Our Southern Nest: Decorating Update

I made a great deal of progress today. I thought I would share a few things with you today. It is still a work in progress but here's what I have done so far...

First up is the dining room. I plan to use candles, ornaments and cranberries in the little vases, but right now they each hold an ornament.

I am not finished with the banister yet. Ha! Every time I start to decorate the banister I am reminded of the "Designing Women" episode where Julia gets her head stuck in "The Abbott Banister"!

I usually display my Christmas cards along the garland. I will post more pictures once I get more cards. Have you sent your cards yet? I haven't!

The sea grass container below was purchased at TJ Maxx. It is by TAG and it was meant to be used as a tabletop Christmas tree. I purchased three of them and I am using them on our stairwell posts. They cost $5.00 each and I filled them with fresh greenery from Home Depot. I already had the ornaments and red glitter floral stems. I made the whole arrangement for under $10.

I finally finished the tree! You can't see it, but my tree is in a huge galvanize tub. I never can find a tree skirt I like and this seems to work.

I got this idea from my next door neighbor who just happens to be a florist. Lucky me! The vases are filled with cranberries, limes and FREE tree trimmings from Home Depot. (Just ask the guys loading the trees where they keep the clippings. They will tell you to take as much as you like.) I layered the greenery, limes and cranberries, and then I filled it with water.

The vases are from TJ Maxx and I am obsessed with them. I have more glass vases in all sizes than I care to admit, and I use them all the time. If they are not being used for decorating, I will use them in my pantry to keep things organized. I also use them on my front porch as candle holders. The best thing of all is that they are CHEAP!!!! You can get a huge vase for under $20. The larger one below was $7.99, the medium size was $3.99, and the smaller one was $3.99.

The smaller vases are filled with jelly beans and peppermints. The downside to filling the vases with candy is that the little ones (and their dad) have a hard time keeping their hands off my vase filler.

Lucy has nothing to do with our Christmas decorations. Owen decided to put the Elvis glasses on her and take her picture. I promised him I would share it with all of you.