Merry! Merry!

Happy Christmas, Sweet Friends!

Hugs,

Cozy Movie Time

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is snuggle in and watch Christmas movies. I change into my jammies, put the kettle on, choose a film to watch, and cozy in! I like a wide variety of Christmas films, everything from "White Christmas" to "Elf".

This sweet little angel sits near the DVDs. I received her in a Christmas craft swap many, many years ago. She's probably the only item from that swap (including the item I made) that have. I still love her.

If this isn't a "reality shot", I don't know what one is. I pile the blankets on my sofa when I cozy in. The pillows get moved around. In fact, that "love" pillow needs to move so Haggie can snuggle in on his side of the sofa. Yes, that spoiled boy has his own side of the sofa. Life is good!

Hugs,

Sweet & Sparklie Christmas Kitchen

Well, here it is... the end of my Christmas Home Tour! I saved the kitchen for last and I hope you have fun visiting. My kitchen has a "Christmas Sweets" theme going on here. It all started with the chandy a couple of years ago. I didn't have a tree to display my cake/cupcake ornaments near the kitchen, so I hung them on the little chandy above the sink! I love them up there. As my collection grew, I ran out of space on the chandy, so I "borrowed" the idea hanging them in the window from the fabulous Elyse. I wrapped a tension rod with ribbon and hung my ornies on pink polka dot ribbon with clips. It was the perfect solution, and I love the added sparkle in my kitchen!

The aqua and pink pastry/ice cream decorations fit naturally into the color scheme of my kitchen. I even found some candy canes in pastel colors. The gingerbread man sink sponge came from HomeGoods. I think he adds to the whimsy going on in here.

I have this spice rack of sprinkles and the straw canister out all year. I just change the colors and sprinkles out to match the current season. I served milk with paper straws last weekend when I baked a chocolate cake and my family loved them. It was nostalgic for the adults, and fun and new for the younger family members!

I love sprinkles... and have a pretty extensive, obsessive collection. I don't display them all at once. I would really love to have the space to do that like Saucy. Her sprinkle shelves are something that legends are made of. Seriously.

If you turn around from the sink in my tiny kitchen, this is what you see. I don't decorate for Christmas much over here except for the towels and vintage apron hanging on the oven door.

I love this new addition to my Christmas towels. It was one of the amazing gifts I received for my birthday from my dear friend Lisa. (I'm saving the rest of the gift for another post and I can't wait to share it with you!) I love the stitching on this adorable towel. It had me at the rickrack and pom pom trim! I grew up calling pom pom trim "dingle berries"... do any of you call them that? Just curious.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my little Christmas kitchen. My kitchen is small, but it's perfect for me... especially when decorated with sparklie sweets!

Hugs,

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas... WHERE?

Okay, you know that when it comes to decorating my home for Christmas I do try to keep it tasteful-- but there is just one room that I allow myself to let loose... The Bathroom. Okay, that was a really bad play on words. Really bad. What I'm really trying to say is that I let loose and decorate the guest bathroom for Christmas with things that are, well, a little more on the silly side. I'm talking about licensed products. You know, those funky fun little plastic decorations reminiscent of the Christmas specials on TV that we grew up loving. Yeah, I love them.
The decorations in the photo above are reminiscent of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and The Muppets. I've always loved that sad little tree in the Charlie Brown special. That may have been the very first movie ever that I teared up watching. I especially loved how Linus' blanket was placed around the tree as a tree skirt. So sweet.
The little guy below the tree is Beaker, from The Muppets. I really have no idea what is "Christmas" about him, but I couldn't resist how his little mouth moves when he sings "Ode to Joy". When I have company visiting and they are in the bathroom, I can usually hear Beaker singing behind the door. It's hilarious!

This little retro silver tree is covered with ornaments depicting scenes from the movies "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "The Christmas Story". All the ornaments have a button you can push for dialog or music from the movies. Although my siblings and I grew up watching "Charlie Brown","The Grinch", and all the claymation films at Christmas, we added these two movies to our family tradition as soon as they came along. It's just not Christmas in our family until Cousin Eddy drives up in his Aarrr...Veee. As always, my brothers will continue to quote the movies throughout the duration of the holiday. Yay.

Okay, so this is not a licensed decoration, but when you have a beachy bathroom, there must be a Santa mermaid... so here she is. This little vignette is just above the toilet and isn't it lovely? The aqua glass ornaments are from Anthropology. Hey- I needed just a wee bit of style in here, right?

What? What did you ask? Ohhhh... that bottle on the right is this. (And yes, it really works!)
Hugs,

Welcome To My Little Christmas Nest...

Okay, so it's no secret now that I love to decorate for Christmas. Did you know that I like to decorate outside as well?

No, I do not do outdoor lights like The Griswold's, but I do have a flamingo. It's pretty special. It has a hat. It's head moves. It's cord is carefully covered with strategically placed leaves. It's strongly secured to the ground with a cinder block. Yeah, I'm classy that way. Haggie seems quite smitten by her, doesn't he?

Every Christmas I hang my outdoor lighted garlands. They're battery timed, so I put them up there and they do the rest, like clockwork. Easy peasy. The wreath on the courtyard gate is the same. For the window and door, I purchase a fresh cut wreath from Costco. They're such a good deal, it's a no brainer. Although I have an artificial tree, I love the smell of fresh cut pine-- so this is how I get my fix!

Okay, this is my favorite Christmas decorating tip: visit your local Christmas tree lot and ask them if they have any branches they want to get rid of. Some people like to trim the bottom branches off their tree before they leave the lot. The guy at the tree lot I went to keeps a "free, help yourself" pile. I get free greens, and he doesn't have to cart them to the dump. It's a win-win. I like to snuggle the pine greens into my existing planters.

Even the fairy garden gets a little fluffed up with pine.

The front door to my little nest. Welcome! Please come in...

This is just inside the entry of my house, hence the picnic basket full of shoes. I love this old vintage dresser. It has lots of storage, and what little nest doesn't need more of that? I use to store my shoes in there when I came in the door, so they wouldn't be piled all over. However, I eventually found that I wanted to use the prime real estate in those drawers for other things.

A few of my favorite little things... I've always loved pine greens with red roses. Can you imagine how great this would smell if they were real?!

I love The Polar Express, and so I went nuts when I saw this Polar Express bell. It's an ornament, but I like to place it near the book. I love the story, and the graphics of the book and animation. One year I went to the 3-D version of the film at the Imax Theater downtown with friends. I loved the snowflakes...

I have this little Christmas pennant hanging on my lamp. My fabulous friend Debra made it, and I love it!

Okay, I know that you've seen this room(s) before, but I just need you to note the size of this room. Okay, now picture it with twelve people, a baby, and a large dog. That is what this room was like the other night when I had my family over. My family is much larger than twelve people, but not everyone lives near. Last night was the first time I've ever had my family over for a holiday celebration. I've always lived in tiny apartments, so it was impossible. It was really fun and special to have them over to my place during a holiday season... finally. I baked a bundt. (Isn't that just so retro/vintage? Hee hee! It was chocolate and I served it with toppings!)

Haggie loved that everyone came over just to see him. He was able to show off his new Christmas light bulb squeaky toy, and let my niece's adorable six month old baby boy sit on his back like a baby monkey on a pig's back. (We changed the words to the song... "baby Brennan, baby Brennan, riding on Haggie's back... Baby Brennan!) Ah, good times had by all at The Little Nest!

Hugs,

Christmas Tea For Two

Happy Holidays, Sweet Friends!

The other day my friend Lisa and I went over to the beautiful city of San Francisco to take in the Christmas magic. Well, we were not disappointed! S.F. is such a beautiful city, and at Christmas it's even more magical. The homes display sparklie Christmas trees in their front windows, cable cars are dressed for the season with garlands and bows (and hosting partying passengers dressed like elves and Santa singing Christmas carols!), and the shops are adorned with beautiful displays.

Lisa and I have wanted to visit The Crown and Crumpet for Christmas Tea for a while now, so we made our way over to Ghirardelli Square for a lovely afternoon tea. The C&C didn't disappoint. It was decked out in all it's sparklie, whimsical glory!

Unfortunately, I'm having difficulty loading photos from the fun day onto my computer... but fortunately, I can link you over to Lisa's Blog to view her amazing photos and let her tell you about our wonderful day! Click on over to HERE, my friends!

Hugs,

PS: I purchased the ornament above at The Crown and Crumpet to remember the special day. My photo loading issues must be related to the memory card. This photo was taken with a new memory card and loaded just fine. Ah, technology...

A Cozy Christmas Cottage

Okay, so my home is not a "real cottage", but it's little, and it's cozy. I find that if I refer to it as a cottage it makes me feel like this 1044 sq. ft. home is small-but-charming, not just... well, small. (Did that even begin to sound like it makes sense?!)
Today I'm joining Claudia over at Mockingbird Hill Cottage for "Defending The Small House, No. 5: Christmas Decorating in a Small House". Please click on over to her blog to check out her beautiful cottage and some fun links to more!

First of all, I've got to tell you... these are not very good photos. These were my "practice photos". I'm having trouble loading the final photos that I shot today. I've taken multiple photos all over the house, at several different times of the day because I've got such strange lighting and angles to contend with here.

Above is my dining room, which shares a double-sided (hello, 1988) fireplace with the living room. My house is kind of funny... if you were to stand at that window in the back of the photo and look toward the fireplace, you would be able to see the living room, dining room, kitchen, entry, and hallway... all at the same time. Oh, and if the door is open in the hallway, you could see into the guest room also!

I've made some changes since the time I took these photos. The chairs around the table now have pine boughs tied to them with red ribbon. Oh, how I wish I could load those photos!

I really haven't purchased any new decorations this year except that little jar of flowers on the left, and the fresh cut pine garlands and wreaths. The house smells soooo good! Don't you love the smell of fresh cut pine?! Oh-- and I know... the table runner and topper need to be pressed. Meh...I don't feel like it, and I have other things I'd rather do. And I have too much stuff piled on my ironing board anyway.

This little snow scene jar is one of my favorite little decorations! I've had it for years, and it's been displayed in my 680 sq.ft. apartment, the duplex, and now my little home. I have a little thing for snow scenes with little white churches or cottages in them. This sweet scene was created by the amazing Ruth at The Homestead, in Old Town Elk Grove. She hand created the little glittery white paper church, and embellished the vintage jar with vintage findings. I actually purchased this from her long before she even had her own store. Ruth is one of the most creative people I know. Her store is so darling--and so is she and her husband (of over 50 years!)Bob. Cute cute cute!

This is my fireplace mantle. The silver and red mercury glass is back this year. The silver never really left. I just add red pieces for Christmas/Valentine's, and aqua for Spring/Summer. This year I added the pine garland. I think it would be really pretty with some snow on it, don't you? Maybe next year...

This is a view from the living room side of the fireplace. I absolutely love this bunting and table runner (on coffee table) made from vintage Christmas tablecloths by the fabulous Amy from Into Vintage. Don't you just love the candy stripe binding?!

This photo was taken from my favorite cozy spot on the sofa. The chair in the corner was discovered at a consignment store and slip covered by moi. The coffee table was purchased at a garage sale. I wanted something that's not fussy... and that I could put my feet on. I'm all about cozy comfort here.

Okay, check out the pillows here... the snowman pillow was purchased in San Diego (actually, on Coronado) years ago when I vacationed with girlfriends one Christmas. Oh, the fun and crazy memories we made there... don't you love things that bring back fun or special memories?

Okay, now check out the red snowflake pillow. It use to have pom pom trim around all of the edges... until I adopted a little fluffy puppy about four years ago. The dog-who-shall-not-be-named nibbled the pom pom trim down to nubs. For some reason, I just can't part with that pillow though, or even repair it. At least I didn't save his baby teeth, eh?

Well, thanks so much for stopping by to visit! I've enjoyed sharing a little bit of the Christmas cheer around here. Hopefully I'll be able to download more photos soon. Yes, there's more... the kitchen, the bathroom (yes, that is what I said), the entry, and the front courtyard. I do love a little bit of merry Christmas around here. Now that I'm pretty much finished decorating, I'm looking forward to having family over this weekend-- and hopefully finishing my Christmas shopping! I hope that you, too, are enjoying this fun and festive season! Merry! Merry!

Hugs,

Giggle

One for him...
One for me...

One for him...

One for me... ((giggle))

Am I the only one that sees the funny in this??

Hugs,