Today, my daughter-in-law and two older daughters helped decorate the glass tree in our bedroom. DH helped, too. It’s never too early at our house. Besides, it’s in the bay, out of the way. It’s not a nuisance. And it’s my favorite. Now I can enjoy it for the next few months.

Pictures never do this tree justice.

The tree is decorated with my collection of glass and spun glass ornaments, beaded chandelier chains and about 250 prisms.

And the kitties were *pretty* good about it. Mostly, they napped in the cradle while we decorated the tree.

It was fun and the tree is beautiful! One down…21 to go…

~~Rhonda

The Christmas tree in the guest room has a silver and blue theme, with a lean toward a vintage feel. The tree has white LED lights that have a bluish cast. The tree rotates. So much prettier in person, but you get the idea. By the way, this is the tree I spray painted last year. Worked great!!

You can see more Christmas decorating ideas at The Inspired Room. Scroll down that page for links to other sites where homes are being readied for the holidays.

~~Rhonda ::busy decorating the living room tree today::

DH and our daughter-in-law put up the snow tree. “Snowing” it is the final (and most fun) part. They gently laid handfuls of shredded artificial snow on the branches.

I made the snowball ornaments for this tree years ago.

Our daughter helped her sister-in-law sprinkle the topping of iridescent snow over the finished tree. I had to ask them to turn around and look at me. All I had were pictures of backs. Side note…you can’t go wrong with a Little Giant ladder! Every time we need to get up to something, we remark on how glad we are to have it!

A little greenery over the picture and a little snow on the cupboard tree, and we’re almost done.

Silver spindles hang from the reproduction lighting.

The windowsills need some candles and then we’ll be done with the dining room. All but the pick up…I confess there are a few boxes and odds and ends left in the room. But we’re well on our way with the decorating!

~~Rhonda

Siberian Iris ‘Illini Charm’

This is an old fashioned iris that we do not know the name of.

We brought this iris from our previous home. Bought it in a collection of six, years ago. Probably the first irises I ever bought. But I no longer know the name.

‘Mary Frances’ is a beautiful bluish tall bearded iris.

Another unknown.

This early brown iris was in the yard when we moved here. Unfortunately, it was planted against a brick wall of the same color. We’ve moved it around the yard, where it shows up much better.

‘Raspberry Blush’ opened April 26.

This very early old fashioned iris opened April 19 and is still blooming strongly. We brought this iris from DH’s family farm, where it has bloomed every spring for many years.

‘Baby Blessed’ is one of my favorite dwarf irises. It blooms prolifically in the spring, then blooms off and on all summer and into the fall, providing it has plenty of moisture.

Other irises have already finished blooming.

Tiny little ‘What Again.’

And the even tinier extra early purple iris. It bloomed March 30. This iris came from DH’s family farm. It stands 3-4″ tall.

This picture of ‘Irish Chant,’ a lovely dwarf iris, was taken last year. It bloomed this year while I was too sick to go out. The one picture DH took of it, wasn’t a great shot, so I’ll recycle this one.

There will be new irises every day for a while. This is my favorite season in the garden. The entire yard will smell heavenly when they are blooming at the peak of the season! ~~Rhonda

We hang our stockings on the staircase in the front hall. Family members at our house on Christmas morning get a stocking. All are expected to provide some stocking stuffers for everyone else. Family members who are not home on Christmas morning, receive a small gift-wrapped present to be placed in their stockings at home.

The newel post on the staircase…I hot-glued all the fruit, berries, balls, etc., on the garland.

To the left, as you walk into the living room from the front hall is the nativity set on the old box grand.

The large angel watching over the nativity was a gift from DH several Christmases ago.

The nativity was given to me by my mother years ago. It was painted by her brother’s SIL.

For the mantel, I framed Christmas cards that show the events of Christ’s birth.

Standing in front of the fireplace, looking into the dining room…

The dining room table was set with Christmas china for the house tour. We folded napkins into elfin boots. So cute! I’ll have to take pictures and write a post with directions for you. Here are directions for another elf boot found online.

Later, more pictures from the rest of the house. ~~Rhonda

I used shiny silver spray paint and a fine glitter in “antique silver” color.

I experimented on a small piece of garland, trying three different colors. Once I moved on to the tree, I started at the top.

I worked in sections. As I sprayed a small section, I sprinkled it with glitter before it dried.

I love the way it turned out. The green has been muted and the shiny silver lightens the entire tree.

I used white LED lights on the tree. The color is very white and looks better with the blue/white room than the incandescent lights that glow with a yellow cast.

Genny and I tried some silver icicle stands on the tree and I think it will be the perfect finishing touch. Now I need a tree skirt…

2011 update…here’s the tree this year. Still looks great!

~~Rhonda

Genny taped them in the windows.

Pretty!

Looking through the snowflakes into the front room.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a picture of the guest room tree. I put white LED lights on it and lots of silver ornaments. Oh, and I spray painted the tree silver!

~~Rhonda

I began by cutting a strip of fabric long enough to go around all four sides of the box. I used self-sticking velcro to attach the fabric. One side of the velcro was adhered to the box and the other side to the top of the long strip of fabric.

Once that was done, I cut a square of fabric to fit over the top of the box like a table cloth, making a hole and a slit in the back to fit over the tree stand.

Velcro was again used to close the seam. One piece of Velcro was placed on the front of the fabric and one piece on the wrong side (the back).

The tree skirt now looks finished and is much easier to place under the tree. And it stays in place! DD#2 will be glad to know that. It was always her job to crawl under there and try to clothespin the whole thing together.

~~Rhonda

Genny came last evening and she is working on the Victorian tree. It had been in the guest room in prior years, but with the remodel, the theme no longer fits. So upstairs it goes to DD#1′s room and the guest room tree will get a whole new look this year. I’m thinking white and silver, but shall see how it comes out when we get to it. Last year, DD’s tree looked like this:

A photographer came by this morning to take a picture of the living room tree for the paper. We are hosting a public house tour December 12 and 13, to raise money for the mission fund at church and he wanted a picture for that. Thankfully, the living room was decorated and in good order! Thanks to Brooke who helped me straighten the downstairs yesterday. The clutter of construction and decorating was getting to me. We worked through the downstairs rooms and it looks so much better than it did. Whew! So glad it looked good for the photo, as he didn’t call ahead!

I will post pictures later. Wanted to get something posted to keep you up to date on how we’re doing. ~~Rhonda

I began painting the old book case. I plan to paint the inside with the same yellow we used in the hall and will paint the outside white. Today I began with a coat of Kilz to seal the wood.

I replaced some lights on the Victorian tree. Wanted to get to the glass tree, but didn’t have time.

I ordered fabric for the curtains in the guest room. Laurie calculated all the yardage for me. Thank you, Laurie! I had to order from three different sites to get all the different patterns I wanted, but they should be winging their way here before long.

I made the Sour Cream Sugar Cookie dough. Double batch. That’s a big load for a mixer but my trusty Kitchaid can handle it easily.

This is a very tender dough and needs to chill in the fridge before it can be rolled and cut. Since I made such a large batch, I’ll leave it in the fridge at least 24 hours so it is completely chilled. I covered it with plastic wrap, pushing all the air out. It may be several days before I get around to baking the cookies, but the dough will be fine.

Tomorrow, I hope to put the lights on the “glass tree.” The tree I had used for years was finally too worn out to use again. It took a long time to find a tree I thought would work well for the glass ornament collection. The tree has to have plenty of free space among the branches to display the ornaments. I finally ordered one and it looks like it’s going to be a good choice. Genny and I began “fluffing” it last weekend, Genny finished it while I took DD to music lessons, and now it is ready for lights.

I’ll take more pictures tomorrow. ~~Rhonda