Christmas Decorating Day 2

Yep, I'm one of THOSE people. At least that's what a lady in JoAnn's Fabric accused me of one day (several years ago). I was purchasing fabric for Halloween curtains for my kitchen. She asked what I was going to use it for. When I told her she said 'Oh, you're one of those people'. LOL Okay..

If one of those people is the type of person who loves to decorate for the holidays and make my curtains coordinate with everything else in the room, than I plead guilty- with pleasure. As I said yesterday, I've determined it all relates back to color. I love colored lights - or tons of lights in general (like looking out over a city from the 16th floor of a hotel), colors portrayed in fabrics, ornaments, embellishments. Just give me color and I'm a happy girl. If I were one of those people (sorry, no offense intended - just couldn't resist), I'd have Color My World playing on here to greet you every time you visited.

I began decorating with the gingerbread theme in my kitchen several years ago. It started with this adorable fabric I found by Marcus Textiles. I can't remember for sure but I think it was suppose to be for a tree skirt. I saw valance. At the time I had 2 very wide windows and the fabric called to me. I wound up not only making valances but also an apron. Coordinating fabrics in the line were the images you'll see on the table centerpiece and the fabric covering the canisters. There was the all-over gingerbread baking images as well as panel fabrics with the small gingerbread boy/ girl/ heart and the larger image I've turned into pot holders. Little by little I've added other things to the kitchen but this is the first year I've been able to bring it all together. In fact, I spent yesterday making the canister covers, pot holders, condiment basket liner and the embellishments for the front of the glass jar canisters.

So let's take a walk around my kitchen.

Our dining room table normally doesn't sit in the kitchen. When I show you the Christmas tree on Sunday, you'll understand why it's in here for a few weeks. I made place mats and the hot pads yesterday to dress it up a bit. I painted the little plate several years ago for a county fair entry.

This picture is of my favorite 'alcove'. The counter gets totally cleared off when I do my Christmas baking. It is my rolling / cutting station. The baking supplies are in the cabinets above, measuring spoons/ cups, parchment paper and baking-only spices in the drawers. The cabinets below house all of my jumbo mixing bowls, cooling racks and baking pans as well as my prized kitchen aid mixer. I have puck lights underneath the upper cabinets for a nice work-light.

My other favorite spot to be is at the stove. I love to cook and bake. The microwave oven is a bit high for me but it makes a nice display shelf for my candy jars and the little peppermint candy tree. To the left are the canisters and the condiment basket. A picture of the 'naked canister' is below so you can see how just a little time and fabric can really change the appearance.

Of course, I was designing the pattern yesterday so it took awhile. But now that I have that part done, I can see these covered for other holidays as well. The condiment basket is a pint canning jar box! I like being able to move the entire box of bottles to clean rather than shifting them one at a time. It will also help keep the counter clean of drips. I can just remove the liner and toss it in the laundry. Yep, definitely making more of these! Because I have yet to get hubby to install the puck lights under these cabinets, I ran a 20-light string of Christmas lights to brighten the corner.

What's left in here? Eventually I'd like to make chair pad covers for the chairs and add woven/ braided/ or crocheted rag rugs in a deep brick red and hunter green. I have a hunter green/ white checkered fabric already cut into rolls of long strips. I'm on the hunt for a solid brick red of the same weight so that might take awhile.

I'm taking tomorrow off the blog to work on the dining room and the Christmas tree. I'll be away to a writers meeting on Saturday. So my hope is to have pics of the tree/ dining room for you on Sunday. After that, the only thing left for this year is my village. My poor houses/ stores haven't seen the light of day in over five years. I've missed them. Just not sure where they're going to go. LOL But I'll have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to figure it out while you look at cards.

Sweet Treats!