mesh ribbon | everylittleoccasion

My halls are all decked out for Christmas. How about yours? This year it took me longer to decorate because I decided to use some of my decorations differently than I had in the past. After selling our business I had a large tub of decorations that had been designed for the office and are made of some of the same materials and by the same person as the decorations I had for home. I didn’t make the decorations originally I had a friend in the

basement mantle with feather boa accents and wreath

floral business (The Orchid Lady) make them several years ago. This year I “reworked” them. They were starting to come apart and I wanted to add in the extras. I used the matching wreath from the office over the mantle and used the extra feather garlands that once hung on office windows for a “low centerpiece” on the table. The decorations in the basement area all have the same style and color scheme incorporating lots of gold, copper, burgundy, glitter and feathers.

matching feather boa decor used for a low centerpiece

The main level is mostly done in a more rustic and natural theme with lots of reds, plaids,

Santa’s and some chartreuse mesh ribbon thrown in because I love that color. I replaced my accent color of teal in the family room with red pillows and green candles. I was so excited this year to have a mantle over the fireplace. My son is pretty handy and he built one just in time for me to decorate. I have included a picture before the decorating began so you can see how great it looks. The garland on the mantle drapes down and I had

difficulty getting a good picture of either feature. The tree in this room is not identical to the mantle garland but it has some of the same elements. Again, I had some table decorations from our previous business that I took apart to use on this tree. The main part of the decoration was a greenery spray that included pinecones, feathers and chartreuse berries. I had added the chartreuse mesh ribbon, some copper velvet ribbon and some burlap. Though I love the copper ribbon it just didn’t go with any of the other decorations so I took them apart and saved the copper ribbon to use in some other project next fall. I usually put a garland on my banister that has a plaid ribbon intertwined with the pinecones and greenery but I discovered the finish at this home is softer than our previous home and it was scratching the woodwork. And yes I did try using pipe cleaners and felt. So, I had just enough of the garland to go on top of my cabinets in the kitchen along with a few of the things I needed to move to make room for some more Santa stuff. I took the ornaments I had hung in the dining room last year and hung them in the breakfast area using varying plaid ribbon. Then I created a centerpiece tray using a collection of pewter measuring tankards, a cheap metal tray I picked up last year at IKEA, some pine cones I already had, extra ornaments and peppermint candy from Dollar Tree. I have to say this was the most fun! So now the kitchen and the family room have a correlating theme.

The sprays before I removed the copper ribbon

Spray added to tree before I added the ornaments

This is my everything tree-Santa's, natural elements and cardinals — This is my everything tree: Santa’s, natural elements and cardinals

mantle décor- candles, nutcrackers and small twig wreath

Pillows add a pop of red to coordinate with the theme — Pillows add a pop of red to coördinate with the theme

breakfast table-it's all about plaid — breakfast table-it’s all about plaid

garland topped cabinets with baskets and soup tureens

garland on adjacent cabinet with pewter tea set and remote candles

garland topped cabinet with duck decoy and bird cage full of pine cones

I bought a third tree this year at Hobby Lobby. I knew the minute I saw it I wanted to use it in my dining room to display my late aunt’s collection of Christopher Radko ornaments.

Champagne tree with glass and vintage ornaments

It is a 6 foot skinny tree made of champagne tinsel. What I didn’t realize was that my aunt also had the very first ornaments my grandparents had bought in a little box labeled where and when they were bought in the 1930’s. There were some other ornaments that were bought in California when Grammy and Gramps worked in the shipyards during the war in 1942. I added a few glass ornaments from early in my marriage and voilà! I have the perfect vintage tree. I absolutely love it. To pull the room together I used a collection of hand blown clear glass ornaments to make a faux chandelier from the chandelier by using gold and silver stretchy package ties to suspend them at different lengths. I decided to use a mixture of gold and silver chargers on the table and combined gold and silver banded china. I placed a crystal nativity set on the buffet between some vintage vases which are not holiday themed but seemed to go well with the whole effect. Plus I didn’t have a place to store them as they are quite large.