A Very Merry Christmas!

This year I decided to decorate for Christmas in Victorian style, inspired by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  I kept the color palette very light, and included accents of gold, red, and pale winter blue.  The framed silhouettes are made from vintage images (the lady can be found here at the Graphics Fairy blog) and I followed this tutorial on Etsy to make the pretty paper leaf topiaries.  For the "JOY" banner, I chose an antique-style font and, using Photoshop, superimposed each letter over a background of faded vintage sheet music.  The letters were printed onto plain cardstock, and I placed a few sprigs of holly where the ribbon was passed through.

We had the pheasant feathers from another occasion, and simply placed them in a vintage candlestick.  The embroidery hoop was made by me, on linen fabric in a 7-inch hoop, and the mirror was a dollar-store find.  In the dining room, I decorated the candelabra with ornaments, sprigs of holly, and a gold bow.  During Victorian times, Christmas trees were traditionally tabletop size, so we got a tabletop tree as well, and adorned it with angels.  I actually really like the tree in this size, and it's so low maintenance!  It may become a new tradition in our home :)