a very brindabella christmas

To say that I was excited to finally have a Christmas tree in our home was an understatement. If you can remember in previous years I have had to make do with a few spraypainted gumtree branches in a vase for a Christmas tree of sorts, mainly due to a severe lack of space in the cottage where we used to live. But this year? Oh no this year we live in a full-blown, proper, adult size house!

I wanted our Christmas decorations to be homely and feel like they suited us, so burlap was definitely on the cards (come on, we're potato farmers!) as well as lots of natural linens to go with our new curtains and couches in the lounge, kraft paper and bakers twine for the gift wrapping and a few pops of traditional red.

The stockings are made from burlap with a little linen tag which reads 'love' and are stamped in red with our initials: Emma, Matt and of course Tessa! The bunting banner is made from natural and red linen with a cream crocheted edge and reads 'peace'. I re-purposed our traditional wreath (which you may remember from last years Christmas at the cottage) to hang above our highly attractive old oil heater which I affectionately call 'The Vulcan'. This blast from the past heater is hopefully going to be ripped out and we want to re-instate an open fire if possible. We will have to get the chimney checked, but fingers crossed by next Christmas we will have a much prettier scene once we come up with a solution for those hideous bricks and tiles in front.

Our Christmas tree I decided to put in the corner of the dining room, so we can see it from the couch at night with the twinkling lights on. I was a bit worried that it might dry out and die quickly from being in this room with the giant windows but with the crazy wintery weather we've been having this has hardly been a problem!

The tree itself we bought off the local soccer club which sell them as a fundraiser each year. Can't wait to get some new curtains for this room and give it a lick of paint!

The decorations were all mostly Etsy sourced - natural twine and red crochet stars which I would have loved to make myself (note to self: learn to crochet in 2011), I am in love with the burlap, white and linen ragged balls and there are also some clay tags in there somewhere reading 'ho ho ho' and 'sleigh bells'. The white baubles I bought locally and the very crooked angel is an Etsy find, which I love as it is made out of a corn husk. Clever and agricultural! Perfect for us. Now if only it would sit straight on the tree...



My three French hens were also vintage Etsy finds (and are actually quails but hey), after Christmas they are going to either stay on the mantle or fly away over to the built-in bookshelf on the opposite lounge room wall. I painted the backing board of a wooden picture frame that we already had with chalkboard paint, in the process covering my engagement ring with black goo! Add some candles, some whtie peonies in one of Mr M's Dad's old milk bottles and there is our very first Christmas here at Brindabella.

Merry Christmas!