A ROMANTIC NATURALIST MELANGE HILLBILLY CHIC KIND OF CHRISTMAS....

Naturalist: One who studies nature, especially by observation

Melange: odds and ends; a motley assortment of things; a collection containing a variety of miscellaneous thingsNaturalist Melange, that is the closest description I could think of for my holiday decor this year. The phrase " a motley assortment of things" perfectly fits my Romantic Hillbilly Chic mix of rustic tattered natural elegance. I hope you enjoy the photo tour below, you can click on any photo to enlarge for detail viewing.
Being sick put a HUGE damper on my ability to get my holiday decorating done this year. I decided I had to pull together things that were already in the house and holiday them up a bit. The only things I removed from storage were the mantle garland, a mini nativity set, and two shoe box sized ornament containers...period. I did get a new tree, because as most of you know, a mouse ate mine, and five new taper candles. Kind of sparse beginnings for an eye candy kind of Christmas.Handy Hubby gave me a beautiful flea market table I had been admiring for an early Christmas present and I decided that would be the perfect place to showcase my Christmas display. I borrowed items from all over my house, especially the studio, even little pieces of art make an appearance.

I brought and old gate in from the garden, took the mirror off the wall near my closet, and potted the tree in an urn style planter then just went crazy layering all my favorite things. It is not at all what I expected but better than I dreamed. Hang on to your hats the photo tour is about to begin. NOTE: There are a lot of photos on this post, to load faster scroll down to bottom of my blog page and turn off the media player. The shelves above the sofa just got a little bit of live greenery to make them festive... Oh, and if you see anything that looks like dust in the photos, its not, really, in my house that is called patina!

The side table got a quick treatment too. I removed the usual piece of art that hangs in the basket and replaced it with this fantastic angel collage by KC Wills...I have it on very good authority that there will be a little something under the tree for me from her too. No, I did not peek, exactly, but that is a story of another day.

In front of the sofa I have an antique chest topped off with a velvet runner. I keep this very simple and easily removable because when large crowds are here I roll it over the wall, top it with a cushion and add some pillows for overflow bench style seating. I place a stack of old books coupled with candles and a little Christmas star I made on one side. In the middle is a little iron holder that usually is in the studio holding tattered books that I collage with to serve as a Christmas card holder. An old birdcage rounds out the display with a touchable Nativity scene complete with cookie cutter star that the grands can enjoy. They LOVE playing with anything in this bird cage.In the hall I hung a hand carved angel that was gift from my husband many years ago. I topped the table with a stack of old books, layers of vintage linens and laces, a crazed platter, paper roses, buttons, a jar of string, all from my studio stash. I added in a broken iron clock and bell that the grands also love to play with to bring the dark tones of the iron down into the display. A little greenery and battery operated twinkling lights under the lace round out this tattered table top.Since I only have a sum total of three inches of mantle space to decorate, stuffing a bit garland in there is about as good as it gets. I kept it super simple this year, a few small pine-cones gathered from the woods with a mixture of vintage glass and handmade nature or romance inspired ornaments.I add a tiny twine tied sprig of greenery to this " table top" display and that was it. I have been looking for the right table so this picture frame plopped on a plant stand base is a stand in until I find what I want but it is kind of growing on me so we will see. Now, for the big finish, a Romantic Naturalist Melange Hillbilly Chic kind of Christmas decor! The " wreath" , an old oval frame embellished with my grandmothers jewelry, dried naturals from the woods, vintage lace, and flea market finds...The tree...The tree is potted in an urn style planter from the garden...A gathering from nature; twigs, dried leaves and grasses...
Hand made coffee filter and tulle garland and somewhere in there gold chain garland from the hardware store...Last years handmade ornaments...Tiny handwoven birds nest complete with little blue birds...Vintage amber bottle tied on with twine sport an emu feather and a sprig of old millinery flowers ...All topped off with a rusty tin bird, twigs, and emu feathers...
The whole crazy melange...All kinds of artful things from studio supplies,Old books to burlap,
To nature and flea market finds, all stuff I already had on hand...Christmas greens and handmade things...
Do you think Santa will take put me on the naughty list for robbing Rudolph of his antlers?And candle light round out the scene...Times run out...I love this upside down clock as a tongue in cheek touch!Can you tell I kind of miss having a booth and merchandising just a little? If I had one thing to do over, and I still might, I would have left the tree undecorated, just a green tree with white lights to tone down the over the top feel of it all.Now I need to wrap the presents to fill up that empty shelf underneath!

I said I was only decorating one room this year but it seems I broke that rule, the dining nook got a wee bit of a transform and I will share that with you next week. Don't forget that tomorrow is Rebecca's (A Re-Purposed Life) Birthday Blog Party is tomorrow! See details HERE. And if you missed it, you can sign up for my Warm Winter Wish Give Away HERE.

Today I am linking up with the following:

Debra of Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration FridayFeathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
And Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special
I hope you all have enjoyed my Romantic Naturalist Melange Hillbilly Chic kind of Christmas!

Have a very wonderful weekend!