Holiday Feathering

In case you didn't know anything about me, I'll inform you by saying that I like to decorate and feather my nest, particularly for holidays.  Handmade, natural items usually play a key role, like pumpkins for fall and pine cones for winter. 

I don't go overboard, much to the relief of my husband, but I do enjoy celebrating the seasons with decorations.  I think my kids like it; I definitely have fond memories of helping my mom make the house special for Christmas.  I also love to peek at other people's decor, like at night when we're out for a walk or just by reading blog posts that share photos of holiday decorating.  Hence, I'm sharing a bit here for those oddballs like me.

Like many of you, I pulled out the Christmas decorations this weekend (I'd prefer to wait until December, but it's just so much easier when your husband has a long weekend and there's more free time to do it).

I wanted to do something with this old sled that my brothers and I used as children (and I think my uncles and aunts too). 

It's been sitting in our basement for a few years, waiting to be painted.  My mom kindly let me "decorate" it as a pre-teen, when I painted "Merry Christmas" in bubble letters.  Ugh.  I really wish I had taken a "before" shot.  But what a great mother, allowing me to exercise my creativity by defacing a perfectly nice antique sled like that.  I wish for that sort of tolerance with my own kids.

After a few coats of red paint leftover from our front door, I tied on some scavenged fir branches, a bow made by my mom (she makes the best bows for all the cousins' weddings), some pine cones, fake berries and a laser cut wooden snowflake on clearance at Michaels.  I still left a lot of the rustic charm visible, like the runners and some of the weathered wood.

I think it's my favorite decoration this year.  My mom also made a matching bow for the front door wreath too.

Inside, we decided on just setting up a small tree.  Jude is at that age where he's into things that I hadn't even considered babyproofing, so I didn't want to add more stress to this time of year.

So out came our Charlie Brown tree, which actually doesn't look quite bad perched up on my grandma's old sewing machine table, in front of our photo wall.

It was nice paring things down to my favorite ornaments, rather than feeling the need to fill an entire tree.

Ornaments have the power to bring back memories, and the salt dough and clay ones made over the past few years bring back some good ones of the boys.

These wooden ornaments from Poland remind me of my late grandparents, who were both from there.

The straw snowflakes evoke those from Scandinavia, which is some place I've always wanted to visit at Christmastime. I swear, in a past life I was from that area; it just seems so much like "home" to me.

Here are some other corners of home.

So there you have it, colorful and eager to be enjoyed over the next few weeks.  Have you put up your decorations yet?  If you blogged about it, leave me the link in the comments and I'll come peek through your virtual windows.