Ho Hum Holiday

The holiday decorating felt forced this year. I just could not get in the spirit no matter how many batches of cookies I baked. I am usually one of those people who crank up the Christmas music and start decorating the day after thanksgiving. This year we didn't even cut our tree until two weeks before Christmas and it sat bare for another week until I finally got around to decorating it. In the interest of tradition I keep my decorations fairly similar from year to year, however I wanted to share some of my favorite moments and new additions from this Christmas season. 

I am not into theme trees my decorations are a collection of sentimental ornaments from family and trips gathered over time. 

This old sap bucket is my most favorite decoration with season. I love love love wrapping paper and wanted a way to display my finds. I had this old leaky sap bucket laying around from a failed planting project. I lightly sprayed it with a cheery red high gloss paint I had leftover from another project. The galvanized aluminum still peaks through under the festive paint giving it an old fashioned look. 

This little bucket was given to me a few years ago and had some sort of poinsettia motif that wasn't really my style. I spray painted it with Rust-o-lean Hammered Copper and filled it with bells and scented pine cones. The scented pine cones were the only holiday decor purchase I made this year everything else was reused from past holidays or re-purposed from other projects. 

In the background is one of my little reindeer friends. I last year he was paper bag brown, but this year he got a new coat of high gloss bright white. Inspired my the white lamp I fell in love with this summer

Then of course there is my other white love, Snow. I am thankful for a white Christmas again this year and hopefully every year forever after. It is why I moved to Vermont after all. I don't think I could ever again live in a place with a winter that wasn't blanketed in snow 

Stick Season

I had a long To Do list of all the ambitious projects I wanted to get done today. My reward for completing the list was treating myself to snowboarding tomorrow morning.  I started off bright and early, but unfortunately I only completed the first item.

It took me four hours (and almost an entire bottle of wood glue) to make this stick tree.  A task I thought would take about two.  It still needs a topper because it doesn't seem like I can finish anything lately. I need some focus. I had evergreen boughs and wreaths everywhere last year. I cannot seem to find the holiday spirit this year so I am going with sticks.

I made this wreath over the weekend by simply weaving freshly cut twigs around a wire ring. It took maybe a half hour. I added the red bow to bring some color up from the mantel and tie in with the lanterns.  

Blogging was not on my list and I still accomplished it, even if I used crappy iphone pics. That gives me bonus points and I can still snowboard tomorrow morning right? I am going anyway, just so you know.

Tomorrow's  To Do List

• Snowboard
• Cut posts for headboard
• Sand and shape door handle
• Sand and degloss bathroom shelf
• Assemble lamp shade
• Hang indoor and outdoor lights
• Get a christmas tree
• Finish living room side table
• Fix the hole Casey hacked into our t & g wall

Yeah I might get two of those items done