Our Harborside Mansion Build: This Year's Decking Of the Halls

A very, Merry Christmas to you and yours!! I'm thankful to have found little pockets of time throughout the season to spread the joy throughout The House! Come on in!

I really focused the efforts on the first floor and outside. Because, time, amiright? And, really, the focus was on what made it all fun and not stressful or in the "have-to" departments. So, that being said, here's the family room:

You've seen the stockings, but here they are in action:

You'll note I moved the fireplace from the wall on the left. That's because I can do that in a fake house to show off the stockings. 😅 I found the little Noel sign at Michaels. My favorite mantle decorations are the snowmen on the ends. These are from a stash of decorations from when I was a kid!

I love this table of goodness:

The Santa is also from the childhood stash, so it gets a prominent viewing spot! I love the bowl of ornaments. They're beads pulled off of tree picks which you will see when we go outside. They were just too pretty not to use elsewhere, so I created a bowl of color! The bowl, by the way, is actually cut from a sheet of candy molds. I recently read about someone cutting those apart to use for dishes, and, gosh-darned, if it doesn't work GREAT!

Over in the corner, there's a pile of goodies under the tree!

And, I must highlight the Christmas pillow I managed to make. I had plans for about 4 pillows but have since congratulated myself on finishing the one:

Moving across the room, check out the stairs!

That's wire-edged ribbon cascading down! I didn't attach it in any way, so, for a few days, it would randomly pop up and elevate above the stairs keeping the staircase form. 😆 I think I have it anchored just enough against the banister pole that it will sit still for a while! I really don't know where I found those elves, but I love them. And, the beaded garland actually goes up to the third floor. See?

Yup! That's one, continual string! I attached it to the railings with some elastic string. That'll make it easy to pull and cut off when the season is over.

Back downstairs, there's just a little project going on in the kitchen ...

... before heading into the room of treats!

This family has yet to have much by way of normal or nutritious food, but they have the goodies covered!

I didn't make any of these (ha! 'Sounds like my real Christmas baking endeavors!) but have collected them over the year as I spy them with my little eye at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. The more colorful bowl are "candy" pieces which was really a string of beads I found at JoAnn's. Let your imagination happily run wild as the kids eagerly take the little sugar plums that are larger than their mouths! Mmm ...

My favorite creation, though, was to realize I could take real, cake/cupcake sprinkles and, effectively, preserve them:

In the little, white plate (which is not from a candy mold) are gingerbread men that were in my stash of sprinkles/cake decorations. I smeared them, one side at a time, with Alene's clear glue letting them dry in between coats. The glue basically soaked into the little sugar pieces and ultimately hardened them!

I did, indeed, feel pretty clever here! I do have decorating plans for them, but that might not happen this season!

And, directly across from the treats, we have the reason for the season:

This is just part of a full nativity set from when I was a kid, so I love having a cool place to display it!

Full disclosure: It's a miracle this baby Jesus is still around. It's about the size of a dime to give perspective. My brother and I used to put it on the cargo car of the train that ran around the family Christmas tree. And, we made the train go full speed even around turns, so, there were multiple derailments each season. Of course, most of those derailments happened in the back of the tree where it was tricky to reach anything. Let's just say baby Jesus went for the ride of his little life. Often. So, that it is still here is an actual Christmas miracle!

Moving on, there is just a little Christmas happening upstairs:

Oh, yes, you know there's a place where the parents must stash gifts! And, of course the biggest ones are always peeking behind the hiding place!

That's what up on the inside! And, now, we head out!

Ta-Da!!

You'll note we don't have a snowy Winter here, but that doesn't keep it from being festive! Let's take a closer look:

The patio is all spruced up with so many fun things! The other two poinsettia pots are on both sides of the double doors. I went extra fancy on those and glued on red bows.

I'm a big fan of the candy canes! They are mini ornaments off of which I cut the hanger loops. Then, I made a pool of hot glue and stuck them in to dry. It only took a few minutes for them to be steady enough to stay upright to dry completely. I did put a little something next to them for extra, please-don't-lean-and-dry-crooked support (I happened to use a glitter glue bottle, but what it is doesn't really matter). The glue pool was on a piece of waxed paper which worked well enough to let me pull them up and off. It still stuck a little, but no one sees that!

That big, ol' tree is fabulous, too! I found it at a garage sale this Summer. I really wanted the lights on them. I find Christmas bulbs to be scrumptious, and these little, wooden guys are so cool! I swung the big deal getting the tree for 50 cents instead of the price-tagged dollar, and, once I saw it near the patio here, I decided the whole shebang, rather than just the lights, would go on display!

On the other side of the patio ...

... it's also festive with the other poinsettia and wooden Christmas tree farm tag! You'll recognize the beads in the bird bath as they are from the garland going up and down the stair rails inside!

And, right above the doors, there are some new friends:

They're just charming. 😊

Across the front of the house, the Christmas greetings continue! Welcome!

The beads in the jar are pieces of the tree picks I mentioned when showing off the bowl of ornament beads inside. I just love all of the color!

I'm also particularly proud of the hanging of the wreaths on the front door as well as on windows in the breakfast nook. Here is one from the outside ...

... and, here is how that works from the inside:

I know it's a little tricky to see, but I stuck the wreath to a magnet and then put another magnet inside the window. SUPER EASY! It worked for the 3rd floor balcony wreath, too!

On the other side of The House, allow me to show off the show-stopper spot:

There are presents a-go-go under that tree! See?!

But, my personal, favorite part are the hanging bells! The favoritism reasons are twofold. First, I got a hook in the ceiling just for this purpose. I didn't think of putting one there during the original build, but I wasn't going to go without one now because these bells needed to be hung! I contorted myself quite a bit to get it in there, but, it's there!!

The other reason this mattered is because I have loved these bells since I can remember. They were a little decoration on a huge candelabra which was a really, lovely centerpiece for the many, formal Christmas dinners our family had. It was huge, though. So, I salvaged the bells and love that they have a great place for display!!

Along the front of The House, I crafted a way to have candy canes lining the porch:

As I did with many flowers this Spring, I attached straight pins to them. But, unlike the flowers, where I used floral tape to attach and hide the pins, I simply ran a line of hot glue along the straight part of the cane leaving enough pin at the bottom to go into the floral foam under the mulch. Stick-stick-stick-done!!

Of course, up on the house top, reindeer pause ...

I found these at an estate sale a few weeks ago. They were shoved in a little ziploc bag and, pretty much, left for dead. There were more reindeer in the bag, but many were missing limbs. I figured as long as Santa and Rudolph were okay, then it was worth my dollar. I love them!

And, what's checking out Christmas decorations without seeing them in the dark?!

After seeing it all lit up, it was nice, but I wasn't satisfied. Suddenly, it hit me that the big tree with the wooden Christmas bulbs needed some real lights, too.