I am not a professional decorator kinda gal…  for the sake of my self-esteem – try to act surprised. My decorating skills come from more of a trial and error type of experience.

I know what looks good – it just takes a while getting there.  Some people can pull together some loose legos and a photo of a gingham rooster and your heart stops at the beauty, I am not that gal.

Alright – perhaps the legos and rooster were a bit of an exaggeration – but we all know people that have a gift for making common everyday items look amazing!

This will be the first Christmas with the fireplaces complete.  I was pretty excited about decking them out for the holidays. When I pulled out the boxes of Christmas decorations I tried every combination of every stocking, pine cone, and holly bough available.

Then with garden snips in hand, I wandered our woods gathering the perfect cedar branches. Once they were elegantly displayed on our mantles – I was reminded of just how flammable those once live branches can be.  So, after removing my budget outdoor branches, my next jaunt was to our local Hobby Lobby.

I experimented with one display after another and still another – combining this with that and that with this…  standing back to admire each new creation, they all shared one problem, none of those creations were that admirable…  until I started removing items one by one – it seems the more I took down the better I liked it!

My biggest challenge in decorating is knowing when to leave well enough alone.  When it comes to decorating my home – I am learning that less is best.

Like the fireplace in the kitchen…  This is the same topiary that is always there – I just added some Christmas pics and a Skinny Santa. Anything else would get roasted on that shelf.