'Tis the season to be gaudy!

It's beginning to look a lot

like Christmas:

Gaudiness is in the air

... and in my house.

Every year I try to decorate tastefully for the holidays, and every year I end up in a cloud of glitter, fuschia and lime green balls, and a general mess. I always have great visions of creating either a (1) cozy, homespun, green and red Christmas with homemade quilts and ornaments, (2) an elegant shimmery gold and white masterpiece, (3) a contemporary light and bright chartreuse, fuschia and turquoise piece ... and on and on. The problem is, I always end up with a tacky hodge-podge of stuff I got the year before at 90 percent off after the holidays. 

So this is what I faced this morning after pulling out just a fraction of my accumulated holiday "decorations." The Starbucks mug was a recent Goodwill find at 59 cents, and I refilled it all morning to keep me going on the "decorating."

This is normally where I paint my fabric (on a plastic-covered pool table), but this week it's been Santa's workshop.

I'm not showing you this stuff because I'm proud. I'm showing you because it's colorful, and that's what the blog is about. If you're looking for tasteful decorating ideas, you're at the wrong place.

First I tackled the easiest area: the stairway landing window that my daughter has to look at every time she goes down to her room. She hates clutter and tackiness, so I kept it simple. Two little trees, no lights or ornaments, and the antlers and rocks that are there all year anyway. I was itching to stick some fake berries and glittered pinecones all over the ledge, but I didn't, because I'm a good mom.

But the kitchen is MINE, so that's where the glittery limey and turquoisey snowman went. (And this one wasn't cheap.)

I filled a glass candle-holder with these "jewelled" fake fruit beauties. I love looking at the sparkle.

The livingroom turned into an unfortunate explosion of fake red and gold items ...

... except for this PEACE candleholder, which would fit into the cozy theme.



Instead of a big tree, I have about nine smaller trees clustered throughout the house. One of these years we'll go back to a big tree so I can hang up ALL my ornaments. (Noooo, my daughter is thinking if she reads this!!!)

Out front, I pulled out the last of the frost-bitten summer plants from the big porch pots and restrained myself from turning them into another explosion. Instead, I just tucked in some REAL moss, REAL evergreen branches and REAL pincecones and shells, all from our yard.

Then I found the pillow covers I made last year from this tasteful red and green fabric and put them on the porch loveseat. But the sleigh was a 90-percent-off bargain from JoAnne's last year.

The only Christmas quilt is this top (above) that I sewed about 15 years ago in the Jewel Box pattern. I still haven't gotten around to quilting and binding it.

Finally, here are the sentimental and homemade stockings that I love. The one on the left was knitted for me by my aunt when I was a little girl; the middle one was knitted by my mother for my daughter for her first Christmas; and the one on the right was quilted for me by my sister Terry. They're all very special and sentimental, and that's what I really like about this time of year. (And the glitter.)

Have a colorfully gaudy day!