Final Touches to Christmas 2012 Decorations

Today was our investment club meeting and gift exchange.  This year we opted to keep it simple and we met at Meyer's Restaurant (Milwaukee) for breakfast instead of having bring-a-dish and then adjourned to Maison Newton for our meeting and gift exchange. 

Before I left the house I had put on the battery-operated lights on the tea lights, wreath and around the live greenery centerpiece on/around the mantle, turned on the flameless candles on the coffee table, etc. so that when the ladies walked into the front room (the front door opens directly into the room), they saw the full glory of my decorations, LOL!

Well, things were a big hit, and that makes me so happy.  We had our meeting in the kitchen/dinette area where I did minimal decorating this year (not that I ever went full out in prior years!):

Fresh-clipped juniper fronds from my gigantic juniper out back, with barberry clippings
(with berries still attached) from out front.  Ruby-red beaded snowflakes hang from
the chandelier over the table.  Christmas cards (not shown) are taped to the side of the fridge.

 

I took several photos of us, but all of them turned out too blurry to use, except this one:

Guess you can see just how much my hands shake as I tried to take these photos at low exposure -- look at the path the little light on the t.v. (on the fireplace mantle/mantel) took!  LOL!  As for the spooky white smoke effect - I've no idea what caused that!  Hey, Gay!  And not-quite-half of Angie!

Gayle is on the right and I'm on the left, nearest the tree. 

Presents are under the tree, and fresh greenery was clipped and added (left upper corner) yesterday, in an old basket I had on hand.  This is the first year I actually thought to utilize the evergreen resources that reside in my front and back yards!  Last year I had used clippings from the barberries out front, but those are red with berries, not evergreen.  This year, I combined both in three separate arrangements and the house is now filled with the fresh scent of juniper.

Close-up of the arrangement on the kitchen/dinette peninsula (now back in the center of the table underneath the light fixture, as our meeting is over).  The barberry is so pretty, and so ouchy with its sharp thorns!

Above, a photo of the mantle/mantel.  I added two gold-glittered tall picks to the Norfolk pine and added the feather boa as a garland across the bottom of the mantle/mantel shelf above the firebox.  That was one of my St. Nick's gifts from one of the Ladies of the Bus/Crazy Cougars.  She brought each of us a special St. Nick's gift bag filled with goodies :)  Thank you, Pepper Spray. 

The kitchen/dinette greenery looking toward the kitchen.

New this year, I decorated the top of the tall curio cabinet next to the staircase.  I framed a new greeting card I received showing a cardinal on it (to add to my fledgling collection of cardinal greeting cards) in an old frame (you may recognize it from my bedroom), added some clipped juniper, a bit of Mugo pine, and a barberry branch arranged in a woven basket (one of those holding fresh fruit at a Christmas past) lined in tin foil, and one of my Home Interiors candleabra. 

Yesterday I pulled out this very old basket that was given to me (filled with goodies!) when I moved into this house 21 plus years ago!  I stuffed it full of juniper clippings and some barberry and planted it near the northeast corner to hide the power outlet and electrical cords.  I'm going to add some battery-operated mini-lights to it tomorrow after I stop at Walgreens to buy some (on the way home from the office).  It adds color and a wonderful scent to the room!

I am loving my white feather boa -- it reminds me of snow and angels' wings:

My decorating scheme this year was a big hit with the ladies of the investment club.  In January I will be hosting a party for the Ladies of the Bus/Crazy Cougars (actually we're the Rockin' Crazy Cougars). 

My decorating is now totally complete, I will not be adding anything more, well, unless I get another feather boa or two for Christmas...

A view of the tree from the staircase.

Overflowing Ornaments and Memories

Oy, where did all of these ornaments come from?  I think I've got enough to decorate three trees!  And I haven't even de-boxed my Paul Michael feather garlands yet!  Look -- boxes all over the place.  And that ornament wreath I made last year, I have probably removed half of its ornaments to fill in on the inside of the tree and I'm still not finished.

Partially emptied boxes, none of those ornaments will be going on the tree this year.  And look - my
gold bead garland hanger, LOL!  It's not full -- I removed some strands to decorate the wreath
above the fireplace and the center display of Christmas greens.

The coffee table has even more stuff on it than yesterday...see the remains of my ornament wreath (bottom right).
Most of these items will either go back into boxes or find places elsewhere in Maison Newton.

Yep, no fear of running out of gold bead garland for, hark!  More in the center box!  Egad, whatever possessed
me to buy so much gold bead garland???  Gold pointsettia picks in the box to the right, more Christmas-y
picks in the box to the left, and burgundy ornaments that won't be used this year.   



The white boxes across the back of the loveseat and the Zappo's box on the cushion contain large
"fancy" glass and/or acrylic ornaments, and my pearl and bead starbursts.  I've only got four of those, purchased
in 2005 at Marshall Fields/Macy's in Chicago on a shopping expedition with the ladies of the
investment club.  We had a blast that day -- took the train for an easy 90 minute ride there and back.
I wish I could find more like them.  I've looked for years and haven't found anything close to them. The burgundy
ornaments and several others won't be used these year.  I realize now I need to start packing these by color code!
 

These are gold-trimmed glass ornaments purchased over the years from the Egyptian Store at Southridge Mall. 
Mr. Don and I visited there every Christmas Eve for some years.  He loved Egypt and me, well, I just can't resist a
pretty glass ornament, especially one at 50% off :)  There are a few more stashed here and there.
One of my favorites is the little elephant, upper left in the box; you can't really make her out too well.  Her trunk
is curled up in the traditional Indian way for "good luck" and she has two tusks tipped with gold, gold-rimmed
ears and gold "striping" on her sides like a blanket.  She doesn't go on the tree.  Instead, she gets hung on the curio
cabinet where she holds congress with my collection of glass and china pink elephants.

I still remember when and where I purchased many of these ornaments, and some of them hold very precious memories of festive shopping trips, Christmas Eves spent with Mr. Don going to Southridge Mall and then to Olive Garden for a late lunch, and bargain hunting expeditions.  But, the treasures pictured below are priceless:

The Bust of Nefertiti, depicting one of the most beautiful women who ever walked the face of the Earth -- a truly timeless beauty, is still admired today more than 3000 years after her death.  The real deal, a fragile and incredibly well-preserved bust, is housed in a natural history museum in Berlin, Germany, and is the subject of ongoing controversy, as the Egyptian Government wants her back, and the German Government refuses to give her back, especially now with the Islamists in power.  You can be sure the Lady would end up in a private collection somewhere, sold for millions of dollars, with a bad plastic fake substituted for her in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  Sorry -- I digress.

Nefertiti was given to me by Mr. Don in 2005.  Even brand new it was not an expensive piece, and is the worse for wear -- she is a tarnished gold-colored metal charm meant to hang on a necklace. He found her in the "trinkets" case (holding new and not so new trinkets and such) at a Chinese "everything" store (similar to many established by recent immigrants to Montreal) near where he lived.  I added some gold glitter to her a few years ago in an attempt to jazz her up a bit, LOL.  I don't think she minded, and probably got a good laugh out of my silly efforts.  She is more valuable to me than the Hope Diamond.  On the left is another gift from Mr. Don in 2004, a kilt pin in the shape of a sword bearing the family McLean's symbol -- the castle keep at Duart, in Scotland.  His twin sister visted there and bought it back home to him.  It's not silverplate - maybe aluminum?  When I unwrapped it today I noticed that the finish (whatever it is) is wearing off a wee little bit on the left side near the bottom of the sword. 

This Dynamic Duo, representative of me and Mr. Don, go on the Christmas tree every year in just about the same spot, right next to each other, and are draped about by an old "pearl" necklace that has the most beautiful patina -- I believe they are nacred glass beads, like they used to make faux pearls almost as good as the real thing back in the old days.  The Dynamic Duo are specially situated so that one can easily see them from the love seat.

And, the most valuable iconic piece in the entire world, presented to me by Mr. Don at Christmas 2006, rests in a vault in safekeeping except for a few weeks each year when he is removed and transported (under armed guard) to Maison Newton for Christmas.  He is world-famous, darlings!  If you are interested, you can read all about his amazing discovery here.  Yes!  I speak of none other than this extremely rare surviving representation of the "Scarred Warrior" so revered by Kushan culture:

Isn't he just the most breathtakingly gorgeous hunk of malehood you've ever seen?  Oh, be still my heart, pitter-patter, thump thump (and with my a-fib, I ain't kidding).  Oh, those blue blue eyes!  Those red juicy lips and come-hither smile!  Those healthy glowing cheeks!  That manly puffed-out chest!  Oooohhh, I feel faint...

Requiescat in pace, Mr. Don, April 11, 1951 - October 12, 2012. 

Tackling the Tree...

Good morning everyone!  It's a beautiful sunny day here, and calm too, but cooooollllddddd!  Only 28 degrees F, brrrrr.  It is supposed to get up to 41 today, though, so I may go out back later on when it warms up and do some much-needed raking!

But first things first.  I wonder if I'm turning into one of those "old people" who don't need much sleep?  The past few nights, I've been waking up at very early hours; Friday night I stayed in bed until until 5 a.m.  This morning I got up at 4:15 a.m.  Is this a sign of things to come -- i.e., never getting a good night's sleep again?  What am I saying - I have hardly had a good night's sleep since menopause came and went.

Today is Tree Day!  After I finished up the 2012 Christmas mantle/mantel yesterday, the tree was pulled out and put up in front of the round top window that overlooks the front yard in the front room.  How's that for a lot of fronts!  I cleaned it up and hope that any spiders who took up residence during the summer while the tree rested in its box in the garage have now vacated the premises.  Fair warning:  any spiders caught inside these premises in my living space will get sucked up by my handivac!  Last night I fired up the lights on this baby and boom!  No, the house didn't blow up, thank Goddess!  The entire room was flooded with what seemed like amazingly bright light!  Every year I have the same reaction -- I forget how bright those white lights are.  Here is my holey tree this morning with the early sunlight streaming in:

I briefly toyed with the idea yesterday of putting the tree in front of the staircase, across the room from the window.  In the years I've had this tree (nearly 8) it's never been in that spot; only one year did I move it into the corner NEXT to the window and I didn't like it there very much.  Moving the tree to the staircase wall would entail moving the heavy sofa out of its customary spot and away from the best vantage point for the t.v. on the mantle/mantel.  Because of the short cord on the t.v. and the lack of anything else in the room to place the t.v. on, my options are rather limited as to where it might go.  Well, we'll see.  Maybe next year.  One advantage to having the t.v. on the mantle/mantel is that I don't need to use as many decorations because of the space the t.v. takes up!  It's actually a money saver, come to think of it...

As you can see, plenty of holes in this tree. After spending what seemed like countless hours last year trying to get the sucker shaped perfectly, only to discover wherever I thought I was closing up one hole I was only making another (I think the breed in the dark, too), this year I'm turning over a lazy leaf and after futzing with it for about 20 minutes I said GOOD ENOUGH.  So, after I took a break from reading the Sunday paper earlier this morning (while it was still dark outside!) I started deconstructing the D-I-Y ornament wreath I made last year (my first ever project and quite possibly my last) and using those medium size gold and silver ornaments to begin the tedious process of filling in the holes in my tree, starting from way inside around the "trunk" of the tree and working outward.  Some of those ornaments already placed show up in the photograph above.

Those colored ornaments on my coffee table used to be at the very "top" of my Christmas ornament wreath, because despite using two boxes of gold and one box of silver ornaments from the dollar store I still didn't have enough to quite finish the wreath!  Now I know why so many instructions I'd read on the internet said to use a hot glue gun to glue those ornaments together; as it was, with no hot glue gun in the house, those ornaments kept sliding down further and further on the metal hanger, creating this big puffy FAT wreath with hardly any empty circle space in the center, LOL!  But I was that proud of it anyway, I hung it up.  Here is a not very good photo of it from last year:

I tried to hide the red and green ornaments added to "flesh out" this overweight monstrosity at the top by adding my version of an "elaborate and elegant" bow made out of French ribbon.  Epic Fail!  Then for the heck of it I threw some gold bead garland around it in no discernable pattern.  Guess I've got a thing about gold bead garland and hot messes...

Well, back to work here.  After I use up the ornmanents on my wreath and give the hanger the proper recycling it deserves, I'm going to hike to the Pick 'n Save for groceries and AA batteries and then I'm going to haul down all the boxes of ornaments, decorations and the hanger filled with gold bead garland downstairs and spend hours doing the Decorating the Tree Dance.  About that garland -- it lives in one of the closets upstairs; hooking it on a metal hanger with ornament hangers wrapped around the end beads keeps it nice and neat, not at all like my necklaces in my jewelry box that are forever tangling up with each other!

Oh - a couple pics of the sunlight streaming in through the front window earlier -- I wish I could capture just how pretty it was:

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

I haven't forgotten about this new blog of mine, but since before Thanksgiving I've been nutso busy!  It probably didn't help that I jetted off to Las Vegas to see my best friend and honorary sister, Isis ('Sis for short) and spent four wonderful days in above 70 degrees sun -- it really helped mostly knock out that nasty cold I came down with seriously the week of Thanksgiving! Wouldn't you know it.  But lots of wine, resting with my feet up in the sun, good food and good company all helped revive my wilting bod.

Mr. Don arrives on December 29th and we jet off to Spain on January 3rd!  For someone whom the Christmas spirit didn't really hit (not sure it has, yet), I've been a decorating demon.  Since decorating one's house is akin to decorating one's body with fashion and accessories -- well, okay, it's a stretch, but what the hell.

I started out looking online for Christmas decorating ideas.  Much of what I saw was just so far beyond both my expertise (I'm no crafter!) or incredibly expensive or incredibly impossible for one person to do on her absolute own; but then I found a few favorite blogs that are general "budget" decorating blogs but this time of year dedicated to the holidays.  I picked up some great ideas:

including this ornament wreath that I made myself!  It's just inexpensive ornaments strung onto a wire hanger shaped into a circle.  The ribbon hides the top that I ran out of ornaments for and filled with "junky" ornaments that otherwise would have been hidden in the middle of my tree, and for good measure I strung a few strands of gold beads around it.

This year - for the very first time since I had the fireplace installed in 2003, I made an attempt to decorate the mantle:

It's a working mantle - it's the only place to put the t.v. in this room and the t.v. is too small (only 19") to bother to wall mount.  So, I decorated around it!  I strung the gold French ribbon, added the hanging ornaments, flameless (battery operated) candles, stuck some gold decorative picks in the plant, installed the one-armed toy soldier made out of a clothespin in his place of honor in front of the t.v. (look closely and you can spot him), and my piece' de resistance' -- the decorated "branch" tree!  It's a cool idea I got from the internet.  It's just some branches cut from my thorny barberries, some still with the red berries clinging to them, with some tear drop ornaments and clear "icicles" hanging from the branches.  I liked the idea so much, I repeated it to decorate the dinette table for the Christmas get-together (held this past Sunday) with the ladies of the investment club. 

Another idea that's been around awhile but that I hadn't tried -- the ornament-filled hurricane glass on the coffee table.  It just so happened that the tall hurricane glass (already owned) fits neatly within an old iron candleabra (already owned) and it sparkles at night when I rest three tea lights on the candle-holders and light them up.  The faux topiaries on either side of the fire box are also pre-owned.  They were gifted to me years ago from Bombay Company which, unfortunately, is no longer in business.  They are dressed up with ribbons for the season.

Close-up of the decorated barberry branches.  I cut them and plopped them in a tall hurricane lamp cover. 

Corner vignette.  The only new purchase in this photo is the season-themed plate purchased from TJMaxx for $3.99.  I used an old (saved) Christmas card of a cardinal (I'm partial to them) and installed it in an old frame, and set out a Christmas card from my mom (has a cardinal on it) on the tabletop.  I added a very old red light bulb that has seen many Christmas' use in place of the regular energy-saving bulb to give a red glow to that part of the room. 

Various photos of the Christmas tree:

This photo was taken before I created the centerpiece for the mantle :)  You can't see it very well in this shot, but this year I have a proper tree-topper - two for $5 glittery stars from Walgreens wired together and maneuvered over the top branch.  This is the first year I used French ribbon to decorate the tree and it turned out better than I thought it would.

Close ups of tree with the lights on...

The French ribbon is translucent and just glows at night when I turn on the tree lights.

This year's Christmas tree in all of its glory!  Following the cardinal theme, I was inspired to print out some colored photographs of cardinals from the internet and frame them -- you can see them on the right side wall; I will likewise frame another cardinal print and hang it underneath the clock on the left wall.   I purchased that 4th frame just the other day at Walgreens for $5.  These are really nice wood (not faux wood) frames, complete with mats and the area within which the 5x7 photo or print is actually framed is set off with wood matching the frame so it really shows up against the cream mat.  The tree skirt was purchased this year from TJMaxx for $19.99.  I'm going to putz with it a bit, I want to stuff a sheet underneath it to give it some poof and also close up the opening around the tree base, then I'll see how it looks.  Before, I just crumpled up a tablecloth and formed it in a "circle" underneath the tree.  After perusing the internet, I realize now I'm not the only person who did that!  LOL!