Christmas House Tour 2015 Christmas in The Bedroom

Welcome to my Christmas house tour 2015: Christmas in the Bedroom. Today I want to show you our bedroom.  It all started when I went to Magpie’s Vintage Treasures, a little shop in Matthews, near where I live, that only opens for a weekend, seasonally.  This cute little toile bear jumped into my arms as I was browsing in the store.

 She insisted that I decorate our bedroom for Christmas, and let her be the star.  So…

 Here she is making herself quite comfortable on our bed.  I switched the blue and white quilt for this all white bedspread, and added a couple of red and white stripe pillowcases.

 Then I folded one of the red and white quilts I made at the foot of the bed.

Some greens from our yard in white ironstone, classic and simple.  It looks so good with the brass lamp behind it.  

 Got a pair of brass lamps for $2 each recently and Hobby Lobby had lampshades 50% off the same day, so I the lamps only cost me $17 each!

 Some more greenery: cedar, nandina berries and holly on the other side of the bed with something I printed and framed last year.  There were hardly any berries on our holly this year.  Not sure why.

 Last year my feather tree had a button garland and these little cloth blue and white hearts.  At the insistence of my little bear, red balls and a red bead garland were added.

A vintage bunny and some of the Christmas hearts are nestled under the tree.

Thanks little bear.  I like how it turned out!  I’m thinking about painting the walls, dark blue.  What do you think?  Actually you may not be able to respond because yesterday the comments weren’t working and I couldn’t figure out how to fix them.  If you’ve ever had that problem I’d love you to email me and tell me how to fix it!!

Come back in a few days and I’ll show you some more of my Christmas house tour.

Rhondi x0

Christmas Open House 2014 part 2

Welcome to my Christmas open house part 2. Today I’m inviting you into my kitchen.  No smells of christmas baking here and not a homemade cookie in sight!

Everything in here is pretty simple.  A wood advent tree I got at a yard sale years ago. I just added some fake apples and real greens from neighbor’s yard.  There is nothing behind the numbered doors and the red cookie tin is empty.

 A big basket full of giant pinecones I collected, tied with a big bow.  All I had to buy was the ribbon.

 Bright red apple swags over the sink and wall oven.  I just leave the nails there from year to year which makes it easy to hang next year.

 I have a few Christmas dishes and some red ones too which I put on the shelves in the china cabinet.

 My snowman teapot and mug add some cheer above the stove.

 Every room has to have candles.  Ikea has the best candles.  These ones came from there.  The cardinals remind me of the ones we have at our birdfeeder and birdbath this time of year.

 In the corner of the kitchen counter I always have things ready for tea.  This past year I was lucky enough to find these Christmas cups and saucers and teapot.  Have you read The Christmas Cup of Tea?  I know you would enjoy it. It’s a delightful little book.

 I have a little snack of tea and toast ( no cookies remember?) and it’s sitting in front of my clock that plays a Christmas carol every hour.

 I invited a few neighbors in for tea this morning. The table is set, just need to brew the tea. Would love to have you join us if you could.

Rhondi xo

First Post

 Good morning friends

It was seven years ago in November, that I wrote my first post and clicked “publish”.  I had been following  a few blogs and wanted to be able to leave comments and so Rose Colored Glasses was born.   I have always loved visiting other bloggers and having people come and comment on what I had written.  I have seldom had anything profound to say but always hoped that my posts provided a friendly place for you to visit.  It has been fun to share my home with you and have lots of cups of tea and many of you have become dear friends.

Blogging sure has changed since then.  Lots of people are making a good income from their blogs.  And there are so many more bloggers!!

Because I went back to work full time I stopped being consistent with writing posts for awhile, but I missed my friends in blogland.  It has been a long time since that first post, but I am still here, posting about insignificant things , but things that make me happy.

 Things like making little hearts from recycled men’s shirts.

             Collecting old buttons and stringing them together to make a garland for my little feather tree.

                                                      Cutting out mini paper snowflakes.

                              Here is my little tree, hard to get a good photo against the window!

Another photo, not much better!  (I need a good camera.) The tree was a present from my husband, last year.

It is exactly one month to Christmas, so let the decorating begin!!

Rhondi xo

Christmas House Tour 2013

Hi I am so glad you came to visit today for my Christmas home tour 2013.  I am very excited to be a part of The Nester’s 5th Annual Christmas Tour of Homes.

Instead of showing you pictures I did a video tour of our home.

Please click HERE to see it.  (I had a cold when I did this, so my voice sounds pretty bad.  You might want to turn the volume off and just look at the pictures.)

To see more wonderful homes all decorated for Christmas go to  Nesting Place

Thanks for coming to my Christmas home tour  today!  Rhondi xo

Christmas Decorating with Blue and White China

Finally started to do some Christmas decorating with some of my blue and white china.!  For the last couple of years part of my Christmas decorating has been a small tree with some of my blue and white china on it. It began as a little tree sitting on the  island in the kitchen.  Then it graduated to a larger tabletop tree.  This year I decided to go for a full size tree.  Our daughter borrowed this tree for a few years and we just got it back.  I love it because it looks like a real tree. I used pine cones gathered from the neighborhood, plastic silver and white snowflakes, blue and white china and chandelier crystals.  Needless to say it sparkles!!

Today I decided  to link up with 2 blogging friends who I haven’t visited for a long time. It’s always fun to see what other bloggers are up to!  Why don’t you come along with me?  I’m sure they would love to see you.

Mary hosts Mosaic Monday with Mary at her Little Red House blog.

Sally is hosting  Blue Monday at her Smiling Sally blog.

Hopefully in the next few days I will have got the decorating done and I’ll have you over for tea and cookies, so you can see how our home looks with its Christmas decorating with blue and white china and other good stuff..

Rhondi X0

Christmas

I was at Walmart yesterday and they already have live Christmas trees there.   I pity anyone who buys one of those.  There is no way it will hold its needles until Christmas!

Anyhow, when I saw it, my negative feelings about Christmas all came rushing to the surface.  I have to confess that I really don’t like Christmas. All the shopping,  buying gifts for people who already have everything they need, all the parties, food, etc.

Every year I get all stressed out over Christmas.  I don’t even have very many gifts to buy, just the grandchildren and our children and spouses. But even with only a few gifts it still stresses me out.  I am not a shopper.  I am great when it comes to finding an old chair to fix up at a garage sale or thrift shop, but that kind of gift doesn’t go very too well with 2, 4 & 7 year old boys, or 2& 9 year old girls.

But yesterday seeing those trees at Walmart I had a brilliant idea.  Every time I see Christmas stuff, ads on TV, decorations in the store, Christmas music at the gas station, I am going to thank  The Lord for sending Jesus and remember what a gift that is.

The greatest gift…JESUS

I am not going to let the “Christmas spirit”, you know, the one that says we need to create the perfect Christmas experience for our families,  I’m not going to let that get to me.

Instead I am going to think about Jesus and what he did for us by coming to this world and thank God for it.  And when I hear “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives for the umpteenth time,  I am going to remind myself that is is a HOLY JOYFUL CHRISTMAS.  I am going to get out my Compassion International and World Vision catalogue and give something that is needed.

I am still going to decorate our house because I do that all year anyway, but  it will be simpler and I am going to take my time doing it. I may invite a friend or two in for tea but no big parties.

I am laying aside all the expectations.  I love  Thanksgiving and so we will celebrate Thanksgiving all the way through the “holiday season”.  Thanksgiving for the gift of Jesus.

Rhondi xo

No Cost Decorating

No cost decorating.  At this time of year when  there are so many things to spend money on, the prospect of doing some decorating without spending any money is very appealing to me!  What do you have in your home that you could use to decorate with for the holiday?   I think you can take pretty much anything and tie a bow around it or hang it on a tree:  spoons, jewelry, little toys,stuffed animals.   When our kids were little we made yards and yards of popcorn strings and  paper chains.  There are lots of possibilities to decorate without spending money.

I love china, especially blue and white. When I see a plate for $1 at a yard sale or a vase for just a couple of dollars I feel the need to bring it home with me.   Needless to say I have too much blue and white china!

So I "shopped the house".  That's the easiest way do no cost decorating and I found some things to tie on the tree: a small cup

                                                                                            a little teapot

                                                           a cow creamer a friend brought back from France

                                                                          some miniature Dutch shoes

                                        a Delft shoe my Dad brought back from Holland many years ago

                                                                   a napkin ring ( I've got lots of those)

 Usually this  little tree goes in the sunroom but since I did the twig tree there I decided to put it in a corner of the dining room instead.  The plates on the wall sparked the idea to use some of the china to decorate the tree.

 Other years I have trimmed a little tree on the kitchen island,but this year  I used some larger pieces too, since the tree was larger.  I ran into one  little problem a I began to tie the china onto the branches: my little tree began to  lean forward.  So I took some strong wire, tied it around the trunk and nailed it into the chair rail so it would not come crashing over one night when we weren't home.

Placing  it on the wicker tea trolley made it a good height.  And there you have it a beautiful tree without spending any money.  No cost decorating, my favorite way to decorate.

Do you have any no cost decorating ideas you'd like to share with us?
PS The walls are not this bright yellow.  The ar much plower than this!
Rhondi xo

Twig Tree For Christmas

Like most of you I have been decorating our house for Christmas.  Many of my decorations are red but in my sunroom red is just too bright.  So I made a twig tree for Christmas in here.  Our home backs onto a woods which makes it very  easy for me to get some branches and put them in a vase.  If you already know me it's no surprise that I just happened to have a blue and white vase!

These crocheted snowflakes that a student gave me years ago make such a nice contrast against the dark brown branches.

Some small glass ornament from my collection add a sparkle of silver blue and aqua.

My twig tree  is the perfect tree for the sunroom: light airy and whimsical and it doesn't take up too much room.

Here is a view from the other direction.  This room is also my office so I get to look at my twig tree  and it doesn't block my view out the window as I work.

Maybe I have inspired you to find some branches and make a tree like this.  It is so easy and you could hang anything on it: cookie cutters, pinecones,  paper snowflakes, bows, spray it white, glue sparkles on it.  There are endless possibilities.

I like my twig tree so much it may stay up after Christmas and it can be a winter twig tree!

I'd love to see what you've done to decorate in your home.

Thanks for stopping by.
Rhondi xo