IHeart Christmas Home Tour 2013

Are you getting into the holiday spirit? I have been busy getting our house into holiday shape, so that I can sit back and enjoy the last bit of the month surrounded by Christmas bling. We always have fun playing Christmas tunes and getting our craft on, and this year was no exception! In fact, we took things a bit further than we typically do, and I couldn't be happier with how our home is emoting so much glee.

You see that white stuff? Baby it's cold outside! And we have snow! It is shaping up to be a white Christmas!

This year my sweet friend, Chris from Just a Girl Blog, invited me to participate in her Christmas Tour of Homes {make sure to check out links full of endless inspiration at the end of this post}. So today you get to take a glance around our abode, which has been all dressed up for the holidays!

Before you step inside, let's chat about Holiday Home Tours. When I was first invited, I hesitated. Each year we typically spend some time doing a small Christmas display in our kitchen and decking out our tree. From there, I sprinkle little bits of cheer around our home. Have you seen some of these tours? Oh. My. Greatness. So many amazing ideas. So many beautiful photos and homes and decor. Could I even compare?

Wait. What? Compare? Not OK. One should never compare.

I have never been one to go crazy around the holidays with boatloads of new decor and a complete new look. It is expensive, I don't have the storage and too many decorations can make our home feel cluttered and small. So I do what I can to reuse items from my stock in new ways and keep things simple. Aside from a few small purchases, majority of my decor consisted of ornaments and ribbon. Like I said, simple. Hopefully you will gain a new perspective of our home {yes, my everyday home tour tab needs to be majorly updated}, and find some crazy easy ideas that you can do in your own home around the holidays.

For the front of our home, I went with a brilliant new color combo of teal and red. I love how the red appears to be so incredibly vibrant against the teally blue, such a difference over last year's white door. I do not typically decorate with red throughout the year, so this was a really fun for me. I brought in some red throughout the interior as well, let's head on in!

Ready to gain a new view of our home? Here is our living room, dining and kitchen in one shot.

Someday I imagine hosting Christmas gatherings without a giant wall between the kitchen and living room. It will really open things up.... OK, I am done daydreaming, back to the tour!

When you enter our home, we have a very small landing which received a little welcoming attention.

The poster was purchased from Caravan Shop for $5 and printed at Staples for $4. The boys had fun making a countdown chain at the beginning of the month, but they haven't had the hearts to tear it apart, so we decided it just made a playful addition to the space.

We found a small, unfinished wooden dear head at the craft store, which I gave a quick coat of paint. Then, I hot glued a small bulb on the nose to give the boys a little giggle. A command strip holds it to the center of the entry mirror.

The credenza, also known as our school cubbies, didn't change too much. Right after I posted that I couldn't kill succulent plants, I killed our succulent plants. Seriously, who does that? Me I guess. So, the blue planter received a sweet little tree along with some ribbon and colorful bulbs.

The Thanksgiving table setup was working quite nicely, and I say, don't fix what isn't broke. So a lot of the same elements played into our Christmas table as well; like the stripe runner and tree stump/cloche jar combo.

Reds to keep things traditional....

And a little bit of pink for fun!

How great is that bulb garland? So inexpensive to make as well! Just head to the dollar store and load up on ornaments, and string them on ribbon. There are quite a few tutorials on Pinterest, I used this one.

We had some small white planters from IKEA, which I taped off and got gold glitter happy with.

I also spray painted a couple of plastic toy deer figurines. A few more and I would have Santa's entire crew!

Our boys love coming home to a nice cup of hot cocoa or apple cider after school. Instead of pulling out all of the fixings every day, I just set up a simple little cocoa/cider bar.

A couple of mason jars filled with cocoa, marshmallows and candy canes, and we have a sweet way to keep our tummies warm. Excuse me for a moment; I may have to make myself a quick cup.

That is about as much as I do in the kitchen. Our counters have limited space so I keep our decor focused in the dining area.

Time to switch gears and take a peek at the tree! Every year we head to the same tree farm and pick out the perfect addition to the Jones home.

I think this is the first year we actually got our measurements right! They always look so much smaller at the farm, we get them home and WHOA! But this year, it fit just right!

All of the decorations were the same we have used in previous years. Only this year I switched up how we strung the ribbon, and we crafted up a few extra ornaments out of paper to beef it up a bit.

We are fans of Christmas traditions, and we have a few that we do year after year around here. Under the tree you will find a special box of ornaments, all of the ones we have collected over the years made by the boys and given to us as gifts. You know, the ornaments with meaning. Christmas Eve, we open that box and the kids place them on the tree one by one as we all go down memory lane...

Next to the tree is a small table that holds our Instagram photos, a dice game and a small book for the boys to jot down special Christmas memories. It is also makes a great beverage holder.

The bookcases were also kissed with bulb garland. I really love the color and sparkle.

We recently added a small table in front of our couch and it seemed like the ideal place to keep our Holiday Planning Binder and a dish to hold the Christmas greetings that we receive in the mail from our smiling friends and family.

Although I mostly stick to the dining and living area for decor, this year I decided to play with our mantle in our lower level family room as well. It is where we hang the boy's stockings after all!

Another tradition we treasure on Christmas Eve is to sit and read The Night Before Christmas in our holiday pajamas. It only seemed fitting to cut some gold vinyl giving tribute to our favorite story.

We already had the hooks for the stockings, however, this year they got a quick coat of gold spray paint to give them new life. Earlier this fall I had gone on a fall walk with the boys and snapped a few photos. A little playing around in an online photo editing program and I was able to add Santa hats to each of their heads. I then printed their pictures from our home printer and placed them in some cheapo frames found at the craft store last year.

I told my hubby a few birch logs would look nice next to the fireplace, so he took a trek through the woods behind his parent's home and found a fallen tree. So fun to literally bring the outdoors, in!

We have been working on the storage space under our stairs, which is also right off of my studio. I had visions of ~~sugarplums~~ a gift wrapping station dancing in my head, so we put a rush on the project so I could use it for the holiday season! Since no IHeart Organizing tour would be complete without a little organization, here is a sneak peek!

But this post is long enough so more on that project super soon!

We will end the tour with that awesomeness and excitement! It is so fun to see what some ribbon and bulbs can do to make our spaces feel holiday ready! Thank you so much for stopping by today and enjoying our happy holiday home with us!

Ready to see more holiday home tour inspiration!? The Christmas Tour of Homes has been going on all week so there is plenty to be found!