I hope every one had a  wonderful Christmas and your New Year started out great. I'm so excited to tell you that my husband surprised me with a new camera. I had no idea that he was planning this. A big box arrived for me and when I opened it and saw what was inside I almost fainted! I went right into the ugly cry LOL. He got me good, he and my daughters kept this secret from me for days. I can't believe no one slipped before the camera came. This is the camera  I received,

image source

My camera came with a carrying case two lenses and a strap. It was a great package deal and I'm  so grateful to my husband for this gift.   Here are a couple of not so good shots of Bijoux and Paris taken when I was clueless.  I took them on the day the camera came.

Favorite Furniture Projects 2011

  I thought it would be fun to put my  favorite furniture re dos of 2011 in one post. My first favorite is the painted ottoman it's still getting hits everyday. I was really nervous about this but it turned out great.

Before

Merry Christmas

I  want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Lots of love and happiness to you all.

                                           Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

An Ottoman Vignette

I decided to add another little vignette. We use our ottoman as a coffee table so I thought it would be nice to add a small vignette there. I kept it simple by adding three milk glass vases.  I added boxwood clippings from my yard to one,  silver balls to another, to the third I made sort of a paper bouquet using vintage doilies and vintage sheet music. It's a fun little vignette. 

My Substitute Mantle

I decorated my newly finished buffet for the Magazine Copy Cat Christmas Challenge. I liked it a lot but it wasn't exactly what I wanted for the season...so I did  another arrangement. I made two arrangements using clippings of boxwood and pine from my yard mixed with some faux greenery. I added twigs also from the yard and added pine cones and silver balls. I made a candle scape on a silver tray in the center. The arrangement anchors my giant wreath lol. I'm giving you a tiny peek of my buffet, but not to much because I'll be revealing it later.  Here are some shots of my new arrangement on my buffet aka my substitute mantle.

Oh Christmas Tree

I finally finished my tree. I didn't  do a lot of extra frills and flourishes this year, but I did keep my color scheme from last year. I really love my tree in silver white and crystal. I have a 7 foot slim tree. It's really hard to get a full picture of the tree with a point and shoot but I did my best. Here's the tree:

Here are some close ups of the ornaments:

Paper Wreath

I showed you a little of this wreath in the  Magazine Copy Cat Challenge. I promised to do a post about it so here goes. First let me say that the lighting was terrible  annnnd the wreath fell off the wall while I was shooting the pics. I used one of those sticky hooks and followed the directions to the letter, I dont know what happened. So my poor wreath is a little bent  LOL.  Here is a full picture of my slightly banged up wreath.