Setting the Stage......

Decorating is much like painting a picture. First you prepare the canvas and paint in the background.

Then you base in the larger areas with your colors before you are ready to add all the details.

It is a process as is decorating!

Every year I do things a little differently. 

Tonight I started putting the basics in on the front porch..

Last year I used white but when I looked in the storage room I found three new rolls of the red.

The white must be in a tub so red it is!!

A tree will go in the space to the left of the door - decorated in red and white.

I left the porch to do tonight so I can see how it looks in the dark.

Louis Dean and I always have coffee and our Bible reading and then out loud reading together before we start our day. He went off to do errands and I got ready to work!

No make up and no hair do!

Since I was going in and out and had a door open for Lucy and Maddie to wander through, I wore a soft comfy jacket my niece, Trish, gave me on Thanksgiving.

This was the third day I have not even so much as wore earrings!

However, I ALWAYS wear perfume!!!

I started work this morning in the hall and bathroom.

Last month I bought this brand new in the box Christmas clock at the Goodwill!

I have it hanging in the bathroom where we can hear it from several rooms as opposed to being in the living room where music is playing or in the den when we may be watching a program or a movie.

Want to hear what it sounds like???

I hovered there - perched up on a kitchen step ladder - just waiting for the hour to chime!

The work I did in the hall was to wrap all the canvases on the wall with Christmas paper and put them back in their frames. I'm not certain if it looks clever or stupid!

When I get around to unpacking the decorations and find the garland,  I am going to drape some of that soft limp greenery around them and that may very well be the deciding factor as to if I like it or not. Still - they are wrapped and hanging and I'm not going to take them down so it will just BE what it is!!!

The dining room was next!

I took down my easel and stored away all my canvases in the alcove off the sewing room.

That empty spot is where the Red Cardinal Christmas Tree will stand. 

It goes there in the same place every year!

One thing leads to another.

I found a tub of Christmas linens so I partially set the table.

The side board is polished and ready to receive added decorations.

The chalkboard is updated for December.

The 'painting' is beginning to take shape.

When I work in a room - the one next to it gets even more trashed!

However, I seem to know in my mind what things to do first to make quick work of restoring order.

While it is still a work in progress - at least it's ready to decorate now.

A Children's Tree will go on the table.

I didn't do anything to the gazebo today.

That will most probably be the very LAST 'room' I decorate!

The foyer has been cleaned up and fresh lights strung up. 

The small tree to the right stays up year round and I used a strand of garland cluster lights on it!

It is strung with two golden pear garlands from Restoration Hardware.

I wish I could show you the lights out in the big pecan tree - which gave us NO pecans this year!!

My sister, Nita, gave me a laser light that looks like thousands of small lights shining in the tree!

It is so beautiful! I just love to take a break and go out there to look at it! That reminds me! I need to turn it off now!

I am feeling a little better today with this cold. At least I haven't felt like I'm drowning so I think that must mean I am getting well!! I hope so because I still have a lot of WORK to do before I can have FUN decorating! The kitchen and den both need to be cleaned before I can do anything else.

When I get a bit overwhelmed I think of this verse:

Isaiah 28:13

"Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little."

That's the easiest way to do anything - order upon order.

It's impossible to do everything all at once!