A Very English Christmas

What do you love about your Home at Christmas?
Karla is asking the question - she is hosting a virtual Christmas house party on her blog today (see the side bar).

Well first off we love our lounge and the fireplace with the roaring fire is the hub of the home, so cosy in winter and made extra special at Christmas.
December is the month of year when the house is filled with light, sweet treats and lots of cheer.
We start with a real Christmas tree which comes from Norway, this particular one does not loose it's needles and smells lovely.
I have collected lots of decorations over the years but my taste does change and for the last few I have preferred delicate whites snowflakes, hearts, rhinestones and glass baubles. I like to see the green on my tree and so leave the tinsel off, instead I add sheer ribbon .
I have lots of new ornaments this year- the rhinestone ones are from The Hope Jar - a lovely website. I have more hearts which are similar to the one below and baubles from Green Gate (sourced from Sophie Perks -Ward - ).
Just lately I have bought quite a collection of handmade ornaments from our very own Carol of Boxwood Cottage. This one below is Marie Antoinette and was wrapped soooo beautifully.
You can just catch a peak of the Marie Antoinette one in the tree - as I will be working hard on my round robin over the Christmas holiday it will serve to inspire me:)
- I just think they are so elegant.This one below is hanging from the chandelier in the dining room -bestowing German greetings on us and appropriately the little girl is sounding the horn - (calling us for dinner I think:)) Enchanting. Thank you Carol x.Well to add to the festivities I bought these gorgeous cones above from my sweet round robin friend Holly at Holly Doodle Designs. These are called 'Let it snow' cones and I love them. I have never had cones before although going by many blogs especially the Scandinavian blogs and of course Germany, these have been used for special treats for many, many, years. I love the idea of them and Holly really does come up with the most original and beautiful idea's, not to mention all the eye candy actually inside. I might even keep these out all winter. They hang with pride on my mirror in the lounge and you can just see the glass chandelier drops hanging below that came in the lovely cones.
I bought this wreath a few years ago from a very talented lady on ebay called Renee- I can't find her anymore on ebay but she knew how to create:) - she went to so much effort to make it right for me using vintage baubles of the particular colour that I wanted and shipped it in the most magnificent box that could probably withstand a crane landing on it. It arrived in excellent condition with no breaks. I really love it and could keep this out all year too. I recently received a gorgeous wreath with some lovely ballerina's and snowflakes in a swap from Tamy at Simply Mein.
I adore it and look at all the gorgeous pink!! It fits in very well with my decorations in the dining room.
I've put it on the dresser with other glorious eye candy, including little houses from Cody Foster and Miss Duffy and even Christmas goodies from the local garden centre.

And if you look closer

The pink wreath looks quite comfortable alongside my beautiful Christmas bunny box from Jenn at Sweet Eye Candy Creations. Jenn can come up with the most gorgeous and utterly whimsical original one of a kind bunny boxes. I love everything she makes!
But no Christmas would be complete without a beautiful crown and this snow queen crown from Holly is one of the most magnificent crowns I have ever seen - bring on the snow! I hear your iced in at the moment Holly with ice storms no less - what happened to the snow:(

Scanning around the dining room you may have caught site of some little bottle brush tree's and a wish sign - well these are all thanks to Heather who caught herself a bargain after thanksgiving. I wish our sales started before Christmas - it makes much more sense. Anyway she offered to find me a bargain or 2. Well I was so pleased that she did and they really are gorgeous in flesh. We don't have these here .... but we should - the signs are chunky and can sit quite comfortably anywhere.
Well we are not quite ready for decorating our table yet - but this is how it looked last year.

We are still painting and decorating at the moment and believe it or not the kitchen will be turned upside down on Monday - we are having new tiled flooring in the kitchen - talk about he 11th hour! Anyway this is all that is fit to be seen just yet.

Come back soon and see if it all got finished in time.

But in the meantime ~ HAPPY CHRISTMAS ~

bottoms up - cheer - chink chink ............ oops

Oooooh dear!

Well actually that's quite arty ... I like it!

Well for those that don't

Arrrh that's better:))