There's no place like my home for the holidays

It's cold out- there has already been an epic snowstorm, the eggnog is out at the grocery store. It was time to decorate for Christmas. This involves A LOT of work at my house. First I have to take all the christmas decor items down from the attic of my garage, and then take all the fall stuff down in the house, carry it over to the garage, and up the ladder to the attic, and then carry all the Christmas stuff into the house- all before I can actually start decorating. Luckily, I'm very organized and plan ahead- so once I get everything into the house, I know exactly where it will go.
      I'm considering this Holiday Stage One. It's subtle enough to not offend those people who don't want to know about Christmas until after Thanksgiving (weirdos). But it's enough Christmas-y to make me happy. Stage two will happen Thanksgiving afternoon and the next day, when I'll put up the outdoor decorations, the Christmas trees in the kitchen and jazz lounge, and hang liberal amounts of sparkly silver garland around. Without further ado- here are some select scenes from Holiday Stage One~

Looking into the kitchen from the pantry. On the island are potted paper whites that should be blooming right around Christmas. There's potted amaryllis on the kitchen table.

My white kitchen shelves! The little cupboard was a $8 flea market find. It was white with chippy paint and the door had no hinges. I fixed the door, added two interior shelves made of barn board, and freshened up the white paint. The Antiques Shoppe sign was $12 at the flea market, and my favorite find of the summer.

That's a real ivy topiary. We'll see if I can manager to keep it alive!

A closeup of a 1940s advertisement. I found a set of three at an antique store a couple years ago. What a saucy Santa!

In the dining room. See my victorian bureau painted light green? And the Tall dark chest and the reindeer I found free on the side of the road. 

Yea- i love this. 

My $1 folky stool/plan stand holding a mini tree. Another of my vintage christmas advertisements above.

Looking into the family room. The pillow just got re-covered in that amazing large scale botanical print. and there's a mini rosemary topiary on my vintage side table/ stool. 

When we get closer to Christmas I will switch to a lit evergreen garland. Look at how quickly that white brick got sooty. It's going to be high maintenance.

front porch. I am switch this orange chest (left over from the fall decor) to the white 1915 console table once I finish painting it.

Looking down the porch. I got that big metal sculptural piece at the tagsale on Saturday morning for $3. I think its beautiful and so interesting looking.