The Pic Heavy Holiday Decorating Post

First off..... Yes, Deb, I take this very seriously. And here is my proof. This tree is in our main floor bathroom. I had originally intended to put it in Little Sprout's room as a tribute to her love of Duckies, but she really wouldn't enjoy it the way it deserves, so the bathroom was the next best place.And then you have our living room tree. Very traditional in the red, green and gold theme.

I think this is the best tree I have ever put together! I love the red, it isn't too bright or gaudy, and the golds are really colorful. I am a big fan of sticking fake poinsettias on my tree. They fill in any bare spots, and just really look special. This pic is too dark to tell, but the colors are so vibrant! It suits the house perfectly! I really think that this is the tree I have wanted to have all my life.

Here I covered one of the pictures that was hanging in the living room with wrapping paper, and used the decorative shelf to show off my Santa collection. This isn't the whole collection, just a few of my favorites.




I built shelves to go up the side of the stairs so I would have somewhere to put our Holiday Village. I love these little villages so much, but I can never bring myself to pay full price for the houses. I haunt thrift stores during the holiday season, and don't think I have paid more than $8 for any of my houses or accessories. They look soooooo awesome at night when they are all lit up!

See how pretty they are? I still don't have them lit up here, but I just love miniatures of any kind.

Maybe it's because I never had a dollhouse as a kid, but there is just something about tiny little houses, villages and furniture that makes me want to stop and play. Someday, I hope to have a large enough setup (and the room for it) so that I can put out an entire little village with a toy train set. That would be so cool!

Continuing the tour, we have this off center photo of what I did to the dining room wall. Yes, that is another tree, and it hangs on the wall. On either side I hung candle rings with a poinsettia in the center, and long lengths of ribbon covered with Holiday cards. I haven't received any cards in the mail yet, these are ones that I have had in my craft box forever. They look cute, though, and I don't think anyone will notice that they aren't signed or anything.

This is a little alcove outside the bathroom. We put a dresser here to hold towels and other goodies since there is literally NO storage in the bathroom itself. I covered the top with snow drape, trees, and the rest of my Santa collection as well as some angels and snowmen. It looks a little busy, but I don't care. It looks fun and happy.

This is the tree that I let the kids decorate. Mr. Barefoot calls it "festive". I call it "crazy". Purple, green, red, pink, yellow, silver, gold, turquise....all on the same tree. All sorts of crazy shapes, all sorts of crazy colors. I threw on the bows in an attempt to keep my eyes from bleeding every time I caught a glimpse of the clashing colors. ;)

As you head down the stairs into the basement where the family room is, I decorated the ledge with our stockings, stocking holders, some garland, and my signature lights. The stocking holder spells out SANTA, and I added just a few of my "marshmallow" snowmen. It looks a lot cooler than the picture shows.

At the bottom of the stairs, you are greeted by my "blue in white" tree. It is all irridescent

snowflakes and icicles, and my crocheted

ornaments. Please don't notice how crooked the snowflakes are.... I didn't notice how badly I did at pinning them originally. I will do better next time.

So there you are, folks. This is what I have been doing for the last couple of days, I hope you enjoyed your tour!