A Little Bit of Christmas

A few random shots throughout our home this Christmas..  Pink has been woven throughout and after these pictures were taken I started adding bits of red here and there....I hope you get some inspiration and some joy looking at these......Merry Christmas y'all....

The best compliment comes from my husband when he said..  I like it.  You always make everything so pretty..  that is enough.

I post on Instagram everyday if you would like to follow along.  The IG symbol is on the right side of my blog..come follow...

Love,

 Mona

Where Do You Get Inspiration?

This morning a friend said she liked my blog and that I should write more.  hmmmmmm

I thought of responding with I don't really have any inspiration lately but..... I remembered a magnet on my refrigerator that says..

She who refreshes others will herself be refreshed...

So, I started to think about that..Is that why it has been so hard lately to write a blog?  I needed to give away what I needed in order to get it..

It has been a very long dry spell..maybe even writer's block.  But, this morning, I am picking myself up, brushing myself off and giving away what I am so desperately in need of...writing inspiration..

and a few pictures of my family room.  As you can see, I was decorating bohemian style before boho was cool.  More on that at a later time..

No staging here..  This is how we live every day.  I do not have the desire nor the energy to make everything perfect and then photograph it and blog about it.  No..  What you see is what you get.  Any day of the week.  If you stop by my house, this is what you get....us..and real life...

I hope you gather a bit of inspiration from your visit to Hidden Art of Homemaking.
I would love to have a comment from you about this.  As you can see, I am reaching out to you with a bit of inspiration in hopes of gathering some back.....Are you in need of some inspiration too?

Much love,

Mona

Streets of Gold

This time of year around my hometown, the streets, sidewalks and the grass beneath the ginkgo trees turns golden....

if you look closely, you can see leaves falling as I photographed

and a few Thanksgiving scenes..

I added a lot of brass and copper touches to Thanksgiving this year..it has been so fun looking for just the right pieces...and I will carry this over to Christmas decorating..

This little reindeer just could not wait until after Thanksgiving to make an appearance...

Now I must get busy clearing out my kitchen and setting it up for the big Thanksgiving meal cooking.

I hope your Thanksgiving week is wonderful and filled with thankfulness...remember that it is about family and being thankful...NOT shopping...plenty of time to do that later.....

Love,
Mona

Can It Really Be December??

I ran across a quote this morning on facebook that really spoke to me..  I am in the middle of dragging out all of the Christmas decorations and sorting through them to see what goes with the feeling I want in our home this year..  Do you all do that?  or do you jut put out the same decorations year after year?  I change every year so I have quite a collection to choose from...mostly from my years of thrifting...I am hoping to wrap it up in the next day or so..

This is not the fun part to me...sitting in a room with only the Christmas tree lit is what makes it all worth it....
sooo without further ado here is a little bit of progress this morning.....

Practice, practice to be able to get the right bokeh in the pictures....that is the little blurry spots of light in the background.....needing some more practice..LOL

and then an edited picture....

See how it removes some of the background chaos?  Maybe I just need some more hours in the day.Especially when it is time to decorate for Christmas...

I promise I am working on the settings to get an unblurry picture...

Here are a few of my past Christmas pictures...

 I loved making these trees out of old jewelry..

Christmas tea...

My all time favorite Christmas picture..so far.....my son and husband...

This has been a big hit on Pinterest..from my childhood..and yes, they come out EVERY Christmas at our house..the little N.O.E.L choir..

Dear husband is sick with a cold so he went to be early last night..I was going to read a while but hey!!  I could do some work on the living room tree....So I stayed up way later than normal fluffing the tree and putting the lights on it.... After a few errands today, it is back to it..

Thank you for stopping by.  I am sure most of you are done with decorating...I will be there soon..I hope.

Love, Mona

I am joining Marty's party..  Inspire Me Tuesday

Natural Christmas

This year I am just not feeling the red and green theme for Christmas...There is a more earthy feel to our family room tree.  I tend to lean toward browns and greens since that is also the colors I use for decorating in that room...the colors of nature dominate the color palate for this house and always will......

Under the tree is making me smile more and more every time I see it.....the pinecones remind me of Will...he and I picked some up when I spent the week at their house and he brought me another bag full at Thanksgiving that I paid him for...

I needed something to put them in so I gathered some pottery pieces and filled them..using a piece of flannel as a tree skirt...

As you can see, not a Christmas present to be seen....LOL  maybe I should work on that next...

this is a pottery piece custom made by Julie Geer , owner of Subterranean Jewlery ..go to her facebook page and see what she does..beautiful and creative....

A view from our dining room....real life going on in there..no special props....taken from between the roses hanging from our chandelier...wedding flowers from my son's wedding....

and last but not least, these caramels are so delicious...just in case you don't know about them, I wanted to let you in on a well kept secret...found at Trader Joe's ..... only at Christmas....and they DO run out!   

you will thank me when you taste them.....

thank you for stopping by today......

I am glad you came and please come again....

Mona

A little bit of Christmas

These are my new Christmas dishes that I found a few weeks ago at the thrift store..I am excited to finally get to use them...There are 12 dinner plates and 12 salad plates and they were so inexpensive....not a chip on any of them....

This was a good find since I have been looking for Christmas dishes for years..ones that I could use a lot with different table settings and were kinda simple...so these fit that description..

I have spent a lot of time getting up and down from this stool...the trees are up and decorated..and with a few finishing touches they will be finished....then I will take some pictures and share with you all...I did a really simple and beautiful mantle arrangement that I am so happy about..I like to decorate with meaning.....just a little teaser for a future blog....

thank you for stopping by today...

I hope to see you again soon..

Mona

Slowly but Surely....

bye bye until next year...I surely loved having you here this year...

I am finally putting a real dent in undecorating my house for Christmas...maybe I should call this my winter cleaning......Yesterday I got the family room tree down and boxed up....where did all these decorations come from??  LOL  It seems like I have been extremely busy since about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving and  it has been a whirlwind of activity since then....WHEW!!!!!!

I had a commitment for the morning yesterday and then......NOTHING    for the rest of the week...time to tackle this house!!!  and get it back in pre holiday order!!  hahaha 

chaos before order

I love to rearrange and redecorate...it feels like I am playing house....absolutely LOVE it...it is my passion.....

so for yesterday, I made vegetable soup and cornbread, played music all day , and moved and dusted, and rearranged..to my hearts content.....but this is no doll house..it is the real thing.....and the furniture tends to be a little heavier than doll furniture..LOL  and it takes a little more strength..so......I plan it in my mind a lot more than I used to....and then do it....

 for now....I have a new end table by my end of the sofa...raised to the perfect height by placing it on books....big thick books..I have so many books and this looks cool...I also have so many little tables and none of them seem to be the right height for where I want them... and I  have a new thrift store find..a club chair..in the back of my SUV just waiting for the right place in the living room....as soon as the rest of the Christmas tubs go to the barn..

my eclectic decorating

I am heading back into it today and tomorrow..my goal is to have it all like I want it by Friday afternoon...even straightening the sewing room so I can sew next week.....and trying to focus on eating out of the pantry and freezer a lot in the next few weeks...yes, it is a yearly thing I do....to prepare for the spring and new growth everywhere..and I KNOW I will want to be outside all of the time....so right now, I am getting my house in order..cleaning out the holiday stuff and replacing it with living stuff...so I will have time to sew, sew, sew before spring arrives...because it can't be long now...only a few weeks away......yes, yes, yes.......

Learning to take advantage of the season we are in comes with maturity....maybe I will really do that this season....it is winter and I am glad......there are benefits and I intend to find them.....a good book, a cozy chair, a cashmere throw , and a fire in the woodstove.......yes, a sure benefit....and my sewing machine and new fabric, even faux fur to make a vest or two..and no guilt because there are no weeds that need pulling right now...it is too cold to do any yardwork..or play....

after Christmas family room

Thank you for stopping by today..if you are in the neighborhood, stop by and we'll share a cup of coffee..in front of this fire.....

I appreciate all of you..thank you for wanting to know about my life..and all of the encouragement you give me to be myself.......until next time.....

                                           Mona