All Around the House

Welcome back! My last post took you onto the porch and through the front door of my house at Christmas-time. I like to sprinkle Christmas all through the house, though, so this time

we'll do the "grand tour" of my little cottage.
While not always in keeping with the color scheme, I love to sprinkle vintage Christmas decorations such as the 1950's Santa cutout (above), throughout the house. I think the vintage touches take a bit of the edge off a themed decor and lend a warm, cozy feel to the place. Over the last couple of years I've started

collecting vintage reindeer. They remind me of a set that my family had during my childhood. These are displayed on the chest that I featured in the Chest of Drawers Redo post.

Another collection that I like to scatter around the house is mini Christmas trees.

I've tucked at least one in just about every vignette in the house including the one here on the sofa table, where I've concentrated my blue decorations. By the way, that's my darling

Lucy, all decked out in her holiday clothes perched up on the edge of the sofa.

As I mentioned earlier, my house has an open floor plan, so the sofa doubles as a room divider to the dining room, which is one of my favorite places to decorate for the holidays.

The hutch is home to many of my vintage treasures. This little Santa Claus is one of my favorites.

The photo above shows the antique cast iron stove doing server duty for the punch bowl at my Christmas open house.

While the hutch and stove are large focal point pieces, I think sometimes it's the small touches that tend to add the most charm. For instance, I like to use touches of greenery, whether real or artificial wherever I can find a good spot. My sconce is shown here with a

garland of artificial foliage accenting the candle base. The candle chandelier, which hangs over the dining room table is one of my trash to treasure pieces. I literally rescued this

outdated brass chandelier from a trash heap and revamped it with a coat of white paint and some crystals. For the holidays, it also gets a touch of greenery.

A couple more of my flea market "fixer-upers", this mirror and triple sconce seem to also lend themselves well to a bit of festive foliage. I used some fresh clippings from the woods here.

Moving on, you'll see that I've decorated the kitchen in a more whimsical style. This handmade Raggedy Ann is made from wood and buttons. She's right at home perched on a shelf along-side a little rocking horse and some primitive Christmas trees. An assortment of vintage red-work linens is displayed on the towel bars below.

Futher indulging the child within, this shelf is home to a collection of tattered but much-loved old Raggedy Ann dolls.

Here are a few more of my vintage dolls.

Finally, we arrive at the smallest room of the house, the bathroom.

I like to keep a bowl of fresh face cloths handy, and around Christmas, they're jazzed up a bit with the addition of a few glass ornaments and some silver napkin rings.

The vanity tray also receives a holiday makeover. The red bottle brush Christmas tree is one of my favorite decorations.
I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my Christmas cottage. I'm already getting excited about Christmas 2010! Just a couple of weeks ago I picked up a 1960's aluminum Christmas tree at a yard sale, so you can be assured that next year's decor will be quite different! For me, putting it all together again in a new way is part of the fun of the holidays. I hope that perhaps you've gathered an idea or two that you can use in your own holiday decor. I'd love to see what you're doing, so, if you don't mind sharing, send me your photos and they just might wind up in a future blog post!

Until next time,