home for the holidays

i enjoy decorating for the holidays. i used to take down all of my everyday decorations, and then put up all the Christmas ones. that was a lot of work. these days i keep it simple by adding to what i have.
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lots of white, creams, browns and greenery again this year. i must say that using more natural colors in my Christmas decorating is my favorite. i hope you enjoy my photos....

i found this big brown bell at a garage sale a few weeks ago.....perfect!

paper cone packages for teachers at C's preschool.

dining room table centerpiece. start with a tray and start loading it up. you can never have too many candles and don't forget to add somethings shiny.

front entry table. love how this display turned out. i think it's all the layering that makes it. the cake plate, the silver plate, the snowballs, the greenery, the packages....

an easy and festive idea is to wrap small boxes with paper that matches your color scheme.

again, don't forget to add something shiny....one ornament will do the trick.

for this sofa table display i just added some extra beads and baubles to the boys photos.

the back mantel...everything was there, i just added the greenery, the sleigh with snowballs and the 'better not pout' garland.

some extra ornaments just added next to some candles in this small glass box.

aaahhh...my favorite decoration this year. this was the paper garland chain that we had around our tree last year. this year we cut it into pieces and hung it in the front window. i used a huge stick that fell from one of our trees to slide the paper garland onto. M made the paper snowflakes, we had a great time putting this together. again, use what you have... but in another way or form. it makes it so much easier....not to mention cheaper!

we went with burlap garland on the tree this year.

a large galvanized bucket holds the unsightly tree stand.

and how many of you have those old wood measuring tapes laying around? shape it like a star and ta-da a Christmas decoration!

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my annual cookie party is this afternoon and i still have things to do to get ready. come back later for photos from the party decorations.