You Mean You Forgot Cranberry, too? and Christmas comes to the Dining Room

UPDATE: The winner of the Mikarose giveaway is......
Maury from Life on Mars!!!!!  Yay, Maury!

This post has nothing to do with Cranberries, but does have to do with special Christmas wrapping, which makes me think of the song of that title...  Come on and sing along!


Ok, moving onto the actual gift wrapping I wanted to talk about!  I am over at The DIY Club sharing a special way to wrap up the candles and magnets I am making for gifts.  Here is a little peak...

 You can find all the rest of my DIY Club projects by clicking on the button on my sidebar!

Aside from working on gifts this weekend, I have been working on decorating as well!  Unfortunately, Chris has been hit pretty hard by the bug and spent all of yesterday in bed, so I was hanging with the kids all day while decorating which can be fun but also a little challenging! :)  We obviously have put getting our tree on hold for now, too and will get it next weekend.  For nowI have at least the dining room completely decorated for Christmas and wanted to share!

In all the opening of Christmas decoration boxes I realized something.  I have too many decorations, for starters, but also, that I wanted to keep the decor a little on the "less" side this year than I have done in the past.  I still put out quite a bit, and there are certain pieces that will always go up for sentimental reasons. I have been working on the whole house, but the dining room is the one place where it's decorated exactly how I want it this year; I am perfectly satisfied.

 This bunting you see is my Advent Calendar I created with the kids yesterday.  More on that will be coming this week.

 A simple tablescape features some vintage mirrors, PB reindeer I purchased on sale a couple years ago, milkglass compote filled with glittered silver and blue pinecones, and a pair of milk glass vases I am using as taper candlesticks with aqua candles.

 The bench by the window is decorated in whites and shimmer....

 This tinsel tree is adorned with beautiful glittered sand dollars I won from my friend Yanet last year.  I love that it serves as a reminder of the friendships I have formed through this blog.  At the top of the tree sits a feathery white owl my parents gave me for my birthday.  And next to him is a deer I upcycled last Christmas.

On the other side of the bench sit some bog mercury glass swirly orbs from Crate & Barrel's post Christmas clearance sale two years ago, and a snowman my parents gave me.

A new addition to the dining room yesterday is this chalkboard.  It actually is my ikat artwork.  I just flipped over the Ikat side and painted the back with chalkboard paint so I can use either side.  I hung a tiny tinsel wreath on the corner.

That's all for now! Chris is hoping to feel better to day so we may still be able to get our tree.  Fingers crossed!!!

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