HOME TOUR 2011, Part 4, the LIVING ROOM

Welcome to Part 4 of our Progressive HOME TOUR, the Living Room!!

Remember to click on the link at the end of this post to continue the Tour and see the next room!!

Today I will be showing you the Living Room, which usually takes me about 3-4 days with the tree and the platform to completely decorate for Christmas!!!

If you missed Part 1, The Front Yard, click HERE

If you missed Part 2 , the Kitchen, click HERE

If you missed Part 3, the Dining Room, click HERE

You will see that I pretty much remove everything that is normally in the room and replace it with Christmas decorations!

I will be honest and say that after doing this with all the rooms downstairs , I have had a few melt downs.... It is not an easy task with working full time and it is getting harder as I get older BUT as long as I can physically do it, I will!!

This is the wall that ,when you open the front door, is to your left behind the door.

The hutch was Joe's Paternal Grandmother's. I refinished it standing right where it is some years ago.....

Now my Living Room is peach but in this room, I still stick with the traditional Christmas colors of red, green and a touch of gold....

There is the front door....

See the cane in the corner??

Remember Miracle on 34th Street?

When at the end of the movie, Kris's cane was in the corner of the new home?

Well, this is symbolic of that movie which is one of my favorite Christmas movies and the cane was my Dad's.

The pediment above the front door was a yard sale find many years ago that I stripped and stained.

I also did a faux wood finish on the metal front door.....

There is the cane again and an arrangement I did in the can where I usually put our umbrellas in.....

I think this wall is one of my focal points in the Living Room....

There are sconces on each side of the hutch which were yard sale finds.....



I take all of the things that are normally in this hutch out and replace them with Christmas things.....

The antique mirror was another flea market find. I love the colors of the frame....

The Santa and the gold church came from Burlington Coat Factory. Each were 75% off after Christmas for $6.25 each!

The Snow Baby was a gift....

I made all the swags for this room many years ago. I have since added and taken away different florals from them. This year, I changed all the bows.....

I wanted to change things up a bit.....

And this is the other side of the top of the hutch.....

The hutch is mainly filled with different sets from Sam's Club that I bought many years ago when they used to carry fantastic Christmas decorations...

They don't anymore.....

The top shelf of the Hutch....A Snow Family set from Sam's Club and Avon Christmas plates.....

Both the Nativity Set and the Angels are all from Sam's Club.....

And so is the Santa and his Sleigh Set along with more Avon Christmas plates.....

And the other side of the hutch....

The vintage looking angels came from Kohl's.....

Here is the one corner of the Living Room.Now I usually have garland on the rail of the stairs but since I am STILL decorating, I do not have it up yet because it makes it much easier moving boxes and tubs up and down from the attic......

Some more of my many Old World Santa's.......And a rather large Nutcracker.....

The globe on this table is a Mr. Christmas piece and it is stunning when it is lit and it plays about a dozen Christmas Carols....

It was a Flea Market find.....

The curio is one of the only things that stays the same and I do not change out for Christmas.....

Some of my Bearington Bears that I buy at a local grocery store for 75% off after Christmas ....

Underneath the chair....


More Santa's.....

Another swag....

Another nutcracker and one of my dolls.....



This is the wall between the Dining Room and the Living Room where I hung old window inserts from doors as dividers. You can see the windows on the Dining Room side and I hung lace curtains on the Living Room side.....

Some cute ornaments I bought at the Christmas Tree Shop this year. I think they were only $1.69 each and I had a 20% off coupon!!

This is the soffitt.......

This plaque was marked $29.99 from T. J. Max and I bought it for $3.00 at a yard sale!!!

Now we are looking at another wall....

My Wash Stand with Pitcher.....

A Doll, Santa's and another Bearington Bear....

I bought the Snow Man's Top Hat at the Christmas Tree Shop this year....

One corner of my fake window.....

I'll explain in a bit....On this table is my little collection of praying Santa items.....

One year, I even had personalized Christmas cards made with the Praying Santa in fornt of a church....

I will have to find it and put it in a frame and add it to my Collection on this table....

This church was a Flea market find and I thought it would be perfect for the Praying Santa's....

And it lights up!!In the late 70's when we first moved in, I put up those gold veined mirror tiles ( which I have seen in magazines lately so I guess they are coming back in style) and then realized that in order to take them off, I would be pulling off the stone look paneling that was also put on this wall in the late 70's....So I hung curtains and made a fake window....

A wreath I made many moons ago.....

And here is tree #4.....

These are on each side of the fake window. I am definitely into balance .....

Here is what the tree looks like before it was decorated.....

I decided to change the tree a bit this year.

For the past 2-3 years, I had a large red velvet bow in top with peacock feathers and little red velvet bows placed through out the tree.

I decided to forfeit the red velvet bows and go back to using a gold and white beaded garland that I bought many years ago....

I made a bow for the top that matched all the swags and added some gold flower picks at the top......

There is a large set of LED lights through the middle of the tree to illuminate it from the inside out.

And about another 800 lights plus 40 candle lights that are from Target.....

The ornaments are Victorian in style and I also have stuck gold glittery picks into the tree...

Here you can see some candle like ornaments......

Here you can see the beaded garland.....

And here she is all lit at night....

The candle lights create a Victorian feeling.....

And there is a Dicken's Village below....

Underneath this tree is a platform that my Dad made when I was first married 33 years ago....

This is not a Dept. 56 village. It is a Lemax village that Michael's now carries. I started buying pieces from a local Department store shortly after my first son was born. He will be 30 this year....

I have added a new piece every year but you can see that I am running out of room....

As I lay on the floor ( now stop that laughing as you are picturing me doing this), I always think of my Dad doing the same thing when he was setting up Plasticville on the platform under our tree.....

I always smile because I can see him smiling down at me and saying " That a Girl!!"

I must admit, it is getting much harder especially with the arthritis in my knees to do this....

But my Dad did it every year right up to the last Christmas before he passed away and he had had his ankle fused after a work accident where the scalfolding pulled away from the house that he was putting a new roof on. He fell 30 feet to the ground.

But it NEVER stopped him from decorating for Christmas.....

Have I told you how much I LOVE the candleight feature on my new camera???????

Okay, for those of you who visit here often, you know I am having a heck of a good time with that candleight feature!!!
LOL!!!

I do love the village and tree lit at night....

I could not resist some close ups.....









And we are moving around the room again......

Another swag.....

A table along side the Entertainment Center that my MIL gave to me....


A rather dapper looking Snow Man, more Bearington Bears and Carolers.....

Some Putz houses.....

I have seen this house on a few other Blogs...

It was $6.00 on Clearance after Christmas at Big Lots about 2-3 years ago...

More houses......

I just love that snowman.....

The top of the Entertainment Center.....

I won this Nativity set in a Church raffle. We bought one ticket!!!

Angel is from J.C. Penney's......

And we are looking toward the Front door again.....



On the other side of the Entertainemnt Center....

More Bearington Bears and a Santa with a church mouse on his shoulder...

They both sing....

Another set from Sam's Club...

No , the carolers are not Byer's Choice. They are from the Christmas Tree Shop and I like their faces better....

Don't you just love those darn shatterproof balls?????

On to the side of the chair....

Okay, I just realized that the doily is flipped up.....

The gold sleigh was another flea market find and I added a candle and florals to it.....

The doll was bought for me by my Mom when she had had surgery when I was 8 years old.....

She had bought it at the Hospital Hospitality Shop....

This Praying Santa was made in ceramics by my MIL. This is the one that started my collection....

This is a tile that I bought on Ebay.....

An Angel and another Santa....

Another little table.....

Some of my Christmas Lenox items....

And then down the Hallway to the Kitchen....Red velvet roses and poinsettias....

Love this stocking!!!

And the wreath on the Powder Room door that I made.....

Now you see why the Living Room takes me so long to decorate and of course, I am cleaning as I go.......

Please click HERE to continue on and see the next room in our Home Tour, the DEN, which is next on our HOME TOUR .

I am linking up to these great parties:

Show and Tell Friday

Home Sweet Home Friday

Vintage Inspiration Friday

Deck the Halls Friday

Potpourri Friday- Thanks so much for featuring me!!

Pink Saturday-special Christmas editions

Seasonal Sunday

Sundays with Santa

Metamorphosis Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Masterpiece Monday

Mod Mix Monday

Table top Tuesday

WOW Us Wednesday

Rednesday

Open House Party Thursday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Itz Festival Time Party

http://www.aholidayhaven.com/

Show Your Glow Linky Party

http://www.athoughtfulplaceblog.com/2011/11/holiday-vignette.html

http://honeywerehome.blogspot.com/

Holiday Decor @ Michaela Noelle Designs

Hooked on Houses Holiday Home Tour

Holly Blogger Christmas

Please take a moment to visit these hosts and some of their participants.....

Thanks for stopping by today and every day that you take the time to do so!!

Hugs,
Debbie