AND THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE!

I alway wondered if that was really true? You would think there could be a fire if you hung your stockings by the chimney wouldn't you? Well, since I do not have a chimney per say, I have a wood burning stove, I hang our stockings down the staircase rail. Since we have a new baby granddaughter this Christmas ( the only gift we all need) I made new stockings. They turned out quite nicely too.

The snowman rudolph is my little granddaughters. I love working with felt. I do find though, with Christmas stockings, unless you can get the heavy wool felt, which is hard to find here, that they do not hang very nicely. I solved that problem by cutting out an extra piece to fit the bottom of the stocking, where the toe curls and the heel. I then used fabric glue and glued the whole bottom together. There is still plenty of room for Santa to fill the stocking but it stiffens it up so it hangs nicely. I am very happy with the results I think I will make them for my etsy shop next Christmas. We also had our first snow this morning.

I took these pictures before I started this post and it has all melted since but at least we had a little. I am off to begin my preparations for my Christmas Party on Saturday. Tomorrow I will reveal my CHRISTMAS TREE!

Check out my SIDEBAR for some wonderful CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS from some great BLOGGERS!

Check out the new giveaway I just put on my sidebar. Jenn at BITTERSWEET PRIMITIVES makes these amazing Santas and she is giving one away for Christmas.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE!

I just finished decorating the last Christmas tree in the house. I have started the studio and will show you pictures later. I am having our annual Christmas party on Saturday and have to go out in the pouring rain today to get the ingredients for the Tapas I am serving at the party. Now a little bit about Christmas trees.

My studio is decorated and designed Scandinavian. I kept the colours in whites, light blues and creamy browns. A couple of years ago I decided I would like a blue Christmas tree out there. Upon searching for one I came across every colour and shape in the rainbow.

I did find a lovely blue one called "Smurftastic" at Treetopia but by the time I paid for shipping it was ridiculous so I went with a smaller one I found here.

Until I decided to get a blue tree I was always a traditionalist when it came to Christmas trees. My views have changed. I have found some wonderfully imaginative trees in my journey and here are just a few.

Think Pink!

Be dramatic with red or black. My sister-in-law has a black tree which she decorates in silver and blue which is quite lovely.

Elegant White. White trees look fabulous for a formal setting or a beachy one.

You could go over the top like this million dollar tree festooned with diamonds.

Or sweet and simple like Charlie Brown.

Whether your tree is out in the sun.

In the crisp snow.

Sweet and traditional.

Very tall.

Or very small. They all say the same thing. IT'S CHRISTMAS.

You could go with the ultimate environmental tree. I made do this next year.

CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!

THE WINNERS ARE..........

I used a random generator to select the winners of my Christmas Giveaway. Thank you to everyone who entered I wish I could send you all a present because I truly enjoy having you visit me and visiting you. Here are the winners.

1ST. PRIZE IS #8 YORKIE MOM

2ND. PRIZE IS #9 ANGELA

3RD. PRIZE IS #16 MAMATKINS

PLEASE E-MAIL ME YOUR INFORMATION AND I WILL SEND OUT YOU PRIZES IMMEDIATELY.

HURRY! HURRY! HURRY!

Today is the last chance to enter the CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY! A winner will be drawn on Monday. Just click the title of this post to go to the entry post.

Good Luck Everyone!

AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT!

It was lovely and warm last night so the dogs and I went out and took some pictures of the house lit up. I got a little carried away this year. The side porch is so bright that I do not need a lamp on in the livingroom.

These are my Grandmother's antique bells. They are old and getting a little cracked but they still look beautiful blinking off and on at night.

We put Frosty on the side porch this year, he is usually in front. It took some getting use to, he scared the heck out of both of us a couple of times when we saw him through the livingroom window.

Duffy & Penny may not look excited but they love the lights.

I finished the diningroom yesterday. I kept it simple on the pine cupboard. These lovely candle holders are made of iron and I only paid $6. for them at Value Village. I think they look great on the cupboard.

I pick up these little trees whenever I see them because over the years I have lost some usually due to mice in the storage area making a meal out of them. I like the to add white lights and keep it simple although I do have two decorated. I incorporate things I made when our son was little. I made him the snowman and he made me the caroling mouse when he was in grade 5. I adore it.

I got a little sidetracked yesterday so I did not get the big tree decorated. I am off to work on that now. Maybe I will take a page out of Charlie Brown's book and just put up one red decoration. Sounds good to me.

A LITTLE MORE DECKING THE HALLS!

I took the day off from decorating yesterday to visit our little granddaughter. We built her a wonderful cupboard for her new nursery. I will show you that later. First though I want to show you The BIG GREEN CUPBOARD I have been talking about that holds all my Christmas decorations.

Beautiful isn't it! Now lets see what else has been done in the Christmas House.

I love Christmas pictures. I found this lovely one in a Calendar so I framed it. It sits above my old desk and I just love the way the candle light hits it at night.

Here are the lovely ornaments from my Grandmother. I adore Father Christmas figures but I especially like ones that are a little different. This guy I picked up years ago. He is so folky and his outfit is salmon pink. The strangest thing about him is that he is holding a sheep but it has two heads instead of a tail.

These are a couple of my Grandmothers. The paper mache bell are held together with glass balls. The gold leaf piece is one of my favourites. It is so elegant looking. I put it on the front of my pine cupboard.

My Cooking Kitchen is white so I like to use primarily red there for Christmas. I have been collecting these pretty reindeer dishes for a while. The cute santa cutouts are from Hallmark.

The NOEL angels sat on my Grandmother's table every Christmas lit with little candles. I have the pieces of the E to glue on but they did get some damage due to Luca (my cat) knocking them over. That's okay though because it does not damage my memories of them. The little red girl was always filled with candies. I had to laugh when I took her out of the box of my Grandmother's things because she still had a 25 cent tag on the bottom probably from a church sale.

I like to set little Christmas surprises around the kitchen. There might be a snowman here and a little bird there, you just never know. I really like vintage Christmas pieces and they make some great reproductions. The door hanger has nice old bells on it. I adore this garland. It is a lovely old silver with top hats, bells and christmas phrases. I hang it between my two kitchen so I can really see it.

Today I decorate the tree and finish the family room. I took it out this morning and tested the lights, all are working so far.

Just two more things before I go.

Here is my little granddaughter cupboard we built her. She giggled when she saw it and crawled over and rubbed the wood. I cannot tell you how wonderful that made us feel.

Just 3 days left for MY CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY so please go to the sidebar under GIVEAWAYS and join in.

Now I have finished my coffee, finished my post and I am putting on my elf's hat to finish decking the halls. I will start the studio on Sunday and I still have five stockings to make. For my U.S. bloggers hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving and a fruitful Black Friday now get home and decorate!