CHRISTMAS TREE 2011.
So life’s been keeping me busy, as I’m sure it has you. Christmas is seriously sneaking up on me too fast, y’all. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited — but it hasn’t been good for my anxiety, especially since I was stumped on gift ideas this year. Coming up with unique and thoughtful gifts is hard, yo! No worries though — I finally got a gift list made that I’m happy with and most of the shopping done this weekend. Phew.
Despite all this, I’m determined to make time to write and share some of the Christmas-y goodness we’ve got going on at our house this year. First, here’s a look back at our Christmas tree’s past.
Our six-foot pre-lit faux tree was a gift from my parents after Jamie and I moved into our first place together — a townhouse in Richmond back in 2006. At the time, our living room colors were blue and brown, so to coordinate I chose a blue and silver snowflake theme for the tree. We hung shiny blue beaded garland, snowflakes in various shades of blue, and tons of glittery silver ornaments. I loved this scheme (still do!) so the tree got decorated in silver and blue for the first few Christmases…
…until last year, aka our first married Christmas. I decided to switch it up and go for a colorful folksy-handmade theme, using red wooden beaded garland and a slew of ornaments from my childhood hijacked from my parents’ collection (along with some new ones, too). It was pretty adorable, if I do say so myself — and it was fun to try something different. So, now for the first Christmas in our first house, our little tree got another makeover.
The theme I instituted this year is rustic metallic, and I’m digging it hardcore. Because it’s somewhat of a neutral theme, many of the ornaments we already owned went along with it (like the bisquillion silver ornaments we have on hand). However, because I can’t help myself, we bought some new things as well – like gold and copper-colored ornaments that, along with our silver stuff, create a nifty mixed metallic look.
In my opinion, copper is just the coolest right now — so this shimmery copper guy from Crate + Barrel is kinda my fave…
Now for the rustic part, we tossed in natural elements like these various pinecone ornaments…
and these white-washed wooden snowflakes…
wooden or wooly critters, like this walrus…
and tied tiny jute twine bows on the ends of the branches, like this…
Some of my favorite additions to our tree this year are clear glass ornaments that catch the light, like this awesome glass mushroom…
and these sweet little glass dewdrops, also from Crate + Barrel. Seriously, how are their ornaments so awesome? Every year?! It’s mystifying.
Last Christmas, we received these two special ornaments as gifts from Jamie’s parents…
The first is a glass heart hand-painted by Jamie’s mom with our names and wedding date, and the second is a silver birdcage (in honor of our wedding theme) with a photo of us from the wedding. Fantastic newlywed gift idea alert! Coincidentally, these ornaments just so happen to coordinate with the rustic metallic-ness of our tree — but of course, we would have displayed them either way.
Aside from putting up our tree, this year we also tried our hand at exterior illumination for the very first time…
Since this is our first go at this, we decided on a classic look: white candles in the windows, spotlight on the front of the house, warm white LEDs on our spiral topiaries, and a wreath covered in icy crystals on the front door. And while you can’t see it in this photo, from the street our tree’s lights shine through the top window on the far left. Simple but pretty — we kinda love it (yet the pic doesn’t do it justice). Have I mentioned owning a home is sweet? Because, ya know, you get to do fun stuff like this.
Christmas-ing up our house for the first time was fun times, for sure. Now to sit back, relax, and enjoy it all for the next week. Hope you do the same! Have a wonderful and stress-free holiday, and all the best in 2012!
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Hey Katie –
The tree and the house look beautiful! I love the walrus and your idea for the jute twine bows. Doesn’t Meredith create/find the best ornaments? I started our tree last night and I was admiring all of mine too.
Merry Christmas!
Thanks, Natalie! Speaking of ornaments, we got our bell in the mail yesterday — please tell your parents we say thank you! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday :)
Katie – I LOVE the rustic metallic tree! So impressed… you’ll have to help me theme-ify my tree next year :) By the way, I featured your blog on my blog today & passed on the Liebster award to you – stop by to read more about that. Hope you guys had a lovely holiday!
Thanks, friend! Oh I love me a good theme so I’m more than happy to assist, haha. And thank you again for the blog award! What a nice surprise!! I’ll be sure to share the love soon. :)