Dearest kindred spirits,
I am ever so excited to finally share my 2023 Christmas Home Tour with you. I apologize for it taking so long to get finished. But I am quite pleased with how it all turned out and, even though there are Christmas decorations in this post, just think of this as a cozy, wintry home tour, as well. Though, to be honest, I love watching Christmas videos and movies all winter long. So I hope you enjoy...
This post contains quite a few photos, but if I may, I would recommend watching the vlog I made first. Then you can come back and see close up photos of different spaces in our home. I did not share all of our decorations, but I did share the main parts as well as some of our favorites. Also, you will notice that some of the shelves are a bit full of decorations and that is because we have cats. We have to be very strategic and careful in how we decorate, and no matter how careful we are, we always end up having to move a few things here and there. You will also notice one of the bookshelves has cat toys on it instead of decorations. That is done in hopes of distracting our kitty babies with their own toys and hopefully to maybe leave the decorations alone. Does it work? Sometimes. Ha!
So without any further waiting...
I am pleased to present to you my 2023 Christmas Home Tour video. I warmly invite you (and highly recommend) getting a nice cup of hot tea or cocoa and settling in your coziest spot with a blanket and a lit candle, and perhaps a cookie or two, and just getting really comfy, and consider yourself a welcomed friend into our home for a bit of wintry (& Christmas!) cheer...
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our home
Welcome to Shady Cottage, lovelies!
A funny little side note about our garland on the front door...
this garland is from my grandparents' old house. They've been gone for nearly a decade and hadn't lived in that house for about five years prior to that. It was sitting in a box in our attic all that time, with lights attached and all. This year, we decided to pull it out just to look at it for old time's sake and lo and behold, it worked! How crazy is that?!?! Who even knows how long those lights have been on there! My Grandpa probably put them on there so long ago...we were so giddy with how pretty it made our front door.
O Christmas tree
the kitchen
Our kitchen doesn't have the best lightning, so do please excuse the lighting in some of these pictures.
This year we made clove oranges for the first time and it was a real highlight of the season for us.
We also finally succeeded in making dried orange slices! I had tried a few times before only to have them all turn black once and then not dry out at all another time. This year we discovered a secret! Our dehydrator! I'm quite literally obsessed with them!
the living room
Fun fact: My Grandpa made this shelf from a picture frame probably nearly 60 or 70 years ago. Those candle holders on the wall were also from my grandparents' house.
Do excuse the lighting in these living room pictures. This room gets literally no natural light and has terrible overhead lighting. It makes for a cozy feel, but hard to get good pictures.
Do you see the kitty toys on the bottom right shelf?
We love having a cozy seasonal ambiance on in the background with nature sounds when we're just going about our day. They're so cozy, peaceful, and beautiful.
I dearly love decorating the mantle for each season and holiday...
this weekend I'll be decorating a winter mantle.
(Oh, and the gnomes will be sticking around all winter long!)
my bedroom
I made this star out of wooden beads a few years back, and boy, did it test my patience. I do love how it turned out, though.
My Christmas bookshelf...
I love keeping a few small decorations out on it all year long.
{{smiles}}
a New Year's song for you
To end this post, I can think of no other way than to send you off with one of the most beautiful renditions of Auld Lang Syne that I've ever heard. I love the simplicity and subtlety of this version and it just gives me all the feels. Not to mention, it's from one of my favorite musicians, Emmet Cahill.
Thank you ever so much, dear kindred spirits, for joining me for this Christmas home tour. I'm delighted that you came along!
May your day be filled with beautiful small moments, dearest ones...
Until next time,
E
♥