holiday tour, sort of.

Published on by Quandie

I’ve been promising to share my house decorated for the holidays for a while now, but the darn weather here in Minnesota has just not cooperated.  We’ve had days and days of gloomy, grey weather filled with something the meteorologists like to call a ‘wintry mix’ a.k.a. rain, sleet, and snow which is not conducive to getting beautiful photos indoors or out.  The sun has finally started to peek out a little here and there, but never at a time when I am home and can take pictures.  This is one of those times when having a day job really impacts my ability to also have a blog.

But, enough whining!  It sounds like we may get some glimpses of the sun this weekend, so maybe I can get some better photos to share next week and in the meantime, I’ll share the handful of photos that I have deemed to be ‘blog worthy’.

This year I went with red and green in the kitchen.  I added some vintage jars full of ornaments to the shelf above my microwave.

tour jars of ornaments

I couldn’t resist this darling vintage Christmas card when I saw it while visiting the antique shops in North St Paul a couple of weeks ago.  Isn’t it sweet?  I just love the “Mr.” and “Mrs.” lanterns.  I propped it up in an old green ‘frog’ next to the jars.

tour mr and mrs

Santa is hanging out under this glass dome.

tour glass domeI found a square boxwood wreath at Home Goods last week and thought it would be perfect on the pantry door.  I “kitchenified” (my own made up word) it by adding old silverware.

square wreath

I just tied the silverware in place using clear fishing line.

wreath on door

I added words (using Cricut vinyl) to some vintage red gingham trays recently (if you are local and want one of your own, I brought them to both Reclaiming Beautiful and Eye Candy ReFind and they are $12 each).  I love the way mine looks just leaning on the back splash on my kitchen counter.

tour kitchen tray

On Wednesday you saw the seasonal message I added to the chalkboard chair that hangs on the wall in the kitchen.  It also makes the perfect spot to hang my vintage Santa dish towel.

tour kitchen chalkboard

Let’s move on from the kitchen into the Q Branch.  In this room I’ve focused on pinks and aquas, with a little pale green thrown in.  You already know that my silver tree is in this room.tour tree in Q branch

tour Q branch

I added a festive touch to each of the mini dressers that sit on the credenza.  The little felt wreath ornaments came from Target and were the perfect size to hang on the dressers.

tour mini dresser 1

tour mini dresser 2

I am totally in love with the look of old toy trucks loaded with Christmas trees, how about you?  I had trouble finding a tree that was just the right size for my truck though.  I ended up with this one that was only $3 at Target.  The scale of it is a bit too large, but that kind of makes you feel like they did need a dump truck just to haul it, right?

tour truck

This year I hung my ornament wreath on the chalkboard door behind my desk.

tour q branch desk

tour ornament wreath

Just outside the Q Branch sits my Kitchen Scale buffet.  After admiring a wreath made with faux cotton boles on D.D.’s Cottage & Design, I spotted this faux garland of evergreen and cotton at Home Goods and I had to have it.

tour buffet angle

I draped it over my Kitchen Scale buffet.

tour kitchen scale buffet

And I added battery operated lights and a few white ornaments.

tour angel

Since I don’t have a fireplace, the stockings were hung with care (in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be there) on the buffet.

tour kitchen scale buffet close up

Last week Reclaiming Beautiful hosted a little get together for all of their vendors.  While there I met Joni who made these stocking out of old quilts.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  There were still quite a few left after I purchased mine ($14 each) so if you are local and in need of adorable stockings, you should head to Stillwater.

tour stocking

I’m hoping that Santa fills mine up with something good this year!

By the time I got to the living room I was nearly out of steam and out of decorations!  You’ve seen my row of tree toppers in the window …

vintage Christmas tree toppers

And I put a wire tree full of aqua and silver ornaments on the radiator ledge.  I love the mid-century modern feel of this tree and I placed my ceramic white deer next to it to play that up a little bit more.

tour living room

Well, that’s all you get for today.  I hoped you enjoyed taking a peek at some of my holiday decorations.

Hopefully I’ll be back next week with a few more.  Stay tuned.

30 thoughts on “holiday tour, sort of.”

  2. First let me say I love it all. I love your collection of vintage ornaments they are beautiful. That wreath and tree in the q branch are both stunning. The tree toppers, tree of pale aqua ornaments and ceramic white deer so perfect. Each vignette pulls you in for a closer look. The garland with cotton is something I have not seen love it. A couple of questions (1) did you make the wreath in the q branch? (2) What are you using for snow under the cloche? Thanks for the tour of your charming home.

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    1. Thanks Victoria! Yep, I made the wreath. Quite a few years ago. It involves a styrofoam wreath form, quite a few ornaments and lots of hot glue. The snow in the cloche is just your basic packaged fake snow; the kind you would get for a miniature snow village. I think the cotton bole garland would be more appropriate for a southern location like yours, but I do love it!

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  3. Thank you for sharing. Your silver & pink tree is spectacular. Bright sunny days are at a premium in this area this time of year. Hope you get some. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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  5. Love everything and that cotton swag is so Joanna! 😉 Spectacular styling! I just bought Sullivan a shirt that has a vintage truck hauling a tree on it.

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  6. I’ve been so looking forward to the Christmas decorating tour. Everything looks fabulous. Will there be a tour of the dining room? I sure hope so

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    1. I’m so glad you asked Donna 😉 The dining room is where I struggled the most with the lack of good lighting! And I just love how the room is decorated. So … yes! I hope to get better photos of it this weekend and share them next week. Stay tuned!

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  8. I love your Christmas decor. It looks so beautiful. The colors, the vintage ornamensts, trees… And I saw a vintage toy truck!! Sigh…

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    1. That should read ‘ornaments’. And I forgot the garland with the cotton that reminds me of snowballs, and the little santa and his tree under the dome and those 2 santa / spools (?) and the stockings and….well all of it.

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      1. LOL. Thanks Linda! I knew what you meant 😉 Those are little carved thread spools with the Santa faces. They are small, which made them perfect for the little mini dresser.

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    1. Thanks Lori. I have to laugh, the wreath fell off the door the other day (I was using one of those 3M hook thingies), so I moved it to the window over the sink where it looks even better (in my humble opinion)! Merry Christmas to you too!

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    1. Well, you are in luck Cynthia! You can read all about the pantry here. Looking back at that post makes me think maybe I should re-visit the pantry in another post. I didn’t even really explain how the door itself inspired the entire pantry makeover!

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