A Christmas Tour of Homes
Monday, December 18, 2006
Well, I'd thought I would join BooMama and give everyone a little peek inside Mama's house.
Here's my parlor. I decided to go all white this year. I just love the way the delicate lace sets off the rough stones!
Here's our great room with the Christmas tree. The ornaments were handmade in Germany, and I made the wreaths from holly I grew myself. The chair was hand embroidered by a one legged woman in Bavaria who used the money we paid her to buy new teeth for her husband - she does beautiful handwork, no?
Here's the atrium - perfect for sipping tea in the summer, but I like to watch the birds from here in the winter so of course, I had to do this room too.
What? You say I totally ripped these pictures off the Better Homes and Garden website? Ok, you caught me. A girl can dream, can't she?
All right, then, here's the Real Mama:
The decorating around here tends towards "minimal" and "childproof". The theme is Fisher Price Thrift Store, which, given the popularity of the Shabby Chic movement, I hoped would be in vogue by now. Except Shabby Chic is all beautifully and artifically weathered white furniture with beautiful vintage rose accents, and my decorators chose Sharpies to highlight the edges of the tables. Multicolored Sharpies.
Anyway, welcome to my humble home, and just pretend I'm that weird cousin with no teeth who double dips at the reunion - smile, nod, and vow to never be like me! I am not a professional photographer, and the management will not be responsible for blurry, dark photos, even though technically I am responsible, being the one who pushed the button on the camera.
Here is our mantel. My stocking, second from the right, is the one I've had since I was a baby. My grandmother made it for me, and made one for each of my siblings as we were born. My dad has a similar one, that was his when he was a baby. Yep, I'm a saver, just like him! My mom/sisters/self made ones for my kids as they came along, although I noticed when I took them out of the box this year a couple need some work to reattach felt Christmas trees, and #5's entire name fell off. #6 just has a blank one - haven't sewn the doodads on yet! Please ignore the power strip hanging in the corner. That's moving as soon as we finish the Christmas tree lights and you wont' be able to see all those nasty cords!You can see our stockings are hung with clothespins. We rent, and I can't be putting holes all across the mantel! Since the picture was taken, the clothespins have been painted red and will have gold bows attached.
I collect angels, which you see placed around the Nativity scene. In the background are red and gold placemats hung with the aforementioned StikkiClips. These things are amazing, I'm telling ya!
This angel is a little bell my grandmother gave me as an heirloom. We don't have much space, so all of our decorations have lots of sentimental meaning. I don't have room for bought-off-the-shelf-pretty-looking one... everything is well loved.
Creches have a place of honor around here - I've got several- Playmobile, a wooden one, one on the mantel, and even a mini one inside the hollowed out form of a Mexican woman praying. It would probably be better to group them all together with well chosen gilded pinecone accents, but I like to scatter them throughout the house so we have a reminder of the BirthdayBoy in every room. Here's one in a snow globe that plays Silent Night, displayed on some bookshelves in the living room that usually holds my angel collection. I got the snowglobe for my birthday - in March. Did I mention my husband is a last minute shopper?
Here's my side table. It's a chess/gaming table under the placemats - since I'm not allowed to put them on the table underneath plates, I use them for decorating.The flowers came from my yard... the South is a lot different from Denver!
The nativity scene I bought at KMart for $2.50 after Christmas last year, but when I opened it, it had 2 lambs and NO baby Jesus. I know He's the Lamb of God, but darn it, I want a baby, not a sheep! I let the kids play with it. We gather animals from around the house to the Nativitiy scenes, and as you can see, that includes Timon, Pumbaa, and dinosaur erasers. Apparently, Mary is giving birth in the gulag this winter, because my son arranged them for the picture - by lining the people all up facing the wall.
The Santa was given to me by my great aunt, who mailed me a care package for the first Christmas I was married, to get my collection started.Santa has been moved to the shelves in the corner, with the snow globe. I thought the table looked a little cluttery.
Yes, that is a Bandaid stuck on the wall behind the couch. Those little decorators of mine have such eclectic taste!
Here's my table, with the Advent wreath and Christmas Crib. Here's what it'll look like on Christmas morning.
Here's what it looks like now.
The yarn is "hay" that the children place in the crib, whenever they make a sacrifice or make an act of love (unsolicited). On Christmas morning, we sing Happy Birthday and put Jesus on His bed of love. I put the whole shebang on one of those tin cookie platters that you get every Christmas, never throw out because it's "too good", but never use again because it's slightly bent. This makes it easy to move when we are making cookies or doing things at the table. The kitchen table is pretty much our only open flat surface, so it's used for eating, baking, crafts, ironing, kid projects, organizing, and anything else you can think of.
And finally, I actually decorated my kitchen window. I had a weird strand of mini blue lights (where'd those come from, anyway?), and since blue is a theme in my kitchen, it seemed a perfect fit. I put blue ornaments and red, hoping to tie together my holiday table, which will be blue, white, and silver.The Christmas tree isn't up yet. That usually happens on Gaudete Sunday, when we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath. Gaudete Sunday was yesterday, though, but we were sick. Tree has lights working, but nothing else, so far.
This is my son's contribution to the decor. Unfortunately, the house is no longer on display. Several giants came along and chomped it. And licked the plate, too.
Can't wait to see your houses!
Tags: Catholic, Family Life, Less is More Christmas Club,
posted by Milehimama @ Mama Says at 12/18/2006 07:06:00 AM | Permalink |
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