Decorating for Christmas

This year the Carolina kids are coming to Texas for Christmas.  That definitely puts me in a Christmas spirit.
I have been house bound and slow moving with an eye infection but I have managed to get the inside mostly decorated. This year I decided that I would use turquoise, teal, aqua colors and silver.  The colors make the house seem more calm.  I really need that right now.
Even though the kids are coming for Christmas, we are not spending the holiday at home, so I wanted everything I got out to be easy to put away.
I made a lot of the decorations this fall which was fun. I reused ginger jar vases from the lovebirds' wedding,  I used pages from a garage sale find- an old torn up hymnal for several items.

It was my goal to reuse as much as possible from around the house. Tarnished silver candlesticks from the yellow and grey bedroom, burlap from the wedding, bulletin board from the garage, chalkboards will be used in The Charlotte Wedding.

Enjoy.
The Den

 The tree from upstairs.

 I am 5'9".  Here is the tree with me taking the picture looking up at it from a standing position.

Every year since 1983 my husband has purchased a Precious Moments ornament for me.  He even found a 1982 our first Christmas together ornament so that I have one from every year we have been married.  I love getting them out and putting them on the tree.

 I bought $20.00 worth of silver and teal ornaments this year.  I have spread them through all the rooms.

 The mantle is mostly completed.  The S is cardboard, with sheets of music glued on with watered down glue.  The canvas is a salvaged bulletin board wrapped with fabric. 

The ginger jar vase is covered with dictionary pages adhered with watered down glue.

 

 Not through with the mantle because I want to add garland to the letters.  When I attached them to the twine the first time I got them backwards.

Each letter is stenciled on a page from the hymnal that has a joyful song.

The Farmhouse Table

 I already had everything on the table except the clear glass plates.  They were $1.00 each at Target.

 I have collected crystal globes for years.  They are so pretty on the rustic table.

I found these chargers in my buffet.  I don't even remember having them, but they were perfect.

The Dining Room

 I loved using the chalkboards that will be used at the June wedding.

Wreaths

 I repurposed this wreath.  It used to have mauve poinsettias.  Remember mauve?

I even added a wreath to the mudroom bench.  I found this one at a resale shop for at dollar then ripped all the ugly off.  The silver ribbon looks great on it.

Paint Chip Art

Here is a picture of our wall in the family room. 

 See that puny picture on the wall?  can you believe it is really 18 inches by 24 inches?  The reason it looks so small in this space is because it is in a huge room on a ridiculously tall wall.  My den is 17 feet wide and 24 feet long.  I have never known what to do with the room, and from what I saw the people who owned the house before us had no idea either.

On top of being a long and wide room, the room sweeps up to eighteen feet with a cat walk stairway.

I have decided that I love color so it is time that I embrace what I love.

My first bold purchase was a rug.  I love the colors.  It makes me happy.  I bought it one afternoon with my buddy the social planner.  Hubby would never have picked this out, but I brought it home and rolled it out.  He seems like he has warmed up to it.

 

 

 

Shortly after the rug, I purchased some neutral furniture.  It was before my blogging days but the stuff was a great deal.  I have moved slow because I really didn't have a direction to go. I love the wood floors, I like the room height, I am happy with the french doors, but something always seems a little off with this room.

  I painted this picture this past summer from something I saw on Pinterst.  I loved the colors because they are all in the rug.

I have been slowly collecting McCoy pottery as I find reasonable pieces.  I love the colors, and we have a family connection to the McCoys.

At my friend, Pam's house, I was inspired to make a paint chip art piece. Here is the link to how she did this. i really did follow her directions.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4086884246929168617#editor/target=post;postID=159055830737770270
I loved the fact that I could choose my colors, the slightly vintage quality, but let's be honest... this is great looking almost free art. 


I bought this big frame for $3.00 up near the lake house.  I painted it the color of the craft table.  That color is in the rug.

It was big.  twenty four inches tall and forty eight inches wide. 

I used paint chips that match the colors in the rug to make my version of the paint chip art project.  I actually was able to use the picture in the frame as the base for the paint chip art piece.  This piece really meant that the cost of this whole project was $3.00. 

Here are the paint chips glued down.  I used Elmer's spray adhesive to get everything stuck down.  I did have to check the corners and press several down many times.

 

I thought the colors were too vivid when glued down.

 

Here it is with watered down brown acrylic paint washed over it.  I love the frame on the picture.  This is going to be a statement piece in the room.

 

To fill the big empty wall, I plan on bringing in a small buffet height dresser that I am going to paint an amazing color.  The wall is going to look great when I am done, but I still do not know what I want to do with the whole room.  Suggestions?