I guess a lot of you are wondering whether or not I've ever got a peanut stuck up my nose.
I haven't. And since I don't have children I've never had to take one to the doctor with a peanut stuck up their nose. I'm not sure what it is about kids and sticking things up their noses but I can say that once they grow up, boys still like to stick things where they don't necessarily belong. This was proven once again when I was cleaning up to start Christmas decorating and found 14 foil easter egg wrappers smashed between the arm of the couch and the couch cushion.
The fella.
More than 2 years on the lam and I'm still finding weird things he stuck in weird places.
I should have known something was off with him when he told me in no uncertain terms that pizza toppings should be underneath the cheese. And he was serious.
The thing about decorating the house for Christmas is for some reason I feel like I need to clean the house up first. Clean, tidy, reorganize a bit and THEN I can start dragging the Christmas crap out to make the mess of all messes. The sparkle-twig mess. Once the Christmas decorating is done, I do it all over again, cleaning, tidying and vacuuming up enough sparkle and twigs to choke the Abominable Snowmonster.
Today I'm just going to take you through a casual tour of my perfectly propped and presented house at Christmas. My house does not look like it does in these photos anymore. There's currently a mess of gingerbread making stuff in the kitchen (for an upcoming post), the wine is gone and there's a smashed tree ornament in the front hall under the tree.
But for the most part this is what my house looks like at Christmas. Just a little more lived in. Because I'm living in it and all.
Welcome to my home.
The bedroom high boy.
Guess what These are original pine floors from 1840.
Guess what again? I'm probably going to spend my time off at Christmas sanding all of the floors in my house down to raw wood.
Ernie, is unlikely to help me with the floor sanding task. Apparently.
BRAND new white Rough Linen duvet cover. This is the article that pushed me over the edge in terms of wanting to sand down my floors to raw, unfinished wood.
The living room. The DIY snowglobes on an antique silver tray light up the room at night.
The cozy spot. Excellent for reading, snacking or general nesting.
Those cute toast coasters.
Big, HUGE, puffy garland is back in style, but i still like my sparse stuff. Plus it takes up way less room in small spaces.
Every single thing you see her was either used or discount.
This entire area cost a total of $150. Including dresser, stocking, lamp, and gold foo dogs.
Decorating doesn't always require a lot of money. Sometimes just some patience waiting for the right thing at the right price.
That white nutcracker however was $742. Just kidding. Like $10 or something.
The front hall is where the live tree goes every year. This year I went for a skinny, very, very sparse tree because I wanted it to look as natural as possible. It has holes in it and is kind of sickly looking.
I love it.
I've been collecting (and breaking) ornaments for years now.
The entire tree is decorated with them.
Some have even come from readers who weren't as in love with antique ornaments as I am or whose house didn't suit having them on their tree.
Antique timber wood bench. Discount store fawn.
My old custom made field boots for horseback riding. Sadly they were custom made for someone else so they were always a little bit big on me.
If there's one thing I could leave up all year long it would be this tree.
Downton Abbey meets Duck Dynasty on the dining room table.
This gold tree is the second thing I'd leave out all year long.
Paperwhites. You love the smell of them or you hate the smell of them.
I love the smell.
My niece things they smell like own vomit.
Christmas doesn't necessarily have to completely sparkle and shine. But a little bit is good even if it's just wine glasses.
I still love my kitchen.
Which is a good thing since I spend most of my time in this room.
Those curtains you see under the counter are Rough Linen. In the winter I put them up and in the summer I take them down.
Yeah, I bought those two oranges with the leaves just for the photo.
You should too. Even if you aren't taking a photo of your kitchen, a couple of oranges with leaves have as much homey, Christmas impact as any doo dad accessory (provided you set them right beside two supercool Christmassy doo dads)
Several photos later and I still love my kitchen.
This truck was a Christmas present for myself a couple of years ago.
You know how sometimes you know you like something but have no idea how much you really love it until you get it home? And for 2 years straight you say I'm so HAPPY I bought that! This truck is one of those things.
Yup. It's Christmas.
In Wednesday's post I'm going to walk you through some of these photos and give you all the tips and tricks I have for decorating for Christmas or Hanukkah. It's the one season where everyone can be an expert decorator. It's very difficult to screw up Christmas decorating. Because unlike with men, at Christmas you can almost stick anything anywhere and have it be O.K.
Rachel
Do you know what Adam did with the Apple core after he was done eating it? Stashed it in a rose bush hoping God wouldn't see it. He then went off to swing on a vine with one of his animal pals he hadn't thought of a name yet because why rush when you're immortal, right? Plus the Knowledge part hadn't taken effect yet as compared to Eve so he had a little play time left. You know what Eve did with her core? Found a little spot to call her own and tried planting all the seeds to yield 4 more trees. You've made your own gorgeous beautiful Garden of a home for yourself just the way you like it, don't let Fellas stash crap in it and go off to swing on vines.
Love your kitchen walls by the way! ;)
jainegayer
I LOVE it!
Su
It's lovely.... I still love the wall of art...
Tigersmom
I still love that gold tree. I have never found it's equal, though I have looked.
And you are right about paper whites. I love them and my husband thinks they are nasty.
Leslie Zuroski
Beautiful tour, tanks Karen! I don't remember seeing the white credenza in the dining room before. Is it new? Is there a post about it? I'm so curious about that.
Karen
It's not new Leslie. It's been around since I got rid of everything in my house and redid it. ~ karen!
Rose
You are a magic maker!
Rose
Wow, your house looks amazing. Please keep us updated on the steps you take to redo your beautiful floors. Also, there is a big crack in your stump table. Was it always there or did it dry out. What finish did you put on it?
Karen
Hi Rose. That particular stump table has always had the crack but yes, it gets a bit larger with age. There's no finish on it. The table in the front hall does have a finish. ~ karen!
magali
I was already envious of your rolling pin wall and now you have made me love it even more! One day I will have a mini version of that :)
Jody Boswell
Some houses make you wish you could move right in. Yours is definitely one for me. You make my day and encourage my "I can do that" part of my brain. Thanks for being so great.
Emie
LOVELY! The front hallway tree is the best!!!
Ronda
the whole house is gorgeous, but I'm especially entranced by the cake stands on the kitchen island, with their bird topped covers! Christie??
Karen
No, I actually bought the stands locally. They're the same ones I used in my Thanksgiving Vegetable centrepiece. And the bird cages on top I got at a local discount store last year. They just happened to fit together, which was great. ~ karen!
Cheryl
Hey, I know those tea towels. I wrapped my mother's Christmas gifts in them.
Cheryl
And I forgot the second thing I was going to say, which is that I would totally leave my tree up all year if I had room. I love all the tiny lights.
Karen
Ha! I just bought them! They were on sale. Woo hoo! Sometimes all it takes is a tea towel to make things festive. :) ~ karen!
Sandra Lea
I love the sparse, skinny tree. They do look more natural and they show off all your ornaments much better than a full tree.
Bols
See, and I actually wanted a more sparse tree this year. But since every year I buy a tree of the smallest category (I like 5' but it usually is 6.5' or 6') at Home Depot, the choice is limited. Either the trees are tightly wrapped in a mesh making it impossible to guess or the few non-meshed ones are as close to perfection as possible (in a year when I want a sparse one). So my tree is rather fluffy and so far, it only has lights on it.
I have 3 strings of lights (clear incandescent ones) that I have been using on my Xmas trees for years. They go on the tree in the same order each year because the top string has the plug on one end only which makes it perfect for running the lights up the tip. Anyway, lights were put on the tree and I noticed that my tree is fashionably ombre. The lights on the top string were rather white, those on the middle string the usual warm white while the bottom string ones are getting a bit amber-y. As I said, I have them all for at least 10 years. Sitting on the couch, I noticed that there is gap in the lights near the top and I stood up to rearrange the lights a bit I noticed that 3 lights in sequence are dead. As I put up my hand to move the string a bit, the side of my hand accidentally touched one of the lit bulbs and it burned my hand. It was like when you accidentally touch a hot frying pan, I jerked my hand away before I could even realize what happened. By that time the bulbs on the top string shone so bright the living room was like a lunapark. I realized the top string is a goner and I left it on the tree for the rest of the evening and then it went into trash.
On Friday night I hit the stores to find a replacement. And this was when I found out that the majority of Christmas lights were recalled due to a fire hazard and there are no lights to be had in the whole city except for some outdoors huge clunky ugly LED ones.
Karen
As soon as I read that your lights were "ombre" I wanted to email you immediately to say take the lights down! Hopefully the stores will get more in before the end of the season. ~ karen!
Jacquie
If you put cheese over the toppings on pizza, they don't fall off when you're eating it so sounds crazy at first but actually makes sense. Not that I'm crediting the fella with that of course :-)
Karen
But then your toppings don't get a little bit charred! I just can't approve of it. I just can't, lol. ~ karen!
Jody
Toppings, cheese, more toppings to get crispy.
Ruth
Considering this is the first in 2 years you have cleaned your place, you did an excellent job. ;D
I still love your rolling pin collection. :)
Karen
I know, right? And it's only "picture" clean. There are still dust bunnies far under the bed. ~ karen!
Catherine
Soooo pretty and welcoming. Love all your decorations and all the natural bits and bobs.
Sherry in Alaska
Beautiful. But I've told you before how much I admire your home. My envy, though, is reserved for those beautiful old floors. The patina is so rich and golden. Please consider how much work it's gonna take to sand them down and how you have so many better things to do with all those grueling hours of hard labor. Preserve the floors! Maybe I should start a campaign? Save K B's Floors! (I recently read a post where dried out, splintery Thonet chairs were saved by apply paste wax to harden them and seal splintery spots.) Just saying.... I don't think raw floors are going to be an improvement.
And that's my two cents worth!
Merry Christmas!
Karen
Yes, they really are Sherry, lol. It'll take some figuring out but it'll be better. These floors are far too dark the finish is scratched off in most places. They were sanded and refinished 15 years ago, so it isn't like it's never been done before. It just seems to frighten people. :) ~ karen!
shirley
I agree with Alaska. Leave the floors alone. The only thing worse than good is better.
Karen
Well, how about we make a deal? You leave your floors alone and I'll do what needs to be done to mine. Win, win. ~ karen!
shirley
That'll work!!!
Marna
Just wonderful! :)
Julia (mumo3kids)
Your sparse sickly bendy tree looks a little Dr Suess-ey to me (a good thing IMO)... Without a Grinch in sight!
Lovely decs Karen, not a bum note anywhere... I'm definitely going to try to emulate the over cupboard door wreaths - the kitchen needs them. Are they on door hangers, or have you fashioned something yourself?
I'd better get in that loft and start hauling..
Julia
Karen
Details in Wednesday's post Julia! ~ karen