Christmas Home Tour and Hop

The halls are decked and

our home is ready for Christmas.

I am joining Chloe Crabtree and many other creative bloggers for Celebrate & Decorate's Holiday Home Tour blog hop.  There is a ton of inspiration here if you are looking for ideas to decorate your home for the holidays.  I will have all the links at the end of my post.

I am going to start in the kitchen for my little tour.

We have a very open floor plan, the only thing separating the kitchen/eating area from the living room is our two sided fireplace that stands in the middle of the room.

I used a lot of red accents in the kitchen.

I kept it pretty simple in the work areas of my kitchen.

Lots of greenery!

I used a gingerbread theme for the kitchen mantle,

and hung the majority of our stockings on the kitchen side of the fireplace.

We have a small flocked pencil tree in the kitchen/dining side done in simple red ornaments.

Our hutch kind of bridges the kitchen/dining area to the living area.

I have a few of my favorite Santas joining some Christmas plates in the hutch.

Now, we are heading into the living room where I decorated everything with more natural, earthy tones and items.

Lots of snowflakes since we live in northeast Ohio!

 The snowflakes inside the baskets were my favorite project this Christmas.  I have had these snowflakes for years and have used them many different ways, but this is my favorite yet.

And starring (get it!!) our newly painted fireplace!

You can read about our fireplace redo in my previous post.

 The Holy Family is taking center stage on our mantel.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Just so you know, no animals were hurt during this decorating, but there are two dogs who are sick of listening to me sing Christmas music at the top of my lungs as I have been decorating!!

Have fun as you decorate your home for the Holidays.

I wish you a very festive Christmas!

The following blogs are participating in the Home Tour hop,

so please stop by and check out the other beautiful homes.

 Monday 

Everyday Living | My Kentucky Living | Panoply

Tuesday

Savvy Apron | Hey Fitzy | Celebrate & Decorate

Wednesday

Belle Blue Interiors | Red Cottage Chronicles | Dining Delight | Bluesky at Home

Thursday

The Painted Apron | Corner of Plaid and Paisley | Living With Thanksgiving

Friday

From My Carolina Home | Supper Table Talk | Me and My Captain | Our Crafty Mom

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ann

I have linked up to the following parties:
Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm

New Fireplace just in time for Christmas

I just could not decorate this "Brady Bunch" fireplace this Christmas!

So I decided to take this project on just after Thanksgiving.  

After all, I read in several blogs that it was no big deal.  One young lady said it took her just one afternoon to completely redo her fireplace!

Well, that wasn't the case here!!

If you have read about my kitchen remodel, you will know that we bought this ugly fixer upper last May.  We have been working on projects a little at a time for the last year and a half. This little, one afternoon, no brainer ended up being several days of work. It took me a while just to figure out how the ugly brass doors were attached and to remove that.  As I was laying on my back looking up into my chimney and my dog was trying to lick my face - I knew this was not going to be as easy as some made it out to be!!

The shelves above were not only screwed in but glued on as well.  Once I finally took my sledge hammer to them I was able to remove them.  Then there was a day of using adhesive remover to remove all the glue they used.

I filled the holes and some of the spots where the glue pulled off a bit of the brick.  After the first coat of primer I knew I was going to love it.  We are now on day 3!!  I painted over the primer with Valspar Stark White in an eggshell finish.

After the second coat of the white paint I was satisfied with the coverage, so my husband hung the new mantle piece.  We then worked on removing the candle wax on the hearth and painted that with 2 coats of primer.  While I was doing all this painting up stairs, my husband was down in the basement working on that ugly brass surround.  He took every piece apart and sprayed the parts separately with Rustoleum High Heat spray paint.  Good thing he took pictures of how it was put together before he disassembled it, because there were a lot more pieces to it then I would have thought!

So even though this took me several days of work, I think it was well worth it.  The 70's took this side of our two sided fireplace back and we are now ready to move into this holiday season with a much brighter, decorator friendly fireplace on the living room side.

You got a little sneak peak here of what I am using for my Christmas decorations for my mantle.  Come on back on Thursday and you will see, not only this side of the fireplace completed, but all decorated for Christmas!

I will be taking part in Chloe Crabtree's,  from Celebrate & Decorate,  Holiday Home Blog Hop.

Here is the line up:

Monday

Everyday Living

My Kentucky Living

Panoply

Tuesday

Savvy Apron

Hey Fitzy

Celebrate & Decorate

Wednesday

Belle Blue Interiors

Red Cottage Chronicles

Dining Delight

Bluesky at Home

Thursday

The Painted Apron

Corner of Plaid and Paisley

Living With Thanksgiving

Friday

From My Carolina Home

Supper Table Talk

Me and My Captain

Our Crafty Mom

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ann

Linking up at:
Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home
Celebrate Your Story @ Celebrate & Decorate
Reader Tip Tuesday @ Jodie Fitz

A Thanksgiving Cornucopia

This cornucopia table came about as I was as was trying to decide which one of my little pumpkins was stinking up the joint!

Yep!  Those cute little white and orange pumpkins are oh so darling, until they start to go bad!

I came down stairs this morning to a slightly raunchy smell.  Now I don't have the best nose for smelling.  It has to do with mixing some bleach with my cloth diapers when the kids were little- I created a mushroom cloud over my washing machine and breathed it in. (Never realizing that there was that much ammonia in urine!  I must also mention that the washing machine was built the year my husband and I were born - and it did not have a separate rinse cycle!)   When I breathed in this chemical reaction, it burnt all down my nasal passage ways - and ever since then my sense of smell is a little off.  I just wanted whiter diapers!!

Back to this morning and me actually smelling something bad - I had smelled this before, I knew the smell -  It reminds me of driving past a land fill and it was in my kitchen!

I found the not so cute little pumpkin with the rotten spot and quickly tossed him, then went through all the rest to make sure there were not more.

So I decided to do one last table using them before they all went bad and this is what I came up with!

 This twig cornucopia has been hanging around in my fall decor box for years, so I thought I would put it and all the "harvest" goodies I had in my house together for a centerpiece.

 These pottery bowls spoke to me about 6 months ago while I was at a Marshalls, but they finally made their debut today.

The cream colored leaf border dishes was one of the first big splurges I made when I started my blog.

I used them in my Thanksgiving post in 2013.

I didn't realize until just now, that I used the same chargers as well.

As we come up on Thanksgiving, I am hoping you all have plenty of food and thankful thoughts

to fill your cornucopia!

I am thankful for all of you who stop by and visit!  It means a lot to me!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ann

Sources

Placemats, blue pottery bowls - Marshalls

Brown Chargers - Walmart several years ago

Cream Sorrento plate - Butterchurn Kitchenwares in Walnut Creek

Orange scalloped plate - Target - several years ago

Cream Leaf Salad Plate - Tii Collections Dol Harvest Leaves - Butterchurn Kitchenwares years ago

Flatware - Ikea

Wood Cutting Board - Pottery Barn Outlet last year

I am linking up to:

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Dishing it & Digging It @ Rustic & Refined

Thanksgiving Blessings - Blog Hop

Welcome to my Thanksgiving Blessings tablescape.

  I am happy to be joining up with many wonderful bloggers to give you our takes on Thanksgiving table decor for the upcoming season.  Chloe Crabtree from Celebrate & Decorate has assembled a fantastic Thanksgiving Blog Hop for all to enjoy, so please indulge in the links at the end of my post for more inspiration!

Grey and orange is the color palette of my table as dictated by the paisley tablecloth that started the whole table.  When I saw this tablecloth I didn't think twice about the purchase since plaids and paisleys are my thing.  

I really wanted to put complimenting plaid napkins with this table setting but I never found any that would work, so I settled on the plain grey napkins adorned with the bittersweet napkin rings.  

The pumpkins and squash took center stage, flanked by a pair of pheasant that I had used several years ago.

A little reminder of why we are gathering is at each placesetting.

 I think I am obsessed with this new flatware set that resembles a twig or branch (I have used it in my last three tables!) I thought it went well with the grey rims and branches on the dessert plates.

I am thankful for the many blessings that God has granted me and my family.  We will actually be having our big Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house with other members of our family, so there will be many more than four place settings at that 

celebration.

 

If you look in the background of this photo - you can see we are still working on our fixer upper house.  The steps are partially painted and we have not put down the runner yet.

  I am thankful for a handy and patient husband! 

Thank you to Chloe Crabtree at Celebrate & Decorate for putting this hop together. Just click on the blogs below and it should take you right to their Thanksgiving tables.  Enjoy!

    Monday

Everyday Living  * Red Cottage Chronicles 

 Home is Where the Boat Is * Celebrate & Decorate

Tuesday

My Kentucky Living *  Savvy Apron 

Rattlebridge Farm *Living with Thanksgiving

Wednesday

Belle Blue Interiors * From My Carolina Home 

 Bluesky at Home * The Painted Apron 

 Corner of Plaid and Paisley (here) 

 The Red Painted Cottage

Thursday

casa di Bianca * Dining Delight * A Sweet Sensations

Our Crafty Mom * Panoply

Friday

My French Twist * Hey Fitzy * B. Lovely Events

Me and My Captain * Life and Linda

Thanks for stopping by,

Ann

I am linking up to the following parties:

Tablescape Thursday  @ Between Naps on the Porch

Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage