HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2018 HOME TOUR

Hello there :),

By the time this post goes live hopefully you will have enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and you are still busy celebrating a wonderful Christmas Day.

 I started this blog post wanting to share my home tour with you all a few weeks ago. I kept adding photos as I grabbed a few minutes here and there, but then I totally ran out of time leading up to the festivities to finish it off and publish it.

So I decided that I would schedule it instead for the evening of Christmas Day in the hope that you might enjoy reading it as you sit down after a full day of celebrating with your nearest and dearest.

So Welcome to our Home this Christmas, grab a drink its picture heavy

The front door got a traditional look again this year, if you are a regular reader you know that we had the porch and front door remodelled last year (you can see our last year tour here ). Unfortunately the beautiful lanterns couldn't be fitted before Christmas ( the builder literally left On Christmas eve) so I jumped at the chance of adding a festive eucalyptus wreath to them this year.

And instead of a wreath for the door, I opted for a fresh pine and holly berry filled pair of ice-skates. It's been a few years since they've made an appearance but I love how they pop on the dark door.

Please, common in :)

As you enter, you catch a glimpse of our hallways tree ahead and to the right is a small cabinet in our porch section which got a little festive attention.

I usually have a red theme in our reception hall but I changed the rug in here this year so I decided to go neutral. 

The small tree is decorated in white and silver mercury glass ornaments. The cute antlers are from Hobbycraft , the stars I made myself out of dry porcelain, burlap ribbon from my SU stash and the tiny snowflakes are 22 years old, I bought them when I first came to the UK. 

And a view of the other side,  faux succulents I bought on my recent trip to US fit in quite happily. I love it when the everyday vignettes I have can be transformed with ease, so I do not have to find home for all these extra things when I decorate for Christmas.  The bird house was a gift from a dear friend years ago, I love using it every year with a few bird ornaments .

And of course. lights !! Little white lights which add a wonderful glow at night time ..

The tree in here was decorated in whites, silver and brown this year. 

This tree is soo glitzy and sparkly in real life. I took a little video of it and posted it on my Facebook Page here if you want to see it, I just love staring at it...

 These two  reindeers along with the lights on this tree are the only things I bought new this year. I usually add a few ornaments decorations to my collection each year, some years I make a load it all depends. And I always buy the bulk of my decorations in the sales after Christmas. 

 The console table got in on the action as well. This is a big, heavy wood piece so a natural decor fits it best.  All the woodland creatures were displayed on top of it amongst some pussy willow branches, and those Ikea trees, which  I've had quite a long time now.  A few sprigs of fresh eucalyptus on the lamps and fairy lights of course , the essential items for a bit of magic.

My Fox is KING this year Hee heee :)

Look who's here??? how cute is my darling Olly Pooh Bear ?? *heart eyes*  Olly is a 4 year old cockapoo and my shadow.. Where I go he goes.

Here's another view of the tree,  as you exit the sitting room so let's head there next :

The tree in this room is HUGE, seriously big but if fits into this corner really well and doesn't make our room feel in any way crowded. We had it five or six years now and so far I have no desire to replace it. Flocked trees are magic, I just love them.  I went for sparkly white, gold and copper this year in here.

The coffee table got a simply makeover and let me tell you this was the picture that I only added this morning after breakfast.

Again I kept as much of my regular items I have on this table as I could, and only added a few festive touches. Some fresh pine from our daily walks and a few sparkly stars. The bowl with bauble houses all of our regular junk ( I keep Olly's comb and brush there, my manicure set, odds and ends we need. I like that I have it all on hand but the baubles hide everything away.

 At the other side of the tree is our drink cabinet, well it started life as a TV cabinet when we first set up house together and when TV's were of a reasonable size, now it houses our drinks and my printer ( haha the reality of it all )

I added simply little green wreaths to my collection of white pots and carried it through to the mantlepiece.

The little white houses are from Hobbycraft and provide the perfect backdrop for my Italian Nativity set. Oh and check out my Aloe Vera plant !!! Doesn't she looks wonderfully Christmassy??

I love that you can catch a glimpse of the hallway tree in the mirror ( and the hoover behind the door, but I'm not looking at that), and if you look really closely there's that pup again snoozing on the other sofa  LOL

The dining room got its Christmas dressing as well. The big sideboard was kept simple as it usually doubles up as a bar or holding bay for
dishes and stuff while we entertain.

This next shot clearly indicates what I mean, here it is piled with presents we received on Christmas Eve.

For the table I placed my collection of Mercury glass single stem bottles and filled with fresh pine and some sparkly branches. They were corralled on a big tray draped with a garland of twinkly lights so that they can be easily moved to set the table. I add thin tapered candles to them for dinners 

And talking about setting the table, this is ours this year. I set it on Christmas Eve late at night after a little soiree, we tend to host our neighbours every Christmas Eve if we can, and it was a truly wonderful evening.

There is no secret that I love miss-matching my decor and I also love to do so with my table setting too. I purchased some vintage Royal Doulton white and blue china this year with a bonus I earned through my business and I loved using them for Christmas for the first time. 

And here's a picture I snapped in the candlelight. Yes a little tree resides here as well :)

 Phew, we made it till the end !!! that is all I have for today, sadly 2018 wasn't the year we got to start work on our extension and the kitchen is in no state to be showed off, but here's hoping 2019 will be the year that will make that happen.
 <3 nbsp="" p="">
Happy Christmas my dear reader it was wonderful to have you here today. Thank you for visiting

Much love Monica and Olly :) 

Christmas Home Tour 2017

Hello there,

Its Christmas Eve and we have started the relaxing and enjoying our family this season. As I type this everyone is watching a Christmas Movie, my sister is putting the finishing touches to our favourite desert, then we will hit the local Christmas Market for a hot mulled wine and a mooch round the busy stalls.

I promised you a Christmas Tour and I am afraid that in the end I was beat. Beat by the delays with our building work. We embarked on a 2 week remodel of our front porch on the 6th of November and today our builder is still finishing off the brick around the glass roof we had installed.

Nothing is painted yet, we have holes in the plasterboard and I was still cleaning the mess yesterday afternoon. As a result, I only managed to add a little bit of decor but I am happy and it looks festive and wonderful.

Let's start with the Entrance !! This is what we had before we started.  I hated that front door with a passion and we lived with it for 3 whole and very long years.

Ugh, it was brown, plastic, drafty, it leaked when it rained but maybe what I hated the most was the not symmetric windows. I dreamt of the day we would have it changed and thank Goodness we did this year.

This is what we have now,  I couldn't wait for the paint to dry so I can deck it all out. And if you partook in my picking a colour drama, we chose to paint the door in Farrow and Ball *Railings* after much deliberation.

You can just see the glass roof peeking there at the top, its a wonderful addition that let's so much more light into our hallway (well it should do, once the light returns to the UK, it feels like its night time all the time at the minute)

I was so excited to make one BIG wreath this year. I foraged the local woods and our garden for greenery and bought some fresh eucalyptus for a good mixture.

And I just couldn't resist taking one of those magazine type styled pictures with my gorgeous Olly the Cockapoo pup. I shared a better one on Facebook, but I want you to look at his back legs in this shot LOL

As you open the door now a full view of the hallway tree emerges. I absolutely love that we have room for a tree in our hallway. Its such a treat and the colour here is always red. I don't think you can get better than red for Christmas, some years is rustic and some years is modern but the red is a constant. We have the rustic version this year and I am kicking myself that I haven't got a better picture of it but here's one mid way before I fund the star. 

You go past the remodelled porch ..

The large console is a new addition and I added all of my woodland animals to it. 

I bought these cuties from a fab Interior Shop in Brussels a few years ago. I carried back on the plane a hand luggage full of creatures. 

Aren't they cute? made from fur and tree bark on light polysterene shapes. The tall lamps got a wreath each, topped with the same chunky Tartan ribbon bows that are on the tree. Oh and the puppy is always watching my every move.. can you spot him?

To the right is our cloakroom, and this gets a simple festive touch each year as well. We decorated this room two years ago and I still love it, that sea green marble sink on stainless steel legs makes my heart happy every time I go in there. 

Right ahead from the hall is the kitchen but that is not fit for any kind of photographing. We are eagerly awaiting our new extension so hopefully next year I will be able to share that space. 

The to the left is our lounge and this year tree has touches of copper, orange and browns. 

The lounge is fairly neutral in decor, and I like to change the cushion colour each year, this year these orange ones dictated the scheme. 

I get asked all the time about my extensive collection of ornaments. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, and I love trimming the house, it makes my heart truly happy to walk into my home and see every space transformed. I do it for me and my own pleasure first and if others enjoy it as well that's a massive bonus. I collect ornaments, I buy really cheap plastic ones for the base of the tree and have special ones at the front of the tree. I have a constant base of gold and silver then add a few extra in my chosen colour for the year. Most of them combine together so almost everything gets used every year. 

My favourite tree is our bedroom one I don't have pics of that either but check back I will take some these next fee days and update you :)

I hope you have enjoyed these snippets of our home, I want to thank you for visiting my blog and for all your support as always. 

Much love Monica 

xoxo