My Favorite Sight to See

I love this sight. Christmas trees and greenery with lights. It is so cozy to me.

I know it's early, but I couldn't wait. Plus I will be travelling in a few days for Thanksgiving and I will be running in my first 1/2 marathon. I won't be back until Monday. When I return, all the hard work is done and I can enjoy Christmas.

Be Inspired! -Karol :0)

Magnificent Mantels

It's time to think about how to decorate your mantel this year. In just a week or so we will decking our halls. My favorite blog NESTING PLACE has a great "how to" for making a gorgeous greenery swag for your mantel. She even shows you what to do if you don't have a mantel.

I don't have a fireplace or a mantel. I have an antique cabinet as a focal point in my living room that serves as our tv stand. It does have a ledge so I am going to see if I can use it as a mantel. I may even try to put the tv in the cabinet for the next few months, not sure it will fit. (sorry thinking out loud).

My Home Ideas has a great slideshow of Magnificent Mantels. CLICK HERE to take a look. Maybe you will find some inspiration there.




I really like this photo (from the slide show). Great idea!

Be Inspired. -Karol :0)

Country Meets the Beach

What do you do when you move from the city with a cute house decorated with antiques, quilts, and country decor and move to the beach?

I have spent years collecting things and creating my style. I can't just up and change everything to the "beach" look.

I stopped at an awesome store today called Kathleen's Kottage. They have an advertisement in our local paper that they have finger starfish for $1.00. That is a bargain and I wanted lots of them to do some decorating so I took a trip over there today. I am in love with her store!

I took this picture below just for The Nester. Look at all those windows, doors, and shutters, girl! I thought of you when I saw them and grabbed my camera and took this picture just for you. :0)

Anyway, back to the Country Meets the Beach... I have placed starfish around my home just to get a feel for it. I am going to somehow incorporate country with beach. I'll share more in future posts of how that is coming along.

I even broke down and bought this sign for the porch. I am going to change the ribbon to something different, maybe wire, but I had to get it because the arrow is pointing the right direction to the beach for us!

More posts soon of how I am "embracing the beach". By the way, I am still working on front porch ideas and keeping the ideas in my Sparkbook!

Be Inspired -Karol :0)

Christmas Decorating

I love decorating for Christmas. The other day as I was putting up the tree and decorating, I took this picture of my Patriotic Santa. Why is he riding on a sheep? I don't know. I just thought he was neat looking so I got him. Plus he was on clearance 2 years ago at my favorite store in Jacksonville, The Olde Green Cupboard. I miss that store. One stroll through there and I ran home and decorated something! Very inspiring store. Click on their name and visit their website. They have some really pretty pictures of the displays and decor in their store. They are also a quilt shop.

I love decorating the Christmas tree. Each one of my ornaments brings back memories. Some are new, I usually add a few new ones each year, but some are old.

I have some cute little felt stockings with goodies stuffed inside that my friend Sadie in England made me. She also made me an adorable praying angel with a clothespin body. She's embellished with gold trim and brown embroidery floss hair.

I made this oval glass ornament which has a poem behind the glass in memory of my mom who passed away many years ago. The poem is titled "Merry Christmas from Heaven" -by John William Monney, Jr.. Here's a link to the story behind the poem and the words: http://www.merrychristmasfromheaven.com/

I have a little Santa moon face ornament dated 1992 from a very sweet friend, Melinda. I love hanging that one and remembering our friendship and realizing how blessed I am to have her as my friend all these years. We don't get to talk often. She and her husband are busy with 4 kids and preparing for the Mission Field with JAARS. But she'll always be my friend.

Then there's these wooden puzzle ornaments my mom made long ago. She cut them out with her scroll saw, painted and drilled a hole down the top center to string them together as an ornament. The string can be removed and taken apart as a puzzle.

There are some that I handmade when I used to make dolls and crafts. I'll share pictures of one of the many gingerbread men tucked in the branches and Joseph & Mary with baby Jesus.

Thanks for looking at my tree with me today.

Be Inspired! -Karol

Christmas Ornaments

This picture is a closeup of some of the ornaments on my Christmas tree I put up in my kitchen each year. For several years now I have been collecting cute kitchen gadget ornaments to adorn this tree. I fill in blank spots with artificial fruit. Each year I see something new to add to my tree. There's a few cute glass blown coffee ornaments at Bed Bath & Beyond I've been eyeing this year.

I have our family tree, which is loaded with all kinds of ornaments, sentimental ones, whimsical ones, delicate ones, glass blown, resin, wooden, cloth, etc.

I have a small tree for my daughter's room that has pretty, frilly, shabby chic ornaments and girly things.

And, I have a small tree for my son's room that has football ornaments, fishing lures, camping stuff, and boy-type ornaments.

For this post I wanted to share a few of my favorite places to find unusual ornaments....

1) Target -Every year Target seems to add something new to their huge and categorized assortments of ornaments. I have purchased quite a few ornaments from Target the past few years. Above you'll see a cute Telephone Cabin and Police Officer ornament set available online only from Target. I just realized they have WAY more ornaments online as they do in the store!

2) World Market -This is a great place for all kinds of unusual glass blown ornaments, as well as other types of ornaments. The picture above is of the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, cute!

3) Home Goods -Although Home Goods doesn't really show much on their website, they have lots of great finds in their stores! I miss having a Home Goods close by. (boo hoo) But, Home Goods website does have something called "Open House Blog" where bloggers contribute what they find at Home Goods. Above is a picture from a blogger that found ornaments. Click on picture to go to this story and more pics from this blogger plus many other contributors.

4) Hobby Lobby -Hobby Lobby has at least 5 aisles of Christmas Ornaments. All separate in to categories and styles. I love looking at ornaments there. They have unusual ones you won't see anywhere else. Unfortunately their website doesn't show what they have to offer in stores, you'll just have to go see for yourself. Their website has a store finder if you're not sure if you have one near you. -Don't forget to wait until they are on sale! This week all tree decor is 50%! Sign up for their weekly email and they send you the weekly specials by email (along with coupon to use).

5) eBay -Let's not forget eBay. If you're looking for an ornament that maybe you had as a child, or a tree topper just like your parents used to put on top of the tree each year, you might just be able to find it on eBay. You can even find retired Disney, Dept. 56, Hallmark and others on eBay, too. There's literally thousands of items listed for ornaments right now!

Be Inspired and go decorate your Christmas tree(s)! -Karol :0)