Christmas is a less than one week away. Oh my. Even though I dream about having a comprehensive holiday home tour to show you, I am still noodling around with decorations (and cleaning up). Welcome to Saturday Meanderings! I am envisioning you with all your gift shopping done and lounging around in your red striped pajamas as you are reading this! And drinking a fabulous cup of coffee or tea, completely stress free on this Saturday morning!

The Main Tree

The main live tree is up…finally. It fell over twice (really) but fortunately the crash happened before the lights and ornaments were on it. Did I mention that the tree did fall over years ago and shattered our cherished, rare ornament collection? Oh well. Every year since, the children say, “remember they year the tree fell over?”

When the fresh tree is finally straight on all sides, then it gets wired to the ceiling so it will NOT fall over after ornament placement. I cannot say enough about the quality of the freshly cut trees at Whitfill Nursery. We’ve been going for years and have never been disappointed. The entire front of the house smells so good!

The Breakfast Room Mantel

The fireplace in our breakfast room (my office) typically gets a holiday painting and the mantel displays the nutcracker collection. However, this year, I am retaining the painting of the Italian village done by Janice Howell. I love the colors and the laundry hanging from the balconies. By happenstance, I placed two sets of wooden village buildings purchased at Target (for $5.00 each) on the mantel, and was instantly inspired to re-create the painting.

Adding battery operated votive candles behind the houses, and trees on either side of the mantel makes the foreground feel like it is part of the painting. Miniature holiday sweaters, hats and mittens hang on a “clothesline”. Since turning the votives on at night is a bit of a pain, I may just lay battery-operated fairy lights behind the houses instead.

The Laundry Room

The leftover mini sweaters are hung with care in the laundry room. It is fun how they mimic the mural on the wall.

The Garden

With pending frost temperatures this week, I am worried about plant damage. Typically in the winter, I will cover the garden beds with frost cloth and/or a heavy ply plastic. Adding Christmas lights (not the LED kind) will add a bit of heat under the cloth too. Amazon has 2-day shipping for frost cloth here and heavy ply plastic here.

It looks a bit like a moonscape at night with the lights glowing from underneath the covers.

It is harvest time for shishito peppers, lettuces, herbs and some of the cherry tomatoes are producing as well. If you have not had shishito peppers, they are so easy to grow.

Blistered in hot oil, then seasoned with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon, we just love these as an appetizer. I’m not sure I understand why some are green and others are red, but they taste terrific regardless. A mild pepper but occasionally you can get one with some heat.

Christmas Cards

Do you send out holiday cards?My goal is to take our family photo at Thanksgiving, create the card and have them in the mail by December 15th. It is also when I draft our family newsletter reviewing all the good, bad and ugly that has happened in the year. Since I do love receiving cards, I will continue to send them out each year. Another thing to check off the list! Card by Minted.com.

There are a few decorations to finalize but I think we are nearly done here (thankfully). Not sure why I felt so disorganized this year. I may have mentioned that I volunteer on our neighborhood board and we’ve had two zoning cases in December that unfortunately, have taken a great deal of time. I’m blaming my scattered approach to the holidays on that!

If you missed my two other posts this week, you can see my pink dining room decorations here, and the holiday front porch here.

I may take a break from blogging next week (not sure yet), but if an email doesn’t appear in your inbox on Tuesday or Wednesday, you will know why. Until then, I am sending big virtual hugs to you!

If you enjoyed this post, please share on Pinterest.

Yesterday, I went shopping for pink (yes, pink!) Christmas ornaments. Seriously. What was I thinking?!? Hobby Lobby is one endless row of empty shelves after another. Online shopping will get you ornaments at the end of December. Not admitting defeat, I checked out Michaels. Again, hardly any inventory, but I went down every aisle and hidden, in a strange out of the way place I found what I was looking for! And now the holiday decor for the dining room is complete! To see more about the decor evolution of this room, click here.

This year, I am happy to report that we have a live, Noble fir tree tucked into the corner andit smells H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y! If you recall, this is the room with the burgundy/pink rug (clashing with the typical red and green for Christmas). But the fresh tree and a pretty roll of pink striped ribbon, is the basis for the inspiration. Click here for the ribbon.

With our Michaels’ purchase of a few packages of miscellaneous ornaments and floral picks, my sweet daughter, Elisabeth and I began decorating the tree. Since ornaments do not seem to come with their own hangers, we use pipe cleaners to attach them to the tree.

Still debating whether I need a tree topper of some sort, but for now the pink striped ribbon bow will do.

The glittery floral picks catch the reflection from the clear light strands.

To cover the tree stand, I use a pink and white quilt (that typically makes an appearance for Valentine decorations).

Completed with wrapped packages decorated in fun pink holiday paper, the tree is complete.

The pink tree ties in nicely with the mantel, which has a variety of bottle brush trees, garland, pink peppercorns, gold berry picks and a garland of sparkly balls. To see last year’s mantel decorations and the sources for the trees, click here.

Though not really planned, it appears trees are the theme in this room. On the dining room table, tinsel and white conical trees, candles and pink roses make up the centerpiece.

With our dry weather, I don’t need to polish the silver tea/coffee service often. But it hadn’t been cleaned since last December, so it is definitely time to do so. Not my favorite task, but a little elbow grease is rewarded with gleaming silver.

A simple addition of more trees here too along the pink linen runner from Williams Sonoma.

My second Christmas painting, done in 2017, rests on the wainscoting trim behind the buffet.

In stepping back to look at the room, I just love how it looks this year.

I have always wanted a tree in this room. Initially I thought an artificial tree, perhaps a white one, but the fresh tree looks spectacular and fills the room with the scent of the great outdoors. Such a delight!

A warm, magical holiday mood happens at night when all the lights from the tree and mantel are on, and the candles glow in the windows.

So the big fresh tree in the living room gets decorated today. It fell over last night but thankfully it was bare without ornaments and lights. Missed my December 15th deadline for sending out our Christmas cards too! But who cares? It’s the holiday season and time for merriment, right?

Have an amazing Wednesday!

If you enjoy this post, please share on Pinterest!

What a week! Slowly the decorations are coming out and we will get our fresh tree this weekend. It’s a family tradition to get our main tree on or near my husband’s birthday. The goal is to have the tree up and decorated no later than next Tuesday. I know I am way behind other bloggers, but it doesn’t really matter because this is how we celebrate here at Bella Terra.

The Annual Christmas Painting

As you may recall, I started painting about five years ago (see post here). Each year I attempt a new holiday painting. Based on a wonderful photo, I painted our cat, Donovan. He is a stray Maine coon cat the girls found in the yard years ago and he is currently our only cat. After losing our very first cat, Tippy this year, I have an increased desire to capture our pets on canvas. If you follow me on Instagram (I hope you do!), you may have already seen this.

Two New Recipes

Chocolate Sourdough Babka Bread

Every Christmas, I replay the previous Christmases and holidays in my head. I feel blessed to have had many happy and joyous holidays from my childhood to now. Naturally there have been a few where loved ones are not there and occasionally my heart feels heavy from their loss. Lately, I have been thinking of my Mom and Dad, who both passed away rather unexpectedly 5 years ago, 5 months apart.

But they were very good parents and they made our holidays extra special every year. Being of Polish decent, I recall some of the traditions and foods surrounding the holidays. With fond memories of babka bread, I realize that I have never made one.

Babka is a dense cake, although it looks a little like a bread. It’s a sweet yeast dough filled with fudgy chocolate or cinnamon in layers and baked. It also sometimes has a streusel on top.

Since I am always looking for ways to use my sourdough starter discard, this recipe is a Chocolate Sourdough Babka with Streusel de Coco from Artisan Brian is perfect. You can see the recipe here.

A 2-day recipe, but well worth the effort. Also, I have never braided bread before but this is a fun learning recipe with excellent results!

Aged Egg Nog

Have you ever heard of aged egg nog? I certainly haven’t, yet my son brought up the idea at Thanksgiving.

Although most Americans think of eggnog as something they get out of a milk carton during the two-week period leading up to December 25, eggnog actually descends from sack posset, a strong, thick English beverage built upon eggs, milk, and either a fortified wine (like Madeira) or ale. 

In this recipe, you must age it for a minimum of 2 weeks, but they say a month or two would be even better. We made this on November 24 and will drink it later this month. Made with eggs, sugar, fresh nutmeg, half-and-half, whole milk, heavy cream, Jamaican rum, cognac, bourbon and a bit of kosher salt, let’s not count the calories!

It looks like it has lost a bit of volume (where would it go?). We all tasted it before it went into the refrigerator and it is delicious. Should be interesting to see how it tastes 6 weeks later. Click here for the link to the recipe.

An Easy DIY Holiday Decorating Idea

As you know, plaids are all the rage this year. During a recent trip to Michaels, they had buy one and get one free rolls of wrapping paper. So I grabbed all the plaid ones and did this simple, easy and fast DIY.

Here is the chest in my family room, before.

And look how festive it looks now with minimal effort!

I simply wrapped the books with the plaid wrapping paper, changed out the wooden beads for silver ones (a necklace of mine) and added faux greens.

In setting up a small tree at the other end of the chest, I added small wrapped packages underneath too.

I hope to show you more of our holiday decorations (if I can get my act together) next week with a holiday home tour.

Thanks for the help

If you don’t follow me on Instagram stories (I hope you do), I want to thank you for all the fabulous feedback on how to improve upon my dining room mantel. My friend, Jeanne suggested adding fairy lights and that did the trick! Most voted against adding ribbon and I think that was the right choice.

Every year I order a 75 foot roll of fresh cedar garland. Unfortunately, this year none was available from my resource. So I am hoping when we pick up the live tree this weekend, there will be fresh garland to purchase. Important areas of the house are draped in garland and this may be a year that we go without.

Enjoy your Saturday and weekend. We had our first big rain here the other day and I am hoping and praying for more. If you missed any posts this week, see how I clean our crystal chandeliers and how to make bleached pinecones.

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of hosting 4 other bloggers here at Bella Terra. Being the recipient of their collective creativity, they tackled 3 fireplace mantels and decorated them for the holidays. What a fun experience watching these talented gals in action. Today I want to share the mantel over the fireplace in my art room. To see more about this fireplace and room, click here for a previous post.

Barbara from Mantel and Table is the innovative person behind this. If you love fine china, silver, teacups and flowers, her blog is one to follow. Barbara actually participates in table setting competitions (who even knew those existed!) and is an elegant, poised lovely individual.

She went right to work finding items to use~including artificial garland, faux silk peonies, candles, ribbon and ornaments.

First of all, I wouldn’t have thought to use clusters of peonies. Nor would I add the ornaments. What is so wonderful is how much I am learning from these talented women!

Adding the gold sprig brings a bit of brightness to the theme. I love how Barbara weaves the ribbon throughout. This is such a soft and feminine look, perfect for my art studio!

Lastly the candles are added at different heights to create interest and ambiance.

I love the fullness of the garland. Typically I just run the garland straight across the mantel, however, this abundant look is more appealing. The asymmetrical use of the pinecone ornaments and garland works too!

Barbara states that her inspiration is a painting that I haven’t completed, but is sitting on the easel nearby. It is also a bit hard to stand back and take a picture as this is a very small room, filled with my art supplies. I love how romantic this mantel looks in my work space!

To read more about the fireplaces at our home (we have 7), click here. There are two more decorated fireplace mantels to show you and I will post about those tomorrow. To read more about these 4 fabulous women and their visit to Bella Terra, click here.

Have a wonderful Tuesday. I am just now starting all the other Christmas decorating slowly but surely!

Please share this post on Pinterest~thank you!

Source for similar items used in mantel:

Artificial Garland at Amazon here

Pinecone Ornaments here

Gold Berry Stems here

Ribbon 2″ wide here

Silk peonies here

Straight taper candles here

Candle holders from West Elm here

Full disclosure, I am not a crafty do-it-yourself-er. And I am reminded of that when I take on a new cute project and completely screw it up. But like most things in life lately, we need to make the most of it. Here is my story on when a DIY craft project fails.

The Inspiration

Over a year ago, I saw this adorable craft idea on someone else’s blog. Since I have never tackled a project like this, I clicked on all her links and purchased the items needed for this craft. And they have literally sat unopened for the last year. So I decide this is the week to try making it.

Here is how Karen at Sanctuary Home Decor (who just seems to be perfect in EVERY way) made this craft. It is a dinner napkin stenciled with the word “thankful”. She used this for her Thanksgiving table last year. Pretty, isn’t it? And she claims she did it in 5 minutes!

Follow the Instructions

I carefully follow her instructions by first ironing my napkins. Since I didn’t want to completely copy Karen, I choose the word “Blessings” to stencil on the napkin. I proceed to cut out the letters and decorative vine. See below for sourcing information.

In making sure I place the letters neatly, I determine the center letter so I can line it up properly on the napkin.

Up to this point, I’m fat, dumb and happy about this project. And then here is where it starts to unravel. There are only two “S” stencils available and the word “Blessings” has 3 “S” letters.

Applying the Letters

Next Comes Paint

These mesh stencils have self-adhesive backs, however, in order to protect the rest of the napkin from paint, I use blue painters tape on the edges. Working with the plastic wedge recommended with the paint gel, I apply the paint to the stencil.

Of course, mid-way, I needed to move the S from the end of the word to fill in for the missing middle S.

The Disappointing Result

When I peeled off the stencils, the paint has leaked between the S stencils and left a mark. I try covering it up with White-Out…..what a mistake!

So, with 11 napkins to go, I try this again on a new napkin. Changing the word to “Blessed” solves the lettering problem.

Carefully applying the paint, I am convinced this one will be perfect. However, this napkin also has paint blotches. Seriously?!!

Third time is a charm, right? Not for me.

After the fourth failure, I just gave up. At this point, I have ruined 4 napkins and most of the afternoon. Karen said this is an easy 5 minute DIY. What is wrong with me?

The next day, still disturbed over the fact that I am a complete failure on stenciling napkins, I am determined to find a solution.

Making the Mistake Obvious

Fortunately, I purchased 2 additional paint colors for this project. Using red paint, I cover all the black blotches and make them into hearts.

Where hearts didn’t work, I applied some white paint. They certainly are not perfect, but at a quick glance, you almost don’t notice all the boo-boos.

I will use these 4 napkins to wrap baked bread over the holidays, so not all is lost. Who knows? Maybe I will try again as I still have 8 white napkins.

The moral of the story~not all DIY projects are perfectly easy. If I share one in the future, please know that I will warn you about the challenges. In our social media world, perfection is often portrayed. However, in this case it was certainly not my reality!

It is good, affirmative exercise to write the word “Blessed” many times. Because I am blessed to have you reading this (and hopefully laughing about it!).

If you want to attempt this DIY project, here is the link to Karen’s post. Also,

you will need the following supplies:

Napkins of your choice (I used these from World Market), quantity of your choice. I ordered 12.

• A Maker’s Studio – Mesh Stencil “Alphabet 4”
• A Makers Studio – Mesh Stencil ” Details”
• A Maker’s Studio – Gel Art Ink in color of your choice. (I used “Hold Your Horses”) 
• A Maker’s Studio – Chalk Art Spreader
• Painter’s tape (Optional)

Good luck! If you do this, please let me know the results.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it on Pinterest.

Since I shared my husband’s home office space earlier this week (see post here), today I will show you where I work. Since I am in our kitchen 99% of the time, having my computer desktop nearby is very handy. And now that our home is nearly child-free (of course until the next pandemic), we are not using the breakfast room table for meals any more. So the breakfast room is my work space/office. Logistically perfect, but it’s hard to keep it neat and tidy.

My work space is like my brain. Organized clutter. It may look messy to the average person, but I know where everything is. And you can tell what I am working on by the stacks of projects on the table.

Today I am joining some of my good blogging buddies for our November DIY blog hop where they are sharing Home Office ideas and tips too. Please check out their stories at the bottom of this post!

Table Challenges

Ah, the table. I purchased this many years ago, but I cannot tell you if it is a new table made to look old or a really old table. But since I’ve had it for 25 years, I guess we can call it vintage. When we began restoring this house, the table is where we would gather with our architect and contractor, lay out the plans and make big house decisions.

One day a worker, obviously bored, decided it was a good idea to pound a nail into it. I guess he thought it was old and worthless. That was the beginning of the abuse this poor table took. Notice all the chips where the “made to look old” paint has come off.

Then, only making matters worse, the contractor tried repairing it by using the wrong colors of paint. Really, bright green and blue? So I finally decided to try my hand at touching up the chips and dings. The nail hole will stay as I guess it makes a good story.

Storage

Recently I ordered a two drawer filing cabinet from Wayfair since this is a table and not a desk. Here is a similar one from Amazon for less.With no drawers for office things, all the paperwork is placed in file folders. I truly have a folder for everything.

The filing cabinet slides nicely under the table and being a dark color it disappears from sight.

Using baskets and trays, I try keeping current projects organized on the table top.

I am putting my recent melamine tray from My Stylish French Box to good use. A vintage pink glass bowl holds paperclips.

And this ornate inlaid box is a sweet place for my business cards.

Office Equipment

Since I am constantly using a printer, this new small Epson ET-2760 is perfect on the decorative chest. There is storage below where I put stationary, printing supplies and file folders.

Blending Decors

Since you pass by my office space to enter the kitchen, it is a well traveled path. With a blue and white chinoiserie lamp (from Overstock) and a blue/white vase with flowers, I try and tie my workspace in with the rest of the room.

The large painting by Hector Armendariz Martinez from Mexico is one of my favorites. I love the blue and white vases and platters on the shelves in the painting. This space was practically the only wall in our home where this large piece of art fits. To see more about our art collection, click here.

Two ladder back chairs sit at either end of the table, in case I have guests. Handmade needlepoint cushions with our initials were made many moons ago and prevent rush seat marks on your thighs.

Beneath the table is a large dog bed. When there isn’t a dog there, it’s a great place for me to rest my feet.

From my office chair, I have wonderful views of the fireplace, outside to a window of green, and to our family mealtime prayer (painted by Kris Kollasch.

Here’s an After picture after I filled my filing cabinet and tidied up the space. Now let’s hope I keep it this way. Do you have a designated work space at home? I’m always looking for better solutions in this space.

The month has been just a blur, hasn’t it? Hoping the fall weather will continue to be crisp and enjoyable. Have a spectacular day and be safe out there.

The DIY Blog Hop

Now onto the DIY Blog Hop!

Chas from Chas Crazy Creations is sharing a DIY Can Organizer for your Office.

Niky from The House on Silverado does a lovely office makeover.

Andrea from Design Morsels makes great suggestions on what rugs work in your office.

Amy from Health, Home and Hearth creates a Command Center to help reduce clutter in your office.

Tarah from Grammas House DIY has small office tip to keep clutter down.

Kippi from Kippi at Home is sharing her ideas for office storage.

Kristin from White Arrows Home has a fun post about setting up a workspace for kids.

Thank you so much for joining me today! Please visit all these bloggers and leave your comments!

If you enjoy this post, please feel free to share on Pinterest.

The older version of this post shared with Between Naps on the Porch 605th Metamorphosis Monday

Inspire Me Monday~My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Inspire Me Monday #290~Life on Oak Hill