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It’s A Blue Christmas | Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour – Part 1

November 28, 2018

Happy Holidays and welcome to the 4th Annual Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour. This year I’m joining 6 of my blogging friends to share lots of holiday decor and entertaining inspiration with you. There’s a list of all the participating bloggers at the end of this post.

Before we get this party started, I want to give a shout out to Boho Luxe Home who is sponsoring the holiday home tour again this year. Kellie and Melanie have an amazing company with some of most personality packed home decor items I’ve ever seen. This year, each of the participating bloggers received products from Boho Luxe Home to include in their decor. I know you’re going to love the pieces I picked out and I hope you’ll pop over to their shop to see their full product offering.

If you’re coming over from Positively Southern, welcome. I always love seeing Tamyra’s holiday decor and this year she’s really outdone herself. She has a beautiful home and come Christmas time it’s even more gorgeous.

Every year I start my holiday home tour by sharing the inspiration for my decor. This year the jumping off point for my theme was all of the blue & white accessories I have in my home. I love blue & white and have curated quite the collection ever since I started decorating with it about 5 years ago. The color theme is now the foundation of my decor and I don’t see getting tired of it anytime soon.

I also wanted to add some vibrant color to my holiday mix so I chose green and pink as accents. I’m so happy with how everything looks and can’t wait to share all the details. But before we do that, let’s take a look back at the inspiration boards I created earlier this year. I think I executed the plan pretty well.

THE INSPIRATION

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A Blue & White Christmas

Decorating my Christmas tree is a labor of love and it’s all about the details. I kept things pretty simple this year and decorated with just ornaments and ribbon. The tree 7 1/2′ tall and there are close to 250 ornaments on it. The blue & white ginger jar ornaments are my absolute favorite and set the tone for the tree. I also used different shapes of solid colored ornaments along with crystal and glass ornaments that I’ve had for over 20 years. It was so fun pulling them out of the box and remembering where and when I bought them.

Every year I use two or three different styles of ribbon on my tree. This I combined a gorgeous velvet and a shiny satin. The navy velvet is from Frontgate and the emerald green satin I found at a discount store for just $3.00 a spool. The ribbons billow in and out of the tree adding softness and visual movement. And you can’t tell in these photos but there are twinkle lights on the tree which make it magical at night.

Most of my blue ornaments came from Hobby Lobby and the white ornaments are from Ikea. If you didn’t know that they carry Christmas decor, they do and it’s great.

CHRISTMAS GIFT WRAP

I’ll be sharing my DIY Holiday Wrapping Crate and more gift wrap inspiration later this week, but here’s a sneak peek.

Now let’s move over to the fireplace. We have a mantel sitting in our garage and I had planned to get it installed this year but it just didn’t happen. So without a mantel, I draped my garland around the fireplace using Command Hooks to hold it in place. I wove the satin ribbon throughout garland and added clusters of ornaments throughout. And I made a big bow to highlight the center of the garland.

I shared this holiday decorating tip last year but it’s worth sharing again. Clustering ornaments in groups of three or four is a great way to add impact on a tree or garland.

The only decor I added to the bookshelves flanking the fireplace was to hang a wreath at the center, on each side. And I hung a Boho Luxe Home Christmas stocking above each cabinet. Aren’t these stockings just gorgeous? The bottom fabric is the Neela Blue fabric and the top collar is a navy velvet. The finishing touch is the long handmade tassels that’s wrapped around the hanging loop. These stockings have definitely become some of my most treasured holiday decor!

green wrapping paper // holly leaf from Hobby Lobby

The stocking were hung…

mini Christmas tree from Target dollar spot

The wood rocking horse that I found at HomeGoods last year is all dressed up for Christmas too. This little horse just puts a smile on my face.

I replicated the mantel garland along the stair rails which run from the 2nd floor of our townhouse to the third floor (aka–lots of garland and ornaments)! I’ll share more of my stair decor next week in the holiday home tour finale.

With my mom now living in Atlanta and my house fully decorated for the season, I’m planning on sitting back and enjoy every bit of this Christmas season. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Be sure to come back next Wednesday for the final of the Merry & Bright Holiday Home tour and more decorating inspiration.

Next up is Love Your Abode. Yuni is an absolute sweetheart with design talent oozing out of every pore. I love following her on IG stories and love her style. Don’t delay, head over to Yuni’s blog and check out our holiday home. And be sure to stop by the other bloggers on the tour and show them some love.

Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour Participants:

Tamyra @Positively Southern

Me @ConfettiStyle

Yuni @ Love Your Abode

Wendy @Farmhouse Therapy

Meg @ Green With Decor (blow kisses to her new baby)

Kate @Chic On A Shoestring Decorating

Marsha @M. Jones Style

disclosure: I received products from Boho Luxe Home to use in my Christmas decor. I am a big fan of this company and only share products and brands that I love and think you’ll like too. All opinions are my own.

2017 Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour–Part 1

November 29, 2017

Welcome to the Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour. I’m so excited for this year’s home tour and all of the fabulous bloggers that are participating. Plus we have two awesome brand sponsors for this year’s tour, Amara and SmithHonig. I’ll share more about these great brands throughout the home tour series.

p.s. You’ll find links to all of the participating bloggers holiday home tours at the bottom of the blog post.

If you’re coming over from M. Jones Style, welcome! My friend Marsha is a southern girl at heart so entertaining comes naturally to her. Her holiday drink station is beautiful and makes me want to sit down and have a hot toddy. I can’t wait to see more of her holiday decor in the coming weeks.

Every year I start my holiday home tour by sharing the inspiration for my decor. If you recall, my theme this year was using my favorite colors, pink and red along with touches of white and green. I wanted our decor to be classic and playful at the same time and my original vision came to life just as I imagined.

Here’s a look at the inspiration boards I created earlier this year.

And here’s how it all turned out…

My Holiday Home

The foundation of my Christmas decor is always our tree and if I must say so myself, she’s a beauty.

I’ve been so busy these days that when my friend Don offered to help decorate my tree, I squealed with joy. Don worked for me when I had my store and is one of the most creative people I know. He came over one afternoon and we got to work adding honeycomb balls, deco mesh and close to 400 ornaments to the tree.

I topped the tree with a big silver star that I purchased over 25 years ago on a buying trip to San Francisco when I worked for Eddie Bauer.

I used a variety of ornaments on the tree including some beautiful blush pink ones from Amara. Amara is a UK-based home and interiors brand. The company sells a variety of decor and gift items from over 300 of the world’s more luxurious home fashion brands. And while based in the UK, Amara ships all across the globe making their product available to everyone.

Amara has a great selection of Christmas ornaments and decor and the blush pink set was perfect for my theme. The set includes 4 styles of round ornaments– shiny solid, solid matt and two glitter styles. I love the quality of the ornaments, and the variety of styles added to the whimsy of my tree.

My Favorite Colors: Hot Pink & Red

In addition to ornaments, I used a red and pink striped deco mesh instead of ribbon and love the wow factor it gave the tree.

decor mesh

And for even more WOW, check out these paper honeycomb balls that are nestled at the top and throughout the tree. How fun!

med & large paper honeycomb balls // small honeycomb ball from Ikea

red mercury glass trees from HomeGoods

Now let’s move over to the fireplace. Since we haven’t had our mantel installed yet, I draped my garland around the fireplace using Command Hooks to hold it in place. I hug a small wreath in the center and added clusters of ornaments to each corner of the garland. holiday decorating tip: clustering ornaments in groups of three is a great way to add impact on a tree or garland.

I also embellished the corners with bows made of pink and red ribbon from PaperMart.

1 1/2″ wide red ribbon // 7/8″ wide pink ribbon

I didn’t do much decorating on the bookshelves that flank the fireplace. I filled a couple of vintage bowls with ornaments and added a small mercury glass tree to one shelf.

You can learn how I made my rolling holiday giftwrap crate here.

blush pink ornaments from Amara

I absolutely love my Christmas decor and wish I could keep it up year round. It’s definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house but there’s still more to see. Come back next Wednesday, 12/6 for part 2 of the Merry & Bright Holiday Home tour. I’ll be sharing my dining room along with more of my holiday decor throughout the house.

Next on the tour is Love Your Abode. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Yuni a few weeks ago and she is such a doll. You all are going to love her holiday home…it so fun and festive. Hop over to Love Your Abode and show Yuni some love.

And be sure to stop by the other bloggers in the tour for more holiday decor and inspiration.

Merry & Bright Holiday Home Tour Participants:

Yuni @ Love Your Abode

Kate @ Chic On A Shoestring Decorating

Melanie @ Rover At Home

Tamyra @ Positively Southern

Meg @ Green With Decor

Marsha @ M. Jones Style

disclosure: I received products from Amara to use in my Christmas Decor. I am a big fan of the company and only share products and brands that I love. All opinions are my own.

Entertaining Idea: Honeycomb Balls

April 21, 2016

When it comes to party decor, I’m one for big, bold design statements. My latest party decor obsession is honeycomb paper shapes. There is something about the honeycomb design that makes these decorative pieces more festive than party balloons and crepe paper streamers.

With so many festive occasions coming up like Cinco De Mayo, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and outdoor entertaining season, you have lots of opportunities to decorate with these festive shapes. Here’s a little inspiration for you…

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This honeycomb garland is just breathtaking and creates such a dramatic impact above a party table. The mix of shapes and colors adds so much dimension and visual pop.

100 Layer Cake

I love this arrangement of larger honeycomb balls and tassel garland as wall decor.

PnP Flowers Inc.

This centerpiece is simply beautiful and such a unique way to decorate a table. I can’t wait to give this look a try for myself.

Lovelyfest Event Design

How fun is this garland on a staircase? I would love to create a version this in traditional Christmas colors.

Canadian House and Home

And if you want to add a little fun to a flower arrangement, you can even use the balls to do that. Another DIY I’m going to try.

Not On The High Street

I’ve also been on the hunt for some mini honeycomb shapes to use for gift wrapping. Such an easy way to embellish a gift.

Studio DIY

There are several online stores and Etsy shops that sell honeycomb balls, but the Oh Happy Day shop has one of the best assortments out there. And I like the prices available from Oriental Trading Company.

The Parties That Pop–Etsy Shop

I hope you were inspired to great really creative with the decor for your next party. Let’s celebrate!

Blue and White Spring Tablescape

March 23, 2016

Don’t you just love spring? The bright colors, beautiful flowers, birds chirping and all that sunshine. Spring is one of my favorite times of year and the season always pushes my creativity to new heights. Over the weekend as I was moving the accessories around, the creative bug hit and I decided to pull together a spring tablescape featuring blue and white.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared seasonal table decor with you so I’m excited to unveil my Blue & White Spring Tablescape!

Blue and white tablescapes have always caught my eye but until recently I never owned enough blue and white decor to create one of my own table setting. Over the last year or so I’ve collected a handful of blue and white porcelain pieces and together with some new items I picked up recently, my spring table was easy to pull together. Let’s take a look…

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Party Inspiration: Pink & Green

August 5, 2013

Cheers to Monday! I hope your weekend was good. My weekend was very productive. I spent a lot of time purging my magazine collection (only 20 more to go) and have lots of new inspiration photos to file way and new DIY projects to add to the to-do list. I also cleaned the carpet, started working on some new gift wrap inspiration and an easy fashion accessory DIY project which I’ll share with you later this week. With all the time I’ve spent indoors, I’m itching to go thrifting and the timing couldn’t be any better since the Scott’s Antique Market is this weekend.

One of the other things I did this weekend was to play around with some party theme ideas. Since summer is winding down I came up with a party theme using colors that are perfect for transitioning from summer to fall. Just in cast you want to have an impromptu gathering before summers over I hope this inspires you.

A little pink and green inspiration mixing feminine details with bohemian patterns and colors. Funky and Fun!

Here’s how you can get the look:

Linley Linens

Quadra Dinnerware

Rouge Flatware

Classique Glassware

Bali Jar Candle

Agua Fresca Beverage Server

Great White Tiered Stand

Paper Lanterns

Mariko Cocktail Napkin

Satin Ribbon

Lakewood Antiques Market–A Treasure Trove

March 19, 2013

Just about every month I share the highlights and my purchases from my visit to Scott Antique Market. Scott’s is considered one of the finer antique and flea markets in the country so I feel blessed that it comes to Atlanta every month. I also feel lucky that Atlanta has another great market that opens each month, the weekend after Scott’s. Yes, I get to spend two weekends out of each month shopping for all kinds of vintage treasures.

Lakewood Antiques Market is open the third weekend of each month, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and while it is smaller than Scott’s it is still a treasure trove for vintage accessories, tabletop pieces, furniture, linens and collectibles. Perfect for an Etsy shop, design projects or crafting.

This month Lakewood had lots of great buys, so much so that after spending Friday shopping with my friends Tina and Dorothy, I had to go back for round two on Saturday with the hubby. (The fact that I was buying a mirror that saw super heavy had nothing to do with taking the hubby along 🙂 )

I wish all of you could be here to shop these great markets with me each month, but I know that’s not possible. So instead I’ll share some of the pieces Lakewood had to offer. Enjoy the virtual shopping trip.

This wood wall plaque made from an old wine barrel was really cool.

It’s not secret that I love clipboards and I thought the idea of painting one with chalkboard paint was pretty great.

All around Lakewood there were lots of old vintage signs. I especially loved this one.

My love of vintage scales grew even deeper when I saw this beauty.

Another great vintage sign.

Lots of vendors at Lakewood upcycle furniture pieces. This dresser was upholstered on all sides in an old quilt with really pretty crystal knobs.

Vintage hardware and lots of it.

Cool architectural elements and a few old corks thrown in for fun.

I loved this painted dresser. My friend Tina scored the exact same piece at Goodwill for little or nothing and is in the process of putting her DIY stamp on it.

While Lakewood does not have the amount of true antiques that Scott’s does, this piece was a show stopper. This mirrored armoire had to stand about 10′ high and had the most beautiful curves and details. The mirror was in pristine condition. The dealer was asking $1299.00 which I thought was a MAJOR steal!

I loved this hand painted dresser. The top drawer and the legs really made it.

Vintage shoe lasts, great as an accessory on a bookshelf or table vignette.

There were two sets of these iron gates which could be great as wall décor or used as a decorative divider in a doorway. The pair was going for $225.00.

This super size jar was really pretty. A great shelf sitter.

Loved these spools of vintage tinsel.

I’m a sucker for vintage storage bins and really wanted this piece.

Tina and I met a new friend, Hilary who is also known as The Purse Lady. She shows at both Scott’s and Lakewood and has the most impressive collection of vintage handbags I’ve seen. If I died in her booth it would be the next best thing to heaven.

Stunning glass front cabinet doors!

Very cool vintage table with pull out extensions.

Loved this chair and thought it would make for a great DIY project.

I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t buy this vintage paper holder. It was gone on Saturday when I went back for it. Lesson learned!

Large ship wheels which would look great over the bed at a beach front home.

Vintage crates of all kinds…

and vintage rulers in all colors.

I bought a few of these vintage keys for my jewelry designs.

Drink crates stacked high.

A basket full of vintage tennis rackets. Loved the ones with the covers.

More vintage signs.

A great collection of luggage (sorry for the blur)

I loved most of these vintage clocks but thought they were a bit overpriced.

And just in time for spring picnics, this collection of vintage picnic baskets!

As I said, this months Lakewood show was the bomb. I walked away with a 4′ x 3′ arch top mirror for $20, several brass planters and urn for $5.00 each, silver trays that I snagged for $3.00 and a few other goodies that will be showing up in the shop soon.

I can’t wait for next months Lakewood show. One of the halls is going through a renovation and will be expanded to include even more vendors, which means more shopping~

Until my next shopping adventure….

Christmas Decor 2012

December 13, 2012

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around my parts!

I’m loving my colorful Christmas Tree. All of the ornaments are handmade (swirled paint inside clear glass ornaments)!

I decided to use solid color wrapping paper for my gifts and use contrasting colored ribbons and a cluster of small ornaments and jingle bells as embellishments. Each family member has their own color of wrapping paper so no gift tags are needed.

I created a framed chalkboard to hang on one wall near the tree.

I couldn’t resist these faux fur wine bags from Restoration Hardware and decided to use them as stockings for the hubby and I.

My sheet music wreath hangs on a mirror in the dining room.

A festive bow and greenery hangs on a half wall.

I add a little cheer to a brass birdcage that sits on top of an armoire.

I decided to keep a colorful theme with my dining table decor. The striped velvet runner I purchased from Crate and Barrel several years ago. The silver chargers are from Target.

I painted small metal trays I found at a flea market in chalkboard paint and added a festive message at place setting.

I placed a handmade ornament at in a glass and added a gift tag that I made using Scotch Expressions Tape. Love this stuff!

My metal cones a filled with ornaments and hang from near the stair rail.

I decided to add a little Christmas decor to the bedroom as well by hanging a wreath on the headboard. I also changed out my yellow and grey pillows for red and hunter green one for Christmas.

A mini tree sits in a mercury glass bowl on the nightstand.

And, my dress form even got in on the Christmas mix!

To see my Christmas decor from 2011 head here!

Scenes from the Weekend

November 19, 2012

Good Morning! I hope today finds you all in great spirits and ready to conquer the world!

Me, I’m taking it a bit easy today after a very jammed packed weekend.

Friday I worked on a client project and the hubs and I spent a good part of the day running around doing research for my gift wrapping challenge which is coming up at the end of the month. I’m not going to tell you what the items I’ll be wrapping in New York are, but I will tell you my research led me to a music store, an extreme hobby store and this on-line store for inspiration. Any guesses?

I also spent some time on Friday getting ready for two design workshops I presented at Smiths, a local retailer in North Atlanta. It was such fun to share my workshops entitled “The Best Gifts Under the Tree” and “Holiday Decorating from A to Z” with the group of ladies and gents. Smith’s was packed all day and it was obvious that the holiday shopping season has kicked in.

Hop over to the Smith’s website and learn a little more about this local store and what they have to offer. While you’re there, be sure to check out their Gourmet blog which has some fabulous recipes you might want to try.

Dennis and Tim, the owners of Smith’s were so gracious in giving me this beautiful holiday art piece that was personalized by the artist, Linda Vachon. To see more of Linda’s work check out her Facebook page or check out images you can buy through Smith’s or Linda’s Etsy shop.. Her pieces were definitely one of my Top 10 Gift Items!

fyi…Geno is the nickname I call my hubby!

After my workshop presentations on Saturday, I spent the rest of the evening making jewelry. Having one of my necklaces appear in Country Living has been a blessing and has kept me busy!

{pg. 130}

Sunday morning I woke up early and spent a little time flipping though the holiday issue of Sweet Paul magazine. You’ll definitely want to add this to your reading list this week. Be sure to check out the Blue Christmas inspiration on pg. 66 and the Holiday Dinner recipes on pg. 100!

Sunday I spent the day shopping with a client for furniture and accessories. We didn’t get everything checked off the list but we did find some great pieces at Z Gallerie, Home Decorators and Crate and Barrel! While at Home Decorators, I saw this wall hanging which was a great reminder of what really matters in life!

And, I ended the weekend by seeing the movie Flight with Denzel Washington. So, so good!

I hope you weekend was filled with Blessings!