Old Stuff, New Stuff

 

I know a post containing photos of my Christmas decor is weird in March.  But I neglected to post in December and I like to be able to look back here to see it.  I won't include commentary to go along with it, but here are some key parts of it. 

 This kind of sneaked into the middle of these.  This is a gingerbread house on display at the Seattle Sheraton.  We attended this annual event for the first time this year.

 

 

I also neglected to take any good pictures of my Valentine's Day decor.  Here are a couple photos that give a glimpse of it.  I made the tablecloth and absolutely love how it turned out.  You would think I would have taken a better picture. 

I snapped this in the middle of our Valentine's party.  Behind our friends you can see the fabric scrap garland I made this year. 

 

Thanks for humoring me.  Now for the new stuff.

 

So much to say...

 

Most of the new stuff will (hopefully) get posts all of their own.  But I want to mention a few things now.  Since I last posted I have made my own laundry detergent.  Our rental house is on a septic system.  In the interest of minimizing the amount of chemicals in our septic and on/in our bodies, I decided it was time to take action.  So not only am I making my own laundry soap, but I have completely switched over to homemade, chemical free cleaning supplies.  Actually, not completely.  I am in the process of completely switching over.  I will post soon about how that is going.

 

I have also begun making some changes in the food we eat.  I definitely have plans to write a post about making as much as possible from scratch using whole, unprocessed foods.  I have a lot to say on the matter, but for now, I am now making all of our bread and have begun making granola in the hopes that eventually I can wean my kids off the packaged, sugar and preservative-laden breakfast cereals they are addicted to.  The basic recipe I am using is made with honey and no refined sugars.  I have been tweaking the seasonings to get it just how we like. So far, the kids love it, and it only gets better each time!

 

And one last thing that, again, I will post more about later, is our family reunion.  I am, by choice, quite heavily involved in the planning of our family reunion this year.  This year would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday, so our reunion will be a celebration of her life.  I am busily creating bunting decorations and working closely with my Dad to organize lots of fun activities and make this an extra special event.

 

So c'mon back for more details on all this stuff.  I'm ready to be more present here again, now that we are feeling more settled in our new home.   

 

Rustic Country Tree

If you read my last post about my mantel, you got a sneak peak at the Christmas tree. As we've done in the past, we put a big family tree down in the family room, but upstairs in the living room, I get my very own smaller tree to decorate. This makes me very happy.


I've never been great at decorating a Christmas tree, but it's fun to play around with it anyway. I always do all white lights on the tree but this year I kept it very simple. In the past I have used the regular small white lights, a string of clear C9 lights, the rattan ball lights, and some faux candle lights. This year you will only see small white lights and the rattan balls. I love the rustic, natural element the balls add.



I put the wooden, handmade ornaments that Lincoln's step-dad has made us on this tree.


These are such a treasure to us! They are absolutely stunning. I also put on the wooden bead candycanes we made last year,



as well as the vintage/antique ornaments I have collected.



There are a few pops of red here and there, and just a few other ornaments and berry picks.

For a tree skirt, I just wrapped a large piece of plaid fabric around the base of the tree. (This is the same fabric that I used on my table decor.)

I love my antique wooden crate, and with its red letters and rustic feel it is perfect for holding our collection of Christmas books under the tree. Tucked behind/on it is the little wooden sled I found at Goodwill a couple years ago. When I found it, it was 1980s country blue and I think there may have even been a goose painted on it. A new paint job, some sanding, a new jute twine pull rope, and a few pinecones have really brought it into this decade...and century!


The whole she-bang is backed by my old screen door, the perfect backdrop. And the tree is topped by my (new) old rusty star.


I LOVE it! And I love to stand in the kitchen and look over to the living room. So cozy and inviting!


I can't seem to get the pretty button below to work, but I'm linking up to the Christmas Tree Party at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Rustic Christmas Tablescape

If you've been following along, you know that I had vacillated a bit between Christmas decor themes. I was leaning toward rustic anyway, but when I found two spools of this beautiful gingham wired ribbon,

this adorable willow tree,
this cutie-patootie garland,
and these nostalgic glasses
at the vintage sale here in town, my mind was made up! I've done all of my decorating with rustic and/or natural elements, with a few glittery things thrown in for sparkle. Today I want to show you the tablescape I put together so I could play along with the linky party over at The Lettered Cottage.



Keeping things casual and rustic, I used a mix up of dishes for the place settings.


I got the Christmasy plates at the vintage sale as well, but they only had 4 dinner size plates. I got a little creative by mixing them with sturdy, rustic looking dishes from Ikea. But let's start at the bottom and work up. Red, woven straw mats I got on clearance one year from Walmart, I think. Next up, chargers with natural elements around the rim. These are also from Walmart (hey, it's the only place to shop in this town!), and I usually use them for Thanksgiving, but I thought they worked nicely with this theme. Then we have the plates and bowls from Ikea and the vintage sale. The goblets are a clearance item from Walmart and the glasses, as mentioned before, are from the vintage sale. The napkin rings match the chargers, from Walmart, and the napkins are cut from the same piece of fabric that the runner is from. The fabric came from a freebie pile at church. The big lantern is from Walmart a few seasons ago, the small lanterns are from Ikea. The big lantern is sitting on a white cake pedestal from Marshalls placed inside a clearance wreath from Walmart from last season. My kids gathered the pinecones for me on the walk home from school.




I used some of the ribbon from the vintage sale on the chain of my chandelier (a $7 fixture from the ReStore), and also hung from it some big mercury glass ornaments I've been collecting from Hobby Lobby whenever they are on sale.



It's hard to capture the feeling in a photo, but this is such a warm, inviting, cozy table setting! It really makes me want to settle in and enjoy a steaming plate of ham and scalloped potatoes with a hot, buttery roll on the side. Some sparkling cider would be perfect to wash it down. Some warm apple pie would finish it off nicely. Or maybe a big mug of hot cocoa and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Maybe it's a bad thing when your decorating makes you want to eat...

Not if it's your table, right?

More rustic decor to come.

Linking up to Funky Junk's SNS

Living Room Tree

How do people keep up with blogging during the holiday season? I missed the Christmas tree party over at Thrifty Decor Chick, but still wanted to share my tree. So here goes.

We had an absolutely gorgeous day for tree-getting. Seriously, we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. It was warm, with a light snow falling and sunshine weakly shining through, just enough to create a warm glow.

We traipsed out to the back portion of the tree farm and searched carefully for the perfect tree, shaking showers of snow from evergreen boughs.



We finally settled on a full, medium height tree for the family room, and a small, narrow but full tree for the living room.




We were able to catch a ride back to the barn on the hay wagon.


We enjoyed (free!) hot chocolate in the barn while the workers sent our trees through the shaker and binder. Lincoln and I secured them to the top of our car and we merrily toted them home.

The family room tree is the one we decorate together. This one gets colored lights, (we bought new LED lights for it this year and we LOVE them), and all the ornaments collected over the years. There are ornaments that I made as a kid, ornaments my kids have made, ornaments I purchased at the Dollar Store before I was married, and colorful, rustic ornaments we've collected as a family.

The living room tree is mine to decorate. I start with all white lights. This tree gets regular small lights, a couple strings of C9 white lights, and a couple strings of candle lights that I found at Goodwill several years ago. On this tree I put some antique ornaments I purchased at an antique store this year on our anniversary trip. ( I tried to stick with colors that were similar, but I couldn't resist the train one, knowing Jesse would love it.)








I also put our glitzier ornaments here that fall into the gold, crystal, shiny, category.

I placed the Symbols of Christmas ornaments on this tree, too.



I like to juxtapose glittery ornaments with rustic, which is how these wooden bead candy canes we made this year ended up on this tree.



Plus, they look great with our set of wooden ornaments that Lincoln's step-father has made for us. For a while he was making a new one for us every year.



The whole look gets set off with some red, glittery snowflakes I bought at Walmart last year. I just can't resist throwing in some red. Plus, it helps tie in the train ornament. The base gets wrapped in red burlap.

The cat finds it cozy.

And in the same room, the piano "mantle".


*Disclaimer: Will I ever gain the patience to hide my lights cords better? This is obviously not my forte.

***Looks like I'm not too late. This is the last day!
I can't get the button to work, but here's the link to the Christmas Tree Party!