December 5, 2016

Prepping Our Home for the Holidays!

While I’m crazy busy right now with work, Henry and life in general, I still wanted to get our house a bit festive for the holidays so this weekend I popped over to some of my favorite garden shops, grabbed some greenery and got busy both inside and outside.  Having a now teetering (somewhat walking) toddler around makes things a bit tricky but we made do!

A little glimpse of our tree decked out in Frontage’s stunning blue and blush ornament set, ginger jar set (sadly sold out, similar here) and Crate & Barrel’s glitter stars :)

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As much as Andrew would love to go full on Clark Griswold, I don’t have the appetite for a zillion lights and inflatables. :) We used a Frontgate cordless lit garland above the door and a natural wreath on the door (I stuck with burlap wired ribbon here since our door is bold already!)

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I added some Microlights on battery packs to the window boxes too which look adorable at night!  They are filled with clipped cedar, holly and other evergreens, some gold sprayed pine cones and a burlap bow. Simple and classic.

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Even my little stone doggies got some holiday cheer.

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Our tree is pretty petite this year (and was pretty much DOA so the dustbuster is living in Henry’s toy box – which was custom made from this Etsy shop-right next to it!)  The basket skirt I picked up last year from Terrain (only available in black right now) and the topper is from Ballard.

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How gorgeous are these ornaments?  I added navy velvet ribbon for ever more richness.

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Andrew and I have stockings from Ballard, but Henry lucked out and got one last year needle pointed by Andrew’s mom!  Pretty special!  The other needlepoint one is a gorgeous piece I found in an antique shop for $20!  I know how much work goes into these, so it seemed to good to pass up and serves as a stocking for Baxter and Oliver.

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Our fireplace remains unlit since Henry is obsessed with it, so I put some birch logs in there to dress it up (also hoping to redo the fireplace this year and covert to gas and change the surround to marble slab!).  A garland, some lemon cypress topiaries and extra ornaments dress things up a bit– even with that eyesore of a giant TV!  You can catch the corner of the ottoman I had made to replace our coffee table- great shop to work with!

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I was super into these pink and red poinsettias this year too, which is funny because I tend to dislike red.  Adding just a couple little accents like extra ornaments and ribbon to your existing decor really can add just the right amount of festive to your home without it feeling like Christmas exploded everywhere.

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Henry is too young for Elf on a Shelf so for now he lives atop a bottle of Grey Goose. :)

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In the kitchen/ dining area I kept things easy- with some boxwood wreaths and another poinsettia.

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Chairs- Ballard, Table- Huston & Company, Chandelier- Arteriors, Mirrors- Ballard

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My candlesticks are vintage (I scored for $100 for the pair- I found a set on Chairish)

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I tied a little brass bell ornament to each wreath before hanging on the mirrors.

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A little cheer by the sink too in the form of an olive tree.

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And I have to share this adorable gift we got Henry, which is from Pinhole Press– a board book of the names and faces of people in our family! It is SO cute and he LOVES looking at it.  It was easy and fun to make too. Great for little kids!

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My SIL’s real name is not Banana, FYI- ;)

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