Christmas Fun and Progress on my House Sprucing to Boot!

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I'm on a campaign to do the little extras that need doing to make our house clean and well-cared for. I had put that aside for the holidays. However, yesterday was warm, so I seized the day and spent an hour or two, puttering about yard and neatening things up.

This afternoon, our son arrived for the holidays, bringing a cat and a bonsai tree. In a few hours, our daughter and her husband will be here, and they will be bringing a dog. Tomorrow, my dad is coming to stay with us for a few days. That, plus dear hubby and I and our own cat makes for a full and happy house! Well, at least the people will be merry. I can't speak for our kitten, who is being a pet hostess for the first time. I think we have little work to do on her feline hospitality. :)

Christmas arrangement: If I get around to it, I'll take a picture of my stab at a creative Christmas arrangement. First, I draped a Christmas lace mantle cover over the antique dresser in our entryway. Then, I placed the larger of two silver bowls on the lace. I turned a little glass bowl upside down and placed the smaller silver bowl on it.

I got the idea of using the upside down glass bowl as a stand for the smaller bowl from the blog Like Merchant Ships.

Then, I placed silver-looking ornaments in both bowls, enough to make both bowls look full and to hide the upside-down glass bowl. I had plenty on hand, because I hung them from the chandelier over my dining room table last year.

Finally, I added little bits of Christmas tree branches that my husband had trimmed off to make the tree work in our living room. I can't decide if I like the arrangement better with or without the little bits of Christmas greenery, but I've decided to keep the greenery, anyway.

My original idea was to do a centerpiece of lemons and herb sprigs in a white pedestal bowl, loosely modeled after an example I saw of a holiday table setting in Southern Living. I put one together, and I thought it looked very pretty and fresh and cheerful. The only problem was that, on my table with my other decorations, it didn't look very Christmas-y. So, I took it apart. I'll do another one later on in the winter or in the spring.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth