Welcome to Thistlewood Farms Holiday Home Tour – The Grand Finale!

Today is the culmination of an excellent week of Holiday Home Tours, and I’m ECSTATIC to get to the photos for this one. But first let me introduce this lady to you. I first met Karianne from Thistlewood Farms at Haven, where her personality bubbled out of her beautiful little self and made me feel as if I had known her since the first grade. It’s rare in life that you meet someone that you instantly feel connected to, but that is how I feel with sweet Kari. She has such a gracious and fun-loving personality. The icing on the cake is that she also has amazing style and a 1918 farmhouse is her masterpiece. AND she is so, so funny. Her stories about fried chicken at photo shoots and Lee press-on nails and Kentucky yard sales have me rolling. Oh, and did I mention she was also just named the 2012 Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger of the Year? Some of y’all are already familiar with Kari’s blog and her AMAZING decorating skills. Just in case you haven’t heard, though, let me be the first to take you down to Paradise City, where the magnolia is green and the decorations are pretty….

Betcha didn’t expect me to bust out the old school GNR lyrics for this home tour did you?

Hi Unskinny Boppy readers….I’m KariAnne from Thistlewood Farm and I’m the finale house.

{gulp}

Did they know who they were asking?

Did anyone see the other amazing house tours? Like this one? Or this one?

Have you ever walked down aisle 4 at Wal-mart and someone starts smiling and waving at you and you don’t think that you know them….but they do look a lot like the lady from two soccer seasons ago and so you tentatively raise your hand in a half-hearted wave because the lady seems so friendly. And she keeps smiling and waving exhuberantly. And then you start really waving because you are sure that you know her and then she walks right by you and you realize that the whole time she was waving……

…..at the person behind you next to the Fruit Roll-ups.

*sigh*

That’s a little how I feel today.

I’m excited and overwhelmed and overjoyed to be here…..but let’s hurry and get this house thing started before Beth changes her mind and invites the lady in the Wal-Mart snack aisle. 🙂

Let’s start in the kitchen.

The house was built in 1918 and this is the heart of the home.

It’s also home to my $20 dollar yard sale English trestle table.

And plenty of silver and white holiday cheer.

I think I read some where that house tours are better wordless.

As in without words.

You know….just Christmas pictures of a kitchen….and more pictures….and a few more pictures…..

…..and not too much talking.

Umm…..have they met me before?

I’ll try.

I’ll try really hard.

I’ll try not to talk too much….or tell you that this is the butler’s pantry decorated with a few fresh greens for Christmas.

But I’m not making any promises. 🙂

Oh….and one more word before I start the whole wordless thing.

This is the family room.

With an incredible antique iron fireplace surround.

All decked out in creams and browns for Christmas.

For the next step on our almost wordless tour….here’s the guest bath.

Calm and white and ready for Christmas with grays and creams and scrabble tile ornaments.

With a claw foot bathtub and a few trees made from “springs.”

And the upstairs guest room.

Blue and white with touches of red.

And a shutter wall with handmade vintage stockings.

And to finish off the tour…..

….here’s the master bedroom.

It’s all decorated in neutrals with pops of red.

And an advent calendar mantel.

Whew!

We made it.

Almost wordless and all.

I know you’re busy.

I know you have to run.

You’ve got your own Christmas to get ready for.

But I’m so happy that you stopped by today and took a moment to visit Christmas at Thistlewood.

I’ve got to run now……

…..I want to introduce myself to the lady over on aisle 4. 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Ahhhhhhhhhh. Can you believe how unbelievably gorgeous Kari’s home is? If one day I find myself holding a key to a mansion in heaven, I want to ask Kari to come over and decorate it for me. She’s already got so much experience creating a little slice of heaven right here on earth. You are so talented my friend. I’m honored that you shared your home on my blog today. Thank you so very much. I just adore you and your Walmart anecdotes.

If you see any photos here that you’d like to pin, please consider clicking over to Kari’s blog and link to the original source.

So with just four days left until Christmas, that wraps up our Holiday Home Tours! In case you want to visit all the previous homes on the Holiday Home Tour this week, please click over to check them out! I promise you will NOT be disappointed.

Karianne at Thistlewood Farms
Celebrating Everyday Life with Jennifer Carroll
Kristin Salazar at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Tara Lowery at Between You and Me
Cynthia Weber at A Button Tufted Life
and Roeshel from The DIY Showoff!
Thank you so much to all of these ladies for allowing my readers into their homes this past week.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, just in case I don’t get around this way much next week! –Beth