A little Christmas

For several years I've been saying that I'd like to get a real Christmast tree, but the convenience of just reassembling our artificial one keeps winning us over with its solid argument.  This year, however, Mike and I plan to go out with the kids, hopefully this coming weekend, and actually give a tree lot a shot.  After reading about Curious George doing so year after year, Michael and Sophie are likely to get a kick out of the project.  I haven't had a real tree in my home since I was their age, so we'll see how the whole adventure goes!

 

Since doing things in chunks is the name of the game these days, I put up some non-tree decorations over the long weekend, including:

 

I used a tiny Command hook to put a little wreath of berries on my menu board.  I wrapped those wired berries around a candle in a glass hurricane jar last year but opted for some beaded misteltoe instead this year.  I was about to pack the little red berries back up when the menu board idea came to me.

 

I've been excited to change out the record jackets on the record wall for vintage Christmas albums since the arrangement went up during the summer.  The herb buckets never really took off (shocking), so I put some fall berries in them for that season.  For Christmas I took the buckets down completely and replaced them with these snowflake ornaments from Marshall's hung from the same tiny Command hooks that I used on the menu board.  I'm enjoying the flat and simple look so much that I might come up with something similar for after the holidays.
 

Michael and Sophie have been requesting "pa-rum-pa-pum-pum" at every meal now that Christmas albums are in plain view.
 

I brought up a few brown pillows from the basement living area and one cream colored one from our bed to go with our Christmas pillow covers (bought from an Etsy seller who is no longer in business a few years ago).

We have no fireplace, no banister, no charming architectural detail in our home begging for stockings.  For the last few years we've hung ours from the shelves above the TV, but that never felt right to me.  Is that the hearth of our home?  Noooooooo, it's not.  My own ideas for alternatives were pretty dull, so I searched where we all search these days for better ideas:  Google and Pinterest. 

Not wanting to take the time to make or the expense to order an "And the stockings were hung" board, and knowing I had an extra curtain rod in the garage, I went with a variation on this idea of hanging stockings from a pole and Command hooks (I should ask 3M to sponsor this blog :P) from The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.  I also enjoy the idea in that post for making stockings from thrift store sweaters and the fact that the blogger is a twin mom. :)  She made it to my list of favorite blogs with all that (look to the right)!

 

I've had and loved the wreath below for years and never felt it got sufficient attention until I came up with this idea of hanging it...from a Command hook...from our living room mirror (bought from a consignment shop and spray painted black long ago).

 

 

I'm not in love with our living room shelves, but I did improve the arrangement a bit with faux mercury glass votive and tea light holders this year.  I found them on sale at Michael's when I went there for the greenery in the stockings.  I certainly could have made them myself the same way I made my lamps, but there would have been no cost savings, just time expense. 

The red wooden advent calendar was a clearance rack find at Target a couple years back (a dark chocolate a day keeps the...I don't know, but I love this tradition!).  The snowflake platter below also came from an Etsy seller a couple of years ago. 
 

On Saturday morning Michael pointed up to the shelves excitedly and said to Mike, "Look, Daddy, it's Christmas up there!" so I guess I'm on the right track.

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