Welcome to Stop 18: The 2014 Holiday Housewalk

Welcome to the 2014 Holiday Housewalk at my house!!  This is the day I look forward to all year long on my blog, and I’m SO happy you’ve joined me today! I am honored to be Stop # 18 on the tour this week, with a total of 33 AMAZING homes to see all decked out in their Holiday finest.  If you want to start from the beginning of the tour, head over to my friend Jen Rizzo’s blog to see ALL the houses.   If you are joining me from Stop #17, The House of Belonging, then welcome y’all!  I am blown away by all the gorgeous decorating I’ve seen on the tour so far!  So much talent, huh?

Who is ready to get down to business?  Welcome to my home!  If you’re a regular reader, then you got to see a sneak peek at a few of my Christmas decorations already, like my simple DIY Reindeer moss wreath on the front door.

Don’t you love the little star garland?? I LOVE IT.

I found it at Jen Rizzo’s booth at the Kane County Flea Market in October, and knew immediately it would make an appearance in my housewalk post.  Trouble is, I gave this wreath away to the Birmingham Jr. League to auction off for charity and bye-bye star garland… What was I thinking?? I should have kept it for myself! I made myself a new wreath, but I need to DIY myself some of these little stars ASAP.

You’ve also seen the  glowing French shaving stand full of lights and ornaments from yesterday’s Junkers United post.  I love this stand so much!

Over on the other side of my front door is this pretty little vignette.  I have this habit of throwing parties and then using the same party decorating ideas in my holiday décor.  This year, I’m re-using some of my Epic Outlander Premier party ideas and weaving them into my Christmas décor.  See the belt wrapped around the burlap on the pot? Totally Outlander party inspired!

You’ll see more inspiration later, but first let’s move up the stairs where I have another belted burlap Christmas tree.  These are actually Leland Cypress trees that I found at Home Depot, and I plan to plant them as soon as Christmas is over. I wrapped a burlap grain sack around it and tied it up with a thrift store belt.  Easy, simple and beautiful décor! My husband made me this reclaimed wood circle inspired by our giant star on last year’s Christmas mantel.

The star will make another appearance in just a minute, but now let’s move on down to the bottom of the stairs…

My vintage church attendance sign got a cute little Christmas facelift with the help of my new Silhouette machine!  I LOVE MY SILHOUETTE!  Don’t forget to go enter the GIANT Giveaway we are hosting this week where one lucky winner will win a Silhouette Portrait machine of their very own.

Trust me, you NEED one of these machines in your life.  Silhouette has some great sales happening right now, so if you are in the market for one please feel free to click over to my affiliate link and promo code “BOPPY”  to purchase!

I also used my Silhouette for the wood slice garland up top!  This was a SUPER simple and fun little garland to make in an afternoon.  I used the font “Goudy Stout” to cut out the letters.

You can click here to read the full tutorial on the wood slice garland.

Let’s move on over to the living room, starting with my sofa table. 

I scored this big black lantern at Old Time Pottery for $39 at a Black Friday sale!  Thought that was a steal of a deal, and it looks pretty all filled up with ornaments and my wobbly little Christmas trees.

And now, the 2014 Christmas mantel!

I am still loving my Holly Jolly Christmas sign from Between You and Me signs. 

Of course the Gothic chalkboards had to make an appearance!  Raise your hand if you saw that one coming… When I find something I like, I stick with it. The wooden stars came from Perfectly Imperfect’s booth at Chapel Market last year.

But the real stars of this mantel show are those beautiful square boxwood wreaths from Balsam Hill!  They were kind enough to send these to me, along with the lighted one in the foyer.  I LOVE these wreaths!  They are so versatile, and the boxwood is a classic.  You can find all their boxwood wreaths and topiaries here.

Now it’s into the sunroom for the Christmas tree!  This tree came from Balsam Hill last year, and it is still going strong this year! I even kept my same old burlap basket instead of a tree skirt routine because I loved it so much last year!

Over on the desk in the background is a vintage typewriter that my dad bought for me.  I have a tear jerker of a story to go along with this typewriter, but I’ll save it for a less lengthy post.

I used it to create a “Letters to Santa” station along with a vintage mailbox where I will stick all of our holiday cards as they start to arrive this year!  Put me on your list! I love getting Christmas cards!

And here you go…the giant star makes another appearance this year! I just love this star so much.  It is one of my most favorite DIYs EVER.

Over in the kitchen the vintage cash register makes another appearance this year.  I love the Ca-CHING it makes.

Another square boxwood wreath from Balsam Hill finishes off my super simple kitchen window decorations.

In the dining room, I continue my nod toward my love of all things Outlander with this plaid and burlap cloaked Christmas tree. 

I twisted and poked just about everything and the kitchen sink inside this tree.  It’s like a game of Where’s Waldo to find stuff!  I just love it, though!  Makes me happy!  The other tree got all the sentimental ornaments, so this tree got all the pretty stuff.

I’m keepin it simple on the dining table this  year with this cute twiggy reindeer inside a dough bowl.  Add some greenery, ribbon and jingle bells and that’s what I call a simple centerpiece.

If you guys are looking for a great gift to give the crafty DIYer in your life, be sure to check out Jen Rizzo’s book, Creatively Christmas!  This thing is CHOCK FULL of great ideas for Christmas decorating that you can DIY at home.  I am so honored to have a mention in the back of the book, as well.

Thank you all SO much for taking the tour with me today! I hope you got some good take-away ideas on how to decorate your home for Christmas this year.  If you want to see more Christmas decorating ideas, you can check out my past Holiday Housewalk tours here:

2012 Holiday Housewalk

2013 Holiday Housewalk

I just love Jen Rizzo and ALL of the girls on this fabulous tour!! These Holiday Housewalk posts are hands down my most favorite posts to create/decorate/photograph/write/visit each year.  I am already looking forward to the 2015 Housewalk!  I hope to see y’all back here before then, though.  If you’d like to join me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest to find more ideas, I sure would be honored! Or, you can subscribe to my posts via email and I’ll come right to your inbox!

Now be sure to hop over to Stop 19 to continue this year’s tour with Ella Claire Inspired.

Merry Christmas, everyone!