Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My Merry Mantel (and other Merry places)

Hello friends!
Since my town has decided to turn into Forks, I've decided to post the
sub-par-rainy-gray-gloomy-best-I-could-do-under-the-circumstances
pictures of my mantel/foyer/various other Merry spots in my house.

Remember,
I went minimal.
It's the tree.
The realnotfaux tree which only happens to have one ornament on it at the moment.
And I'm okay with it.

Still haven't unpacked the Christmas tubs.
no.not.one.
(hence the absence of my homemade burlap stockings)
I'm okay with that too.

Here's what we've got-
Christmas in the living room/playroom/office

**the sun finally decided to come out after 5 days of rain so I've added a few good shots**



Fresh greens are actually the lowest branches from our totally real tree. It needed a bit o' trimmin' when we got it home.



Nutcrackers are from the hob lob and started out like this-


A quick spray of white, and they're pretty darn tootin' close to the West Elm version that comes in at a whopping $30 for the small size and $70 for the large. Mine were $2.50 and $3.50 thankyouverymuch. 



A red star from Target.
Love it.
I actually draped ribbon through the loop at the top and secured it to the back of the mirror with duck tape. Or duct. Because it was all I could find at the moment.
Sure nuff.






And just to keep it real, here's a shot of where the pink kitchen was at picture time. Had to move it to make room for the tree. It's no longer there, but it was...at that instant.


Besides the red star from Target, I either made everything on the mantel or bought it at the thrift store. The trees on either end are foam on top of wooden candlesticks (that I sprayed white) covered in book page cirlces-


I stuck the cirlces on with straight pins, glued the recently-painted-white candlesticks to the bottom, and boom.
Done.

As for the rest-
I had a spray paint fest, so to speak.
Nothing was safe.
If it was pretty and I thought I might could possibly use it somewhere, it was sprayed. Not to be confused with spayed.


The large candlesticks in the back were thrifted, the silver sleigh was filled with yummy treats and came as a gift a few years back. I kept it, of course, and now it's solid white and looking for a home. The gold reindeer were purchased at Michael's at half price, the stars are from the dollar bins at Target (except I'm pretty sure they were 2.50), and the pink vase came with flowers the hubs gave me a few years ago. All of these items are now a gawgeous, gleaming shade of white. Oh, almost forgot to mention those bust forms- they're not part of my Christmas decor...just needed a fresh coat of paint.

Here's Christmas in the foyer-


A white berry wreath on the Narnia door, white poinsettias from Michael's, my book page tree in a frame I already owned from hob lob, a huge honkin' M from JoAnne's, and my burlap tree from last year's mantel.



Christmas in the Dining Room-


There's actually a bit of Christmas in here year round as I decided last year that I would keep my Nativity out all the time. I just love it too much not to. I also didn't enjoy packing it back into the foam and the boxes after Christmas, so now- no more packing and we get to enjoy it all the time.


A Target star, recently-painted-white pears from Pier 1, and white trees from an artist I met at Dickens last night.


 Nativity by Demdaco


Back to the living room/playroom/office

Our tree currently has one ornament,



a sweet, handmade angel from the same artist who made the trees. She wanted one of my flowers, so we traded. Love that. Her pouch is filled with lavender by the way. (The Angel's, not the woman that made her)

I also used this on my tree-


What on earth is this called? This twine-like stuff that you unwrap and it becomes wide and ribbon-like? I have no idea what it is but I love it.

And last but not least, there's a wee bit o' Christmas in the kitchen as well-


I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it. I already had the ribbon and this literally took me all of 5 minutes to drape the ribbon over the cabinet doors, tie it in the back, and cut it off.

Here's the inspiration photo:



Yay for already having 4 Christmas cards to display on my cabinets!
Boo for not having made my own cards yet.
Seriously...
boo.


Anyway,
that's a little tour of the Christmas in our hizzy.
Anyone else out there decide to keep it low-key this year?
Anyone else out there recently paint half of what they own white?
Anyone else out there with only 1 ornament on their tree, and totally ok with it?


Do tell...


p.s. I'll be linking this post to:

Beth's mantel party at Home Stories A 2 Z,




Kate's Holiday Crafts linky at Centsational Girl,
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