So this is from Fall 2015 One Room Challenge:





And Spring of 2015 the One Room Challenge was the Guest Bedroom which was the most recent ORC as well. 



The One Room Challenge is a great motivator.
 Jump in if you are thinking about it- You'll have a fresh new room for the holidays.
Most of the time there is a lot of support via positive comments on your posts
 (last time was sadly not the case but I'm back anyway!!)

I'll see you on Thursday with the "reveal" of what room I've chosen for my 6th ORC!!

The Little Gold Nativity Ornaments

Mollie and I wanted a little surcie

 (Surcie: Definition (n): word used in the South to mean a small, thoughtful gift, unexpected gift, just because.)

for the guests at our Ladies Christmas Brunch

 that we hosted at the beginning of December.

This is what we decided on...

A little handmade Nativity ornament.

We needed to make quite a few so something we could mass produce was key.

We started out with a 4x4 canvas from Dick Blick.

I drew these free hand but you could trace pencil lines or even use a stencil. 

This is just white glue. Plain old Elmer's or something equivalent to that. 

Practice on a scrap of paper to get the feel for the flow and line consistency. 

Then just draw your image on your little canvas and let it dry completely.

Then we chose to spray paint ours with our favorite gold spray paint that we have talked about here and here and here.

I glued a little gold ribbon hanger on the back.

I love cello bags ( which I order from Nashville Wraps)

 so we packaged them up,

 put them in a bamboo basket on our doorside bamboo cart,

 and handed them out with a hug as our guests left!

Five Dollar Santa and a Can of Spray Paint.

I bought this Santa at Goodwill for $4.94.

In hot, 90 degree weather!

He is almost my height.

(Which is not saying a lot.)

  

And then I decided to spray paint him.

(I almost forgot to take a pic - I had already started!)

And now he is as good as gold!

He's either really awesome
 or I've lost it and he's on the front porch looking like a giant foil wrapped chocolate.

He's at his best at night!

Whose sweet face is that looking out the door at the lights?

We are waaaaay up on the hill. 

We didn't get the greenery on the picket fence this year.

 Last year we didn't get the lights on - just the greenery.

 Maybe next year.