I thought this year would be different.

I thought this year, I would have a fireplace, and a mantel for stockings and a focal point for our nativity or Advent wreath.

Alas,.. I do not. = (

But what I do have, which might actually be bigger than most mantels, is my piano! = ) Each year I move my everyday piano decor aside and completely deck out the top of the piano. It’s a good place to put a nativity scene or advent candle wreath – or both!

Oh, this makes me smile! In keeping with the color scheme and theme of the Christmas tree, the white and the blue and the lights,.. oh what a pretty little sight. =)

You can even see a few of my “traveling nativity” pieces on the piano there…

I really like having the Advent candle wreath as the focal point in the middle. Usually it’s a nativity (but that has a new home this year.)

I bought a few of things on clearance at the end of last season (blue beaded garland, floral pieces) — and I forgot! Opening up the Christmas decorations and finding those on top was like finding an early Christmas present.

This really makes the Advent wreath the star of the display – the blue & white Christmas lights illuminate the snow cover. I love it.

Take a good look at that vase because when I’m getting home it’s actually going to get replaced by something BETTER! You’ll just have to wait and see… ; )

More pinecones!! (I never knew I had such a thing for pinecones but I’m realizing I do like them a lot. Especially white tipped or silver.)

There’s a white and silver garland twisted together on here, in addition to the brown ribbon with silver and teal accents, the blue beaded garland and a silver snowflake garland (which you can see in the bottom left of the previous picture.) I’m learning my style is a combination of simple and multi-layered.

The two large ornaments used to sit in the Christmas tree basket with the three big gold ones, but this year they’re segregated. =p There’s the bottom of another vase that WON’T be there after I get my hands on it. Really, this is going to be so much fun! (But I’ll keep you guessing until I get home and get it done.)

And last but not least, these little beaded sprays, I adore them. These also were purchased on clearance for a ridiculously low price and were forgotten until a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t found *just* the right thing for them yet, they may or may not still be here once I switch out the vases. We shall see. They need… something… I don’t know what yet.

So that’s my “faux mantel”.. even when I do have a fireplace I imagine my piano will still serve as a place of prominent display.

Do you have a real mantel or do you create your own mantel space? What do you put there?

• You can read more here about how we use colors, shapes and other symbols in our Christmas decorating to help celebrate Advent.

You know what is awesome about building your Christmas decor collection slowly year after year? Eventually you have enough stuff to work with and switch it up and make things different and interesting! ; )

This is the first year that I really feel like I have Christmas decorations in more than just our living room. Last year I had a *little* elsewhere, but not really.

I don’t ever want to make Christmas more about the decorations and lights than it needs to be, those things have their place and I need them to stay there. But decorations so help set a celebratory mood and we do have a reason to celebrate!

You may recall my white and blue theme in the living room but with the red wall in the dining room I decided to stick with red and I’m so glad I did because the red ribbon in this centerpiece makes me think of candy canes (and candy canes make me think of Jesus — In fact, I think a few candy canes tucked in here would be the perfect final touch, don’t you?)

The bowl is a Christmas tree shape, featuring three large gold ornaments (3 kings?) tucked in with candy cane-ish ribbon, pinecones, cinnamon sticks, apple ornaments, lights and guarded by a little gingerbread man holding a gift. Being in the dining room, I thought I’d kinda go with a food-ish theme while still using some symbolism with the remaining ornaments.

I like how the lights illuminate the whole bowl of goodies. There’s an outlet right there behind the table which is very convenient. I was a little concerned if they’d get too hot, but we left them on for a few hours, and each time I checked them they were fine.

I also like how I already had all these things. I’ve been keeping a little storage container of ribbon pieces and small ornaments for just this sort of thing (or a mantel or a hurricane vase, etc.) My mom has some pretty acorns in her yard I am TOTALLY collecting some of those to add to my stash. ; )

Ok, I’m not really sure where/how the gingerbread (snow?)man ornament fits into all this, except that he looks like gingerbread and so is food-ish and has red on his hat and scarf. But he DOES look very happy and he IS holding a gift and Jesus IS the best gift ever. (Stretching?)

If the apples represent sin, and lights represent Jesus (as the light of the world), the ornaments represent the wise men, the candy cane ribbon represent the stripes and all the other red the blood that was shed, if the cinnamon sticks (tree bark) represent the wooden cross, and the pinecones (seed) represent new life and then if the evergreen Christmas tree represents eternal life — then we’ve got a whole little redemption story centerpiece going on here, now don’t we?

That wasn’t what I set out to do when I started but it’s how I ended up and now that I thought about that how can I look at that centerpiece and NOT think about the true meaning of Christmas? I love decorating with symbolism, don’t you? = )

Do you use symbolism to decorate, too?

Check out that “fall broom” hanging on my dining room wall! It’s really one of those cinnamon brooms but it looked kinda “witchy” so I also bought some fall colored grasses (all from the dollar store) and tied it with some of the fall ribbon I already had (clearance from last year) and voila! A beautiful fall broom!

Also, I found some pumpkin spice potpourri at the Dollar Store that actually smelled quite wonderful. Mixing that with some extra pinecones and fake gourds made a lovely (and lovely smelling) bowl for my table. I’ve had the red suede maple leaf for a couple years and I’m not really sure where I acquired the white tablecloth but it’s perfect for fall, having little acorns and leaves and such all over it.

I love the little nuts and shells and spikey things in the potpourri, the picture really doesn’t do it justice.

We usually try to add some decorations to our school area, too, but since we’re doing school in Big Daddy’s office this year I tried to keep it low key. Here’s our “fall wall.”

It’s a shame that fall decorations are already falling by the wayside in all the stores. I mean, we still have THANKSGIVING to go through, y’all!! If that doesn’t yell “AUTUMN!” then I don’t know what does! We’ll be keeping our fall decor up through the end of November, as usual. December 1st we begin decorating for Advent! But that’s a horse season of a different color. ; )

Happy Fall Y’all!!

Remember when I made my own wall plaques with dollar store frames, dollar ribbon and fancy letters from the printer?

I’ve been happy with those wall plaques for the past year and a half, and though I have the ability to change it up quite easily, I’ve never really taken the initiative to do that. UNTIL NOW…

Check out my new FALL themed wall decor!!

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I don’t know about you — but I love it!!

Every year I buy a little something here and a little something there and add it to my fall decoration box. I’m building my supply selection very slowly, but also very cost effectively. Neither do I spend a large amount of money all at once, nor do I buy things that I don’t like or won’t use because I’m being very selective with what I purchase.

My favorite place to look is the DOLLAR GENERAL. It’s true.

Last year I bought several spools of fall-colored cloth ribbon on clearance at the end of the fall season. This year I scored a couple of $1 packages of shimmery silk leaves in a variety of fall colors from olive green to gold to eggplant to deep red. The leaves were just what I needed to make-over my dollar store wall art! (I’ll show you later.)

Other things I scored at the DG this year:

• A little pumpkin about 6 inches tall that says “Give thanks to God”
• A free-standing 4 inch ‘plate’ that reads “Welcome Fall” (Yes! Welcome! Please come in!!)
• A cute little cornucopia (you could see that in my first day of school pics)
• A little package of pumpkins and squash – little ones, 2-3 inches in diameter, so cute.

I’ve just started getting things decorated but it’s already starting to look a little bit like fall around here. Now if it would only start FEELING like fall as well!

Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen at We Are That Family!

I think,..I have realized how it is that a room which has been completely de-cluttered, re-organized and spiffy-fied can (right under your very nose!) suddenly find itself in a very cluttered, unorganized, sad state of very un-spiffy-ness.

WE COLLECT MORE STUFF.

I mean,.. it happens. Ya know? Someone gives you a shirt they don’t like, you get a new pair of shoes, you buy more books to collect on your nightstand and voila!!- where’s the bed? The dresser? The bottom of the closet?

Ok, ok, so it probably has a little to do with cleaning habits, also, am I right? But still, if you collect too much stuff for your space, your cleaning job is GOING to be more difficult than it has to be. Conversely, if you don’t pick up and put everything back in its place, it doesn’t matter if you have exactly the right amount of stuff.

It’s a very delicate relationship.

One that I have recently failed at. Again.

You may or may not recall our Master Bedroom makeover a few years ago. Oh, the purging, purging, purging!! (And the painting, painting, painting!!) Our new space was so lovely that I really did keep it clean (or mostly clean) for a very long time. I’m not exactly sure where I got off track.. I think perhaps it began last summer when I broke my toe and I got out of the habit and it was all down hill from there.

I can certainly say that it doesn’t help to “hide” stuff in your master bedroom when company comes over! Been there – done that – stop hiding stuff in your master bedroom, people! Take it from me!

So last weekend I’d finally had enough and I did it all over again. Well, minus the painting part. But this time I threw in some re-arranging. And over the last few years I’ve collected some more decorations for our room (largely through GIFTS & HAND-ME-DOWNS,..THANK YOU beautiful lovely people!) so our room is even more lovely than it was before. And the new arrangement of the furniture (and leaving off the footboard) makes the room more open I think.

I couldn’t resist taking a few (or 15) pictures of my favorite things about our “new again” bedroom! I mean, really, it’s ME, what else did you expect??

{The photo quality is a little low in some pictures because the lighting in our room is very ambient & soft, and if I open the curtains the sunlight is very bright. I’ve always had a difficult time balancing the lighting when taking pictures in here….any pointers? Moving on…}

This is my view from the bed now – ever so MUCH more lovely than the view we had before. There are so many little things over here that I love, and I’m definitely thinking that this is the way to do it – making sure that there’s more visual interest for you at the foot of your bed, rather than spending all your efforts at the head of your bed (which looks lovely when you walk over to your bed but then you turn around and you can’t see it!) Just a side note – I do have the glass votive holders for the candle sconce on the wall, I took them off to wash them. Here, let me show you more!

My little basket of books. I have two of these baskets, I love them! I got them with a gift certificate that my mom got me for my birthday or Mother’s Day or something, and so even though they’re not priceless treasures, they’re special to me. I did have a bunch of magazines in this basket – magazines that I never got around to reading! So I decided to put a selection of my books in it instead– books that I need to read, am reading or need to re-read. And I’ve already pulled a book out a time or to. I like having it here.

What you see here is our marriage license, which I framed and put up for display last Valentine’s Day. I like having it just leaning up against the wall behind some candles in a little arrangement, rather than hanging it on the wall – I think it makes it more inviting and less formal – don’t you? The candle holders are two remaining of a set of four that my close friend gave me. They look metal. Turns out, they’re glass. They break. =( The candle sconces on the wall?? I haven’t decided if I still like those anymore, if I want to keep them. I do, but do I like them ENOUGH? Are they me? I don’t know. The jury is still out on those sconces…

Ooh! Look at the pretties on top of the linens dresser!! I’m pretty sure my mom gave me the hummingbird candle lantern. I think. Didn’t she? Yeah, I think so. I’ve had it for AGES. And my sister-in-law brought that mask from Italy. I love it! The Easter lilies probably look better tucked behind this arrangement (hiding cables & cords) than they ever did in the vases. And I just really enjoy all the little touches of red around my room to accent the chocolate brown and soft green. It works! It really works!

My peacock feathers!! One of the newest additions to my room – my Mother-in-law passed on some extra feathers she had leftover from an arrangement. After seeing how well they work with my color scheme and seeing what they add to the feel & atmosphere of the room – I want more!! This arrangement stands in a vase (matching the green vase on the dresser) on the floor which hides the power strip all the electronics plug into. Hiding power cords — the only hiding you’re allowed to do!!

This lamp & the matching lamp on the other dresser, were passed on to me from my grandmother. I don’t think they’re very old, I think she bought them new, but I have always loved the look and style of them – and I also love that they came from my grandmother. Almost all of the special things in my room have been given to me by family members, or belonged to them at one point, like the green vase to the left, which was my great-grandmothers. My grandma let me have it when we got married and I’ve always taken special care of it.

Just a thought – I think I love these flowers in this arrangement more than I ever have in any other arrangement that I’ve tried. You can see many of them in previous bedroom pictures, in which they’ve always been divided between two other vases with a variety of other grasses or flowers I’ve tried. Combining these all into this one vase is the best it has ever looked. The purple flowers are flowers I bought early on after we got married, the blue flowers are some that we used to decorate the arch in my brother’s wedding several years ago, and the three white roses are my very own wedding bouquet! (More sentimental mush-mush.)

This bench/chest used to be in the bottom of Hubs’ half of the closet – it was supposed to hold all the throw pillows at night, but well, that never really worked. Can you guess why? Because things got piled on it! And then I couldn’t get into it. Imagine that. I actually REALLY LOVE it here. There’s still plenty of room to walk past the end of the bed. It’s really easy to get the throw pillows in and out and the kids like sitting on it when we all pile in here to watch a movie. (One of my shams is the perfect size to sit on the bench as a cushion!) This chest is one of the few things I have left from my early childhood, a toybox I received when I was about 4. The little brown picture on the wall (kinda hard to see) is a green hummingbird on a brown background, a birthday gift from the same friend as the silver candle pillars – I love hummingbirds!!

And a view of the other wall, just to prove that I did take a little effort in decorating over there, but clearly not as much as on the other side. The 4 tier stand now serves as my night stand (BOY that thing has had a lot of jobs over the years, hasn’t it??) which really helps to move the bed closer to the door, leaving more room on the other side of the bed than before. Which helps to make the room feel more open. It’s all good. Would you like to see that feather wreath up close? Of course you would!

Don’t you just love it?! My mother in law bought it on clearance after Christmas and then decided that it probably didn’t go as well with her stuff and she knew that I wanted to do a turquoise Christmas this year (I DO!) so she LET ME HAVE IT. She is so nice! I love it. Just love it. So yeah, it WILL be making an appearance with our Christmas decor this year, and the rest of the year — RIGHT HERE BABY. Where I can enjoy it the other 11 months of the year. I’m thinking about hanging it up with a wide satiny ribbon, though, kinda like this. What do you think? But definitely in a green/turquoise, not purple. =P

The curtain valance is the another thing in our room that I just love, that really takes everything up a notch. The beaded brocade valance and the brown velvet curtains were a Christmas gift from my Mother-in-law several years ago. She knew that I desperately needed to do some decorating in our room (at that point there was NONE) so she bought these for us. AGAIN – my mother-in-law is so nice to me!! I love the beads. I think I have a thing for beaded valances.

The green color in the valance plays off the walls perfectly, and the purplish red goes well with our red accents. And the brocade just makes everything in here look a little bit fancier. Love! Also, I still have the roses that my MIL painted on the closet doors, I just didn’t take new pictures of them (since they didn’t change) – I still love them, too. It all comes together so nicely!

So this is our new again sanctuary. I’m so very happy with it. The kids are amazed and I’m trying to convince them that our whole house should look this good – ALL THE TIME! I really do wish that it did. Thing is, it has taken me several years to collect up all these special gifts and decorations and find the right combinations for them. So, I figure, in about 3 more years I may be able to get my living room to the same point – right?

I think the biggest thing I learned from this, that I have to pass on to you today, is this: Be selective in your decorations, surround yourself with things you love, purge them if you don’t, take your time (it’s ok it if takes 2 or 3 years), and remember to purge regularly and clean frequently so you don’t lose your space you love so much under a mound of clutter you hate! Wouldn’t you agree?