Snowflakes in the Bathroom

I've already shown you pictures of my hall bathroom, so I thought I'd share my bath Christmas decorations.  I had always wanted a pair of ice skates to decorate a wreath so I kept an eye open at Goodwill's, and other thrift stores and finally found these to put on my snowflake wreath.  They even have red plaid lining.  So cute.

  Old world Santa holding his lantern.  His lantern is battery operated and glows.  Isn't this neat?  You see, he lost one of his buckles on his shoe.  I've got to replace this. Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas.

Nature calling

There's nothing like being outside in nature, and there is nothing I like better.  I took a walk in my mother's pasture this week and we collected fresh greenery and pinecones for some of our Christmas decorations.

These are the trees we got our pinecones and greenery from. So beautiful. Below are a couple of pictures of how I used this greenery.

This is the center of my deck table.  I used a black cloth, put my laterns on a couple of logs, added lights with greenery, pinecones and flocked greenery.  So pretty from my kitchen window.  I also love black and red together.

This is my small den mantle.  I wanted to keep this room with a nature feel, just greenery and berries.

The two photos above are close-ups of the mantle. The gold around the little trees is metal tinsel I bought years ago at a consignment store and absolutely love it.  You can use it in your Christmas trees, around the base of small trees and so many other ways. 

 

Father Christmas hanging from one the lamps as a tassel and an arrangement on the front of an antique clock sits on a small table.

Merry Christmas and more photos to come!

 

Porch Dressings

The top photo is a wreath I made using leftover Christmas balls, ornaments given to me by different family members, old toys that remind me of Christmas and other finds left in the bottom of boxes.  I gathered all of these items up and hot glued and wired them onto a very large artificial greenery wreath I had for Christmas.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, I put colored lights on first so it would sparkle at night.

On the tree on my front porch I decorated it with homemade felt garland, (I'll give instructions on how to make this later) stuffed animals, large outdoor balls,large snowman heads I purchased at The Dollar Tree and lots of colored large lights.  After I finished decorating it, I stuffed real magnolia leaves, (my mom let me pick from her tree), and pine boughs giving the tree a more real look. They will stay pretty fresh here since it is cold outside. 

Here is a picture of the snowman I purchased at The Dollar Tree.  They all had different hats and scarfs.  So cute.

This is a close up of one of the toys on the wreath.   I like large toys.  They make an impact and the kids just love it.

I'll share more photos of the porch wonderland tomorrow.  "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  This is just a quick post to say how thankful I am to all of you who view and join my post.

  What a beautiful day it is here and I am so thankful that I get to share my Thanksgiving with both my family and my husbands family.  There will be 17 of us all sharing the dinner table and sharing our thankfulness of the blessings we've had this past year. 

Take a moment of your day today, whether you are with a big family or just by yourself and think of all the blessings you have in your life.  Thankfulness centers us and helps us move forward with a positive attitude of hope for our lives to come. 

Below I've posted some photos of several beautiful Thanksgiving tables.  I hope you enjoy them.  Next year I'll show you a picture of my table this year.

 

Cake Stands

I saw an idea a few years back to use a cake stand in different ways.  I took the one I had not been using, and put it beside my bathroom sink to hold my perfume, extra hand towels and small guest soaps.  This saves counter space to go up.  I also hang earrings and put my rings on the plates as well.

On the top I put my perfumes and the bottom, extra hand soap and a shell I picked up on the beach in Papua New Guinea.  Below are some examples of how others used their cake stands.

I love the one with seashells.  This would be pretty for a summer table scape.  You can even make a stand of your own by gluing together wooden candle sticks and old cookie tins. I would recommend Liquid Nails, J.B. Weld or Gorilla Glue.  When the glue has dried,  spray paint this whatever color you want.  See the photo below.

Going up with storage items is such a good idea.  I love this for lots of applications, i.e., small toys for children's rooms, storing sewing items, etc.  The ways are numerous.  Give it a try, you'll be hooked.

Deer Antlers

I have recently discovered that I love deer antlers in decorating.  Not too much you see but just a touch.  I follow a blog The Yellow Cape Cod and loved how she used antlers on her mantle at Christmas last year.  This got me hooked.

Isn't this beautiful.  Her whole fireplace is heavenly.  So, when my husband and son went deer hunting this year (yes, we love deer meat in lieu of beef) I requested that he give me any antlers there might be.  Below is a picture of the Texas mount we had done with the antlers.  We used them in our library/den which you can see a little bit of.

If you notice the bookshelves, and we have two sets of these, there is a picture on them.  Below I've shown you a close up of the picture.  I love things printed on book pages, so I tore a couple of pages out of a magazine we receive and found two images on line, cut and copied these into a word document and printed them on the pages.  Then I framed them.  I love them.  It just incorporates the deer theme a little more.  Not too much, just enough to give you the feel.

I've shown you below how you can make your own antlers if you don''t have access to any real ones.  Just shape tinfoil into whatever antler shape you want and wrap with a baking clay and bake.  There you have it.  You can then paint them any color you want.

 Here are some other pictures I picked up of ways to use antlers in you home.  Maybe I can find some other ways to use them.

Makes me think of Christmas.

Blue & White

I love Blue and White ware.  I would love to use it all over my house, but I don't.  I do however use it in my black, white and gray bathroom.  It's also a good idea to use art in your bathroom.  Don't be afraid to do your own as well.  One of these paintings my husband, Steve, painted and the other I found at a consignment store already matted and framed.

The photo's above show what I have sitting on the back of the toilet.  I found this black tin at Feather Your Nest, a local furniture consignment store.  I put extra tissue and room spray in this.   I have found that when decorating a room keep to the same theme for consistency.  Birds and asian seem to be the theme here.  Even the style of the bird and flowers are asian.  But also notice it keeps with the style of my home.  Nothing too modern but up to date.  Also add a pop of color to a room but only a pop.  I chose red, also an asian color.

Above are some closeups of a blue and white pitcher in the window, a neat brass hook found at an antique store on the back of the bath door for hanging garments and don't you just love the blue and white dress...lol.  I really would wear this.