Christmas 2014 Home Tour

I absolutely love decorating for the holidays and was successful this year in wearing my husband down enough that he finally gave the go-ahead for me to start breaking out the Christmas decor around November 10. I know that sounds crazy early, but, decorating for Christmas in a new house can be a daunting task! We also traveled back to Chicago this Thanksgiving, so it was nice not to feel rushed when we got back home. Since I was able to do much of my decorating early, I can focus now on our unexpectedly large Christmas tree (more on that later!). 

After somewhat impulsively painting my front door blue a few weeks ago (for the record, the paint sample was about five shades darker than what we ended up with, although the brighter color is growing on me!), I was excited to put up the door hanger I made last Christmas (thanks, Pinterest!).

 It drives my husband nuts that the J in Joy is off-center. 

That happens to be my special skill! 

Mid-gulp-30s, and I still struggle to cut in a straight line.

The entryway trees were a labor of love too, emphasis on labor. 

I scored the 4' prelit trees from Michaels for $19 each then ordered planters from Amazon for a whopping $6 each. I used Hobby Lobby ornaments and little red bows to decorate. Then my husband I cemented each tree into its planter. 

Done!

Moving inside, I strayed from my usual flowers-in-the-center-two-pictures-flanking motif for a more asymmetrical look. The score of my holiday season is the little tree dish that I found on a random pop-in at Goodwill for $1! I'm in the throes of a gold spray painting obsession, so I have been scouring antique and hobby stores for things to spray!

The tiny pinecones are courtesy of my lovely neighbor, J., who continues to spoil me rotten. She brought me an enormous box of the most beautiful pinecones from a trip years ago out east. She is feeding my spray painting obsession, ha!

 I tried not to break the bank on decorations- I plan to add more each year and maybe pick up some after-Christmas sale items to add for next Christmas. For now, I repurposed a kitchen serving dish with these ancient holiday candles and, again, some Hobby Lobby ornaments and J.'s pinecones.  

 I'm so excited to fill our sweet Advent calendar for my husband and the girls. I'm finally wising up and planning to put the SAME candies in for everyone so there are no battles over who gets which treat.

 I found this fun runner at Target and plan to keep it out through the cold weather months. I'm really liking gold lately...

 And again with the spray painted pinecones...I can't help myself.

 Here's the tiny tree my girls decorated with sweet little ornaments from their grandma and some tiny balls from Michaels.

 I also shockingly spray painted some backyard twigs gold.

This sign makes me happy. It also cracks me up because my neighbor thought it said "Have yourself a very crazy Christmas".

 I've also been on a mission to find clippings to supplement my garlands. 

I had a rather embarrassing trek in suede booties through the snow a week ago to rescue a beautiful branch that had fallen by our clubhouse. I like to keep it classy. 

 I added some colored ornaments to my old front door wreath to hang over our mantel. Next year I plan to upgrade the garland. For the time being, I just stuck some of the clippings from my snow adventure here and there.

 The girls are slowly decorating the craft Christmas tree and have added some fun holiday art projects to our window. Since we have a stainless fridge that doesn't hold magnets, we've had to be creative with our artwork placement.

 More on the top project in another post!

 Nothing too crazy going on in the front hall bathroom. 

I do have to point out that the Catfish loves the peppermint soap so much that she has been accosting guests with requests to "smell my fingers!" after a trip to the bathroom. 

 My husband is BEYOND thrilled that I finally finished our stair garlands. He has endured an incredible amount of discussion and has politely feigned interest in the thousands of Pinterest pins I've made him view.

 I went with a bottom staircase garland so that the tiny hands going up and down the stairs can still use the bannister. I'm noticing that having the decorations lower makes them less likely to be touched and pulled at by the aforementioned tiny hands.

I started with plain garland from Michaels and added Hobby Lobby shatterproof ornaments along with red and gold picks from JoAnn Fabric. 

Then I used two different kinds of clippings to add some depth and variety to the garland. 

 So there it is- the highlights of my Christmas decor for 2014!

I can't wait to host family in a few weeks and am looking forward to making some fun new holiday memories in our new home this year.

Happy Holidays!