Last week I shared a preview featuring a bit of our Christmas decor so far. Since then we have finished decorating our big tree (we still had ornaments to add) and I got everything photographed.
This first pic is our front porch. I'm not a big outdoor decorating person, but I did add a couple of touches to the front porch. A jar of ornaments and a framed printable added just a touch of holiday to my outside bakers rack. While the jar of ornaments would be fine outside, I did bring the printable back in before it could be rained on or blown away.
The milk glass and terra cotta stay outside all year. I've got such a large collection of milk glass now that I've begun to use it outside as well 😁, and this past summer I began adding in terra cotta for contrast. My milk glass pieces are usually found for around $1 and the terra cotta pots I found late summer for .25 each. The large ivy printed mixing bowl was a Goodwill find a few years ago. The collection of artificial greenery are also various treasure hunting/ thrift store finds. On the other side of the door I let a wreath fall casually against my side table and added a jar of ornaments on the table top.
keep scrolling to see 'framed' wreath and more, as well as our new ornaments for 2018:
(You can click
here to learn more about the bakers rack)
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Disclosure- This post contains affiliate links. If a purchase is made through an affiliate link then (at no additional cost to you) I will receive a commission. Affiliate links are noted below.
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Come on in...
Once that screen door is out of the way, you can get a much better view of the 'framed' wreath. I found two of these large gilded frames for $5 while treasure hunting this summer and on a whim decided to hang one from the wreath hanger that was already in place. I liked the look and left the frame in place for the rest of the summer. When fall came around I layered my foliage wreath right on top and decided to do the same with this evergreen one.
Tip: If you go the frame-as-wreath route and find that your frame bangs around with the movement of the door, just use some painters tape to keep it in place. I rolled sections of tape into loops (with the sticky side out) and put them on the back of the frame to keep it nice and still. I do this with all of my wall frames too, I can't stand when they go all crooked! 😌
Nighttime Mirror
Darkness is my favorite time of day during the holiday season because I enjoy the glow of the tree lights so much. You will never hear me complain about the shortened daylight hours, I can't wait for the house to be fully tree-lit. I'm even guilty of going as far as to not use any lamps, it's tree lights all the way, baby! 😀
What's even better than a cozy house fully lit with twinkly trees? Lots and lots of mirrors to bounce the light around 😉
Living Room Tree Day & Night
Our biggest tree might look fully stocked with ornaments, but you know there is always room for our yearly additions.....
Burlap Deer
Husby's ornament this year is this cute little burlap deer, all decked out for the holiday season.
You can find one like it at WalMart for $2.
Mermaid & Butterfly Ball
For my Girl I chose a purple sparkly mermaid and a butterfly covered kissing ball. Both of these are also from WalMart at $2 each.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
My Bubby really wanted a set of TMNT ornaments that we spied at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, but at $8 a pop, I convinced him that we could make our own just as easily! These were made from Dollar Tree keychains and cost just $1 a piece. I'll have a tutorial post coming soon!
You can click this
Dollar Tree (affiliate) link to browse the store yourself 😊
Dining Room
So if you entered in through the front door, to the left would be the living room and large living room tree, while straight ahead lies the dining room.
Without a proper mantle, I use wreath hangers to suspend our stockings from the large window. The shelves are full of framed photos from holiday's past as well as my collection of chocolate and gold ornaments. Some of my kid's holiday artwork is framed on the window ledge and a miniature village lives below the tree.
Note: You may have noticed that I switched the table. This is a smaller eat-in kitchen sized table that used to be our 'desk' in the living room. Since we have added an additional computer to our set-up (one for each kiddo) we needed a larger table to serve as a desk. For now, I moved the dining table into the office area to use as a desk and this small table is trying it's very best as our dining room surface. I'm on the hunt for a more appropriate sized dining table, but for now we are making it work 😉
The poor table is absolutely dwarfed by those large dining chairs, but since I mentioned the chairs, let me tell you more about them! This set of five chairs was at Goodwill this past summer for $7.99 each. I didn't need them at the time, but it was such a good deal (and I knew that I would need additional seating eventually) that I went back....to find them reduced to $4.99 per chair! I purchased four of them at the time, leaving the fifth one all by it's lonesome. I happened to be in the store again shortly afterward to find that the fifth chair had been reduced to $1.99, so I went ahead and brought it home too. That's five large, sturdy dining chairs for under $25!
Thrifting Tip: I feel I should point out that while the waiting game can sometimes work in your favor while thrifting, it's not always the best method. Thrift store items can go really fast, so if you find something you love, snap it up!
Dining Room Tree Day & Night
The miniature village at the base of this tree is my favorite part of the dining room, and my kids love playing with it. You can tell that by the bottom photo - somebody has taken all of the figures and accessories from the village and lined them up on the window ledge 😁
You can click
here to read more about the village.
Kitchen
Keep walking toward the dining room and turn left before the dining room tree to hit the kitchen. Here you will find my candy themed tree complete with new ornaments.....
Gingy & Ice Cream Cones
These are my new ornaments for the year and can all be found at WalMart for $1 each.
Kitchen Details
You know I love my gingy friends, and they can be found tucked all over the kitchen. A couple reside above the fridge with another at the top of the pantry. Two more peak out from the top of the china cabinet.
The china cabinet couple are from an artificial cookies and milk set that I got a couple of years ago. You can click
here to learn more about them.
Stove & Counters
I've toned the Christmas down in the kitchen a bit, and kept things simple. A small tree, my cookie cutters and a collection of cupcake jars were enough this year 😊
Gingy Family
It wouldn't be a proper kitchen report if I didn't mention our little gingy family that lives under the tree. I especially love Mama Gingy's new clothes - my daughter felt that the skirt was too revealing and let her borrow a pair of American Girl Doll jeans for the season. We women need to look out for one another, am I right? 😎
Kitchen Tree at Night
And for one last pic - here is the kitchen tree at night. What's in the Scentsy warmer, you ask? Evergreen scented wax cubes - I like the
Better Homes and Gardens brand the best and they really make your house smell nice and Christmasy!
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That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this holiday post and thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer
© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018
