it's time for holiday decorating!

since i've already had one thanksgiving, i am now more than ever ready to decorate the house in holiday attire!! i went a bit crazy this year and bought new stuff at hobby lobby & target!!

here are the initial stages of the house in it's holiday spirit!

i got small ball ornaments at the dollar section in target and tossed them into the jar we keep our wine corks!

festive!

here is all my new purchases for our "mantel." now, we do not have a fireplace, but we have a rather large blank wall and i needed something to hang our stockings on, so we are in the midst of creating a mantel (more on that later)! my theme for the living room mantel is white | silver | gold.

at the bottom of the picture, are the 2 "L" brackets that will hold up our makeshift mantel | as far as decorations go, i bought a 9 ft already-lit garland from target for only $10! the mirror and tall candle holder, i already had. most of the ball ornaments came from hobby lobby (1/2 off central!), and the other stuff came from target! i can't wait to see this finished!

i am SO EXCITED about these cool old style lights. i bought these last year at target on sale, after christmas, so i've not used them yet. i'm thinking about putting them on my artificial tree on our front porch! (we are getting a real tree this year! oh joy oh bliss. i'm so excited!) can you tell i love christmas?

i replaced the pink pillow on the chair with a pillow that i already had - a red paisley from pottery barn!

a fantastic holiday hard back book holds up our cute christmas-y bucket which is now the new home of our remotes!

if you haven't figured it out yet, i love all things vintage. on the bottom is super old sheet music of "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" that i found at an estate sale a couple of years ago. on top is a copy of "a christmas carol" that was my dad's when he was a little boy. a votive holder now holds candy canes!

ornaments in vases = cheap + festive!

i bought this 2 tiered stand about a month ago at an antique store here in denver and i couldn't wait to use it for christmas! these ball ornaments i bought on sale at target last year at christmas! i knew they would come in handy one day!

check back in for more decorations of our new mantel, plus after thanksgiving, we will be going up to the mountains and cutting down our first tree together!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!