Finesse Your Nest House Tour

Nesting Place hosted a Christmas Tour of Homes today and I just ALMOST missed it!  I think I'm delirious after my 1000th cookie baked!

Now don't forget to go check all the other beautiful homes on the tour.  I'm still wiping the drool from my chin!

When I saw this event I just knew it was the motivation I needed to get the house "done".  Here are some of the things I've put together in the last several weeks.  Some of this is a repeat, for those of you that follow me regularly.

Hoping to get more done this week, but here is the house, so far...

Welcome to my home!

It's a little "beachy" inside and definitely NON-traditional holiday colors!

I love this simple holiday display sitting on my trash-to-treasure bench!

The tree...

Even my art got wrapped up and rehung!

Snowflakes on the banister hung with gray satin ribbon...

A cute little wall hanging as you enter the kitchen!

And here is our family room...

Working around the electronics is a challenge! (*sniff*)

I love fun holiday pillows!

We had snow 2 weeks ago in South Texas!  This is my son tasting snowflakes!

Happy Holidays!

Go check out this cool giveaway....today only!

Head over to It's The Little Things That Make A House A Home where they are giving away $150 to spend in their Etsy store!  They make the COOLEST little wine racks called "Riddling Racks"

(photo It's the Little Things That Make A House A Home)

I just love it!  It has a vintage feel, yet a contemporary vibe as well! 

2 easy holiday wall arrangements

I picked these unfinished letters up at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 a piece (which is why I spelled JOY, instead of a longer word!)  I spray painted them white and tied a tiffany blue bow around the "O".  These hang on one of the columns in my kitchen.

 Sorry another fuzzy pic, and it's a little "yellowy" (was taking without a flash).  I tacked up a snowflake ribbon, floor to ceiling, to the column that separates my dining room from the foyer and tacked a bow to the top.  I will use this to display all the wonderful Christmas cards we get this year.  I'm using 3M mounting tape to attach the cards to the ribbon.

My mantle (& tales of working around a plasma TV & a tweetie woofie thingy!)

Okay, so I fight with my mantle holiday decor every year.

Problem #1 - the giant plasma TV hanging over the mantle

Problem #2 - the tweeter, woofer (it's one of those things I think) that MUST (according to hubby) sit on the mantle in the center to get the full effect of the surround sound that he paid a fortune for.

So, 2 weeks ago my mantle started out like this....

YAWN.... See what I'm dealing with here?  This arrangement just wasn't speaking to me.

So, here's what I threw together yesterday...

A little better.  I just don't think I'll get the look I'm imagining with that electronics eyesore.  I asked hubby if I could wrap it like a Christmas package.  He didn't think that was very funny!

My son, Pierce, asked me why the stocking hangers say "No EL".  What is "EL" and why don't we want any?  I laughed and explained it was really "NOEL" but thanks to Daddy's tweetie thingy, it looks a little strange.

So I work with what I have, and I drool over everyone else's gorgeous black eyesore-free mantles...

I cut evergreen branches off the trees in my front yard.  FREE!  I filled the tall containers with cranberries from the grocery store.  The pillar holders were on clearance for $2 a piece at Hancock's, and I spray painted them white.  Those are ornaments on top.

May re-do this one.  It looks like a big evergreen monster coming out of the firebox doesn't it?  Hubby won't let us burn fires in the fireplace because he's afraid we will melt his precious plasma TV (*sigh*)

O Christmas Tree!

I'm putting together several things today, because I don't know how often I will be posting next week.  I am baking for 80 of my husband's best clients.  Yeah, shoot me now!  I've done this for the last 2 years and they just love getting homemade goodies.  The list grows every year, so I think next year I will be roping a friend in to help!

Here is my main Christmas tree.  Now this is Mama's tree and nobody touches it or ELSE!  It is perfectly put together and everything coordinates (at least in my mind it is perfect!)

 I just love the vent in the background.  It adds a nice touch, don't you think?  My husband won't let me cover it up with furniture, because he says it's important for heating & cooling, blah, blah, blah.... It's ugly!

These are 2 shell prints that normally hang here.  I just took them off the wall, wrapped them like a Christmas package and rehung them.  Easy, and FREE!

Here are some of my favorite ornaments...

That "PEACE" sign was a Dollar Tree find.  I just spray painted it white and added white glitter for sparkle!

The "JOY" sign was a Target Dollar Spot treasure.

The little snowflakes were a pack of 6 for $1 at Dollar Tree.  I love Dollar Tree!

This is the banister that runs behind the tree.  I usually put up fresh garland, but just didn't feel like dealing with the mess this year.  I found these jumbo snowflakes at Dollar Tree and hung them from silvery-gray satin ribbon.

Outside of my house after much gnashing of teeth!

Helpful tip to everyone....Command Hooks do NOT work on stone exterior.  After many trips up and down a ladder trying to hang those icicle lights in the arches on my front patio, I finally resorted to electrical tape!  So, while it is beautiful from the outside, it's a black tape nightmare on the inside.  Oh well...

Here's another view from the side.  Yeah, there's my son's bike!  I was too tired to move the darn thing.  Maybe I should have just hung a wreath on it and called it part of the scheme!

My lighted trees.  The 4.5 foot was $5 at Target last year the week after Christmas and the little one was $2!  SCORE!  I put a snowflake ribbon bow with streamers on both.  They are really there to cover up the HOT MESS that are the cords to all the lights!

It's not you, that picture is a "little" fuzzy...okay, a LOT.  Now if I were really snazzy I would have a cute little bench there, but let's just pretend those cheapo chairs are a bench, okay?  I took two old red pillows and tied the same snowflake ribbon around each.

My bird wreath.  Quite clever that my wreath ties back to my blog name, dont'cha think?

I have a thing for birds, and nests, and eggs....

After I took all these pictures, half the icicle lights fell down (aargh!) and part of the icicle lights on my house blew a fuse.  Back to the drawing board!