November 2011

Christmas in the Sunroom

Hello everyone,

On this very mild but wet day, Christmas came to the sun room, as I took in some greenery from the woods to add some a more seasonal look to our little sun room.

Candles also add to the coziness.

Winterberries, pine . juniper, holly and an old vintage card added to a pretty white cone brighten the posts between the windows.

How about a cup of tea?

A mix of china patterns, but they all go together well.

Pretty candle holders from the thrift shop.

I love this old donkey- a humble reminder of the season.

The glow at nighttime is so romantic.

I will soon be done decorating our home for Christmas, and I am looking forward to cozy evenings by the fireside with the twinkle of lights and the sound of Christmas music playing softly in the background and a good cup of tea!

I have to do some finetuning on the sunroom tomorrow and I have some paper whites and amaryllis started, for in here as well.

The good news is Santa arrived here early, as a new Canon Rebel T3 arrived at our door today!

Today,I am joining Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

Thank you for visiting,

Carolyn

Festive Whites

Hello everyone,

I am back with a few little touches of festive whites that I have been putting around our home to get it ready for the holidays.I am using my son's point and shoot camera for these pics but the good news is I have a new camera on the way and I can't wait to get it!

I added some greenery from around the garden to an old chamber set that my father gave to me years ago.I love the little feather trees too

A little church from TJMAXX.

A music box that my daughter gave to me.

A heavy cement cherub sits on our banister. I have added greenery and lights to it and a candle for the cherub to hold-but only for the picture for safety reasons.

You might have noticed that I love angels.

This is a wooden angel that also came from TJMAXX.

Just a peek at some of the little festive touches that are appearing around our home for the holiday season.

It is so mild here that you would not think that it is almost December. The snow that we had last week is long gone and when I step at onto the balcony at night to see the stars you could be fooled into thinking it is spring!

Thank you for visiting me,

Carolyn

Pretty Christmas Rooms

Snowy Wonders

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and I am sure the countdown is on for Christmas for many of you.I have a few things going on today so I just popped in with a little reminder to local readers that the Christmas House Tour that we are participating in is coming up on Dec.10th and ticket sales are going well but if any of you would like to enjoy an evening out touring our home and Christmas Cottage and three other lovely homes decked out for the Christmas season in the Charlottetown and Cornwall area send me an email(on profile page) and I can get tickets for you.The cost is $10. for all 4 homes and includes homemade cookies and hot mulled cider.All proceeds go for Muscular Dystrophy.
I would like to thank Helene all the way from France for adding the beautiful snow effects to a couple of my Christmas photos and sending them to me-a lovely surprise! Helene is a talented artist and she paints the most
beautiful paintings of roses -you can check out her beautiful blog here.

Below is the photo Helene sent me last year. I love that Helene took the time to make these for me.Thank you,Helene!

Take care,
Carolyn

work in progress- holiday prints

: : I'm working on a few patterns for the holiday. I'm hoping to have the prints ready and up in my etsy shop within the next 10 days. stay tuned!!

places around the house

: : if you are reading this, THANK YOU, I know I have been missing lately. I'm happy to see you back here. I wanted to share some photos from our home, these photos from our bedroom are from warmer and sunnier days. the wedding tree was a wedding gift, handpainted by my bestfriend .tina. and her husband. it's the best and most beautiful wedding gift, it reminds us of our day and all our friends and family who shared it with us.

there's in fact a funny story about the tree. I had had the same idea as .tina. and had printed a tree and brought to Sweden, when .tina. saw it she said "anna, why do you always have to be doing everything yourself?". But of course, her handdrawn tree was much more beautiful than my printed one, and it fits so perfectly with the colors in our bedroom.

the oil painting is by my grandpa and the gold flower by me. the framed photos are from my favorite places, rockport beach and our summer house.

Rustic Christmas Porch

decorating my porch with natural elements in my own yard

My Inspiration:

Pottery Barn

My porch doesn't look a thing like that but I was drawn to the twiggy garland above the arch. So I made my own version of that.

found some nice twisty branches and clipped lots of them

Lay the branches out in a large area and place them in a way that looks nice and even on both sides.

In the center tie them together with twine:

Attach this to the top molding of your front door or portico.

I have nails in my molding from years past so I used a little floral wire to attach and tame these wild little twigs to the molding. Plus I have an iron scroll that came in handy too.

When in place I wrapped some burlap around the middle to make it look like it was meant to be this way. :)

added some glittery ornaments to the garland

(I got these last year for pennies after Christmas)

AND

Since I was going all natural and twiggy I chose this wreath but it didn't "pop" all alone-

so to compliment the twig wreath I found this white "junk" in my kids' fort in the woods. I stole it. (I'm pretty sure it originally came with my adirondack chair)

I found these silly little metal trees in the basement. I thought they were "cheesy" until I lit them up and left off the plastic stars that go on top. They were the only lights that worked this year so I had to give them a chance to shine.

I hauled some logs up from the backyard and nailed the little trees to the tops with u nails.