A modest Christmas

I've shown you pictures of our mantle and table decorated for Christmas--and that's almost all the decorating we've decided to do this year.  This is our first Christmas with a house, and I don't see a need to buy all of our Christmas decorations all at once.  I made an early decision that we wouldn't buy a tree this year.

But doesn't this ladder-as-Christmas tree from the cb2 catalog seem just perfect for our current lives?

I decided that I would buy a nice big wreath for our front door, and maybe 5 smaller ones for our front windows.  I've always loved the look of a house with white siding, black or green shutters, and lighted wreaths hanging in each window.  (Even before we bought a house with that color scheme!)

And then I discovered that I'm a total wreath snob.  And a cheap-skate.  Bad combination.  I blame my upbringing.  My parents' yard is several acres, full of plants that make for perfect Christmas decorations--boxwood, holly, magnolia, hemlock, nandina....  I'm used to producing wreaths that would cost at least $50 if bought in a store for just the cost of a wreath form and some ribbon.  Which means I'm stuck now that I'm far from my parents, and the stores are full of expensive wreaths that just look terribly fake to my eyes.  (I know it's only going to be seen from 30 feet away on the street, and that will make--almost--all the difference, but still....)

So wreath shopping was a bust, but I still wanted to do something to announce our Christmas spirit to the neighborhood.  So I grabbed my large spool of ribbon, and less than $2 later:

I think the boxwood and it's bow look better with a coating of snow and from this unexpected angle, don't you?

I got the boxwood from P's brother's place last month.  They're a little small to make an impression now, but hopefully they'll be more striking next Christmas.  I'm planning on having them around for the long haul! 

That's why I didn't plant them in the large fiberglass pots I normally have by our front stairs--I didn't want to dig up the boxwood next spring when it's time for colorful annuals.  So I picked up a pair of galvanized metal pails from our local hardware store and drilled a few holes in the bottom for drainage.  Then I worried about rust around the holes, and called P for advice.  He sensibly pointed out that I had a half a can of spray paint that promised to prevent rust for exterior applications--and that it happened to be silver, at that!  I put a thick coat on the bottom.

We'll see how long the pails last before they rust too noticeably--this is definitely an experiment!

Snow day!

We got about two inches of snow last night.  I know most of you are laughing at us for finding this remarkable--so are we.  This is our first winter here, and we hail from parts much farther north.  Still, two inches is about as much snow as this place ever sees--so I figured I should immortalize it.

Since 1. no one knows what to do with snow, 2. the town seems to have only one snowplow, and only about one salt shaker's worth of salt, and 3. the whole town is built into the side of a hill, making for steep roads and difficult traction; all the schools are cancelled, and both of our workplaces are closed today.  Snow day!

By 10 this morning, we could have gotten out without much trouble--but we live on a road with half the town's schools, so we're a plowing priority.  I can see that the side streets just neighboring us haven't been touched yet.  We'll see if school's back on tomorrow or not.

We're enjoying the time to work on our Christmas to-do lists--homemade gifts, wrapping, etc.

I hope you're enjoying your Monday as much as we are!

Just because

I've been looking at house inspiration pictures for months, thinking, "What a lovely exotic fern!  Where would I get a fern that lovely?  All I can find are the 'normal' looking ferns."

Turns out the answer was right under my nose.  There's a florist/greenhouse just a few blocks from our house, but I never went in there until a few weeks ago.  That's where all the different varieties of ferns had been hiding!  And all of the really nice, healthy poinsettias.

I dragged P in on black Friday to buy a poinsettia for my cubicle, and forced him to ooh and aah over the ferns with me.  So a week and a half later, he went back and picked on up for me.  Just because.

Isn't he the sweetest?

It's a moss fern.  Isn't it lovely?

I replanted it in an extra IKEA planter basket I had on hand--texture on texture!

Christmas mantle

P spent the weekend down in the crawl space.  I know he wants to tell you about everything he's been doing down there--he has been taking lots of pictures, and has promised a guest post.

Before he disappeared, he was kind enough to drive lots of thumbtacks into the underside of our mantle, so I could create this:

The silver bead garland, string of twinkle lights, and poinsettia (of course) were the only new purchases--everything else I had on hand.  The twinkle lights were Martha Stewart for Home Depot, warm white LEDs.  They were rather more expensive than the other brand of LEDs available, but I'm very happy with them.  Some LED Christmas lights cast a very blue light--these blend in much better with the color of light given off by the tea lights.

The "votive holders" are actually drinking glasses, and not technically "Christmas" items--they just look that way when lined up together.  (The green ones were a wedding gift; the red ones were my grandmother's.  She used to line them up on a shelf in front of a window, because she liked the way the light shone through them.)

I've had the mini tree and it's ornaments so long that I can't remember when my mom mailed them to me.  College dorm?  First grad school apartment?  The presents are actual gifts--someone requested some very conveniently sized presents this year.  :-)  Hopefully she doesn't mind me using them first!

Deck the table

Teaching my sister-in-law to quilt a table runner last month inspired me to make a Christmas runner of my own.  I finally finished binding it this week, so P would be greeted by a nice holiday table when he got back from his business trip yesterday.

The bowl in the middle contains a batch of popcorn balls my grandmother just mailed us.  They're fantastic!  My grandmother usually makes them as a Halloween treat, but they're totally working for me as a Christmas mood-setter this year.  I guess they make me think of family, and excited about getting to see them in a few weeks.

The runner is reversible for a more subdued look.  I'm pretty pleased with the quilting pattern I used:

I'll be working on more holiday decorating this weekend, so there should be more pictures next week!

Hope you're enjoying your December!