In the past I have piled tree-buying, tree-decorating, and house-decorating into one mega day-long event. This year I spaced it out and dragged up a box at a time and found the whole process to be much more pleasurable. So no more 10-hour decorating marathons for me. A bit at a time is the way to go!
My mantel is super simple and very different from what I have done in Christmases past. Well, the garlands (green and pinecone) and the white lights are standard. But the other pieces, not so much.
I left the narrow white window up from my autumn mantel. I painted it with a fresh coat of white intending to use it as a photo frame in the basement. But the narrow size makes it such a great supporting partner on the mantel (unlike the more square one which works better as the centerpiece – see it here with a wreath) that I might just keep it around as a flexible pieces.
The rusty star and the hunk of driftwood I dragged in from outdoors. The star usually goes on my garden gate and the driftwood spent the summer propped up underneath the pergola. I actually have a vision for the piece of driftwood as inspired by this blog post. Now, will I get to it before Christmas rolls around? Maybe… maybe not!
The photo above shows the top of the shelf in our main floor bathroom. It is a fun and unexpected spot to add some decorations. The little Santa bells are a "new" vintage treasure passed on to me by my always-cleaning grandmother.
And in this photo you can see the vase of driftwood that was featured in this autumn mantel design. I added one of the oak leaf branches from the mantel along with a sprig of fake red berries and it was instantly repurposed. And I must say, my jars of beads and buttons sorted by color prove to be perennially useful in decorating.
Happy holiday decorating to you!
