Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours.
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Four Generations One Roof
Archive | Christmas
RSS feed for this sectionOur Christmas table
I finished up our Christmas table last week and now, no one is allowed to eat at the table. ha. Just kidding. My son asked, why are you setting the table and taking pictures? My response, “I don’t know, seems kind of silly huh?”. Besides taking pretty pictures of the table to share with you, it was a teaching opportunity to show my son the correct way to set a table. Table setting etiquette is a must in my book. Even if you are a boy! Using lego figurines as the guests made the lesson a bit more interesting. ha.
I used holiday greens, plaid placemats with burlap that I cut out and added to the top, glass vases and candlesticks we had around our home.
The silver ware was my great gram’s.
A quick shot of our Martha Stewart Christmas tree that I decorated last month for the home depot challenge. I was in our family room but I moved it into our dining room.
I added a few greens to the hutch as well.
Some fun white bowls from Target. These are part of the collection I got to keep from our Woman’s Day feature.
The new lense I got has an early christmas gift allows me to focus on one certain item and make that the focal. I love how it blurs out everything else. In this picture, I chose the greenery as the focal point.
Again, the greenery was the focal point. I added faux snow from Pier 1 inside the vases along with boxwood sprigs.
I used a mix of silver and glass candlesticks. I love how the silver looks against the glassware.
I will show the entire dining room during our Christmas home tour later this week. I swapped out the striped curtains for bright red.
Using fresh holiday greenery is a quick way to dress up any Christmas table. Pick a tray for the center, add some greens, pinecones, festive ornaments and candles and you a pretty Christmas centerpiece for any table.
Our gold + silver Christmas tree {decorated family room}
Our gold + silver Christmas tree this year sits proudly in our family room where the owls have moved in. I am still loving the owl trend and hoping it sticks around for a while. I’m already thinking about spring owls. ha. Last week I showed you how I made the owl tree topper and I’m pleased with how he looks. I think he fits right in with the white fuzzy owls displayed throughout the tree.
I hung wreaths on all the windows and added some holiday sweater pillows from Target.
Aren’t these little fuzzy owls adorable? I think they coordinate perfectly with the gold and silver color scheme.
Here is a shot of the diy shelf mantel that I hung last week. It has turned out to be a perfect spot for a wintery scene.
I added mod podge and glitter to a bunch of plastic ornaments to fill in the tree with a gold and silver color scheme. I also added some mercury ornaments that I purchased at home goods.
I paired faux holly berries with a few birch logs that we had in our wood pile. Don’t tell my gramps though, he will think I’m stealing his wood for his workshop stove! I think he has enough wood cut for 4 winters.
Here is another shot of the family room. We rearranged the room to accomodate the tree and I think I like it like this. Don’t you love changing around furniture? I think I rearranged every couple of months. ha!
Our elf Chewy pops up everywhere.
Here is the brother to the litte white reindeer I showed you in our christmas vignette yesterday. I couldn’t just buy one.
I recently got a new camera lense and a few other little camera accessories and I was so happy with the bokeh effect in this picture. yay!
I cannot believe that Christmas will be here in just a short couple of weeks. I hope you enjoyed our Christmas family room and our gold + silver christmas tree. I sure am glad it’s decorated and finished! That is one good thing about blogging, it pushes you to get projects finished. I’ll be back during the week to share our Woman’s Day feature. If you follow me on facebook and google+, I posted some photo’s from the Woman’s Day site. There will also be a $500 “get Jessica’s kitchen look” Target giveaway on the Woman’s Day site and a $100 Target gift card giveaway right here on our blog. Kind of exciting!
Linking up to
Thrifty Decor Chic’s Christmas tree party
Our Christmas vignette
Our Christmas vignette is done. This is actually a decorating project that has been finished for about a week but I just haven’t had a chance to post it. It was the strangest feeling having the pictures done and not posting. Usually, I am snapping pictures and writing the post in the same day while publishing shortly thereafter. I don’t know how some bloggers have projects in the pipeline waiting to be published! Anyway, we just got back a couple days ago from taking a trip to North Conway, Nh for a couple nights where we attended the polar express event. If you haven’t had a chance to take a ride to the North pole, you must! The experience was truly magical. I will do a post soon and share pictures. Ok, back to the Christmas vignette.
I wrapped burlap around the base of these faux trees that I have had for about 10 years. I cannot believe they are still in such good condition.
During the fall, I added the shelf above the chest of drawers and decided to swap out the equestrian artwork for this empty silver frame with added decorative ornaments.
The cute little deer was an impulse purchase at TJmaxx for $6.
The ceramic birds were part of my spring mantel that I found at Michaels earlier this year.
A fairly simple Christmas vignette using mostly what I had around the house with some added fresh holiday greenery. On the news front, we are pretty excited that our Woman’s Day feature is coming out next week which will feature our new modern cottage style kitchen as well as our recent dining room makeover. I’m so happy I will finally be able to share the diy backsplash I did over the summer. I will be back this week sharing the rest of our Christmas home decorations and maybe a post from my gramps on how to build a sleigh.
Linking to :
Southern Hospitality vignette party
How to make reindeer
My gramps has been working on our handmade christmas decorations for the last 7 months! I am not kidding. The man has been in his workshop everyday for months making reindeer and santa sleighs. One afternoon last month, I took a break from our bathroom renovation project and learned how to make reindeer. He has quiet the setup in his workshop so needless to say, it’s a pretty cool place to hang out.
My gramps has made 75 reindeer so far and is still cutting them out!
This is actually a super easy project. The scroll saw was a bit intimidating at first but really easy to use after about 5 minutes of cutting. We started with a 1/2 inch piece of pine and traced the reindeer onto the wood. Once you have your pattern, just start cutting. My gramps got me started by showing me how to start the cuts.
Now it’s my turn. You could use this method for ornaments, signs or any handmade christmas decoration.
Once my reindeer was cut out, I used mod podge, glitter and silver “glitter blast” spray to pretty up my wooden reindeer. My gramps was disgusted with me because I didn’t stain it. He rolled his eyes and said, “kid, I don’t know about you.”
I had some left over fleece fabric from my dog sweater tutorial so I made a no sew blanket for him.
Our elf on the shelf has made his debut.
I decided that my little guy needed a friend so I cut out another reindeer and blasted her with white crystal glitter.
I hope you enjoyed our how to make reindeer tutorial and we have inspired you to make some of your own handmade christmas decorations. If you don’t have a scroll saw, you can always use foam density board (purchased at any craft store) and use a scoring knife to cut out around your pattern. You don’t have to use wood!
LInking up to:
Centsational Girl’s craft party
How to hang shelves {our Christmas mantel}
Today I will show you how to hang shelves to create a Christmas mantel. Our fireplace mantel is in need of some TLC so until that project is finished, I decided to hang a shelf over our couch to display a wintery Christmas theme. We recently rearranged the furniture in our family room to make room for our Christmas tree and while doing so, a bare wall was exposed that needed some love. In about 30 minutes, I hung this shelf and viola, our Christmas mantel.
Our Christmas theme this year is a wintery nature inspired theme using gold, silver, red & white. This is the bare wall prior to the shelf being added. It was raining the day I hung this shelf so the pictures are a bit dark.
Simply hang a level where you would like the shelf to hang.
Draw line where the bottom of the shelf will hang and drill your pilot holes for screws.
Screw the screws 95% into the wall (leave a little showing in order to hang your bracket.
I purchased $2 unfinished wooden brackets from our local mill store.
I used a 10″ wide piece of pine board that we had left over from our bathroom renovation project for the shelf.
I added two coats of Benjamin Moore white dove paint and it was ready for a wintery Christmas display.
I made a “dear santa” chalkboard sign using construction paper and an existing canvas art picture.
Fairly easy right? If you don’t have a traditional fireplace mantel, hopefully you find this tutorial on how to hang shelves helpful and perhaps even inspired you to create your own wintery Christmas mantel. This diy Christmas mantel only cost $4 and I think it adds so much character to the room and otherwise, boring wall. I’ll be back this week to share our Christmas Home tour 
.
Linking to:
DIY Christmas decorations {owl topper}
This past weekend we finished decorating the tree in our family room and worked on some DIY Christmas decorations. I searched for a unique Christmas tree topper but wasn’t successful finding one that didn’t cost loads of money so I decided to make one using a cute owl that I found at Pier 1. Our Christmas tree this year is a nature inspired woodland themed tree with a color scheme of silver and gold. Before I start with the picture of our cute little owl’s nest, I want to thank you all for your sweet comments on our DIY bathroom renovation reveal from last week. I was blown away by all of your kind words.
Ok, now for the owl tree topper.
This was the quickest and easiest DIY decoration ever. I used an empty candle holder that I had purchased over the summer and filled it with fresh holiday greens to create a nest. The beautiful thing about this candle holder was that the bottom had openings so all I had to do was slide it over the top of the tree.
I originally was thinking about cutting a hole in the middle of a basket and sliding it over the top of the tree stem but as I was shopping my house for that perfect basket, this candle holder jumped out at me. It was perfect. I used fresh boxwood, juniper and clippings from our Douglas fir tree. Simply stuff them in the sides until you achieve a full nest look.
My son named our little woodland owl “Chewy”. He looks pretty cute sitting at the top of tree in his new nest. How about you, have you been working on any DIY christmas decorations? My gramps and I have been working on some handmade wooden reindeer and sleigh that I will share with you soon. Share your Christmas decoration ideas in the comments, I would love to hear what you have been up to!
Linking up to:
Christmas theme ideas
Decorating for Christmas can be an overwhelming task for me. At the moment, our entire house is covered in opened plastic bins with Christmas decorations everywhere. I had to take a break and look for some Christmas theme ideas. I was so happy to have Home Depot send me the Martha Stewart Winterberry Collection for their design challenge a couple weeks ago. It was nice to have a theme all packaged together and all I had to do was decorate! Here is the tree that I did for their challenge a couple weeks ago.
My two helpers.
Last night I took a break and just looked at pretty Christmas tree pictures. This next tree isn’t really my style but holy smokes, if you are looking for a fun whimsical tree, here you go!
They used cotton to flock this tree. So pretty.
I remember when I saw this picture last year, Beth nailed it!
This has to be the cutest little snowman tree ever!
This candy themed tree by Kate at Centsational is absolutely adorable! So cute for kids.
These homemade DIY paper ornaments are beautiful!
Miss Melissa at the The Inspired Room sure does know how to create a beautiful christmas tree. I love all the adorable woodland creatures.
So many gorgeous christmas theme ideas! I am loving the silver, gold and white themes this year. I think I may just purchase the little owl from Pottery Barn as our tree topper .
Linking to Sand and Sisal’s winter party kickoff
Our countdown to Christmas
Good morning! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was a low key day for us but honestly, we like it that way. We all went out for brunch at a local restaurant and returned home to watch some football and dig out the Christmas decorations. The countdown to Christmas for us, begins Thanksgiving night. My mom and I spent all weekend sorting through decorations and Christmas goodies swapping and borrowing each others items. It’s kind of funny how that works. I think we made four different trips to Target, Michael’s and Home Goods!
After clearing out our family room and rearranging furniture, we were ready to get our tree. I know some of you will shutter at the thought of getting a Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend but it’s a tradition here at four generations one roof to start the countdown to Christmas. Until my son was born, I always had a fake tree because of my allergies but I don’t know what happened after he was born, my allergies got better. I didn’t grow up with a real tree so venturing out to a tree farm is a fairly new tradition and one I look forward to.
We ventured out on Saturday morning and enjoyed browsing through the gift barn and picking out our tree. My son could barely maneuver the tree cart last year but this year, he was a pro.
Looking and looking.
My dad and stepdaughter spotted the perfect Douglas fir.
My dad and the kids. My mom was completely missing in action the entire time we were choosing the tree. Hmmm, can you guess where she was? The gift barn!
We settled on the douglas fir and I think it’s the fullest and most perfect looking tree we have ever had. I moved the tree I decorated for the Home Depot style challenge into our dining room to make room for our real tree in our family room.
Tagged, bagged and loaded in the truck and wouldn’t you know it, we lost my mom. As my dad says, “story of his life.” He is always left sitting and waiting for her. ha! This week I plan on sharing our diy bathroom renovation and decorating our home for Christmas. Our countdown to Christmas has begun! How about you? Have you started your own countdown yet? Tell me in the comments if you have a fake or real tree!
Our decorated Christmas tree {Home Depot Style Challenge}
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I was decorating our Christmas tree for the Home Depot style challenge and I am happy to say that the Christmas tree pictures have been taken and are being featured today over at Home Depot’s Apron blog.
I did something a little different this year. I decided to wrap the tree with red ribbon instead of draping it from the top to the bottom of the tree. I’m not a big fan of tinsel so ribbon or some sort of homemade garland is usually my choice as a filler. The Martha Stewart Winterberry Collection and the pre-lite tree that Home Depot sent me was perfect and I am pleased with how it turned out.
The red ribbon has a slim lined nordic design on the edges and I think it coordinates perfectly with the red, gold and silver themed Martha Stewart ornaments.
I tried to get our other dog (the boxer) in the picture but she is not impressed with the camera. Our big guy Garth though, loves the camera!
One of my other favorite ornaments that Home Depot sent me was Maestro Mouse who sings 12 different Christmas carols.
I love how the tree glows at night along with Maestro Mouse singing Christmas carols. Be sure to jump over to the Home Depot’s Apron blog to read my full reveal post where I will be sharing our Christmas tree decorating ideas, meet Maestro Mouse and see my son and Garth decorating our Christmas tree! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you over at the Apron blog!
Tis the season!
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About
JESSICA BRUNOHi, I'm Jessica and welcome to our blog. We are a crew of four generations all living together under one roof and I just happen to be the ring leader of our little o'l blog. We are multigenerational family ranging in ages from 5 to 85 living, dreaming and DIY "ing" together. If you love Do-It-Yourself projects, room makeovers, project tutorials or just want to hear about the bits of chaos (some good and some not so good) of what it's like having four generations all living under one roof, then follow along, you have come to the right place!
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