Monday, December 12, 2011

A little more Christmas...

Stephanie has often bought me snowmen and snowladies through the years.  :)
It's been a little hectic around here to do much pondering (you may have noticed Sunday Afternoon Tea was later than usual!).  Christopher has been staying here part of the time so he can make certain he does not sleep through his alarm.  Last week he had to make multiple presentations.

Now he's in the midst of finals so he's staying every night and I'm driving him in and picking him up so he doesn't have to be concerned about finding limited parking spaces.  One of the jobs Miss M. will be taking over come May.  :)

I don't have the baking or crafting done that I wanted but I did find time to take some pictures.


I have quite a few tree toppers (a couple shown in a previous picture on the lamp table in my living room) but I always seem to use this theologically incorrect angel I made when Christopher was a baby.  She makes me happy.





I have all kinds of ornaments but I learned a lesson from a design show long ago (I think it was Lynette Jennings on a Christmas special) that if you use one color of bulb throughout the tree, you can get away with a variety of other ornaments.  So... I have used vintage plain red bulbs near the center and throughout the tree for years.

The pictures above show a few of the ornaments.  Below the tree...


These two dolls and (out of the picture) a cute bear and a snowman that sings which my sister, Bonnie, gave me... yes, really.  The tree is in the dining room, which can be seen as soon as you come in the front door, only because it is the one place in the house in which I don't have to move a lot of furniture for it to stand... it has worked out for years so I'll stick with it there.


Oh, someone had asked about the wallpaper in the dining room area.  Here is a closeup, it is a brocade type wall paper with vertical stripes and then a wallpaper border horizontally placed below the "chair rail" woodwork.  The very talented young couple we bought the house from had done a lot to change it from a typical 1960s ranch house to something special. 


I think it was brilliant on their part to just have wallpaper on the bottom part and then paint above the chair rail a kind of taupe color (the same color continues into the living room).   The only change I made was to take down the purple drapes and put up my much beloved lace curtains (you may have noticed I have a thing for lace curtains, blame it on living among the Dutch for nine years!).  :)

9 comments:

Vee said...

Theologically incorrect? What? Angels don't wear gingham? Something else? =)

Your dining room looks delightful with a Christmas tree there. That sounds like something Lynette Jennings might say. I should take the tip because I think she's correct.

Bet that driving Christopher to classes early and late and in between is one of those chores you'll gladly hand off to Mrs. Christopher.

Annie Joy said...

I love your ornaments, especially the "Happy Birthday, Jesus!", and your sweet angel, theologically correct or not! Annie

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

I've been admiring your lace curtains for ages. They have such a lovely delicate pattern.

Anita said...

Thanks for sharing. I love getting glimpses of parts of your house and seeing your creativity.

Bess said...

The angel you made is darling! It's all very pretty Brenda.

MelMel said...

I love you tree ornaments.....very festive and cute!xx

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

I used to watch Lynette Jennings regularly! I learned so much from her!

My tree has red, silver and white basically, with red plaid ribbon and a white county style star on top! But the real key to the beauty of my tree is the amount of lights! If you want your tree to really glow you must use 100 lights per ft of tree. We tuck them way into the middle of the tree and out on the branches! It looks great during the day, but at nighttime - it really glows!

Love your tree...

Deanna

Elizabeth said...

Ilove your dining room and I have always loved lace too

Peggy said...

I so enjoy your posts and seeing how you have arranged your cozy home.

Noticed the 3 kings ornament hanging on your tree. I have an identical one my now grown and married son made when he was a child from a kit.

Almost didn't hang it up this year, but somehow it found it's way to a bough.