It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Christmas Spirit is upon us and the house is beginning to reflect the festive atmosphere. Hubby spent the weekend working on the exterior while I made merry inside.

Garlands and wreaths were hung, Front and Back

All of the garlands are hung with tiny blue lights. At night it looks so pretty and can be seen from inside through the glass doors.

You can see that Jack Frost has been visiting our little corner of the world. We've been having the most beautiful sunshine for the last couple of weeks, but it has been very cold.

Every year we display our tree on a table in front of the glass doors. The tree also has tiny blue lights. I have been busy adding touches of red and gold with pillows and fabric throws. These pillows have been added to inexpensively over the years from 'After Christmas' sales. I love the luxurious fabrics of velvet, silk and satin. Some of the pillows have tiny gold crystals sewn around the edges. They glitter in the sunshine, and at night, in the glow of the tree and candlelight.

A small footed crystal bowl from the local vintage store holds silver ornaments. I love to use deep garnet red with gold. It is one of my favorite colors and is actually the color associated with my astrological sign of Scorpio.

The tree is decorated with snowflakes, crystals, spun glass, and silver and blue glass balls. These all capture the light as it comes in through the glass doors.

And Angels, of course.

This little Angel graces the top of our tree and has since our very first year of marriage. She reflects the 'mod' style of the early 70's. I love her tiny ankles dressed with gold garland and her gossamer wings. We added the shooting star when our children were small.

I have extended the red and gold decorating to include the daybed in my kitchen alcove. I simply added a few gold and red pillows and replaced the green cover with this beautiful gold embroidered fabric which is just an orphaned curtain panel I found on discount. It was so beautiful I couldn't pass it by, but being the only one, I had no idea how I would use it. I think it was put to good use here.

I also added a sheer draped window scarf for a little Moroccan ambiance. The morning sun shines in here and fills the space with golden light. I think I need a chandelier for the little corner. I will have to put that on my wish list.

I am working on my mantel, but so far I have hung this wreath with antique 'sugared' fruit that I have collected over the years, gold dipped pine cones and clusters of antique grapes.

Slowly but surely I am getting into the Christmas Spirit.

I hope you are too.