Thursday, January 9, 2014

Thursday Thrill – Christmas in Cleveland

Metallic mix with red accents #christmas #tree #vintage

I know it's been done for a couple weeks now, but I'm sharing a bit of my Christmas with you all today. A few of you that follow me on Instagram (@chatterblossom) got a peek at parts of my holiday celebrations, decorations, and outfits, but I wanted to do a full post here to share more photos and details. 

The hubs and I went to celebrate Christmas with my sister and her husband in Cleveland. Weather wise, this is perfect! Raleigh rarely gets snow so having the possibility of a white Christmas in Ohio is wonderful! And snow we got! Almost every day that we were there actually. Big fat falling flakes! 

Tiny birds in my Christmas Tree! #christmas #tree #vintage #home

Another fun item on the holiday agenda? My sis asked if I could do the decorations for her new house. They just moved into a gorgeous home, but she didn't have holiday decor yet. She had a few ornaments from the last house but not much and nothing for the rest of the house. I was able to get a fantastic deal on some beautiful decorations! A local shop was liquidating their holiday stock and there was a buy one get one sale on already well below wholesale prices for very, very pretty things. My sister had asked for whatever I thought would be nice, classic, elegant, and in red and gold. Those were my stipulations. And it had to be for under $100. Challenge accepted!

I had to decorate a tree, a fireplace mantle, a table centerpiece, and a front door wreath. I know she asked for gold and red, but I wanted to try and incorporate a little silver so that she could use a few of her old ornaments and so that it had more texture and versatility if she ever wanted to go in a different direction. I found the prettiest stuff and had SO much fun putting it together. I love craft days and my sister was extremely nice to give me free reign. 

Holiday Mantle Decor #holiday #decor #gold #red #thanksgiving #christmas

Vintage Style Christmas Tree #vintage #christmas #red #gold #tree

For the tree: All the tinsel you see is a hodge-podge mix of different colored vintage tinsel remnants. I bought a whole box of random assorted tinsel from the 1940s and used them all. Silver, gold, white, and mixed. The silver ball ornaments were my sister's. I brought the glittered silver/gold and light catching crystal snowflakes to mix in. I wanted to make sure the red wasn't too bright and gaudy, so I tried to find berry reds to give it a more elegant feel. I found red glass berries on gold glittered stems, red glitter berries on pine sprigs with red metal jingle bells, a few deep red small ball ornaments, and stained red and gold crepe myrtle leaf sprigs. Sprinkled here and there are tiny birds too! Some have real feather tails painted a lovely gold and others are glittered with German glass glitter that will tarnish beautifully with age. 

Red & Gold Holiday Decor #christmas #decor #holiday #home #gold

Golden Glass Bird Ornament #vintage #christmas #gold #holiday

For the mantle: I found a case of gold foil pumpkins that I figured could be used for multiple holidays. I layered larger twigs of faux holly berries along the mantle, set out the pumpkins, added sprigs of red jingle bells in between. The vases of flowers she already had, so I just took out her purple flowers and added large berry twigs. She had some candles, pinecones, and a small paper flower arrangement in other parts of the house, so I took those and interspersed them as well. I added tiny berries to the paper flower arrangement in the center. To top it off, I added long golden leaves that I twisted into curly q's and two large real feather golden pheasants. 

Holiday Mantlepiece Decor #gold #home #decor #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

Mixed Metallics & Red #christmas #tree #decorations #holiday #gold #red

For the table centerpiece: She already had a large bowl with pinecones so I just emptied it, bent faux holly into a circle for the rim, filled it with pumpkins, and then tucked in berries and her original pinecones. Curled a couple more long gold leaves to elongate the piece and voila!

For the door wreath: Blast!! I forgot to take a photo! It was so pretty too! Dang it. Anyways, I made the wreath from metallic leather leaves in bronze, gold, and silver. I added layer upon layer and bent the leaves (they were on wire) to create a tousled organic feel. Some of the leaves veins were lined in German glass glitter as well. Sorry about the lack of photo! Drat!

Did I make my budget? With flying colors I did! I came in way under budget and kept half the decorations I bought for myself to use as materials for my shop. So everything you see here plus one wreath that you don't, came in at $50! I would call that a win!

Did you decorate for the holidays? I never do (very small apartment with zero space), so this was a super fun project for me! Thank you sis!!

Holiday Table Centerpiece #christmas #centerpiece #holiday #table #gold #red

My Golden Christmas #vintage #christmas #decor #home #tree #holiday #gold


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