Best of Holiday Decor

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.
~W.T. Ellis

Happy holidays, friends! Well, what's left of them. I've been so busy baking, wrapping, decorating, traveling and holidaying that I haven't posted for way too long. But I do have some fun photos and great ideas to share before the year comes to a close, so let's get going!

First, some decorations from our own Whimsical Walls. My red and white color scheme and snowflakes made another appearance this year. I just love the festive contrast of red and white against the green Christmas tree. And the snowflakes are so delicate and wintery.

Snowflakes fluttered all over our living room this year, from the tree topper to the stocking hangers. But my favorites are the crocheted snowflakes my grandmother (better known to many of my friends as "Mean Nanny") made for me years ago. Rest her crazy old soul.

As usual, this place wouldn't have looked half as good without our moms. My MIL lent me this cool old metal shop sign with a handpainted angel, and she helped me find some of the the red and silver mercury glass on the mantel. I love the glowing effect when they were all lit!

For some reason, I was really loving the look of gold this year, so I was on the hunt to make our dining room glisten. I found these glittery gold feathers from a cool shop called Orange down near Tampa (sorry for the crappy picture, but they really do sparkle), and my MIL found this curvy "Merry Christmas" sign to match. Fudgy peppermint cups recipe courtesy of Country Living (yum!).

We put the many big ol' oaks in our front yard to use (for something other than dropping acorns, for pity's sake) with this pair of fun Santas. The one peeking out is from Marshall's, the other from my MIL's collection of 50's fun.
Fresh cypress greenery and a wonderful pine scented wreath at the front door courtesy of my own elfin mom. More red and white lights, too. (Lucked into several strands of those big pearly ones at a garage sale back in September. Score!)

Hmmm ... what else? OH! I love getting Christmas cards so much that I try to find cool ways to display them. This year I picked a corner, tacked up a long piece of ribbon with a bell tied to the end and clipped our cards to it with decorative paper clips. (Clothes pins and strips of fun fabric strung over doorways work too.)

So that's pretty much it from the Griswolds', er ... I mean Hestons' household. Now here are some fun photos from our Christmastime trip to New York. The decorations were just amazing! Enjoy, Happy New Year and don't worry, I'll get busy on some new projects after all the champagne and Hoppin' John are gone.

And you thought we had lots of cork souvenirs! Grant at the entrance to Chelsea Market in NYC.

The market was decorated with completely recycled materials, mostly things artists found in the trash. It was beautiful! Here's a tree made of old CDs and snowflakes from cardboard.One of the unbelieveably gorgeous windows at Bergdorf Goodman. What a dream job to decorate those!

Part of the mural in the lobby at Rockefeller Center.

The tree at Bryant Park

And of course, the Rockefeller Center tree. Even more beautiful than we imagined!