Simply Ella

This year's decorations at my home are simple and natural.
An evergreen wreath greets you as you enter.

Cotton, tallow berries and burlap are the main theme of the tree.

A few nests, birds and icicles also are hanging around.
My friend, Vernae, brought real cotton back for me from the fields of West Texas. Yippee !

Some of my other friends gave me Tallow berries to decorate with.

Thanks Theresa, Diane and Carole!

I think the cotton looks like snow on my tree.

I didn't want to hang every single million, zillion ornament I have on the tree so I found other ways they could still make an appearance. I literally tossed these blue and brown snowflakes in with the ironstone platters and walked away happy.

Easy peasy.

A few old light bulbs in with shredded paper and candles. Now that's going green.

Old ice skates seem to be "the thing" this year. I hung a pair of skates on an old white wooden column. I made the bells by stringing together two old light parts and one well used funnel.

I took burlap ribbon and wrapped an otherwise boring lampshade, then added one of Mr. Ella's spoon ornaments.

This glittered deer is hiding out on my kitchen island.

I thought I would just make an ornament wreath like I had seen on Eddie R's tutorial using a wire coat hanger. I skimmed over the directions and decided I would skip a step. The part where you glue the top to the base of the ornament. Well, do NOT skip this important step! The ornaments will begin to pop off as soon as you try to close the hanger back during the last step.

Anyway, I didn't hang my finished wreath in fear I would hear little crashes during the night. I think it looks pretty good though.
(It took about fifty ornaments for this...minus a few.)

Next year I will follow the directions.
Have a Merry Christmas!

Okay, I just need a few more hours to each day.

A little decorating here, some shopping there, a little quack quack...oh, I got sidetracked again!!

I can tell by looking over at my blogroll that some of you are a tad busy too. A few of you haven't had any posts for a long time. We miss you and come on, post at least one pic so we know you are still out there!! I know you want to...

Last week I took a couple of days off and went to visit family and friends in West Texas. My first stop was at my talented friend Roxanne's home for the Society for the Preservation of Quaint Old Homes December meeting. SPQOH for short.

Mercury glass and a vintage glass glitter banner-a great combo!

(I think Brandy made the banner and she has an etsy store...)

Love it.

I was feeling the coordinating goin' on.

Roxanne hand painted the walls, made the mosaic framed mirrors and created that awesome tomato cage Christmas tree. You go girl!

Who knew a simple crab apple tree branch could look so awesome?

Roxanne sent us all home with pine tree cuttings for us to plant.

She taught us you could also plant these pine cones to sprout a tree.

I think they are just cute like this.

Roxanne has more photos on her blog.

I hope you all have a Quaint Christmas too!!

Holiday Home Tour

I went on the McKinney Holiday Home Tour today and was I ever WOWED!

The Nayak home in the Historic District was my absoute favorite home. The bad news is the sweet owners are moving. The good news is that the house is for sale.

(The tour is also Sunday.)

I will let the photos do the talking, so enjoy....

Thanks Seema! We will miss ya,