Holiday Decorating Lessons!

My friend's mom decorates homes for the holidays.  She has been doing it for years and she is seriously talented.  I asked her the other day if I could get some pointers from her, so she invited me to tag along with her on her next job.

The first thing they worked on was this mantel:

Gorgeous, but pretty simple & my mind was racing with ideas of how to do this on the cheap.  We started with a lit garland that was pretty stiff with wire in it that we could manipulate.  Attached it with Command hooks.  We added some antique metal trees on the right, some over sized oak leaves with a metallic finish (which could totally be made from spray painted leaves from your yard ), some of those Osage orange balls also with metallic finish & some cute pointy star bursts.  Easy, but so beautiful!

The next thing we worked on was the tree.

We stuck to mostly silver-toned ornaments.  The tulle we used had kind of a linen look to it.  There were icicles, glass, silver & star burst ornaments.  We also used some stiff ribbon spread across the tree. I loved the crystal star/snowflakes we used as a topper.  Might steal that one!

Lastly, we did this mantel.  The home owner already had this great antiqued mirror hanging, as well as, this angel blowing it's trumpet, so we embellished it with a little gold leaf twisted around it.  We used some auburn vases and filled them with lights.  We topped them with some gilded leafy vines.  In one we placed lit orbs and in the other we placed bronze branches which brought out the tones in the mirror. The last thing we added was some dainty garland that had frozen look to it.  Again, thanks to Command hooks, it was easy to secure & will be easy to remove without any damage to the home owners mantel.

Such a fun day!  I learned so much and realized I have much to learn.  Can't wait to decorate my house!! Got any fun pics to share of what you've done so far this Christmas? 

We'd love to see them.  Email me & we'll display them on our blog : )