Welcome To The Living Room- Christmas 2012

Welcome to Christmas at the Little Yellow Cottage.  Decorating began the day after Thanksgiving and has been going on since.  Do you have trouble getting done?  I seem to be continually adding or changing.  There is always another idea, something that could look better, another place or use for something.  Creativity is a curse sometimes, but I am thankful to be cursed.

The tour begins in our main living area.  Our living room is not large, but it is very cozy with the fireplace being the focal point of the room.   When you enter through the front door, there is a small entryway with a rustic cabinet that has old windows for the doors.   It holds our crystal because we don't have enough cabinet space in the kitchen.  The decorations change with the season and here is how it looks this Christmas.

Since I am totally enamored with the shutters I painted earlier in the season, I took my book page wreath down for the holidays and added the ornament wreath I made last year.  My "Joy To The World" sign has been part of our Christmas decor for many years.  It is very dear to my heart so it is used every year somewhere.  For a slightly different look this year, I used the burlap ribbon and the large and small sparkly stars.

There are two small trees in the living area.  I gave up large trees years ago due to lack of space and time.  Small trees are much easier to decorate and place.  With 6 grandsons under the age of 9, three of them under three, it is nice to have them up off the floor.  Grandma does have lots of stuff sitting around and the temptation for little hands is great.

This is the flocked tree in the front window that has all crystal and clear ornaments.  There is a small village under the tree and you can see the big snowflake through the front window.

Here is a closeup of our little village under the tree.  The boys LOVE the ceramic train that I have had for more than 25 years.  Such a temptation for little hands.  We'll see how long it survives.

The mantle is decorated in a winter wonderland theme using lots of white lights, snow flakes (Dollar Tree), candles, and mirrored trees.  If you have not made yourself a regular at the Dollar Tree, do so now.  There are such awesome decorations to be had for very little money.  The mirrored trees came from there 3 years ago.  I had seen them at a high end boutique gift shop for $30.00 each.  I scored mine for $1.00 each.  Yahoo!

They reflect so much light and give such a frosty, wintry look.  They make me happy.  The snowflakes are hung with monofilament line from clear pushpins.  It's very hard to get a good picture of them so that you can see the detail, but they are quite lovely.  These will probably stay up until February.

The small tree in the corner in front of the mirror is decorated with hand made ornaments that I made years ago, lots of icicles and red glass balls.  The reflection in the mirror makes it seem much bigger than it is.

See the large rusty snowflake under the tree?  I have lots of those that get used in different places also.  Have had those for years and years.

Here is a close up of the two trees you can see in the first picture.  They are sitting on a trunk that is used as a coffee table in front of the sofa.  I made these using sheet music.  There will be a tutorial on how to make them tomorrow.  They are beautiful decorations and would be wonderful gifts.   The little polar bear came from you know where.  $1.00.  What can I say?

Need a really easy centerpiece or gift?  I saw these at TJMaxx several years ago and thought holy cow, why should I pay for that.  We have lots of sticks in the yard.  Just gather some up and cut them to similar lengths.  Wrap them with wire in the center to hold them together, spray paint them any color you want.  I added some Christmas greenery and made a nice big bow.  Voila!  A lovely, natural centerpiece.  This sits on top of another small cabinet next to my $2.50 candle holder I found at Gordman's a couple of years ago.  I told you, I am the Queen of Cheap.

The sofa table holds one of my prized possessions, a gift from Dan years ago.  She is a beautiful angel from Mexico.  She sits 12 inches high and holds a candle in her hands and another can be placed inside that shines through her robe.  I hadn't gotten the candle in her hands for the picture.  Details.  It's all about the details.  There are mirrored trees on the table and stars that I have gold leafed, paired with white glittered stars.  You just can't have too many stars in my book.  After all, it was a star that led the wise men to the manger.

And this is my newest addition to our Christmas decorations.  My advent calendar made from an antique Coca Cola case.  I have two of these and have had them for 43 years, as long as we have been married. They have followed us everywhere and have been used for several different things.  This was sitting on our hearth looking at me when it dawned on me it would make the perfect advent calendar!  I found these adorable little ornaments at Big Lots (another one of my favorite haunts).  I used little cup hooks which were screwed into the top of each compartment.  I numbered 24 ornaments and hung them in each little compartment.  There is enough space to put lots of little treats for grandsons to find for each day of the countdown to Christmas.

I used a fine point Sharpie to write the numbers on each little ornament.  I must say, it is adorable.  The boys love to find a treat whenever they are here.

Thanks for joining me tonight.  Hope you got some decorating ideas and tomorrow I will show you how to make those lovely little trees.  Next, we will visit the dining and kitchen area.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

My goal is to make memories for our family and grandchildren.  Yes, it is a lot of work, but so worth it to me.  It's all in the details.

Remember those $1.38 plate stands I showed you yesterday?  Well, here is what I did with them.  This is the big reveal.  If you look really close, you will see that I used a candlestick, a sherbet dish and a martini glass to achieve different heights for my candle holders.  The variety is also very visually appealing.   The picture simply does not capture how pretty they look on the table.  

This is the way our kitchen table looked this morning before I began setting it for Christmas. 

 Nice huh?  Guess you would never know I have been crafting on the kitchen table.  Why you ask?  Because my craft/sewing table is also buried in projects.  At least, I resolved this table today.  The other one is going to take some more work.  

After I cleaned off the table and put everything away (sort of), I put down my new hand painted table runner.  It looks like this.

I made it from a painter's drop cloth.  I will give you a tutorial on how I did it later.  I have to say I love it!   Next, I placed three of the plate stands in the center, added three of the sparkly candles I made and some cedar and holly from our bushes outside.  (Remember, use what you have.)  The holly has really beautiful red berries on it and it makes a nice little pop of color on the elevated plates.  Then I added one of my beloved acrylic stars.  Yes, more stars because it goes with the star in the center of the table runner and it WAS a star that guided the wise men to the nativity.  

The same treatment was done on the other two plates.  Next, I added 5 mercury glass votives, and hung some stars from our light fixture.

Then, I put out my red chargers which were given to me by my dear sweet friend Don and added a festive red holiday napkin that is embroidered with gold holly.  I have some beaded napkin rings, but didn't want to use them so I searched around and decided to cut a branch of artificial berries apart that I had and twisted them around the center of each napkin and then added a sprig of fresh holly leaves.

The backs of the chairs have red velvet bows tied on them with a crystal snowflake and some red and white string.  Here is a close up.

Because we use our table every day (we don't have a dining room) I will have to move the chargers for daily use, but I just love the way the table looks.  It is simple but festive.  Smashing actually and that is what I was aiming for.  There will be so much ambience when all the candles are lit. 

These pictures were taken with my phone because I don't have a camera at the moment.  They are not the best, but will give you an idea of what you can do with little expense.  Here are a few more pictures.

I also used some of the plate stands on the trunk I use for a coffee table in the living room.  There is a new hand painted tabled runner on it also.  Instead of candles, I used some of my Dollar Tree mirrored trees that I got a year or two ago.  Here is what the coffee table looks like.  I LOVE this look.

So I have $1.38 in each plate stand and $1.00 in each mirrored tree for a total of $5.76.  Not too shabby for a great looking arrangement.  Greenery is from the yard.  Now that makes me happy.  Here are a few more pictures for you.

At last, I am at the end of my decorating spree.  Everything has come together quite nicely and I will be sharing some more tutorials with you and pictures of all of my efforts.  I LOVE when the sun starts going down and all the lights are on and everything looks so beautiful.  It's a lot of work, but so worth it.  Can't wait for the grandsons to see all the trees! Our New York grandson won't make it here this Christmas  because his dad (our son) will be performing and we will really miss him.  Otherwise, it's going to be such an exciting Christmas and we are counting down the days.  

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more 
beautiful.    Norman Vincent Peale