Holiday Housewalk 2023

Hello friends! Welcome to our holiday home tour!! This has always been a favorite day for me to welcome you all into our home. Thanks to Jen for hosting once again. If you're coming directly from Jen's beautiful home, welcome! If you want to go back to start at the beginning of the your you can do that clicking the link below. And please be sure to click the link at the end of the post to continue on the tour.

Being a part of the housewalk has become a bit of a nostalgic part of Christmas for me. It is always such a joy to return to my blogging roots, it's pretty incredible just how many opportunities grew from my little corner of the internet. Thank you for returning year after year to see what we are up to.

Starting in our kitchen, I went with a deep red and green color scheme this year. I've taken a break from the whimsical decor of years past for now. I'm sure once grandchildren enter my life I will bring all that out again but for now this feels right for our family of adult children. Our youngest graduated from high school and turned 18 this year so we have officially entered a new chapter of life. 

Many of the items I use for Christmas have been collected over many years but I always freshen it up a little each year. The vintage sled over the island just had to make a return appearance although I did briefly consider leaving the pot rack that usually hangs here for the season. I found this sled at a vintage shop but you can find a similar one here. I did keep out some of our copper pieces.  I like their classic feel and shine and if you add some greenery and a velvet ribbon, they are easy Christmas decor!

The tree in our kitchen this year is from King of Christmas and is their 7.5' Alpine Fir. I have it tucked into a large basket from Mainly Baskets. I find that I really enjoy the streamlined look of a tree in a basket. We use a spackle bucket of cement with a PVC pipe added and I find that the tree is very sturdy that way.

I re-used a garland (actually 2 garlands layered together) from Hobby Lobby and added some picks and balls that coordinate with the tree. Our kitchen tree is in a basket this year as well. My kitchen ornaments have been collected through the years some from Sur La Table and some from Old World Christmas. The sink skirt is sewn from a tablecloth purchased at HomeGoods.

I love collecting cookbooks and often display them on my counter. This one  by Roxy Kelly is a favorite of mine throughout the seasons.

Over in our dining room, I kept the color palette warm this year. Because I decorate early, I feel like this allows for an easy transition from fall to holiday decor.

The vintage paint-by-numbers over the mantel was a recent Etsy find. I love how it depicts that serendipitous time when seasons collide as it is a fall scene in New England with a snowfall. Since I take most of my decorating cues from Mother Nature, this felt like a perfect piece to add to our collection.

The curtains are made with fabric from JSH Home Essentials. The tablecloth is made by Natural Habitat. 

Next let's head into our family room, which is just off our small front entryway.

Our big Balsam Hill European Fir takes up a lot of this room but I love it. I added even more lights to this tree this year and it seems to glow in this space. I like to keep a Classic Christmas feel in our family room with the stone fireplace. This room is the most reminiscent of how my mom decorated my childhood home for Christmas each year. In fact, the painting over the fireplace is a recent gift from my mom. It was hanging on the wall in her bedroom and when I commented how much I loved it, she insisted I take it home. There's truly nothing like a mother's love and the older I get, the more I appreciate it. So now not only do I have a winter painting I love, I think of her each and every time I see it.

The Santa boot stockings on the fireplace are from VHC Brands and the navy and red plaid ribbon is new this year from Michaels.

We also have a mudroom off this room that I enjoy adding some holiday decor too as well.

Finally, let's head upstairs to take a peek at our primary bedroom and bathroom. I always enjoy having this space decorated for the holidays.

Thanks so much for stopping by our holiday home today! Please feel free to ask for sources of anything in the comments and I will do my best to get you more info. I will also be sharing a tour of our Christmas cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY this week so be sure to follow along through email or on Instagram.

  

From our family to yours, we wish you and yours a joyous holiday season!! 

Next up on the tour is Ann from On Sutton Place. Ann's home has been a favorite of mine for many years, be sure to visit her as well as the rest of the tour.

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A New Festive Fir for our Family Room

*I partnered with Balsam Hill for this post but, as always, all opinions are my own.

Today marks the official start of the most wonderful time of the year here on my blog! I am excited to begin sharing the Christmas decor that I have been hard at work on for this year. And today we are beginning with a wonderful new addition to our Christmas decor this year - our very first Christmas tree from Balsam Hill. Be sure to read through to the end of the post to enter Balsam's Hill Twelve Days of Giveaways and also to find a coupon code just for my readers!

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Flea Market Decor Magazine and Christmas Planning

Hello friends! I've been fully immersed in decorating my home for Christmas for a couple of weeks now and I can't wait to begin sharing it! A highlight for me this past week was when Flea Market Decor magazine came out in print. It's available on newsstands and digitally now! Our Christmas home from last year is one of the homes featured inside.

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Christmastime Fun in Snowy Vermont

I always wanted to visit Vermont during the holiday season and this year we finally made it happen. We've made a couple of trips to the Vermont Country Store, which although a major tourist destination, still manages to maintain its old time charm. But never at Christmas. We took a beautiful drive from our family's cabin in Upstate NY over the nearby Vermont border and the snowy trees were gorgeous. It was snowing on and off during our drive and felt like being in a real life snow globe.

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Holiday Housewalk 2018

Hello and welcome to this year's Holiday Housewalk hosted once again by the talented Jennifer Rizzo. For me, Christmas is all about traditions and I love that this housewalk has become a part of my holiday blogging tradition. For as long as I have been reading blogs, Jennifer Rizzo has been hosting this amazing line-up of Christmas homes. I am honored to be included once again. You can start this year's tour by clicking on the button below. The tour continues all week so be sure you visit ALL of the homes for tons of holiday inspiration.

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Happy New Year & Our Cabin Christmas

Hello and Happy 2017! It's been too long. Last I blogged was my Christmas Home Tour. How are you? Life around here has been keeping me busy, but I am certainly not complaining about that.

We spent Christmas in the Adirondacks for the very first time ever. Billy has been scheduled to work either Christmas Eve or day for the last 20 years. When we realized that he was off for both this year AND the cabin was available for us to use, we made a plan to spend the holiday there. Which led to a very busy December because we wanted to celebrate Christmas with our families before we went away. And then there was the general business of packing all of our Christmas gifts, food (along with all of the necessary pots and pans necessary to cook a holiday dinner) and winter gear. I asked myself on more than one occasion if it was really worth it to travel for the holiday. But when we arrived to a winter wonderland, we knew we made the right choice.

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A Book Lover's Christmas Tree

First and foremost, thank you all so much for all the love on our Holiday Home Tour.  I took so very many pictures, many more than could fit in that one post, so I will be sharing a bit more in the coming days.  In our home tour last week, I referred to the flocked tree in our living room as a "tree of my own". Christmas has always been about our kids, as I think it should be.  But, this year, in addition to the tree in the family room with all of our collected ornaments, I decorated the tree in our living room with some of my favorite things.  I try not to follow too many trends in home decor.  Rather, I like think about things to add to our home that reflect who we are.  So, with that in mind, I thought about one of my favorite things, books.

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Holiday House Walk 2015

Welcome!  I am so excited to be included in Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday House Walk this year!!  Since even before I started my own blog, Jen's House Walk has been my absolute favorite week of the year as a blog reader.  Yours, too?  I am thrilled to have found others who are as crazy passionate about holiday decor as I am.  I love getting to peek inside so many amazing homes, especially when they are all decked out for the holidays.  Speaking of amazing homes, if you're following the tour, you just arrived from Stop 28, My Sweet Savannah's beautiful home, always a favorite of mine.

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Easy Plaid Ornaments & Our Family Room Christmas Tree

It's the most wonderful week of the blogging year!  Jennifer Rizzo's Holiday House Walk is always amazing and it starts today!!  I have been busy decorating our home for the last couple of weeks and I can't wait to share our Holiday Tour on Friday.  Today, I am sharing how I made some plaid ornaments for our family room tree and you just may get a few glimpses of our mantel too!

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On My Mind This Holiday Season

Hello friends!  I thought I would start the week by taking a break from our Christmas home tour and take a minute to post a bit about the goings on around here.  I feel like I have been immersed in a whirlwind of decorating, picture taking and writing blog posts.  I don't enjoy getting caught up in the perfection of it all.  I have always enjoyed holiday decorating and love being able to share it, but it starts to feel a bit superficial.  And not at all what Christmas is really about.  The other evening, while I was photographing our living room tree at night, my youngest boy was practicing playing his saxophone in the room.  I was struggling to get that "perfect" glowing tree shot.  He kept standing in front of the trees, so I took one quick shot and got this.  I love it.  Sometimes, I put so much planning into getting the perfect picture.  But usually the best shots just seem to happen, don't they?  I need to remember that.

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Our Christmas Family Room

Welcome to our rustic Christmas family room!

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Our Rustic Christmas Entryway

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  We are spending the weekend finishing up our Christmas decorating and *maybe* I will find some time to do some online shopping.  But, I am most excited to start sharing the Christmas decor that we already have up.  Welcome to our Christmas entryway!   This is the first place our guests see when the they enter our home so I thought it should be the first of our Christmas decor to share.  Come on in!

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Christmas Cookie Cutter Wreath

  Today I am sharing my very first Christmas project of 2014.  I won't be completely decking our halls for a couple of more weeks, but I have been having fun with a few projects that I will share early in case you might want to make one for yourself!

***Update: E6000 glue (available at craft stores in the glue section) is probably a better choice to glue the cookie cutters together, rather than hot glue. The E6000 will hold better over time.***

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Our Newly Planked Gallery Wall

I am so excited about how our new planked wall has turned out in our family room!  Every once in a while, I get an idea of what I hope something will look like in my head, and then cross my fingers that it turns out well.  It doesn't always end up as well as I plan.  Does that happen to you too?  But this was one of those projects that turned out better than I pictured.  

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Holiday Home Tour 2013

 Welcome to our Holiday Home Tour!!  I'm so glad you stopped by.  I know you are here for the pictures so I am just going to get to it.  If you'd like to know more about a specific room (or just see more pics of that room),  I will add a link to each room's holiday post.  

Lets's start in our Family Room, the first room you see when you enter our home and our most traditional family space...

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Christmas Master Bedroom

Since we remodeled our master bedroom this Fall, we have been spending lots more time up there so I decided to add a few Christmas touches there, too.

A fresh wreath and some greenery make the room smell great...

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Our Christmas Dining and Living Rooms

There are no formal spaces in our home anymore...now that we've knocked down every wall we possibly could.  Yesterday, I shared pictures of our kitchen.  Today, I will share what the rest of this level of our house looks like.  This level of our house is lighter and brighter than our lower level family room.

First,  I will begin with our dining area.  We had some family over for dinner this week and I enjoyed setting the table for that.  It was relaxed and casual.  I think I enjoy small gatherings even more than the actual holiday where there is so much more pressure to get everything done...

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Our Christmas Kitchen 2013

Welcome to our kitchen all decorated for Christmas.  This is where all the cookie baking, gingerbread house building and general holiday preparation happens….

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