Merry Xmas - Welcome to My Living Room

Well, its finally here, Christmas day in New Zealand, one day ahead of most of you. The aroma of my roast Turkey with cranberries and walnuts fills the air, my mini Christmas mince pies are ready, and the table is set with some of my mothers beautiful vintage silver and china. This will be my first Christmas without my mother, I miss her terribly but I'm sure she's watching over. So, while I'm waiting  for my guests to arrive I thought my readers might like a quick tour of my living room on Christmas day...

Oh and Poppy wants to wish all my readers a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. I'll be  having a break for a few days but will be back later this week. You can still catch up with snippets on my Face Book page.

Inspiration Week 11 - Interiors, Recipes & DIY/Crafts

This week's been ultra busy, in between long walks with Poppy, rushing around pricing blinds versus curtains and getting the best prices on paint, I've been working hard on mums house and have now painted walls, ceilings, doors and windows in  three bedrooms and the living room, and currently working on the dining room and kitchen. I hope to be share the makeover with you in December. 

Getting back on track, this weeks inspiration, I've lots to share including a competition, some fabulous recipes and beautiful interiors. 

First this wonderful competition especially for those of you that are looking forward to creating fabulous holiday decor. I discovered designer Scot Meacham Wood, Scot is a creative and talented interior designer whose style I love. Scot's running a competition on his blog, "The Adventures of Tartanscot", to select the best of three following categories for the fast coming up holiday/Christmas period. 

1. Dining Table

2. Christmas Tree

3. Front Door/Exterior.

What a fabulous chance to showcase your skills and create something beautiful for this competition. The competition runs over the next three to four weeks whereby you need to get your photo/photos emailed to Scot for entry. Scot plans to showcase the entries on his blog and once they have enough, the judges will select their favourite from each category...so don't dilly dally, head on over after this post to find out full details. I have added a direct link to his post below.  I might even enter myself, last year I created a silver and lavender coloured table-scape, this year, who knows ??

Where better to get that creative mind ticking than, "Style Me Pretty", ok so they are weddingscape's (is there such a word?),  a great place for inspiration nevertheless. Remember not to copy anything you see on the Internet, use images to give you ideas and get your creative juices flowing then turn those ideas into your own style.

Visit "The Adventures of Tartanscot" to check the criteria for this competition which is open to Interior Designers and Design enthusiasts. Then pop over to Scot's Interior website to see some of the fabulous residences he's created such as this stylish interior in East Hampton. Gosh! I want some black and white photos of my boys.  Isn't this room fabulous!

view this residence and more at Scots website, "here"

I shared a gorgeous Swedish apartment earlier this week (below), if you missed this post you can view the images "here"

Create these lovely sheet music coasters, instructions over at "An Oregon Cottage". You could even use  them in your Christmas tablescape.

Create some some instant wall art... discovered at Beach Vintage, please visit  for instructions. Beach Vintage stock fabulous fabrics and also have lots of other creative ideas with fabric. I'm thinking of using this idea myself.

Now to ignite your taste buds, a couple of yummy recipes...

Spelt Apple pie (or just good apple pie). This recipe is from a Polish blog so remember to press "translate" at the top of the page. This recipe uses "spelt" and potato flour instead of ordinary flour, although you can use wheat flour. See "here" for recipe. I like the idea of these "bite" size portions.

I am definitely making this for my lunch this week...Red Lentil Coconut Soup, recipe found at "Scaling Back" 

                                                                                         

We hope you enjoyed this week's inspiration. If you missed last weeks you can catch up "here".

Sharing this week with:

I Should Be Mopping The Floor

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

Time Travel Thursday at the Brambleberry Cottage

Show and tell Friday at My Romantic Home

At The Picket Fence

Christmas Tablesetting - Mauve and Silver

Christmas by tradition is Red and green but times have been a changing  and the modern Christmas can be almost any theme or colour. The traditional Christmas Angel atop the tree has flown her wings in many houses and now flowers/butterflies and bows can be seen, even the Eiffel tower is not amiss on top of a tree. There seems to be no right or wrong. So, with this in mind my Christmas table  follows my Purple/Mauve and silver theme and my Christmas tree has sprigs of mauve hydrangea amongst its decorations.

I used vintage silver cutlery and serving ware and combined with some gorgeous Laura Ashley glasses and two beautiful hurricane lamps, also from Laura Ashley. A simple setting for six. I used little silver stars and some mauve crystals to decorate the table. The small tree was from the Christmas Heirloom Company and decorated by myself.

 A cosy setting for 6

The little purple & silver boxes will hold some Rocky Road Bark for my guests. I love the fine gauzy linen tablecloth, purchased from a little shop in St Heliers called "Distinctive Linens."

Instead of using serviette rings I used two organza ribbons and tied a bow to soften the look of the table.

These exquisite glasses are from Laura Ashley - Wide platinum band optic 

wine glass - NZD54.00 each

small white rose in mercury glass from Laura Ashley - NZD39.00

A close up of this gorgeous glass -  I scattered little silver stars on the table. I also scattered some purple crystals

Gosford Cushion as previously seen "here" - Laura Ashley NZD209.00 

Silver and glass hurricane lamp from Laura Ashley - NZD179.00.  A classic looking piece, silver is fast becoming popular again. The other pieces of silver on my table are pieces passed down through our family.

These sweet "Merry Xmas" silver metal tags from Le Monde NZD$12 for 6 (great to tie to gifts/crackers or serviettes)

Zzzzz...says Poppy who was quite put out by the lack of attention during the photo shoot.

I hope you found some inspiration 

for your own Christmas table setting.

Lee oxo

&
Poppy