2nd Christmas Tree and Kitchen Dining

I went heavy with the black and white check this year. Kind of MacKenzie Child's-esque!

 I fell for all the elves I've been seeing at the stores and picked this one up at Hobby Lobby.

 I also found a tree topper at Hobby Lobby with the same black and white check.  Love it!

 Some evening shots...

 Isn't he cute!

 On the chest I have a Santa and his sleigh with a Nutcracker standing by.  

 This nutcracker has been around for a long time.  He's a Steinbach (from Germany) nutcracker that I found at T.J. Maxx many years ago.

 The table topper is a MacKenzie Child's piece I picked up several years back on their after season sales.  It's actually made for a square table, but I pinned up the sides and made it work!

 Off to the right is the kitchen dining area.  I have a lineup of Nutcrackers and trees.

 The red runner was a find while visiting Frankenmuth, Michigan.  They have such neat stores there!

 I swapped out my floral center arrangement and put together this centerpiece.  

I found the Tartan plaid and wood tray at JoAnn's.  Again the black and white checked pieces were from Hobby Lobby and so were the nutcrackers.

 My amaryllis is blooming away.  Notice the snow outside?  We're currently at about 10º outside and getting snow.  It's a bitter day, one to spend indoors!

 Happy Holidays!

Oh Christmas Trees.....

 

We invested in a new tree this year.  She's 9 ft. tall by approx. 72" wide!  I came across a 72" tree skirt at TJMaxx that worked out perfectly for it.   I ordered a star for it but it hasn't come in and at this point I think I'll not bother putting it up since it would be very hard after it's already been decorated.

I've used these reindeer many times but this is the first time I set them on the floor by the tree and I'm enjoying them there!

I also purchased some gold glass garlands.  Since I had been using a smaller tree in the past I wasn't putting out a lot of my ornaments so this year I was able to bring all of them out.

This is a MacKenzie Childs ornament that is a copy of the big Santa figure that I got from them a while back.

On one of our Pennsylvania visits this year I stopped at the Wendell August Forge store and this ornament came home with me.  This is our 40th year of marriage and I chose the heart symbolizing love with the red ruby colored Swarovski crystals representing the 40th Anniversary. 

You may have noticed I love red!  I added a bunch of sparkly red ornaments and I love how they catch the light.

 

I love this fox.  Each year at the end of the season the MacKenzie Childs website puts all of their seasonal items on mark down and I purchased a few here and there.  

Out near the entry and kitchen area I put the tree that used to be in the living room.

In the past I used a skinny pencil tree which is now going in the guest bedroom.

 

 

I added some black and white checked ribbon pieces (I found at Michael's) to add a little Mackenzie Childs style charm.  The clip on butterflies were another markdown I got from MC a couple of years ago. 

 

My little dutch shoe ornament from Holland, Michigan.

On the chest I placed the same metal tree as last year that we found a way to illuminate.  I This post from last year "here" gives you insight as to how we gave it light!

Last year I had the bottom wreath under the tree but  since I had 2 of them I chose to use them for the angels and layered another wreath on top.

Balsm Hill made some money on us this year!  I wanted this tree last year but it sold out super fast.  I was on a list to be notified when it came in which was August so I set it aside until I needed it.  I also ordered their miniature vintage ornament set.  It's a really oddly shaped tree which made it challenging to decorate.  The wood box has been used more than once as seen "here" and "here" in the past and since this tree comes with a square metal stand it looked like a good mate for the tree.  I dressed it out with the red and ivory jingle bells.

I hope you liked my Christmas Trees!

More holiday decorating to come!! 

Sentimental Tree and Angels

I created this tree in memory of my mother in-law who passed away a few months ago who loved the color blue and for my husband who also loves blue.  Every year her tree had blue lights, bows and ornaments.  I usually do this pencil tree as my "woodland" tree with birds, bird houses, and small woodland animals but I modified all that this year.  I bought all the blue and a pale gold colored glass ornaments at Michael's and loaded it up. 

I also found the bell set at Michael's but I removed the ribbon it came with and replaced it with this gold snowflake ribbon that I also used on the wicker tree collar base cover.

I did add some of the birds and owls and  draped some gold beaded garlands that I had around it.

Next to the tree is the entryway chest that I decorated with a furry tree skirt for a base.  I used the other white wreath that I mentioned last week under this new metal tree.  I ordered the tree from  Frontage and afterwards I got the idea from a friend Robert that you can find on Instagram under the name of Taylor And Harley Designs.  He also has a tall metal tree he put a light under that inspired me.  You should check his Instagram pictures out- he really is a talented person. 

Dan made this fixture for me to put under the tree. It has a felt base too so it won't scratch anything. I needed it to sit as low as possible so this worked out great.

We ended up trying three different light bulbs and chose an LED spot light (which is not shown).  

I put small candle ring wreaths at the base of the angels and laid out some of my little jingle bell garlands.  

Up close you can see the details.  It's really quite a nice piece.

I found the angels at T.J. Maxx a couple of months ago.

Holidays bring out the sentimental feelings don't they!

I'm marathon gift wrapping to get caught up and haven't been visiting blogs much.  Sorry about that but I will try to get around to as many of you as I can.

Joining:

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I Love Christmas Trees

I love extra Christmas trees around the house.  

 I've recycled the use of these small trees by using the candle holders that were already here on the chest.

 I've used this gold display dish a few times and this year it became the holder of my Pottery Barn ornaments that I was collecting over a period of several years.  I usually bought one or two and kept building on it for a while.

 I have a grouping of these little candle rings that I used to dress out the bottom of the trees.

 The skinny tree…. and the bicycle….

 On a whim when Dan and I were visiting the garden center we bought the bicycle.  I had this silly notion to put it and my sleigh together out on the deck.  With all the snow we get it would be impossible to keep them from being buried in the snow (what was I thinking?) so it ended up in the house.  It looks cute with the sleigh that's out by the tree but it takes up too much room.  

 She prepares to take a picture and gets photo-bombed!  Teddy is never far away!

 Each year since I've had this pencil tree I have stuck with a woodland theme.  I started out with birds and bird houses and it expanded over time to include small woodland animals.  This year I stuck to the birds and birdhouses but added the white and red stars.

I keep it simple here since it's a bit of a high traffic area.  

I love Christmas Trees!