Christmas Home Tour 2020

 

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful season...

Here is a little peak at my Christmas home. 

I was able to get a bit of fresh cedar this year which was so nice to add into the pine and white pine.

My old sled from when I was little...

I love having my new front entry porch to decorate.

The beams got wrapped in the white wood which makes it.... ALMOST complete.

Just need a doorbell!

I ended up adding in some sumac for a little extra color.

I think the bottle brush wreath that I made last year stands out nicely with the new door color.

I put my vintage display in the "new" cabinet that was my quarantine project for this lovely year...

It's perfect because little hands leave it all alone up there.

Santa mugs, carolers, my faux white pine, + jadeite! 

Plus the old tool box and scale for some rusty vintage charm as well :)

In the other hutch I put my nativity... which definitely needs to go up higher next year. 

The little lamb has already lost an ear.

Some sad Christmas decor news is that I missed "recycled Christmas" this year! But I have so much stuff already that it's probably okay. So what I did was take the money I didn't spend there and got the new plaid pillow covers for a touch of red in the living room.

Above the couch hangs my project this year - an advent calendar filled with a "name of Jesus", reading plan, and activity for each day. (Coming up with all that is the part that took so long!)

 Thank you to my mom for sewing all the tiny pouches! 

I still need to add numbers and little bells for each day, but we've been having fun with it. 

And the fabric matches our stockings!

The other plaid pillow + all of the snowflakes that always hang in this window...along with some icicle lights this year. Maybe someday there will be window trim. ;) 

The stocking were hung....

on the buffet this year!

I like how the maroon stands out on the white.

Every other year I have hung them off of the TV stand. But I figured my one year old would just be getting into them there.

On our real tree this year we added some dried grapefruit ornaments for some pops of colors...which I don't usually do, but I'm liking it for this year. I know just about every decorator has done dried citrus, and I'm usually not a fan of trendy things, but I think this is more something "classic" that is making a comeback so it's okay! :)

And a crate of our kid's Christmas books under the tree until presents show up on Christmas eve night!

TA-DA!!! Isn't it beautiful!! I finally got my husband to hang my antique crystal chandelier in the dining area!!! And it makes me love my house so much more. 

I've only been waiting for this moment to happen for 3 years...

Things just look so much classier in there now.

Our white tree in the kitchen got a few extra strands of gold garland this year plus the vintage pink cardinal ornaments I got at recycled Christmas last year.

Touches of tartan plaid on the table because that just always feels Christmasy to me!

The kitchen shelves stayed more neutral this year,

I put a wreath above the sink which I really like and will probably do again since I have so many wreaths and am always trying to figure out where to put them all!

And that's about it!

Thank you for taking my little Christmas home tour! 

I also decorated the bathroom and my son wanted to decorate his room this year as well, but I never got pictures of that. Oops!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

"For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." ~ Luke 2:11

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I always say it's my favorite birthday party to decorate for! :) 

Blessings,

Olivia

Pumpkin Spice Party

If you need a fun get together idea for the fall, here it is...

a

 PUMPKIN SPICE PARTY!

Simple, affordable, easy to quickly DIY...

I hosted a "mom's night in" with some of my mom friend's from Bible study, and I'm always a sucker for a good theme. Most everyone loves pumpkin spice stuff in the fall, so I took that and went with it. 

Like A LOT.

The mom's ate dinner with their families and then left the kids at home with dad to play and have the dad's do the night routine.

 It was just a simple, couple hours we had together with nothing on the schedule but talking (yes, a lot about our kids) and eating plenty of sweet treats. 

I keep my fall decor pretty simple. 

I have this pumpkin garland I got at the Target dollar spot, and I found the pumpkin pillow cover on Amazon.

After gathering in the kitchen for a while with our drinks and desserts we ended up heading to the livingroom and just sitting around and talking - without the {small people} distractions we are used to.

ON THE MENU

Beverages

- Pumpkin Spice Apple Cider

-Pumpkin Spice Latte 

-Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea

-Water

Desserts

-Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

-Pumpkin Spice Cookies

-Pumpkin Spice Milano Cookies

-Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Savory Nibblers 

-Almonds

-Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

-Dried Papaya 

-Veggie Chips

-Pretzels 

I also had a friend that brought some yummy fall butternut squash soup (for the few of us that didn't eat dinner with our family) and an apple pumpkin pie.

Another friend brought molasses cookies, and another brought a hot, fall punch. 

Needless to say I was sending ladies home with plates of dessert! 

But I think part of what makes a party great is having too much food. 

Then everyone feels like they can eat as much as they like. :) 

And if that wasn't enough sugar, on the way out the door there were little party favor goodie bags of chocolate ready to go in the pumpkin basket!

It was a great couple of hours with a fun excuse to get together and have the night off.

Because mom's feel like they do, in fact, need an excuse to do so. ;) 

And, it gave me an excuse to do some of the things I love -

 clean and decorate the house + eat sweet treats! 

Hope you are having a great fall!

Blessings, 

Olivia

The 2020 Garden

 

Here is a little progress report of our garden from this summer!

Small beginnings... 

Good things to come!

Always fun to see things triple in size after a big rain!

Both of our mint patches really took off this year - of course. But thankfully I'm a big fan of the very full English garden look, so I don't mind things that really spread out and give it a bit of a wild look.

I hope to have every part filled in someday and not see much mulch at all.

Next year I hope to have a big chamomile patch over by the little table.

The garden pup, Calla.

She's been a big fan of the lemongrass (right behind her head), which was a new addition to the garden this year. I'm really impressed with how large it has gotten in just a few short months.

 Fun to see her munch on it! She's the only one that's used it so far...

Up on our deck we have some tomatoes growing in pots.

We started this big fella from seed! It's a Baker Creek Heirloom seed, so my husband is attempting to save some of it's seeds this year and hopefully we'll have more in the future!

It was really good - meaty, not seedy, which is what I always look for in a tomato. 

In full bloom! 

Shout out to our chickens for all of the sunflowers! We give them sunflower seeds to eat, and then we used the chicken compost in our garden, and ended up with a bunch of volunteer sunflowers that we let grow in a couple different patches. It really cheered things up! 

I think I'll let them do that every year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings, 

Olivia