Christmas Home Tour

It's Christmas home tour time and I'm so happy to be joining the Canadian Bloggers Christmas Home Tours again this year.  Each year my Christmas decor seems to get more and more simple and I would have to say that this year is no exception.  I tend to decorate using mostly natural greenery, decorations I have made and a few carefully selected pieces that I really love.  This year my decor has a lot of pastels again, but you'll see some more traditional red making an appearance in my entry and office which was not intentional at all, but I'll get into that more in the tour below!

Let's start in the entry and work our way around the main living spaces.  

The entry has just a couple of decorations.  I made a wreath from a pre-lit, faux birch twig garland and some fir branches. It hangs simply from one of the Muuto dot coat hooks.  I also hung a jingle bell star from the door handle that I picked up after Christmas last year.  A pine cone and a single pine branch add a little Christmas to the top of the shoe cabinets.

Directly beside the entry is my workspace.  I placed a mini Christmas tree right at the door so that you can see it from the entry, living room and workspace.  This little tree greets us whenever we come home.  It also functions as a spot for the boys to hang their felt advent ornaments and their special Christmas ornaments which happen to be mostly red!  The red jacket that's in the entry was also left there by the boys so I would say the addition of red was their design choice, but I kind of like it too. ; )

Before I turn the camera the other direction, I thought I'd share this little corner with the piano and my favourite vintage ceramic tree.  Nalle is clearly impressed with my decorating. Ha!

This year we managed to get our tree just in time for these pictures.  I wanted a fluffy tree and my boys helped me cut down this white pine.  I also let them decorate the tree entirely by themselves and when they decided they were done I let it be.  It's missing a bunch of the ornaments and it's definitely not perfect, but I love that it was their own not so little project. 

The fireplace is decorated with some greenery, a plywood star that Hubby cut for me and one of the beaded snowflake ornaments I made last year.  The print on the mantel is one I picked up when we visited Estonia last summer.  My mom knit those stockings for me quite a few years ago.

I like how the pink bottle brush tree works with the giant Birds of Paradise plant in the corner opposite the Christmas tree.  Somehow a pink tree feels like it could go with a tropical plant.  

 The dining room might be my favourite room this Christmas.  I pulled our blue-grey Saarinen chairs back in and hung up my DIY wall hanging.  The wooden bead garland is a nod to all the natural wood decor I have going on in the rest of the house and the wool felt star garland I made last year.  I also have another plywood star that I made a couple of years ago.  The sideboard seemed like the best spot for the DIY advent candle holder and I love the little Spruce tree in the cloth bag.  I also like to borrow the boys' wooden deer family during Christmas.  One of them is nicely on display under the cloche. :)  A pine garland, bottle brush trees and votive candles make for a centrepiece that I can keep up for the whole Christmas season.

The last space I'm going to share is our kitchen.  Christmas tree advent candle holders and some of the boys' toy deer house on a pink tray make another simple vignette that easily can be moved out of the way when I'm baking our cooking on the island.  My little kitchen shelf also got a little Christmas tree decor.  

In this last picture you've come full circle since this is the view of our kitchen that you would have as you walk in the front door.  I drew the chalkboard tree with the boys help (they mostly coloured in the christmas lights) based on some I had found on Pinterest.  Oh, and I always prefer to right December ("Joulukuu") in Finnish since it means "Christmas month"!

I hope you've enjoyed my Christmas tour and make sure to check out all these other tours happening this week as well!:

Monday

Northern Style Exposure 
The Learner Observer
The Uncommon Law Heather In Heels
Clean and Scentsible
The Sweetest Digs

Tuesday

Amidst the Chaos
Brooklyn Berry Designs
Lemon Thistle
Suburble
Life is a Party
PMQ for two

Wednesday

Love Create Celebrate
Satori Design for Living
A Pop of Pretty
So Much Better With Age
VinYet ETC
Woman in Real Life

Thursday

The DIY Mommy
Fresh Crush
Time With Thea
A Pretty Life
Home To Heather
Nalles House

Friday

This Little Estate
Craftberry Bush 
The Happy Housie
Kimpowerstyle
Elliven Studio

December Printable Calendar

Happy December!  Here is the printable calendar for this month.  I hope you enjoy it and the wonderful Christmas season that is upon us. 

Click on the image below to download the calendar.  *for personal use only please*

September Printable Calendar

It's September and back to school time.  My oldest is starting Grade 1 next week.  He's still just 5 years-old and it's mandatory for him to attend school full-time here in Canada.  I kept him part-time for the past couple of years (for Junior and Senior Kindergarten) although most families send their children full-time.  We're going to have a bit of an adjustment period this month I'm sure!  I personally didn't start school until I was 7 years-old which was when we moved to Canada from Finland.  I had previously attended child care in Finland, but did not go to a formal school so I tend to feel for my little boys that get these expectations piled on them at an early age.  I tend to wonder what the long term implications of all this pressure might be and whether I'm the only one concerned?  Anyway, back to the topic of this post!

Here is your printable calendar for September.  The nights are starting to get a little longer, but still warm enough to spend some time outdoors and gaze at the stars (if your lucky enough to live far enough from the city lights! ).  

To download this calendar (*for personal use only) click on the image below.

I hope you have a great start to the new school year!

August Printable Calendar

August!  The last full month of summer and usually quite lovely here in Toronto since the nights start to  cool just a little.  We had such a busy July with most of it being spent in Finland that I am looking forward to being home this month.  Hopefully, I'll be able to leisurely work on our house and finish off the dollhouse too.  Maybe I'm being ambitious here!  It is summer after all and I'm sure the majority of my time will be taken up just enjoying summer days with my boys.   I hope your summer is going well and that you enjoy this month's calendar.

To download the calendar click on the image below. **for personal use only**

Happy August friends!