Coconut Flakes, Turkey Feathers and Pink Window Panes

I had so much fun decking my Christmas mantle this year. It was fun to play around with different things I had around the house to make it all come together.

I'm sure you can deduce that coconut flakes mentioned in the title is what I used for the fake snow sprinkles. The letter N came from my picture gallery in the master bedroom and the other "letters" I just gathered from around my house.

Here is my pink window pane. Which started out as white. Then I painted red. Then I painted gold. Then I distressed it. Pink is what became of it.

I was trying to make it like this from PB...
You can't see them in the pictures, but their are strings of twine in between each pane that I nailed in to clip card on. These are just some of my favorite vintage-y ones I've received or collected over the years.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care. The garland came from the cypress trees in my backyard. I made some for the windows too in the living room. They were a cinch to make, but a week later they are crumbling under the slightest touch!

Some bottles I recently numbered from 1-6 with glass paint. The 2 and the 5 were perfect to use as we prepare for the 25th of December. Can you spot my turkey feather in the vase? The other day I looked out my back window to find 5 or 6 wild turkeys in my backyard! I was so excited to find proof of their visit!

Those giant stars are gigantic versions of what my Aunt Ramona taught me how to make while she visited a few weeks ago. I have 7 dangling above my head as I type away in the living room right now. I thought I was making snowflakes, but everyone that sees them talks about how they love my stars. So stars they are.

Maybe one day we'll have our fireplace wired up for gas logs (the chimney is capped off so it can't be wood burning) but in the mean time we can simulate a roasting hot fire with a bunch of tapered candles.

Merry Christmas! I'll be linking up to The Lettered Cottage "Merry Mantle Party" today so if you need any ideas, these girls are the ones to check out!

Updated Picture Tour

It's been a while. We're busy with two babies and a house renovation. I'm sure you can understand. :) I forget what you've seen and what you haven't so let me just pull some pics out to show you what's been going on.
The new paint color, "vintage yellow" by Glidden, that will go in the pink guest room upstairs.

The "Filtered Shade" gray color by Valspar that will go in the kids room upstairs.

Proud of my priming skills upstairs now that both rooms are done. Just primed...not painted.

The fireplace cleaned and ready to be sealed. Remember, the stove is going to hide that patch of new brick. I know, it still looks dirty, but that is the best it's going to get. We call it "rustic." :)

Updated staircase with the wall gone and new pine stair treads. We're trying to come up with a cool idea for a custom banister now...staircase post to come...

Vaulted ceiling in dining room with sheetrock and brand new windows that Adam replaced!

Old doorway leading from former living room to former dining room. Now that it's a master bedroom, we needed to wall it up.

House on an early Saturday morning waiting for work to be done.

Through those beams is my new laundry room that Adam and his dad framed up. Doorway entrance is from the hall. We're looking at it from the dining room.

And the sheetrock work that still needs to be done in the sitting room over the boards and on both sides of the doors.

Ta-Da!

My two year old, Greta, is really into exclaiming, "ta-da" at random moments and most times used inappropriately. She did however understand the concept the other day when her little naked self came running out of the bathroom after going potty on the big girls toilet yelling, "TA-DA!". Adam and I had one of those ta-da moments the other day. And it had nothing to do with using a big girls potty. :)


This is the new living room with the wall to the right housing a walled up double-sided hearth. Our homework assignment from our contractor was to get in there, rip down the sheetrock and expose the fireplace and chimney so he could advise us on how best to take it out.

We got to work ripping off the sheetrock right away and as expected found the lapboard underneath. We pryed off every piece as gingerly as possible so that we might be able to reuse it for possible flooring in the hallway and dining room. You can see the fireplace hearth boarded up down at the bottom of the pic. Well, little did we expect, once we took off the boards what exactly the fireplace and chimney would look like...

TA-DA!!!

Okay, seriously, how awesome is this? We were giddy when we discovered just how cool it looked and the thought of taking it out went completely out the window. Right away we started dreaming up new kitchen designs and furniture placement in the living room. I think it can work. We just have to pray that our contractor can figure out an inexpensive way for us to reinforce it from underneath.

This is the view from the front door with the fireplace to the left. Has some wow-factor to it huh?

This is the other side of the wall pre-demo in the to-be kitchen.

I was on the other side of the wall hammering on the lapboards so Adam could pry them off easier.

This is the side from the kitchen with the hearth filled in. I love how the chimney narrows at the top because it still gives us the roomy open air feel that we were trying to achieve. High ceilings are nothing to complain about either. Kitchen design is coming along slowly but surely, but let me tell you, that is hard work! I lose sleep every night trying to come up with a perfect work triangle design and still give me all the cabinet space I need including the plate rack and pantry that I want. I've tried Google Sketch-up to try to visualize it on the computer, but it took more mental energy to figure it out and I ended up using a pencil and paper. If anyone knows of a good kitchen design resource to use, do tell!