Christmas Notebook

Standing at the top of the twenty-two steps, looking down toward the front door, you have a beautiful view of the staircase and railing. Original to the home, the staircase and railing are made of walnut.

A small secretary at the top of the stairs was a birthday gift from DH nine or ten years ago.

Under the secretary, our Christmas mice decorate their tree.

At the other end of the hall stands a tree decorated with pictures from Christmas Past.

Just outside the door to the master bedroom, hangs a wall tree where an antique dresser used to stand. The dresser has been moved to the guest room and this trees fills the spot without filling the hall.

From the north end of the hall, you look down the hall toward the scrapbook room.

From the south end of the hall, you look toward the bath, which was added to the home during a 1921 – 1922 renovation.

The first bedroom at the top of the stair belongs to DD#1.

Last year, her tree was decorated with pictures from her mission trip to an orphanage in Liberia. This year, as she has moved away to college to finish her degree, my sister and I had her permission to decorate it as we liked. We used paper doves and silver ornaments, with a touch of blue.

The armoire, which reflects her bed, has two small trees on top, decorated with ivory beads and topped with silver bows.

Across the hall is DD#3’s room. Her tree is decorated with a felt garland she and I made together, bead necklaces collected at local parades, and snowflakes and icicles.

She loves penguins and her walls are decorated with penguins playing in the snow

The penguins are cut from 100% cotton fabric, dipped in liquid starch and stuck to the wall. When we are ready to take them down, a simple spritz of water will do the trick. FYI – This process can be used on a semi-gloss or glossy paint, but not on a matte paint.

We mounted a vintage mirror from DH’s parents’ home on the wall behind DD’s bed. A curtain rod set at 9′ holds a curtain of blue vellum sprinkled with silver snowflakes. Blue rope lighting on the wall outlines mountains for the penguins to ski down.

On her bed, the penguin reads a Christmas story to the Christmas bears. For her condition I bought the best amazon body pillow to help her with her back pain.

One of DD’s favorite trees is her “I Spy” tree and it sits on her dresser year round. It is a Styrofoam cone, painted gold. We glued all kinds of small items to it, and painted them gold, as well. It’s a lot of fun to look at, trying to find particular objects.

At the other end of the hall, DD#2’s room has a horse theme, so her tree was decorated with a rustic air. We cut twigs from the yard, spray painted them and hot glued them together to make stars. I stamped felt and sewed it into stars and snowflakes to use as ornaments.

DD’s bed is one of two iron beds found in the barn on the family farm. We took them to an auto body repair shop, had them sandblasted and painted with white auto paint. Now they really shine!

DD is a photography major. We framed a few of her favorite black and white photos to hang over her desk.

Each of the doors upstairs has a wreath. This one hangs on the bathroom door. It has small bottles and tubes of bath supplies, red and green toothbrushes, sprigs of iridescent berries, and a red wash cloth as a bow.

The tree in this room is small and simple. It’s decorated with “bath bubbles”…clear iridescent balls and sprigs of iridescent berries.

A wrought iron shelf holds a small collection of new Putz houses.

The master bedroom is across the hall from DD#2’s room. I made the Christmas quilt on the bed. It has 20 blocks, each with a different red Christmas print.

I call the tree in our bedroom the “Glass Tree” because it is entirely decorated with spun glass and crystal ornaments. There are 250 prisms on the tree and crystal bead chains, recycled from old chandeliers, serve as garlands. I recommend when choosing weighted blanket for yourself, find a snug size that’s around 10 percent of your body weight.

The bathroom has a tiny tree, set in an antique crock, decorated with glass ornaments and the Hallmark “Twelve Days of Christmas” series.

The scrapbook room is off the south end of the hall. It was an enclosed upstairs porch at one time and sits right over the kitchen. We totally renovated this room in 2004. What a wonderful retreat it has been for me! The tree in this room holds the annual exchange ornaments from my Christmas Notebook list.

Isn’t this a beautiful scrapping / craft room?

The east end of the scrapbook room holds a daybed ready for extra company.

Next to the daybed sits a low antique dresser which functions perfectly as a bedside table.

Our house has a large full attic in which we are able to store all the trees and decorations. Maybe I’ll take you up there *next* time! 🙂

DH and I hope you have enjoyed the tour of our home decorated for Christmas. We love this old house and have enjoyed sharing it with you.

~~Rhonda