Christmas Bedroom Vignette

It's that time of year again, my friends!

Life for me has been a whirlwind of activity with very little downtime lately.  I've neglected holiday decorating, holiday baking, and I've been somewhat of a Scrooge.  (I also haven't tended to my garden for about four years, but that's a story I'll save for Spring....)

This year, my kids are *slightly* older, my feet are *kind of* back on the ground, I'm *sort of* getting more sleep, and I HANDED IN THE FINAL COPY OF MY THESIS TONIGHT!!!  I feel like I have all the free time in the world!!!

And that means I actually had a minute to create a holiday vignette for Rhoda's Vignette Party.  When I noticed that several of my favorite bloggers were mentioning this vignette party, my first thought was: what the hell is a vignette? (As it turns out, a vignette is nothing more than a little display.) And then I thought: I have time for that this year!

So, I threw some stuff on my bedside table, and voila! It's a vignette! :)  Usually the bedside table is also piled with a stack of diapers, some Aquaphor, tissues, and books, but I cleared them off for this occasion.  In fact, if I had panned out the photo a little wider, you would see them on the bed.

Here's my favorite little twist pedestal and my new glass cloche.  Michael teases me about the cloche a lot, since I like to "put everything under glass."  The fake snow and the pinecones are from Michael's, and the little bird is from the Dollar Tree.  I love that he's all silvery and fancy.

The dish on the pedestal was a gift.  My mom and my aunt Cheryl bought me a set of these vintage dishes, berry bowls, plates, and teacups.  I LOVE them, but for the life of me I cannot remember what they are called.  They are so delicate that I rarely use them, but this seemed safe enough.  Look at the pattern on this rim.  Isn't is gorgeous?  Love.

I used a dish from the same collection to hold my mercury glass ornaments.  These are from the same collection I have on my mantel....the ones that were originally my Mom's.  Did you know that it is impossible to take a photo of mercury glass ornaments without getting yourself in the reflection?  It's true.  Can you tell I'm in my pajamas? :)

I can't wait to show you this next photo, because I am so proud of it.  Check out the sun flare.  I did that on purpose!  I love it!

This is a reproduction Christmas card that I picked up at Home Goods a few years ago.  They came in a pack of 12, but I never sent any, because I couldn't decide which 12 people to send one to.  So now I just use them for decoration!  Aren't they cute?  Here's a photo without the sun flare.

I picked up the little red and white "ribbon candy" ornaments at the Dollar Tree.

And my Valentine's Day gift from last year, my Pottery Barn Charleston Vintage Clock, sits atop a couple of children's Christmas books.

So, that's my holiday vignette!  I give it a few hours before it's covered with diapers and tissues again.

 I'm linking up to Rhoda's Vignette Party and Very Merry Vintage Style.  Check out their sites for some beautiful holiday vignettes!

A Christmas/Holiday Mantel and Link

I'm pretty new to this decorating-the-mantel thing.  For the first seven years of living in this house, we had an antique, rectangular mirror hanging over the fireplace, a topiary on either side, and some photos scattered here and there on the mantel.  That's it.  It didn't change much, even around holiday time.

In the spirit of trying to flex my creative muscles, I decided to try a holiday mantel this year.  I covered the whole thing with lights, pine boughs (fake) and poinsettias (fake) and lived with it for a couple of days.  And every day I hated it more.  Maybe it's because Gavin kept trying to climb the pine boughs, or maybe it's because Nathan thought he could eat them.  Either way, I really just wanted something simple this year.


I found some wrapping paper that I liked at Target, so I started there.  I bought a piece of foam board at The Dollar Tree and covered it with the paper:

I also wanted to include these vintage ornaments.  They were my mom's when she was first married, and I think they're charming.

And I didn't want much else.  Here's what I ended up with:

I attached the foam board to the wall with sticky-tack, and hung my branchy (yes, I just used the word branchy!) wreath from a removable hook.  I also filled my hurricanes with fake snow and some pinecones from Michaels.

I also used these vintage candlesticks.  They were a flea-market find.

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And I had some leftover Scrabble pieces from a project I'm working on in Gavin's room (which is almost done), so I figured I would add those to the mantel too!

So there you have it! A simple, easy, no-fuss holiday mantel, which I find much more refreshing than the overly-ornate ones, at least this year.

I'm linking up to Layla's Mantle Party!  Follow this link to see some truly inspiring mantels!