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The last few years I've been really enjoying a more natural, simple approach to my holiday decorations.  I'll always have my white mantel but in other areas I keep it simple and let nature shine a bit.  If nature was a pair of artificial trees from Target.  Haha!  

I have these two trees strung with teeny fairy lights and kept the ornaments simple – little brass bells, some crystal drops and a glittery gold star banner (Edit:  I ended up adding some teeny fairy lights after this was taken).

I'll get to the star garland in just a minute.  Last year I bought fresh greenery for the top of the mirror and one of the chandeliers and in about a week they were crispy.  This year I decided to go faux.  I bought a pine garland from Target and supplemented it with some floral picks from Michael's.  I just picked out an assortment that looked the most real to me and let me tell you the pickings were slim.  I could only find two each of the ones I liked.   I kind of wish I bought two of the garlands and I just might go back and pick up another one for next year.  

I follow Sonja from @ourcraftsmancottage on Instagram and she had a couple of stories where she was sharing her tabletop Noble Fir.  She had created a simple star garland using glittered paper stock and a star punch.  I had left over aged silver glittered paper stock from the Halloween invitations and I picked a muted gold glittered paper and the star punch at Hobby Lobby.  Assembly was super easy.  I just punched out a bajillion stars, lined them up on the counter wrong side up about five inches apart and then put a dot of glue on each star.  I then carefully laid a long strand of that clear thread quilters use across them, catching in the glue (you could use fishing line). 

For the gold star garland I placed another star on top so both sides are glittered.  Those garlands went on the little trees (first photo).  For the garland on the mirror it wasn't necessary to have them be two sided.  

I still need to sort out our entry way table and the top of the piano and then I'll be done with my decorating and I can just sit back and enjoy them.

 

I spent the weekend decking the halls.  Since we got the cats we haven’t done a proper tree.  Hopefully they’ll mellow out at some point and can be trusted not to climb up a tree to get at the shiny ornaments.

Until then I’m content with setting up the mantel and other vignettes in the house.  Today I thought I would share the mantel.

I love warm white and aged glitter together.  I know I do a variation of this same mantel every year but so far I haven’t tired of it.  Heck it is just a variation of my Halloween and Fall decorations with snowmen thrown in.

Last year I really went through all my Christmas decorations and got rid of a bunch I never use and organized the rest.  It made decorating this year much easier.

I love ornaments and decoration with a little scene in them like the Eiffel tower ornament above. Behind it you can glimpse a glass Christmas tree with a sparkly deer and some white trees.

And a cloche with a pretty scene.  I usually only buy one or two new ornaments or decorative items each year and the past few years have been items like the above.  I haven’t found any yet this year but the season is still early.

We also got the lights up on the house this weekend.  Last year Rick put up cup hooks under the eaves and it made this year’s installation a breeze.  We were done in an hour with minimal bloodshed.  The roses are still going strong so we had to avoid thorns as best we could.

I still have a few areas around the house that I’m still setting up.  I tend to bring everything out and then spend a few days moving things until I’m pleased with the look.  I’ll share the other areas later this week.

I have to send my laptop in for servicing so I’ll be without if for a week or so.  I’m hoping to get some posts queued up so there won’t be a break in posting.

Here’s one last peak at the mantel.  And the top of my head (I thought I ducked so my reflection wouldn’t be in the picture but I guess I didn’t duck down far enough).

 

Crouch Family Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope your celebration is crowded elbows, children’s table, just enough room for pumpkin pie and very full bellies and hearts.

I am going to spend the day making stuffing, green bean casserole and buttermilk pies.

See you on Friday!

We always do Thanksgiving at my Dad’s house and I’m in charge of setting/decorating the table.  I like to do a test run at home a few days before.  I tend to go with a natural/neutral theme and this year I’m staying with that but glamming it up a bit with gold and brass.  I love the combination.  I think the white pumpkins keep if from reading too Christmasy.

I wish I had picked up more of those small white pumpkins.  My dad’s table is loooong and I want to stretch out the centerpiece a bit but I can’t find the pumpkins anymore.  I really like how they look with the doilies on top of them.  I did have to cut a hole in the center of each one but I’ll save them for next year.  I just put a little fray check on the cut ends so hopefully they won’t unravel.

Here is last year’s rehearsal (which I didn’t actually do at my Dad’s) and the actual table.

In other news this post is late this morning because my new HP laptop (less than six months old) is giving me fits.  It has developed a really alarming noise.  I spent about an hour with the tech people while they updated things to no avail.  It still runs, although it seems slow to me, but the noise is really distracting and can’t be a good thing.  It can either be attributed to the fan or hard drive.  I have a great back up service so if worse comes to worse and it is the hard drive at least all my files are backed up.  They are going to send me a box to ship it to them for further diagnostics.  Posting may be sporadic over the next couple of weeks.