Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

Here is the link to the Daisy Lupin Christmas Story and Memory Posting Circle:-

http://daisyschristmascircle.blogspot.com/

There is still time to add a contribution, see the site for details.

Now we are going on a tour of my Christmas decorations around my cottage. I don't like overdecorating and most of the decorations centre around the trees, pretty lights, greenery of different kinds [swags, rondels, wreaths], quirky hanging ornaments and chains of golden balls. I'll explain as I go along.

Also some of the photographs are not of great quality, as I was in such a rush to photograph the rooms, get the film developed and the results posted on my site before Christmas.

So here we go we are going to start as though we are entering the cottage, and tour the ground floor, no I have not done upstairs decorations, although I always have fairy lights all year round in the bedroom.


There's the front door with the wreath on it and the front living room window with burgandy and gold chains of little balls criss-crossing the window. The branches in the window are twisted with tiny white lights [they don't show up too well in daylight against the light of the window]. If you click to enlarge the photo you may be able to see the chain of gold balls surrounding the door. I don't know if you can see my row of clear crystals dangling from the top of the inside window frame.



That's looking from the front door into the morning room with the tree standing in the corner. Unfortunately, I don't think the lights on it show up too well in the flash of the camera. This was taken a few days ago and I put strings of Christmas cards on the door and strips of ribbons holding cards on the wall above the black leather chair. I just keep adding strips of ribbon around the room as the cards roll in from the post.



That's my screen with the swag above it and the fairy I bought and the elf [that Sheila sent me] hanging from it. The vases of branches that stand either side have baubles decorating them for Christmas. Note the Green Man [enlarged below].



This is the Green Man rondel above the fireplace, I thought he looked pretty much as he should do surrounded by a mistletoe wreath, a lovely icon to yuletide. He is protector of my house, I have another rondel in my garden. I love to see him surrounded by greenery like this at this time of year



This is the other side of the fireplace, with another wreath hanging above the mirror, and the rather strange Father Christmas perched on the book cabinet who is wearing a strange concoction of arabian nights satin clothes, sort of harem pants, a bolero and pixie boots!. I forgot to take a photo of his partner the Nutcracker Soldier who lives on top of the stereo unit on the other side of the fire place.



My treasure tree branch. All my most dear treasures and tokens displayed for Christmas. See if you recognise anything on it! Unfortunately, it was too difficult keeping everything facing the camera, and some items are swinging sideways and some have turned there backs. There are tokens from friends around the world, percious, family reminders and other little things that secretly represent something special to me.



You have now walked into the morning room, so called as the morning sun spills into this room. We have a small tree in here, based on the colours blue, lavender turquoise and pearl, there are a lot of little white wooden ornaments on it. Again against the inside window frame I have a set of hanging crystals.



These are the stairs that are in the morning room. The banister is wound around with a swag of greenery to which I add gold sprayed pinecones, and white lights that are encased in clear balls. I also hang a kissing ball at the bottom of the stairs.



This is the large victorain bookcase, which was my great grandmother's, I think you can just see the swag of greenery and large pinecones draped roundthe top of it. Gold balls on a chain around the entrance into the kitchen [you can see my herbs hanging up] and some of the felt stars I made this year, above the lintel. Also two of the children's old stockings hanging up. Two things you might spy, the framed photo on the bookcase is of my son, and in the extreme botton left corner, some spiky freshly towelled dry hair - yes the top of my husband's head!



You have now gone down the step into the kitchen and turned right into the dining room. The twigs on the console have pearl coloured leaves on twine twisted among them and I have a chain of balls and circles and some hanging stars at the dining room window.



This is the small dining room tree, which is decorated in gold and pale and dark blue, to fit in with the bright yellow walls, I also have a string of amber lights up against the bamboo blind. There is a counter dividing the kitchen and dining room but I hang a bamboo blind from the dining room side it lets the light through and also makes it two rooms, you can see the kitchen through the blind.




These are two photographs of my dining room dresser which I love to decorate with hanging bits and pieces and ornaments. I also put another swag of greenery similar to the one on top of the victorian bookcase in the morning room on top of the dressers. There are gold chains of balls and gold bells hanging across the hooks, minature christmas stockings hanging off the hooks as well as little snowmen and two tiny balls of very tiny pinecones. Also some of my twinkling felt stars and perky birds and a cute fairy with stripey red stockings, who has turned her back on the camera. Two chubby snowmen sit on the shelves. Can you spot my kitchen icon ornament on one of the shelves? Yes, it's little grey rabbit, if anyone ever read her books when they were children. I loved them, and she is my heroine as far as knowledgeable country ladies go. Little grey rabbit's fund of countrylore and tradition was awe inspiring and the stories always incorporated country traditions from around the year, such as maypole dancing, easter egg hunts and kissing balls at Christmas. You can also see my coffee mug I drew for the coffee mug challenge hanging off one of the hooks. I love finding bits of china for my dresser and keep trying to cram more and more on.



The final photograph is taken from the top of the stairs looking down towards the tiny deep casement stair window, look at the thickness of the walls in this part of the house. There is a tiny Christmas tress beside the plant and my lovely chain of small silver stars surround window reflecting the larger wicker star hanging above. Sorry about the dim light quality and shadows on this photo.

Well, there you go, a tour of the ground floor of my cottage decorated for Christmas. It is quite simply decorated, I could probably have much more, but it is just the way I like it, though each year, another little piece of inspiration hits me and I add something, this year it was the treasure tree branch [ Thanks to Lisa Oceandreamer]. I already have an idea of what it is I want to add next year. I don't really decorate upstairs, just a large star and an arch of chains at the top of the stairs, though I may put a little something in my artroom next year, but one part of the artroom still needs to be sorted. I have some photos of it to show you in a couple of postings. If I get time I may try to photograph the trees and rooms in the evening by candlelight. I hope you have enjoyed yourself, of course we stopped for a chat and something to drink, wine, tea or coffee and a piece of Christmas cake, after we looked at the decorations.