Monday, December 22, 2014

Christmas House Tour!


Well, we aren't too far from Christmas now...and I think we are finally all ready for the big day!

Normally, we have all of our Christmas decor up the day after thanksgiving, but due to celebrating Thanksgiving late and having to acquire/make all new decorations we are done a bit late this year. But, here is how we decorated as expats, keeping true to our traditions.

Our Tree


Out of focus

Per usual I bought a fake tree. I figure I can leave it in the storage unit for the next tenants if they celebrate Christmas, if not they can leave it for the next people after that-or figure out a way to take it back to the US because it is a really full, really nice fake tree and wasn't horribly expensive.


I started the three with 300 multi-colored lights. I think I will switch back to white lights next year though because it is a little difficult to see the ornaments and just makes the tree appear really busy I feel. But still cute none-the-less.

I bought one set of red bulbs and one set of silver bulbs.

Each pack of ornament had plain, glittery, reflective (as you'll see later a lot of unintentional selfies haha), and the silver even had some with designs on them.

Then filled the tree out with these great paper dolls I found in the latest Flow for Paper Lovers book. Here are a few of my faves:

hula girl
I love this one because it reminds me of our trip to Hawaii back in March.

little red riding hood
This one I love just because I love Little Red Riding Hood.

When I bought the Flow book, the woman at Bruna gave me these adorable little chipboard ornaments to put together as well. They add some nice flair.


For our 2014 Ornament we purchased this adorable little owl because we couldn't pass it up...we still need a keepsake ornament. I am having a hard time deciding between an Amsterdam ornament and Cinderella set to commemorate our trip to the ballet this year. Heck, maybe I will cave and get both! haha



For the tree topper I wanted something fairly ridiculous, but couldn't find anything that really stood out to me at our local store so I made this really easy star topper.

Tinsel Tree Topper

Flair and sparkle, just the way I like it!

Finally, our tree skirt was another simple one. I didn't see one at our local store and all the ones I saw at garden centers were too old fashioned for me, so I bought a vinyl tablecloth and just wrapped it around the base of the tree. Simple yet adorable.

tablecloth
(See, #unintentionalselfie ha!)


Living Room
I've always loved Christmas Villages and saw this idea on Pinterest for a recycled Christmas Village. I had a bunch of boxes and miscellaneous paper lying around so I created this fun little village.






Sort of reminds you of canal houses right?!

To add some extra flair I used some euro wire from Flying Tiger to make these really simple Christmas Trees.



Then, I used a box top from a Sinterklaas gift my daughter got at school to create an ice skating rink:


Just above the village I put some Christmas lights:

I hung some lights above the window and covered the tape up with these easy and adorbale Washi Tape Christmas Trees.






Dining Room
My tablescape is super simple.

My runner is an end of the roll piece of wall paper.

In the center I used this great little candle holder a friend brought us as a hostess gift for Thanksgiving. Then I just put some ornaments inside two wine glasses and inverted them to hold my bigger candles!



I still felt like our living room was lacking so I added this adorable chain made out of Christmas scrapbooking paper I bought from Flying Tiger.





Entry Way
In the entry way I put this fun glass vase full of white branches and threw some red bulbs on them to make it stand out!



I also did this pinterest inspired art on our door to turn it into a snowman!


Teenager's Room




In the kiddo's room we put a small Christmas Tree and decorated it with her Cheer Bows.


She added some lights to her door with Christmas pictures cut out from a magazine.





She of course had to have a scented candle.

Yankee Candle


That is how we are decorating for Christmas, come on over to the Facebook page and share your Christmas/Holiday decorations with us!

4 comments:

  1. Your tree & lights are gorgeous! I love them!!!! Merry Christmas to you & your family!
    ~Becky from Choose Happy :)

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    1. Thank you for stopping by Becky...and for your kind words. :) Christmas is one of my favorite holidays so I love sharing everything about this time of year! Merry Christmas!

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  2. Love it, Kate!! Your blog is always so much fun to read. ♡♡

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  3. oh this is so cute and lovely. I love the wallpaper runner, the snowman door and the white branches in the vase. Simple, frugal ideas. Pinning to our Small Victories Sunday Linkup and my Christmas board to remember for next year! Hope you link up again this week!

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