Hello my friends!

I’m so happy to be here sharing my holiday home with you.  You haven’t heard much from me here on this little blog over the past couple years – I know!  My handmade business has kept me so busy I’ve just completely let this little space slide.  I do miss it, so I’m happy to be sharing some posts with you this week.  We are starting with my Christmas decor in the Dining room.

Our front door opens into our dining room.

I bet you knew that from one of my most recent posts – which just happens to be last years holiday home tour – haha!   This year I was trying to set a pretty tablescape for my photo shoot but it just wasn’t coming together for me.  So I scrapped it and set up a pretty wrapping station instead.  Complete with cookies and coffee for sipping and munching while wrapping!

Over on Instagram (do you follow me there?  It’s where you can find me hanging out these days) my china hutch gets complements on how pretty it is – and I’m gonna share a little secret with you.  It’s nowhere near this pretty in real life.  In real life the oak has yellowed to a very orange shade that is not my fav at all.  Editing saves it for photos as I just haven’t made myself undertake the project of painting it.  I keep saying I will, but I know it’s going to be a long process to do it right so I put it off.

A staging trick cover the air return with a blanket or rug for the photos – see the corner of the air return I didn’t get quite covered?  This is so much prettier for a photo – just don’t forget to remove blanket after the shoot cause that air return is there for a reason and your furnace needs it uncovered to work properly.

The stockings are from Lands End, Basket from Target, Ball ornaments from Home Goods, Macrame from Ket Mercantile, Basket Round on wall – thrifted.  Garland – Faux base from a local shop, Expressions of the Home – with fresh greens added for depth and fullness.

I love my little banister area back there behind the table.  I’ve been hanging our stockings there for several years now.  We don’t have a fireplace or a place for a faux mantel, so this works perfectly.

Cookies were purchased at Winans – our local coffee shop and absolute fav!

My dining room nook is completely different than the past few years.

We ended up with quite a few plants at summer’s end, and they needed a place to land indoors.  We hope to keep a few of them alive all winter, so this nook area is the best spot for them.  With all those south facing windows, plants tend to thrive here if they are going to thrive!  I did spread them out into the kitchen and the den for the photo shoot just to make things look more serene and less like an overgrown jungle!

Another decorating tip for you – and I think I’ve shared this before – use faux greenery as your base and then add fresh greens to it.  I learned this from one of my favorite bloggers, Lucy, of Craftberry Bush.  It always amazes me how much better the greenery looks, and for so much longer too, when you use this technique.

Honestly, I kept things simple this year.

It may not look simple, but it is.  I didn’t stuff my chandeliers with greens and I didn’t even get all my vintage glass ornaments out.  The tree is up and has lights and all the white fluff,  but I left it at that.  It’s beautiful this way and just felt like it was enough for this year.

For photos you can stage them and add in baskets and decor items and make it look as over-the-top as usual.  But in reality, it’s so much simpler this year, and took way less time.

Little details add a big bunch.

Bits of fresh greenery tucked in bottles that were already part of the decor from fall, transform the decor to an instant Christmastime feel. That darling ornament hanging on the bottle is a hand painted piece from Whitney Ruger of Pip and Kate.  I found her amazing art after she bought a pillow from me, shared a pic of it on Instagram, and tagged me.  I fell in love with her art and have purchased several of her prints.  This year I had to have this adorable ornament.  And I’m saving for more of them next year!

One of my very favorite things about my business is meeting and connecting with other great makers and business women.  It’s those connections and friendships that bolster me up and keep me going during the rough times.  And it’s those friends who understand business and can laugh and joke with you through the best of times too!

This view is always one of my favs.

I like an open floor plan and this large doorway between our dining room and living room gives the illusion of a more open plan than a lot of old houses have.  This is how the house was when we moved in – we didn’t have to open it up!  I also love my higher ceilings.  They were 9ft when we bought the place, but they are now a few inches less as we added bigger, tougher beams everywhere as we renovated.  Still, they are over 8ft and that is good with me.

Not only were these cookies adorable for my photo shoot – they were YUMMY!

So, my friends, tell me – are you ready for Christmas?

I’ve still got a bit of shopping to do and a few pillows to make and deliver.  And a meal to plan and prep for!

I’ll be back on here a couple more times this week with the Living Room and the KITCHEN!  I almost never show my kitchen but I did a bit of staging and some serious editing and you get a peek at it this time!  So stay tuned for that 🙂

Jill