Decorating Giveaway

Make sure to pop in on Friday when I’ll have another giveaway in conjunction with my Proverbs 31 devotion that will be running! :-)

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No profound musings today. Just an old-fashioned picture show & a giveaway!

I love getting new ideas for decorating, especially around the holidays. So, here are a few of my ideas and a glimpse into our humble home. (Be sure to read until the end where there is a giveaway.)

The front of our house :-)

Hubby's childhood sled rescued from his parents' garage & Kenna's old skates
Our front door. I got the trees 75% off last year the morning after Christmas & I actually made the swag about 15 years ago.
Todd's bike from about 1973 & an old wagon from my friend Lori.
Dining room table. I love gold & wood together!
Door to laundry room. Garland $1 from a yard sale. "For Unto Us a Child is Born" sign made by my friend & co-author Trish.
Antique school desk with garage sale finds. Snowman runner made again by Trish.
Stacking Snowmen made & given to me one year by...you guessed it! Trish! I know you're jealous you don't have a Trish! Two of the noses have gotten lost over the years but this is still one of my favorite Christmas items!
Bone china nativity given to us by my in-laws for our first Christmas in 1986.
View out our back slider door.
Snow began to fall just hours before our neighborhood open house.
Speaking of open house...here is the food!
...and the folks!
...and the fun!
Kids playing pool.
Little ones decorating cookies :-)
Teens hanging out...what else?

Here is our tree. It is hard to see but the ornaments are either handmade by the kids or sugared fruits & candies. Underneath is my kids' favorite decoration, the ballroom dancers that glide.
And our fireplace. I waited 22 years to get a fireplace!!!
All these toys were either mine, Todd's or our kids'.
A close-up of the mantle. Most items from garage sales. Gingerbread cookie jar from my mom. Heart box has anscestor pics on it.

Well…our quaint cyber tour is done! How I wish you all could have stopped by in person.

However, since you couldn’t, here is a decorating giveaway I will be sending shortly to one of you!

It includes:

~Three signs from At Home America (a company I LOVE!). My friend Tammy was a consultant for years & I have many of their products in my house (most bought on clearance , of course!) The signs say “Simplify”  “Imagine” & “Family”.

~ A box of six apple-cinnamon votive candles from Pier One.

~ A signed copy of my book A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others (full of simple decorating short-cuts!) If you want info about getting any of my books tax & shipping-free for Christmas gifts, click here.

Simply leave a comment today and you’ll be entered. I know you are all busy as we hit the Christmas homestretch, so the comment today is simple.

White lights or colored?

What’s on your tree?

As you can see, we have huge old-fashioned colored lights. My kids won’t have it any other way. :-) Nor will my husband, who is quite quiet about Christmas decor, until it comes to the lights on the tree!

Winner announced Friday when the next giveaway kicks off!

Bright-Light Blessings,

123 Comments

  1. This year we are in the midst of remodeling–took longer than planned! So we are keeping things reallllly simple. Just a mini tree but we are displaying our Nativities! Our mantle showcases our 2 largest Nativity sets.

  2. Colored lights, mini ones. Some homemade ones from our children when they were younger and then I switch off theme colors of silver and blue to red and green, or gold and white. I try not to buy many different ones unless I get a wonderful deal at the dollar store clearance. I love sales.

  3. white lights…my kids would love colored lights, but my husband loves the white. On our tree, we have ornaments that our children have made or that we collected from our many moves in the Marine Corps for 25 years.
    Merry Christmas!

  4. White lights upstairs…if we put a tree up downstairs it has colored lights with kid-made and sentimental ornaments.
    Teresa

  5. Nice party!

    My lights are WHITE!! I have white lights all over my house. On the tree….red glass ornaments, santas, snowmen and tons of handmade items from my 3 kids. I love it and so do they.

  6. Colored lights on the tree!!!!! White lights outside. I have all the ornaments (on my tree) my three kids made for us through the years, plus others I have picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby, after Christmas. Merry Christmas! Thanks for showing us your home, it was a fun visit!! :) Becky

  7. You have a beautiful house! I love how you decorated it!

    I don’t have a Trish, but I AM one…does that count? :) I’m not near as gifted as yours, though. Maybe I need “Trish lessons”.

    I like a mixture of colored and white lights.

    My tree has mostly new ornaments (my sister got all the hand-downs from our family tree), but there is one that is very cherished by me. My SIL made my daughter an ornament for her one and only Christmas (she was born in Nov. 1997 and passed away Feb. 1998), it’s a clay reindeer with her name on it.

  8. I loved the tour and the great ideas. I am so not good at decorating, so I do appreciate seeing your photos.
    Our tree has white lights. They look like stars to me. And it has tons of ornaments made by my 2 children or collected by me for my children to have one day when they’re all grown up.

  9. I’ve had colored lights on my tree every year since childhood, from the big, old-fashioned ones to the new, small ones. But about 2 or 3 years ago I went out and bought white twinkle lights as I was at a new beginning point in my life. However, I still use all the ornaments I’ve gathered over the years, from my grandmother’s depression era ornaments to the ones my children handmade while they were still young. My tree is lovely and comforting. Beautiful? It’s all in the eye of the beholder and my tree is the most beautiful of all (at least to me!). I still decorate the house with colored lights though. It’s all sparkly and beautiful.

  10. Your house is lovely, Karen!

    We have two trees: one with little white lights, and the other with big colored bulbs (C7, I think?). I love them both in different ways!

  11. Love the picture Karen!! Thanks for sharing. For me it’s white lights inside the house and colored lights outside. On my tree I have bows made out of ribbon, wooden cranberry strings and gold and red ornaments.

  12. Colored lights – because I’m a big kid. Most of the ornaments were made by our girls or were picked out for them to have one day. Lots of ornaments with lots of lights and it would never make the cover (or inside) of Better Homes & Gardens…. just the way we like it! :)

  13. Lovely pictures-thanks for sharing! I have white lights on the main tree with tons of ornaments made by the kids and purchased over the years. We also have a small tree with colored lights that holds many different types of clothespin ornaments made by my dad among a bunch of other ornaments that don’t fit on the main tree.

  14. Your home is beautiful! Mini colored lights on our tree. I’d love to have a second, more formal tree with white lights, but as long as there’s only one tree the lights will be colored.

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