Holiday Decor: Old and New

For many years, I've put up several trees for Christmas. I have so many ornaments that this allows me to mix and change themes in lots of different ways.

I usually put up a smaller tree in our dining room and decorate it with the Shiny Bright ornaments I commandeered when my maternal grandma passed away in 2004. My mom and her sister didn't want them, but I think they are beautiful! (Sorry for the blurry picture taken with my old phone.)

My only complaint about my Shiny Bright collection is that there are way too many pink ornaments. I'm not a fan of pink, and it definitely doesn't go with my dining room color scheme!

This year I decided to change my dining room decorations, and the inspiration came from this "Holiday Cheer" sign. I bought the sign at Memory Bound during our Holiday Open House, and the neat thing is that it was painted our store owner's daughter. I loved it the minute I saw it which was surprising to me because I'm not a fan of gold. But I was hooked by the retro design and the clean look of the white paint. 

Lately I've been seeing a lot of gold and white holiday decor, so I decided to go with that and build a decorating scheme in the dining room based on the colors in the sign. So far I've finished the top of the china cabinet, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Re-thinking my color scheme allowed me to pull out a few things I had not used in years!

I love that so many pieces are meaningful to me: 

• I made the pine cone tree during the holiday season when I was expecting Bailey. It has held up well! 
• The candle holder was given to me by my aunt, and I used to love it but then quit loving it because it was gold. Suddenly I love it again! :)
• The footed compote is a beautiful antique which belonged to my great-great-grandma on my dad's side.
• The compote is filled with gold, silver, and copper ornaments that belonged to my grandma.
• The pitcher in back belonged to my great-great-grandma on my mom's side. 
• I found the gold decanter at a thrift store in Bloomington on a visit to Bailey.

 I sorted out all of the matching Shiny Bright ornaments and put them on the dining room tree, along with my other gold ornaments. It's taking me awhile to pull it together, but I think it's going to be a fun change in the dining room, at least for this year. I'll share more when I finish this room!

jp