We have guests this weekend and happily, our Christmas decorating was completed on time.
As you may recall, we used red cedar garland for our fireplace mantel and since I had plenty of extra, I took that to the buffet in our dinning room too. As you can see, it was a sad autumn display that needed some help anyhow.
I cleared it off, putting some items away until after the holidays but I kept the decorative glass jars that I had filled with small pumpkins and gourds. They needed a quick rinse so while those were drying, I started to lay another piece of fabric along the back of the display, again using that to give the garland some height.
After this was in place (nothing fancy clearly), I put the garland down and turned to the glass jars to begin filling them. I filled one with leftover lime green beads, topped with ornaments, while the other was filled solely with ornaments of all shapes and colors.
Next, I followed the same process as the mantel, nestling different ornaments and snowflakes in place ... this time including a few other items I found in my colors like a musical note ornament and some glittery and festive apples.
I flanked that with three of the same trees used on the fire place for one side, a gold deer on the other, and a white ceramic deer directly in the center.
For my dinning room table, I remembered I had purchased a glass cake stand (or stand of some sort, I don't even know) a while back. Sadly, the base of it broke on its way out of my car. But the dome was still in tack and as luck would have it, it fit pretty well on top of a tall serving tray I use. So I filled it with some snow, beads, pine cones and green snowflakes and with that (and a few candles on the sides) ... my centerpiece was done. Easy peesy.
Then of course, there was the tree. After some debate, I decided the tree must match or it will give me anxiety just looking at. I have no time for anxiety (I'm barely sane now that my kids are old enough to fight with each other) so I popped off for some more ornaments, beads, lights and a tree skirt in my colors: chocolate brown, champagne, gold and lime green.
The kids helped me get that in place and I used some extra ornaments with the strings broken off to fill a tray that was already in this room.
BTW, how cool is that "W?" It says "Wise Men Still Seek Him" for those of you--like my hubby--that can't read it. He was confused as to why I just picked some very large, random letter of the alphabet to put in our living room and couldn't understand what, o what, it had to do with Christmas. Oy.
So, now we have some calming but festive colors and a pretty tree to watch as we listen to Christmas music and enjoy time with friends and family. May you find time and peace in doing the same!
