Thanks for visiting from the Jennifer Rizzo blog Christmas tour.  This is the sixth stop on the Holiday House Walk. And welcome to my regular readers as well!

The last stop on the tour was Jeanne Oliver Designs…click here to see her home.  I want to say a big thank you to Jen Rizzo for asking me to be on this tour…

So WELCOME and let’s get started but first off i want to tell you, IT IS NOT PERFECT LOOKING around here EVER..we really live in our home..i hear Henry bouncing Christmas balls from the tree right now…

I don’t know if you can see in the dark photo but Henry is jamming a toy gun into the tree and running it along the edge…awesome!  The point is, its kind of nuts around here a lot of the time but I still want a festive and pretty home.  So i try to focus on little things in our decor and home that i love and not the big picture of perfection or i would go crazy!  So i will share some details that i focus on and get accomplished and enjoy… that is sort of how i cope with the chaos living with two small boys..just being honest, i love them dearly but they can tear up some stuff!..i hope this crazy way of thinking helps you focus on little things that bring you joy in your home and not stress about perfection and every inch being decorated!

With that being said, here is my miracle shot of the living room. All of the legos are stashed in the storage ottoman!

Because of the above mentioned precious but destructive toddler, I knew i was not going to use any glass or even somewhat meaningful ornaments in our collection.  NOTHING IS SAFE.  So i was going to use shatterproof balls..just a ton of balls in various colors..well come to find out they don’t come in the pretty array of colors that glass balls are available in and they look like balls and bounce so that clearly was not going to work… Enter my idea for the silhouette and plaid tree. For years I have admired Juliet Romano’s silhouette tree but never thought of trying to recreate it until now.  I will do another post later (if y’all are interested) about how i did the silhouettes (basically copied ones i had on my printer and painted $1 frames, took out the glass for safety;;)…

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I did use  my favorite nativity, its corn husk and was made in Israel, i just made sure it was hung securely and high enough (knock on wood)…The plaid hoops were inspired by this recent article in Country Living. I found two great and very cheap pieces of plaid fabric at Hobby Lobby, along with the 79cent hoops and it was so fast and easy!  More on that later too if anyone is interested..and strangely Henry doesn’t seem to bother those (again knock on wood)  I found some great plaid ribbon at the last minute but really just the hoop fabric added enough..a little plaid goes a long way.;

And a shot of pillows, not particularly Christmas but I love that Celerie Kimble Betwixt print..love it.

And the mantle…just fresh greens, the natural wood nutcrackers i talked about in this post, an old box my father-in-law gave me recently and my special canvas, calligraphy by the talented Lindsay Letters! Lindsay, who just had a baby so she isn’t taking orders on this but maybe next year, simply took my idea of using the first parts of this beautiful Christmas hymn and put into her gorgeous writing, scanned it and then i had it printed on canvas just like you would a photo!  At first i thought it was too dark.it was to be a lighter gray but turned out more charcoal but it works with the silhouettes and my dark rug i think….i must admit I struggled with that plaid ribbon…big bows looked so silly..just i just knotted it..same thing under our star on the tree…like i said a little of the plaid goes a long way.

 And wrap….i found this plaid paper at Michaels…the script paper is from Ballard and of course there is kraft mixed in..noticed i have only wrapped about four gifts and the sames one are in each photo…ha!  I do love these tags from Martha! You can download them here.

Other side of the living room…i love how the blue and white looks with all of the traditional plaid!

I honestly have not done a thing to decorate our kitchen or bedroom and i am okay with that! The dining room…exactly the same the same as last year! And its okay!;;

heading outside…

I love my new kaboo chairs on our screened porch!

And the tiny tabletop tree..just $12 at Lowe’s…so cute..haven’t even put lights on it…don’t think i will.

And the little trees are for teacher gifts..i am loving the leftover garland that we put on the tobacco basket..that basket was my fave Round Top purchase this year..love how the yellow looks with Christmas green.

Its hard to see against the screen but i also have burlap banners down the length of the porch..made by this great etsy seller..they say “jingle, joy and peace” so cute!

You can see the “jingle” banner behind my little Charlie  Brown tree’s star!

More little snippets…

Henry’s favorite song right now is Go Tell It On the Mountain! Hearing that sweet voice makes all of the little messes worthwhile~

So that is the backporch..now back to the front porch to say goodbye!

Thanks again for visiting!

Be sure and visit the other homes on the tour by clicking here.

The next stop is Susie Harris!

Merry Christmas Y’all!