As we were cleaning up after Thanksgiving, wait wasn’t that years ago! The thought crossed my mind about leaving the table in the living room. You see I always have to move the table into the living room when I’m doing a dinner. My kitchen eating area is just not big enough for more than 4 people. So I always make the “switch”. Couch goes into the kitchen, and table comes into the living room to create a dining space. Making the switch is moderately challenging and quite frankly a pain in the neck, but I’m not willing to give up entertaining the way I want just because I don’t have a dining room.
After washing silver and crystal and doing the final clean up of the table the husband said “why don’t we just leave the table here thru Christmas”. You know life is getting spooky. The older we get the more we think alike. Most of the time we can’t even agree what side of the street to drive on! Moving on, that’s what we did.
I’ve always liked this arrangement. Having the couch in the kitchen is cozy and creates more of a keeping room, which I have always loved. So as things started evolving with the Christmas decorating, I knew I had to keep the kitchen simple.
Having a very small kitchen means that every ounce of counter space is to be treasured. I don’t do nearly as much cooking as I used to, but I’ve found myself cooking and baking a lot this season. Now most people would say dah, but for me the last few years I haven’t put that much effort into baking. If I bake it I eat it and that’s a problem for me. So I don’t really bake anymore.
But, I’m having a party tonight! Well just an open house. I decided after getting everything all done that I wanted to share. So tonights the night. Oh this was a kitchen post, back to that.
The first thing I always do when it comes to decorating for Christmas in the kitchen is to do the cubby.
This year I used my Spode Christmas Tree, with a mix of McKenzie Childs Courtly Check and some of my collection of antique ironstone.
I added a couple of bottle brush trees and called it good.
On the shelf above the kitchen sink I just added a vintage chalkware Santa.
He was actually the first Santa that I bought and he always makes me smile. I just tucked in a few faux greens and called it a day.
The chandelier usually gets some greens. Always faux anymore. This year I added 2 cedar garlands with a layer of a frosted twig and berry between and then came in with some twisty vine stuff. It works.
The star of this little tableau is the feather tree. Well faux and not really feathers but I do love the simplicity of this little tree. I placed it on an old wooden barrel and then I stuck my wood pedestal on top to give the tree a surface to sit on, with the pedestal sitting inside the barrel!
Still not quite pleased with the height I added some books underneath the barrel. Then the hole thing was a bit woody so I just added an old piece of wool plaid Ralph Lauren fabric to soften the edges. Then I put the tree inside a band box and surrounded it with pinecones. Problem solving folks! This little tree is filled with darling felt ornaments a few Radko’s for sparkle, a paper chain my granddaughter and I made when she was 3, she is now 21.
A felt poodle made by my step grandmother and my real grandmother’s (who I never met) candle clips.
A paper star I made years ago sits atop this sweet little tree.
There is just something about using these old little bits and pieces of my life and the people who came before me.
And that’s it. My kitchen decorated for the holiday.
Thanks for stopping
Shelley
