Spreading Yuletide Cheer to Our Rustic Cabin

 

Even though we wait until the day after Thanksgiving to begin our Christmas preparations, this year we did begin a little early up at our cabin.  With the excuse that I needed to get it ready for company, the children and I went up there the day before Thanksgiving and tried to make it a bit festive.  I'm a month late in posting, but I wasn't sure I wanted you readers to see just how much of a fixer upper this cabin is.  But I decided, what the heck.  This way you can come along with us on this renovating journey as we pick a project a year to tackle, both at our farmhouse and the cabin.

 

Before we started any of the decorating, I whipped up two pumpkin pies for dessert in the working oven.  The old refrigerator at the cabin also works, so I was able to store the pies there since the one at our house was full of a thawing turkey and all the other Thanksgiving dinner ingredients. 

 

I hadn't ever used the oven before and I think that one side was hotter than the other because I nearly burned our Thanksgiving dessert.  Fortunately, my teen daughter checked them in time.

 

We also threw some cookies in the oven for the kiddos.

 

Between the pies, cookies, cinnamon pinecones, and the large scented candle burning, the musty smell of the cabin was fairly well masked.  We're thinking the multiple layers of mismatched carpeting is where that smell is coming from.  They will have to go.

 

All those extra Christmas decorations that I no longer use in the house got toted up there and were put to good use.

 

The girls and I decorated this little tree that is supposed to be 4 feet tall, but unless I'm actually much taller than my driver's license shows, I'd say this is just a tad inaccurate.  I even have the tree on top of a stool to give it more height.

 

Michael's had their pre-lit artificial trees, plaid tree skirts,  and ornaments 50% off the week before Thanksgiving.  I had a rule that I wouldn't buy anything related to Christmas until after that holiday, but I made an exception for the cabin.  And here in this photo, you can see some of the remodeling that needs to be done.  This one wall alone has paneling on part of it, bare sheet rock (I think?) in places, and noticeable insulation.  There's also a ping pong tabletop for the air hockey table that we moved up there.  And look at that yellowish carpet.  What color would you call that?

 

And while some of us baked, cleaned, and decorated, others were sprawled out watching Christmas movies.

 

That's because the cabin still has an old working VCR, and we still have quite a collection of movies on VHS, believe it or not.  I am just not willing to spend the money to upgrade to DVD when the videotapes are still good.  We almost always start out the Christmas season with Home Alone and A Christmas Story, which our youngest referred to as the "Shoot Your Eye Out Ralphie" movie for years.

 

After a few hours at the cabin, the inside smelled, looked, and sounded like the holidays, and it had warmed up enough outside to go for a hike before our out-of-town guests arrived.

I'll be making my way up there again later this week to prepare for Christmas guests.  The interior of the cabin hasn't changed since Thanksgiving, but outside it looks like this:

 

While the surrounding areas with more sun have melted, here on the north facing side of the mountain, we are still covered in snow and ice.  I think there's a good chance that at the Preppy Mountain Farmhouse, we will have a white Christmas even though there is no more snow in the forecast.

 

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

 

We are nearly three-quarters of the way through Advent and full of Christmas spirit and activities here at our farmhouse.  This is a bit of what we've been up to as we try making spirits bright.

 

We've decorated a total of four Christmas trees this year, not including ones that we've helped with at schools and Church.

 

There's been some fun gingerbread cottage competition going on.

 

The boys built one, and the girls built the other.  I must admit that we girls added some inedible embellishments to give ours a bit more curb appeal.

 

We got some snow over the weekend, and the children were so excited to be on a two hour delay Monday morning due to the ice that accumulated on top.

 

And then we woke up this morning to a lot more snow, but there was no delay, much to the dismay of the kiddos. 

 

I've been creating some Pinterest-inspired chalkboard art in the kitchen and the front porch.

 

And the house has been decorated with a few new things...

 

...but mostly old.

 

We've still got our burlap plaid theme going on throughout the house.

 

And we even took the rustic preppy look to our fixer-upper cabin this year.

 

There is plenty of viewing of Christmas classics.  I think I've watched Christmas with the Kranks on Netflix three times already.

 

And we've been counting down the days with our Advent calendar and this crafty bit of last year's Christmas tree that I made.  I change this every morning before I get my first cup of coffee.

 

The Christmas cards have been sent.  The trees have been trimmed.  The halls have been decked, though not with boughs of holly.  Gifts have been purchased, wrapped, and hidden.  The Holly radio station is played every time we're in the SUV.  Most of the Christmas movies have been watched, and the books are being read.  All that's left is the cookie baking.  The children have been wanting to start on that for weeks, but I'm putting it off because I can't resist the sweet treats.

And I'm desperately trying to end this year no heavier than when it started.

May the remaining days of your week be merry and bright, dear Readers.  

Decorating our Farmhouse Porch for Christmas (with Stuff from the Attic)

 

Most of our house is decorated with the "primitive preppy" Christmas decor from last year, but I wanted to do something different with the front porch.  Not having any electrical outlets on the outside of our house limits what I can do, so there are no lights, unfortunately.  For the most part, I found things in our attic and basement, some of them belonging to my husband when he was a child.

 

First of all, to all my readers who are PSU fans, don't be alarmed...this blanket was given to us and rests on our porch swing to snuggle under on cold evenings.  Since it's red, I left it on the swing for the Christmas season.  The small Christmas Blessings pillow was also given to us, but the plaid pillows were found for $5 at Target.  We don't sit out there much in the winter, but it looks inviting anyway, and it's become the favorite napping spot for our cats.

 

I took last year's wreath with the plaid bow and hung it from the rocking chair instead of the door.

 

I picked up the pine swag with another plaid bow at the Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving.  To the right, the black ice skates and skis were my husband's, and I found them after rummaging through the cluttered attic and very rustic basement.

 

A friend of mine painted the snowman hanging on the wall, but the hanger fell off it years ago.  I attached some rustic ribbon and after more than a decade of sitting in a box in the attic, it's now out on display once again.  I purchased the small live Christmas tree at Weis this year and found unused Peanuts Gallery ornaments that I bought and never used years ago.  For now this is our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but the plan is to plant it in the ground when Christmas is over.  Ollie, the cat (who is lapping up the water dripping from the tree) has been with us since 2012 when the kiddos and I came back from a short vacation to discover their dad had taken in two more stray kittens.

 

This entrance is the one most used and comes straight into our busy farmhouse kitchen.

 

This chalkboard has been around for decades.  I previously used it when I was homeschooling preschoolers.  Now it's become my fun chalkboard art display that changes with the seasons and holidays.  I wish I could say I come up with these designs on my own, but most of the time I copy and adapt them from Pinterest.

 The only new items purchased for our porch this year were the swag above the door, the miniature potted tree, and the two pillows on the swing.  That came to a mere $39 and it was all purchased at places I frequent anyway: Target, Weis, and a local tree farm. 

Now I just need to finish my Christmas shopping.  Too bad I can't do all of that from our attic and basement.  I'm afraid "regifting" dusty items from the storage areas of our farmhouse wouldn't go over well with our children. 

A Primitive Preppy Christmas Farmhouse Tour

I still get excited during this time of year.  There is a feeling of anticipation and magic and joy from the beginning of Advent all the way through Christmas day.  I love every part of this season: the Christmas music, the decorations, the Advent wreath and calendar, the movies and stories, the food and the shopping, the wrapping of gifts and the giving of gifts.  I wear my Christmas tree earrings and Santa sweater during the day, and I slip into my flannel Christmas pajamas and snowflake slipper socks at night.  This year, inspired by Pinterest, I decided to add a touch of both preppy plaid and primitive burlap throughout the house.  We still put out our traditional ornaments and decorations, but there is also a bit of this new primitive preppy found in many parts of this old farmhouse.  And it's all still very kid-friendly.  Let's take a tour...

I would love to decorate with lights on the front porch, but alas, there is not a single electrical outlet on the outside of this old farmhouse.  We would have to run an extension cord through the house, which would mean we couldn't close the door all the way.  Not a good idea in December.  So I have to settle for decorating without the lights.  The little red chair in the top picture is part of a set with a children's table that my father built for our kiddos when they were all still small.  The boys have taken over the table with their Legos, but I confiscated one of the chairs.  Lo and behold, I found my husband's old ice skates in the attic (told you it's like a rummage sale up there,) and I added a plaid bow and old Santa hat.

This chalkboard has found its way into other blog posts, and I'll probably continue to use it through the different seasons.  I re-used a red bow from an old wreath and took the remainder of the cinnamon pinecones and attached them with a plaid flannel ribbon.  Some blue chalk was all I needed to create some snowflakes and a Christmas ball ornament down the center.

While shopping in my attic, I came across an old wreath and stripped it down to just its greenery, then attached a new plaid and gold bow from Target.  I wanted to keep it simple.

Kohl's had a bunch of Welcome mats on sale, including many that could sit out all winter.  It was hard to choose.

This is as lit up as my front porch gets, unfortunately.  I used extra pine boughs from our Christmas tree and attached them to the tops of our outdoor lantern lights with plaid flannel ribbon.

Moving into our kitchen, there is this slice of our tree trunk that I shared with you in the last post.  Painted with chalkboard paint and some pine and ribbon hot glued to the top, this is one of our countdowns to Christmas.

Although not plaid or burlap, I bought this painting last year at a small, local gift shop because it reminds me of our house.  The lamp post actually does light up and flicker, and my children love it.  It hangs in our kitchen all winter.

I finally took that ugly computer desk and all of our office supplies out of the corner of our kitchen.  I am still undecided about what will fill that space, but for now, we put up the children's Christmas tree.  When I was a girl, I thought it would be amazing to have two Christmas trees, so when our teenage son was little, we purchased a four foot artificial tree that used to sit in the middle of an electric train set.  We put up the traditional ornaments of the past, but I also added plaid flannel ribbon and some of those plaid/burlap balls and pinecones I described in my last blog post.  When my husband saw the plaid Santa hat at Joann Fabrics, he insisted we buy it since I'm on this plaid kick this year.  I don't look good in any kind of hat though, so it went to the top of the tree.  Around the bottom is an old plaid tablecloth that no longer fits any of the tables we have.  I found the burlap/plaid deer pillow at Joann Fabrics as well, and it gets moved all over the house.

The inside door of our foyer holds this straw wreath with plaid ribbons and a wooden bear, also found in my attic.  This is across from our staircase...

It's the same artificial evergreen garland I use every year with some new lights attached, but now plaid bows connect it to the stair railing.  Bows were handmade (not by me) and purchased at Michael's.

Believe it or not, this old farmhouse has a chimney, but no fireplace.  Therefore, the stockings get hung on the railing.  Come to think of it, we have so many people in our family that we'd be hard-pressed to fit everyone's stockings on a fireplace mantel, so it's just as well.  The wood/coal stove in the kitchen is what's actually attached to the chimney.  No stockings can be hung from that.

Along with older decorations and another soft plaid fleece throw on the leather sofa, this seven foot long plaid blanket and woody wagon pillow get thrown on my enormous rocker/recliner where I sit to read, grade papers, blog, and cross-stitch.  Every one of my children can fit on that chair with me---one at a time, that is.  Its size is probably out of proportion with everything else in that living room, but it is so comfy and it's positioned between two windows, so it gets the best light.

Each window downstairs has one of these cinnamon pinecones with plaid flannel bows at the top hanging from them.  Unfortunately, I ran out of pretty ribbon and jute twine, so I ended up using red twine that was used to wrap around one of our old Christmas trees years ago.  I found it stashed in the back of a bookshelf, just waiting for a moment like now, I suppose.  In a house like ours, one must be willing to improvise at all times.

Our live Christmas tree is across the foyer in the dining room, and you've seen many photos of that in another post.  Does anyone else notice it significantly leaning?

In the center of the dining room table is our Jesse tree.  I never saw one of these when I was growing up and wasn't quite sure what to do with it when we first got it years ago.  I have to admit that I've never placed items from the Old Testament on it like I think you're supposed to during Advent.  It usually sits bare in its burlap bag, but since it already had burlap on it, I decided to add a few more burlap bows and tie a plaid ribbon around the bottom.  I hope that's not sacrilegious.

My husband and I decided to do something a little different this Christmas and instead of buying each other gifts that we don't really need, we splurged and purchased a king-sized down comforter and a plaid flannel cover.  We saw these at Macy's weeks ago and fell in love with them, and so have our children.  I can't keep them off my bed now.  The comforter is Charter Club Home brand, and we got the Level 3 Vail Collection in medium warmth.  This thing is so incredibly soft and warm and luxurious.  The flannel comforter cover is Martha Stewart brand and is 100% cotton.  We love the idea of being able to take the covers off and wash them and change them throughout the year to match the seasons.  The only problem is that I didn't purchase pillow shams, and I have nothing that matches.  So the plaid deer pillow is thrown on them for now.  By the way, these comforters and covers were marked down dramatically at Macy's this weekend.

The last stop of this tour is in the bathroom...the ONE main bathroom that seven of us have to share.  I'm afraid this shower curtain isn't plaid or very rustic, but Kohl's has the cutest shower curtains, and I wanted something I could keep out for months and not just for Christmas.  Since we are outnumbered here by our children (greater than 2:1 ratio) I feel like the bathroom should have a fun, playful touch to it from time to time, so the snowmen were it.  I really liked the more woodsy curtains with bears, pinecones, and moose decorating them, but they probably fit our cabin better than our farmhouse, so I'll wait for those.

I do believe that at this point, my Christmas decorating is done.  Now it's time to tackle the Christmas shopping, card sending, and cookie baking as we begin the second week of Advent.  I hope you are enjoying every aspect of this holiday season as much as I am.