I just wanted to quick share what I played around with today.  Our staircase. Just over a year ago this was a hallway.  We moved the stairs to this location and opened up the wall.  This wall was original to the home back in the 1800s.  Each board that was cut from this wall was reused somewhere else in the home.  I believe the wood from this spot was used for shelves in the laundry room. (Remind me to show you all sometime).

Today the sun peeked in just for a minute as I took this.  I can’t believe it is December 7 already and Christmas is only 18 days away!!  Okay back to the staircase.  I had a photo of a staircase from County Living Magazine years ago that I ripped out and showed to Doug that I wanted.  They had used pears as a decor on every step and I too want to copy them and do that. He thought I was crazy to want to cut half the wall out and put in a half open stairwell. At the time the house was so so different from what it is now.  I still can’t believe the changes that we made, but I am so happy how this one turned out.

Then here, after a little afternoon nap I did a little more decorating.

As much as I love stockings hung from a mantel, Doug would kill me.  Because we heat the house with the wood stove in the kitchen I can get pretty hot.  He would prefer to have nothing on the mantel at all, but I can get away with a few things. ; )

And one more with the candles lit!  Of course I blew them out right away before Doug caught me… ; )