Christmas Decorations

Let's take a peek at what Christmas looks like at my house this year:


I love Christmas. Love, love, LOVE it. Give me hot cocoa and Bing Crosby and color me happy. Unfortunately being jobless doesn't pay well so I was determined to break out my not-so-inner cheapskate and do Christmas the frugal way. I pulled out my already owned Christmas decorations, as well as some things that aren't typically used for decor and went to town.

My vintage ottoman is the perfect place to lay out a few holiday books, some new and some that were mine as a kid. Luke loves to read so I like to have books stashed around the house for him. Speaking of Luke, he is the reason our tree is rocking the lights but no ornaments this year. He seems to do pretty well staying away from other people's Christmas trees, but I didn't want to risk it. Don't worry, our ornaments will be back in full force next year.


My mantle got the free and easy treatment, too. My first step was to mentally sort through what I had to work with and decide on a color scheme of clear glass, white and brown. Christmasy, right? Sorry, I've never been one to drape red and green everywhere.

On each end of the mantle I placed a glass vase (originally bought for my wedding reception) filled with pine cones from my back yard. That's right, these babies only cost me the 4 minutes it took to scavenge in the yard. And that was at night - I bet I could shave at least a minute off my time in the daylight. And I only found one spider. For those of you that prefer to buy your (spider free) pine cones at the craft store, where's your sense of adventure? One measely spider is well worth getting a whole basket of pine cones for zero dollars. Then I layered in some texture and a contrasting shade of brown with a pair of rattan votive holders - one for each vase o'pine cones - that I snagged at a thrift store for a whopping 35 cents a pop. I continued my brown scheme with some bronze sleigh bells (which made an appearance on my door wreath in years past) in a flower vase. Is it just me, or do you love unique vase fillers too?


To balance out all the brown I added a pair of vintage white tree candles and my newest milk glass bowl filled with - you guessed it - pine cones. Are you sensing a theme here? Then I finished everything off by tucking in some sprigs of greenery. I have a shrub in my yard that seems similar to a holly tree - dark, waxy leaves and red berries - so I was able to snatch up some more free holiday garnish.


Last, but not least, I whipped up a wreath to fill the open space above the mantle. I don't want to give everything away, because I have a full tutorial to share with you tomorrow, but this baby only took $0.99 and a few episodes of Glee to come together. Yes, I'm a Gleek. Is anyone surprised by that?


Subtle texture, simple color scheme, delicious shadows. Come to mama.


Well, that's it for my living room. Except for one last look at my hearth, because I couldn't help myself. I'll be back tomorrow for even more Christmas details!