Christmas decor

While I'm not by any means a photographer, I do know that flash is bad. Bad, bad and more bad. So to get photos of our Christmas scheme, I had to wait till I was home during the daylight. Is it sad that it took a week to make that happen? These are still a little gloomy because 1. I'm not a photographer (did I already mention that?) and 2. It's pretty gloomy in Oregon in the winter. Not a lot of sunlight happens around these parts in December.

But enough with the jabbering. Let me take you on a tour of our holiday-home-festiveness.


As I mentioned earlier, I wanted our decor this year to be red and simple.

I also leaned more towards natural elements, because I just like them! Above, holly and evergreen adorn the mantle with a touch of sparkly candles for fun. And, look the large green *M* actually fits in with the color-scheme! This is not something it can claim the rest of the year.


I also found pine cones in a batch of old potpourri. Now, they're a lovely festive shade of silver.




I added touches of red throughout the living room: pillows, ribbon and a few ornaments hanging from our curtain rods. And, look! The paper whites are doing their job nicely.


Our tree! White lights, silver topper and lots of red and silver ornaments tie it all into the room's scheme.


For the last few years, I've been promising myself that I would make a new tree skirt. Um yeah, this is a super intimidating project for some reason. The skirt here? On super sale at Williams-Sonoma last January. Love it.



We're not theme-tree people. My favorite part of Christmas is the traditions. So, we decorate the tree with our favorite ornaments from growing up, plus new ornaments that mean something to both of us. Top left, our first *married couple* ornament; top right, beautiful gold globe from my childhood; bottom right, hand-crocheted ornament from my mother's hometown Scandinavian festival; bottom left, of course a Starbucks ornament. The last one is two-fold: I bought it when I worked there, but now, as a couple, we're there more than either would like to admit.


In the kitchen, things are even more simple. A touch of holly and pine on the counter.


Touches of red near the stove.

Hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I enjoyed preparing it for you!