Christmas Home Tour
Dearborn is headquarters for The Ford Motor Company. Back in the good old days, Henry Ford built a neighborhood of home for Ford employees known now as The Ford Homes. Last weekend, several of these homes were selected to be part of a Christmas home tour. One was a home I designed several years ago.
I didn’t do the Christmas decorations. Those were done by current client who owns her own floral decoration company. She did a great job.
It’s nice to see the house looking so good after several years with young children. This was such a fun project with 2 great clients. It was nice of them to send me these photos.
My favorite decorating ideas here are the mantle – I love the way Tracy did the lighting. I also love the basket filled with poinsettias. I don’t really like them, but they look great grouped like this.
What’s your favorite? Do you use lots of holiday decorations, or are you a minimalist? I’m a minimalist because I never have time to do much more than hang a wreath! I’m vowing to change my ways this year.
The Best Christmas Ornaments
The thing I like about Christmas ornaments is the memories associated with them. There are those we made in childhood. Some our own children made. Special gifts from special friends. Each year those memories are newly discovered.
Give an ornament and you’ll be giving a memory as well. Here are some of my favorites.
Are you a Christmas angel person or a Christmas star person? I love this angel from Clarissa Hulse (about $50.00). Her shop is in the UK. The Presepe Collection, from Alessi is adorable. You can add to the collection each year. It’s my kind of manger (at Unica Home at various prices).
These glass ornaments, designed by Klaus Haapaniemi for iitala ($18.00 for 2) are intricately painted with a peacock and an owl. You can find them at FinnStyle. Peace and love? We need those in abundance. Jonathan Adler’s gift set ($48.00) will shake your tree.
Liberty Print Christmas Crafts
If any of you saw my post from yesterday about the upcoming Jr League Show House I’ve submitted proposals for, then you know I’ve been thinking about Liberty prints. They’re very distinctive, floral prints from Britain. Many patterns from the Victorian era are still made today. Typically, they were used for dresses. Now Liberty makes home decor items and has branched off into other things. But the florals will always be my favorite.
Today I saw that Marie Claire Id?©es’ blog has several holiday crafts you can make using Liberty fabrics.
The instructions are written in French, but you’ll get the idea. And if you need some How-To instruction, try an online translator to help.
They give instructions for the birdhouse and the tree with ornaments. Obviously, you don’t have to use Liberty prints. But you can buy them directly from Liberty and local fabric shops.
Can you help me out? If you know a shop that sells Liberty here in the States, can you let us all know by leaving the info in the comments?
