And I Said That I Wasn't Going to Decorate This Year...

When everyone was busily decorating their homes and Christmas trees the weekend after Thanksgiving, I announced, "I'm going to be a Scrooge this Christmas and not put up a tree!"  Now this came as a shock to my family as I was one of those kids relentlessly begging my mom to put up all holiday decorations way too early.  I loved setting up all the Easter, Christmas, Halloween, and other holiday decorations with my mom and am certain that this was an initial sign of the love of displays yet to come.  So, here I am now, ready to forget about the tree and simplify this year due to a scheduled surgery this month and the lack of artificial tree (my husband's allergic to the real ones) and no funds to buy and new one.  The artificial tree that we've been using over the years is at least 20 years old, falling apart, and the last straw was the mold growing on it from the box getting wet!  Of course, I had to be subjected to seeing my mom's beautiful tree and I made the big mistake in sitting down one morning with my cup of coffee and old Christmas edition of Country Living!  I couldn't stand it, I had to decorate...

I love to use burlap garland anywhere that I can!  I used this on the mantle along with the vertical garland on the Christmas tree.

My daughter, Gabby, knows how much I adore bird nests and is always finding them for me (after the eggs have hatched, of course!)

Tired of all the usual tree ornaments, I made ornaments out of vintage playing cards that also help my 3 year-old learn her numbers!