It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Finally! It's that time of the year again.
As of December 1, the Christmas Season has officially arrived at the Ugly Duckling house. Throughout the coming weeks, I'll be adding little bits of Christmas and Winter decor here and there. It's a slow but steady process with lots of old-time favorites making their annual appearance and a few new items shining for the first time.

The first thing I changed, of course, was our front door wreath. Nothing better to herald the season and to give you a first taste of what to expect inside!

 This year I kept it simple, picking up on the bird and nature theme we seem to have going in the dining room. I just couldn't resist picking up this cute chubby bird with its sparkly pine cone wings and snow white belly. So stinkin' cute!
I have gobs of those soft brassy sparkling snowflakes I love to sprinkle all over the house - their warm sparkle and filigree shape tickles me pink. You can find them for very little money (less than $3 for a box of 12) at W-mart and even pick up their buddies like snowmen, etc. in other colors

 The next thing to be decorated was the fireplace mantle. Once you set foot into our vestibule it's the first thing your eye is drawn to. Now more than ever after I added the lit pine garland, and sparkly snowflakes!
I picked up a very pretty, pale pink and white poinsettia at the blue box, kept the stack of vintage books and vintage typewriter and added our Christmas-Countdown chalk board to make everything look a bit less serious. If you look closely, you can spy our elf on the shelf "Barrigade" on his first day this year.

 More lights!
The diningroom came next!
Every year I create an Advent calendar for Little Man, and we have had this particular one for the last four or five years. It's a real classic: I sewed up 24 little bags, hand numbered them and each year I fill them with little goodies (chocolate, candy, etc) and toys (LEGO mini-figures work great as well as stickers, pencils, etc.) and little notes suggesting Christmas-type activities from "drive through the neighborhood looking at lights" to "take photos wearing Santa hats."

 In the windows I hung pine wreaths with sprigs of holly with white berries and 'snow-covered' pine cones. Then I discovered those beautiful glass ornaments at W-mart featuring this little glassine bird print suspended inside the glass orb. It has a frosty frozen beauty to it, and I love it to bits! Not to mention it picks up on the pattern of the dining room curtains. Woot!

Just in time for the first of Advent I managed to put together our advent wreath. Again sparkly snowflakes make an appearance along with a few other of my Christmas staples.

We love it cozy and traditional with a little bit of glitz and sparkle and some rustic elements thrown into the mix. What's your Christmas flavor?

Kiss me, Cupid!

Our door wreath with the big white "G" has become somewhat of a permanent fixture on our front door, then at the Silver Street apartment and now at the Ugly Duckling, ever since I picked the two items up at a local craft store. Its look changes according to the season, but the wreath and the letter remain the same.

Like here when summer's yellow rubber ducky and flower gave way to gold and yellow leaves and pumpkins announcing that fall had finally made its way to North East Florida.

Or in this post here when I shared a few Christmas decorations with you at the Ugly Duckling, among them the door wreath ... The Wreath (tm) ... in its Christmas finery (allright, so I like it simple and non-frilly).

After Christmas, it looked a bit bare out there while we were in limbo between not-Christmas and not-Easter, so when I spied a roll of ribbon of cute little red felt hearts and a dozen heart hangers I knew what needed to happen.

Not quite $5 later this is what our door wreath looked like. Quick and simple and cute. It's been a busy two weeks - as you can undoubtedly tell from the infrequent posting here on the blog - and a quick DIY fix was just what I needed to set my world straight again.