Christmas In Our Living Room

This holiday season has been a magical one for my husband and me so far, beginning with a Thanksgiving feast in our home with our beautiful grown-up children. We all had so much for which to be thankful this year, and a deep gratitude for my family and our rich lives together has been making my Christmas preparations extra special for me. 

So, I'm also extra happy to be sharing our holiday-decorated home with you on my blog this year, beginning today with our living room. I've been busily working non-stop since Thanksgiving making decorations and preparing our home for a warm and cozy Christmas. Every little task has brought me great joy, and every little detail is brimming with love for my home and family. 

I hope you enjoy it!

We always have our fresh cut Christmas tree here in the corner of the entry where we can see it from the whole house.

This is the first tree I've ever decorated with a theme. I separated out anything that seemed woodsy from our own ornaments, then I made a bunch more and bought a few. (Read about the ones I made here and here.)

My husband loves the natural look with so much of the tree showing. He says, "Now, that's a Christmas tree!" I think he means a manly tree. :)

We don't have a fireplace, so I try to think up creative ways to leave the stockings where Santa will find them. 

It's always fun to decorate the hutch. The antlers on top are from my husband's childhood, hunting in Montana with his father.

My daughter brought these deer home from the thrift store for me. I painted them with gold metallic paint and glittered the horns with German glass glitter.

These framed photos are of my mother and father at Sugar Bowl in the 1940's.  They were both pioneers of skiing in the Sierra Mountains. 

As always, we have faux candles sprinkled all over the house. They go on at five and off at ten. I love them!

I have tried and tried to grow real bulbs at Christmas, and they always flop to one side, so this year I bought some that will never fall over! 

I bought this brass deer at a yard sale just down the street last summer. I just love it when that happens. And look! My faux on-at-five/off-at-ten candle fits it perfectly! Gosh, life is good!

I've had the other big brass candlestick for as long as I can remember, and it always comes out for the holidays.

Doesn't Tucker look cozy over there by the window? I think he makes the best holiday decoration.

My cow asked me for his very own rockin' winter scarf after Laura's cow showed him his snazzy red one.

I always end up putting my favorite new ornaments somewhere other than the tree the first year, so I can enjoy them close-up. These are next to my reading chair.

It's not by chance that my reading chair has the best view in the house of the Christmas tree.

The chalkboard meandered over to this side of the living room to make room for the Christmas tree. Do you move stuff around for your tree, too?

I tucked my father's snowshoes and some greenery in my olive bucket behind my chair in the corner. My father used to snowshoe into Squaw Valley with his skis on his back before there were roads there, a real pioneer whose passion was skiing.

Two new woodland deer joined my favorite vintage Santa in my big tray under the clock this year. 

I found Santa for 75% off at the craft store after Christmas years ago. I wrap him up oh, so carefully, every year after the holidays, and he never looks a day older.

I just love that beard! There could be a bird or two snuggled inside that beard, and we'd never know.

I saved my favorite new decoration to show you last. My husband gave me this cool pillow that I've wanted for ever so long for my birthday last month. I just tore the page with the picture of it right out of my catalog, gave it to my husband, pointed him in the direction of the mall, and the saleswomen did the rest. (I think I'm onto something there!) 

Tucker says I've spent enough time sharing Christmas in our living room for today. The sun is setting, and it's time for his dinner. 

It's time to turn on the tree lights, close the curtains against the cold, and wish you a good evening.

Thank you all for joining me today. I had so much fun showing you around. I'll be sharing the rest of our home decorated for the holidays later this week, so I hope you come back!

{Visit our Christmas dining room, family room and kitchen, too!}



I'm sharing the love this week with:

The Scoop
Our Home Away From Home
Savvy Southern Style
Elizabeth & Co.
Cozy Little House
Between Naps On The Porch
A Joyful Cottage

Pottery Barn Knock-Off DIY Glittery Putz Houses

Yesterday, I deviated a bit from my woodland Christmas decorating theme to make 
some glittery Putz Houses. 

I wondered where the term putz came from, so I did a bit of research. Now don't quote me, but I think the word putz when applied to these pretty shiny houses may come from the German word putzen, which means to brighten and/or from the Yiddish word puts, which means ornament. 

Source

However they came by their name, I've always loved the magical quality of these little paper maché or cardboard houses decorated with glitter. They invite my imagination to visit a snowy sparkly miniature world of enchantment. Happily, I found out Putz Houses (just like this pretty one offered at Pottery Barn) are really easy and fun to make. 

Source

You can make your own Putz Houses from cardboard and patterns found on the internet or even design your own patterns. You can also purchase houses like the ones above at craft stores.

  This year, I found these cute little wood houses for a few dollars at the thrift store. They're pretty cute as they are, but I wanted them to really sparkle for Christmas decorations. 

I mixed up some homemade chalk paint in a jar (a heaping tablespoon plaster of paris mixed well in a little water, then added to about half a cup of latex paint) and gave the houses a couple of coats of white to make an easy base for the glitter to cover. Regular old craft paint would work fine 

for this, too.

 They're already beginning to look more wintery with white paint, but look how the glitter transforms this little house to magical.

When the base paint was dry, I used large and small paint brushes to apply undiluted white glue (poured into a small jar) to the roof and trim. I sprinkled on lots of silver chunky German glass glitter, catching the extra glitter on a paper plate to reuse. I let those areas dry overnight, and the next day I painted more glue onto the sides and sprinkled them with fine white glitter. It was super easy!

I glittered all my little houses and put them in my dining room corner cabinet. Lit up with candles at night, they're transformed into a magical twinkly winter wonderland. I'll share them on my blog soon when I have the rest of the dining room ready, so I hope you'll come back to see. But today, I wanted to share how easy and fun it is to make a Putz House of your very own.

{Note: I just posted my Christmas dining room, so click here to see the rest of my Putz Houses.}

Thanks for coming by, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

It's time for a party!

From My Front Porch To Yours

Rooted In Thyme

Savvy Southern Style

Elizabeth & Co.

Mod Vintage Life

Between Naps On The Porch

Our Home Away From Home

Cozy Little House

Shabby Art Boutique

The Charm Of Home

French Country Cottage

My Repurposed Life

Craftberry Bush

The Cottage Market

DIY Showoff

More Homemade Christmas Ornaments

The weeks are flying by here, and I'm having so much fun decorating our home for Christmas! Today, I'm taking a short break from my craft room to share a few more ornaments I made for this year's woodland theme. 

(I'll include some links to patterns and printables below, so you can make some too.)

First up are my felt woodland ornaments. 

I started making these ornaments last January based on patterns and directions I downloaded each month from Creative Cain Cabin and Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

Each ornament only took one evening to sew while sitting in front of the television watching my favorite shows. 

I think they turned out really cute, even though I started with no embroidery skills at all. You can download and print all these patterns (and more) here. A big thank you to Dawn and Claudia for sharing this fun project!

******************

When my husband brought home a really huge Christmas tree last week, I scrambled to find some last minute quick and easy ornament ideas on my Pinterest boards to help me fill it up. 

The ornament on the left I made from a tutorial shared by Pam and Lisa at Over The Big Moon and from a free chalkboard printable from Kellie at Nest Of Posies.

The ornament on the right I designed and created in my photo software program using some fabulous free tartan digital scrapbook paper from Scrapbook Scrapbook and a beautiful deer head silhouette from Kristi and Kelli at Lolly Jane. 

Thank you to all these super creative bloggers who inspired my cute new ornaments. They were so fun to make, and they look wonderful on our Christmas tree this year.

The Graphics Fairy

I'd also like to take a moment today to thank all of the amazing bloggers who have been sharing their gorgeous holiday decor all around blogland the past couple of weeks. Every morning I settle into my comfy chair with my cup of coffee and am awed by all the beauty I see 

going on in people's homes for the holidays. 

You are all so talented! 

I know how hard it is to style, photograph and edit, and write your blog posts, and I'd just like to send out a special huge thank you for all you do that delights and inspires 

all of your readers, including me!

Now I'm off to work on one of the million ideas I've been inspired to create this year for my own home, and if I'm lucky (and grow some twinkle toes) I'll get it all done in time to share with you before Christmas! 

Let's party today at

DIY Showoff

DIY Rustic Deer Ornament

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time with family, and after a lazy weekend I'm fully recovered from stuffing myself the turkey and packing away our fall decor to make way for Christmas. 

My husband brought our Christmas tree inside yesterday, and the scent of fresh pine along with a light dusting of new snow outside is really putting me in the holiday mood. My husband is of the opinion that bigger is better when it comes to Christmas trees, but I didn't realize how large the one he picked out is until he got it all set up. It's enormous! After taking one look at the tree almost touching the ceiling in our living room, I knew we were going to need more lights and ornaments. 

This year I'm planning a woodland theme for my Christmas decor. I've never really had a theme before; I used to just put everything we had out all at once. I've been inspired by fellow bloggers to give it a try, so I've been collecting a few new rustic decorations, and now I'm making some easy inexpensive last minute ornaments to fill out our big tree. I found some of these unfinished wood deer cutouts at our local Michaels Craft Store, and I think I paid 29¢ each on half off sale.  

I thought it would be rustic-y to play up the wood, so I stained both sides with some dark walnut wood stain and dotted the little rumps with gold metallic paint. I used my Dremel tool to drill tiny holes for stringing floss for hanging. I love how these little rustic woodland deer ornaments turned out. So much cuteness for only 29¢! They would also look cute painted bright red or gold for a traditional tree, or how about turquoise with hot pink dipped legs for a really fun and modern tree? So many possibilities! 

Well, that's enough chit chat for today. I have to get busy making ornaments!

Please join me at these fab parties!

Between Naps On The Porch
Mod Vintage Life
Our Home Away From Home
The Scoop
Cozy Little House
The Inspiration Exchange
My Repurposed Life
DIY Showoff