Christmas Decorating - The Rest

So now we've seen the outside of the house and the tree.  Here's the rest!


As I mentioned, the majority of the decorations take place around the fireplace, but let me take a second to show you the cute little feather tree I found.  Next year it will probably get some ornaments.

The penguin to the left was a gift from Mike when I got my first job with IBM that had a small amount to do with Linux.  I made the basket on the left last year.

I saw the basket at Stonewall kitchen and had bought the red thingies and pine cones thinking I could find something to do with them.  I did.

Before I get to the mantle I'll show you the one other thing I did to spread the Christmas spirit around the house.  I put extra wreaths on interior doors.  Just because I made myself a new one doesn't mean the old ones can't be enjoyed!

I got this one at Whole Foods last year.

OK, onto the main event.  The mantle.  As a reminder, here's where the bulk of decorations are.  Here's what the mantle looks like in all it's glory.

Swag?  Garland?  Whatever you call it I love for it to drape the mantle.  I snagged these lovely garlands after Christmas last year at Holly, Woods and Vines.  I layered a garland of sparkly red, green and gold balls with an evergreen one adorned with bells, berries and sticks.

One of my favorite Christmas decorations are these peacock feather trees.  God I love peacock feathers.

I thought the mantle needed some more light.  Eric vetoed putting it in the garland (maybe I'll sneak it in next year), so I put a short strand of lights across the mantle and draped gold tulle ribbon over it.  I set it off with some sparkly poinsettias and birds.

I call this my Scarlett O'Hara bird because it reminds me of the dress Scarlett wore to Mellie's birthday party.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my love of peacock feathers.  I got a wreath of them for Christmas 3 years ago.  I haven't taken it down.  It lives on my wall.  I also keep a vase on the right side of the mantle for most of the year.  I often buy extra sparkle to add to it for Christmas.  Then I leave that in all year round too...

Because I thought the mantle looked just fine as it was, I decided not to hang stockings by it with care.  I hung them in a large picture window in the front of the house. 

Well, there you have it, a wrap up of this year's holiday decorating.   I hope you enjoyed it.  Let me know if you have any tips for next year!