Home Decor 889: Holiday Home Tour 2014: A Cozy Eclectic Christmas

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

I'm so excited that you're here today! Come on in and pour yourself something hot to drink.

But wait...I guess I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you're visiting from Joy In Our Home's Holiday Home Tour, welcome! It's so nice to "meet" you.

Luckily for you, if you've escaped from the blistering cold of the north, we have sunny skies and 50 degree weather here in South Cackalacky ("Carolina" if you're giving me a crazy look right now).

It's very rare that we get to use this sled on our porch here, but it has a special place in my heart. It was my mother's when she was little, I enjoyed it during the "big snows" as a kid (all 10 inches of it usually), and it is now being passed down to my daughter.

But anyways, we don't have to stand here on my porch all day. Come on in.

If you haven't meandered over to my corner of the bloggy world before, our little family of three just moved in to our builder grade cookie cutter home exactly 1 year ago almost to the day. You can see our full progress tour here. And as we've been decorating for Christmas, it blows me away how much we have done on such a small budget (with thanks mainly to thrift store and Craigslist finds).

Exactly one year ago, this room was a plain white box. No furniture, paint, fireplace...nothing.

We are so giddy to even have a mantel to hang our stockings on this year.

Even though we usually don't get a white Christmas around here, there is one thing about nature in the South that I absolutely love. Fraser Firs grow here! And they smell just as amazing as they look.

Since we have mainly invested in tons of home improvement projects this year, we really didn't splurge much on Christmas decorations. So we ended up making ornaments by printing photos from the time Robert and I got engaged to present day.

I have to say, even though it was an idea for "tree filler" on the cheap, I think I want to keep this tradition by updating our tree with photos from the year. I loved every second of decorating our tree because we got to reminisce a bit. I want to squeeze this squishy little newborn Olivia here!

We busted out a few Christmas arts and crafts last week too. Pinterest, you rock my world with your amazing ornament DIYs.

Okay, giving you the grand tour of every single ornament could take days, so I'll move on.

I'm so psyched about actually having this mantel to play with. It is no easy feat trying to decorate around a TV above our fireplace (there's really no other place to put this monstrous thing), but sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Making decor practical is just as important as making it beautiful, right?

We don't actually have a working fireplace (we built it for less than $600), but we don't usually need one anyway. We'll pretend these logs will keep us warm. ;)

I know I mentioned we have a family of three, but shame on me...I forgot to count our nutso dog Lola. (She thinks she's human, so we might as well give her a stocking too.)

Can you tell I'm obsessed with our fireplace? I'll stop now. I guess you get the idea.

My absolute favorite spot though is actually this cozy little corner.

You caught me in the middle of writing a letter to Santa. I can explain. Really, I can! Eating dessert before dinner and staying up way past your bedtime is totally acceptable. I think he of all people would understand.

Although, my mom and I might be on the naughty list for picking leaves from a magnolia tree to make into this wreath. But we were just doing someone a favor by pruning it for them, right?

Oh, by the way, if you're liking that vintage map and Ansel Adams print for super cheap, you can check out how to DIY them in those handy little links there.

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without curling up in an easy chair with our squirmy toddler and reading a story. Dickens might be a bit much, but we'll give her the short version.

You might have already seen our rustic entryway from earlier this week. It's still a work in progress, but I had to dress up our fabulous Craigslist discovery- that reclaimed wagon bench.