Welcome to my 2014 Holiday Home Tour!!

I'm a big believer in grabbing joy wherever you can, which is why I tend to be a little nuts about Christmas. Life's not perfect (far from it), but I've found that a little 'sparkle' goes a long way. So, this holiday season, I hope you find lots of reasons to smile and spread a little happiness to others as well. Merry Christmas!  

Welcome to my home! I like to keep things simple on the outside. With just a few pine cones, green bows and a shiny, red wreath I've had forever, I've dressed up my summer gardening pots in holiday style.

Once you step inside, you are right in the middle of my open-plan kitchen/dining/living room. This is the organizational center of my home and it's always pretty wild with color, but I tend to go a bit over the top during the holidays. This area's all about fun! Since nothing needs to match, it's the perfect spot to display greeting cards on a garland decorated with handmade snowflakes.

The shelf over my kitchen cart is a great spot to display smaller figurines that I'd rather keep out of little hands. I love the way they mix with the family photos. Oh, and I found yet another use for those adorable mini pails that Target sells in their $1 section.

Round the corner to my built-in shelf which looks over the dining table. Festive, no? I left it pretty much exactly the same as it looks normally with the simple addition of some snowflakes (strings weighed down by books, etc.), and a few unbreakable ornaments tucked in here and there. So far, my 3-year old's left it alone. Fingers crossed.

But wait! Take a closer look. Can you spot the present I very cleverly 'hid' on this shelf? Hee hee.

What about this one?

This shelf is directly across from my front door and is high enough that I can do a little more 'grown-up' decorating on it. Garlands are homemade from TP rolls, yarn and beads. I got lazy and ordered the orange slices online (instead of taking a whole day to dry them in my oven, as some folks do). I did spent a ridiculous number of hours wrapping the 'JOY' letters in cream yarn and jute, but I really like how they turned out. Additional sparkly/rustic things tucked in here and there. I find it very welcoming to come home and see it first thing each time I walk in the door.

You may have noticed this very little tree in one of the previous photos. Yes, this is how I do Christmas trees in my 700 sq. ft. house and have for years. The convenience of a having a mini tree that fits perfectly on top of my corner fireplace definitely outweighs the hassle of moving furniture to accommodate a larger tree, with the added stress of trying to keep dogs and a small child away from it. But, you'd better believe I still spend hours trying to get it 'just right' each year and packing in as many ornaments as possible (mostly handmade with my vintage blue bulbs adding just the right 'pop' of color to my all-time-favorite 'white-on-white' look). The stack of books under it (on top of which usually sits a potted plant) gives the tree some nice added height to fill the space.'But where are all the PRESENTS', you ask? More on that later.

A couple of presents in matching hues, look just right under my mini tree.

In my son's room, a tiny reindeer watches over him from on top of a shelf (also high up).

A handmade candy cane adorns the window in my son's room. Are you noticing a common theme yet? Soft? Unbreakable? No small parts? When it comes to decorating children's rooms, I definitely follow the rule of 'safety first'. Less stress for me means I can enjoy more of the holidays. 

Aha, presents! I'm no Scrooge. Just because I don't have a lot of space under my tree for gifts, doesn't meant they aren't piled up elsewhere. And I rather like having this festive little stash to look at each time I go into my bedroom. That's all folks. Merry Christmas to you!!

Joy to the World!

Unusually early rounds of snow and cold seems to have put everybody in the mood to decorate early for Christmas and I'm no exception. When you're fighting off the winter blues, you need a little extra sparkle in your life. So I spent my weekend making the jute and yarn-wrapped 'JOY' letters with just a touch of silver and gold for added cheer. I have to say, I do find myself smiling every time I walk down my hallway now. 

This is a wreath I did as a donation for a silent auction fundraiser a few weeks ago and is part of a larger front porch display. My theme was 'Winter's Garden' and I was going for a natural, outdoorsy look. I happened to already have the grapevine wreath (leftover from my wedding!) which sparked my idea for the theme. I had some leftover oranges, pine cones and cinnamon sticks, which made their way into my personal holiday decor above.

INSTANT Modern Art...your kids can do!

I'd like to highlight a new artist I've just discovered...my son!! Connor is 2 1/2 and LOVES to create with anything I put in front of him. Earlier this week he did watercolors and paper mosaics for the first time and suddenly I knew what to do with that barren spot on the wall in my kitchen. I hung up a bulletin board and then tacked up his artwork so it overlapped the board by 2-3" on all sides (thicker paper like card stock works best as it won't curl on the edges). The result is one big, colorful, abstract art piece and it looks AWESOME if I do say so myself. I know I'm a bit biased, but it's just such a cheerful pop of color now where there once was nothing but a phone jack we don't use anymore. Just around the corner is a dark hallway that could also use some sprucing up...can't wait to see what my baby comes up with next! 

Elegant, White, Framed Chalkboard Art

I love this chalkboard for so many reasons...it's the perfect blend of casual/elegant, it's black and white, and it's just plain beautiful! And since I like to draw, I also think it would be fun to change up the artwork from month to month (maybe it's just me, but I've always had a thing for those artistic chalkboard signs in grocery stores and coffee shops). This one's going on my wish list!

Casual Country Flower Arrangement Using Grouped Glass Bottles Tied with Twine

I wish I would have seen this idea before I set out garage sale-ing this past weekend (as these etched-glass bottles are so pretty and something you don't see every day), but what a lovely, effortless flower arrangement! Just tie several glass bottles together with some twine. I can't wait to try it out the next time I have company.

My September Garden

 

My ever-patient Sedum plants waited until everything else in the garden was beyond hope of saving to finally burst forth in fluffy purple blooms (picked 2 of them up for $5 a piece at a garage sale about 5 years ago). I suppose it helps that the leaves are succulents so they can retain precious water - even in a crop-killing drought apparently. And even though it looks slightly out of place, I couldn't bring myself to pull up the lone Zinnia flower, which must have re-seeded itself from last year. I admire its perseverance!  

* * * * *

I've never had much of a 'green thumb', yet every spring, I can't help but respond excitedly to the displays of multi-colored seed packets that seem to pop up just as soon as Christmas merchandise is slashed down to 75% off in retail stores nationwide. This summer was no exception. The only problem is, with the record-breaking heatwave/drought that paralyzed the midwest for pretty much the entire growing season, I got to enjoy what few flowers did come up for about 3 weeks and after that, I simply could not keep up with watering them. Even the grass gave up and turned brown and crispy, while all other living things hunkered down indoors with the air on HIGH and the shades drawn.

Then September came to our rescue with an almost instant shift in the weather pattern, and I tentatively ventured outside again. Usually, I consider this time of year to be the END of the growing season, but as it turns out, I'm finally getting to enjoy and appreciate my garden - only in a different way than I expected...

* * * * *

 

Who knew that while everything else in the garden was dying on the vine, Coleus plants and Impatiens would thrive in the combination of heat, humidity and shade just off my front porch? I even forgot to water them for weeks at a time and they just kept on growing. That monstrosity of foliage is actually several different containers that were originally planted with much smaller plants which are now at least 10X BIGGER (I'm not kidding). Picked up for a song at a local plant sale in April, I'd say I got a good deal!

Here's a top view of my Coleus plants, showing the 3 different types of plants (red, green and white) and how they expanded from their containers to reach all the way from the grass in the front yard to the front of my house (about 5 feet).

I've always been a sucker for Mums - especially this year, when the sight of their cheerful, round faces gave me hope that I might still be able to enjoy a little color in my garden before winter (hint: they only look like they've been planted directly into the ground - actually it's just a row of them that I plopped into decorative pots and set in front of my garden to distract from all the other dead flowers).

Of course, the minute I saw neatly stacked bales of hay on display at a local garden center, I couldn't resist bringing one home to cover all that dirt on the planter whose original flowers had already gone to heaven. I still had my fall wreath from last year, stored in my office, so 5 minutes (and some sweeping) later, I had a new front porch to look forward to coming home to after long walks with my one-year-old son. Now it just needs pumpkins!

Easy Decoupage Pumpkins

Photo © Shalom Schultz

I've always wanted to try this, but all the instructions I'd come across previously seemed far too complicated, so I came up with my own!

First, I bought a mini artificial pumpkin for $3 at the craft store (about 5 inches in diameter). Then, I measured the distance from the base of the stalk at the top to the center of the bottom and cut 1.5" wide strips of some fabric I had on hand in this length (for this size pumpkin I used about 12). Next, I rounded the tops and bottoms of the strips into 'petal' shapes with blunt ends so they'd conform more naturally to the shape of the pumpkin.

Using Alleene's Instant Decoupage (regular glue would probably work too) and a foam brush, I coated the back side of each strip of fabric, then positioned it on my pumpkin, using my fingers to smooth out the edges. Each strip slightly overlapped the one before.

I made sure that the tops of the fabric 'petals' aligned neatly around the base of the stalk, which meant that they didn't align so neatly at the bottom, but when I was finished covering my pumpkin, I just cut a circle of fabric and glued it over the center of the bottom for a nice, clean look.

The whole process only took me about an hour. Now I want to create a whole 'patch' with different size pumpkins and fabrics that I can use again next year!

Idea File: What to do with a beat up antique frame

Remember that antique frame I picked up at an estate sale back in March for just $2.75? Do you think I had any idea what I wanted to do with it when I bought it? Ha! But none of that matters, if you follow the mantra, "Buy what you love!" This does require some genuine soul-searching (which is a finely tuned skill that must be honed down to take mere seconds in some cases, if you want to snag that bargain before someone else swipes it out from under your nose). Especially if you are running out of closet space and can't afford to rent a storage unit for all your "treasures"...ahem. But, like love, when you know, you know.


Two months later (a pretty good record for me!), I figured out what to do with my "find"and created a 3-D vignette with the frame on top of my fireplace, using an antique silver cake stand (a previous flea market find), a hand-painted clay vase (from the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan), some flowers (yes, artificial, but they can always be switched out for fresh) and two modern glass votive holders (Crate & Barrel). SO much, more interesting than just plopping a painting inside it and banging a nail into the wall for it to hang on. What's great about this idea is that it's easily interchangeable for the seasons. Also - because I've been in the habit of buying things I love for years, when the mood struck me to redecorate my living room, I didn't spend a dime!!!

In Preparation for Spring

I feel it - even though everything outide is still brown and the air is chilly and I'm wearing socks and sweaters constantly - an inner sense that the earth is changing. As someone who hates winter and cold with a passion (even though I live in the midwest and should be used to it by now), I always look for the earliest signs of spring, long before most other people would: tiny brownish-red buds forming on the naked brances of the trees in my yard, the sun that feels warm (not just bright) through my car's windows. And I am tempted to peek under the clumps of dead leaves in my empty flower beds for those first yellow-green spikes from early bloomers. It still feels like winter, but in only a few weeks, Spring will popping up everywhere and there will be no stopping it. Just knowing that the end of winter is in sight, puts light in my heart and a bounce in my step. I feel a new energy and my hands itch to start making lists for plans well into the summer months. Already I have some new flower bulbs lined up, ready to go into the ground as soon as it's safe. And I also am seeing my house - really seeing it - in a new and very dirty light and realizing that it's about time I gave it a thorough cleaning. One thing I always have to do to welcome a new season is buy a new silk floral arrangement - this time it was yellow dogwood blossoms on an irregular branch. It looks very lifelike and spruces up my kitchen just enough to inspire me to get going on the rest of my house.

Life goes on and on, and just when we think it's out of anything useful, it recycles it'self all over again and if we are lucky enough to be a part of that process, we should be very thankful.