Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours ... Merry Christmas!

Christmas decor

I've been meaning to post these pics for the past 2 weeks and here we are a few days before Christmas and I'm finally getting to it. There are quite a few so I'll keep the commentary to a minimum.

We kept it pretty simple in the living room - mostly silver and white with a bit of red from the garland and wreath.

Sometimes I pose them, sometimes they pose themselves :-)

This awesome moss wreath came from Pottery Barn's Christmas clearance pile in February. It looks a little brown in these pics but its a nice green color. I made the banner out of scrapbook letters, glitter and hemp twine.


I used the red berry garlands on the stairs again. Maybe next year I'll do something different.

Mercury glass trees and vases full of ornaments ... pretty.




I attached the felt wreath I made to a berry wreath to make a double wreath. That way I technically have 2 wreaths in the living room, not 3. Three would be overdoing it :-)

We put the tree in a new spot this year - its much better in that corner out of the way.

Usually we have a poster above the fireplace but we switched to a mirror (from the upstairs hallway) while the Christmas decor is up. I made the 'merry & bright' banner the same way as the 'happy holidays' one in the living room.

(I probably should have moved the dog's water bowl before taking pictures!)

Zoey's ornament to match the other pets' ones.






{Winter snuggles}

They look innocent but they are trying to figure out a way to go over and nibble on the tree without us noticing.

Body pillow

We're convinced Zoey thinks Zeke is her personal pillow/mattress. For some reason he just puts up with it!

We seldom turn on the heat because we don't like how dry it makes the air. When it gets close to 60 degrees inside we bundle the dogs up in blankets because their short hair doesn't do much to warm them.

Its a rough life these dogs lead!

Holiday crafts - ornament advent calendar

Last year I saw this ornament advent calendar in one of the Pottery Barn catalogs and I really liked the idea so I thought I would try it out this year.

I shopped the after Christmas sales last year and picked up a bunch of ornaments for 90% off. This ugly cork board came from a thrift store for $3 - I covered it with some burlap fabric and now it looks new.

We had some plain white card stock lying around so I printed the numbers and cut out the tags.

Pin everything onto the cork board and you're done!





I used jute twine to hang all the ornaments. I should probably have used a thinner twine - or maybe a bolder font - so that the numbers aren't blocked but I am too lazy to redo it.

We hung it on the half wall as you go up the stairs - I always feel like that wall needs something so this was a good spot for it.

I think technically the ornaments should be taken off the board and hung on the tree as the days pass but I thought the ornaments looked so pretty up there that I just left it. So I guess technically its not an advent calendar after all!