It's 70 degrees and Christmas in San Diego

Hey there, today I wanted to show you the outside of my house and how it's decorated for Christmas.

I live in San Diego.  

It's going to be 70 degrees today so bringing the "winter" to the outside of the house can be a challenge.

I know, poor me, I have to deal with beautiful warm winter weather.

My husband and I recently ripped out the ten year old Blue Point Junipers on either side of our front door.  

The one on the right side of the door decided to twist crooked and go sun searching.  

The lack of symmetry bugged me. 

As much as we tried to stake it and straighten out, it just wasn't working. 

It happens with landscaping, things periodically need to be ripped out. 

Christmas 2011

This year I moved two of my urns and pedestals to either side of the front door.  

I added faux greenery, sticks, and Christmas balls to the urns.

Symmetry achieved,  

I like it.

I can change out the urns with each season.

I also painted my windows and the entry mirror with a DIY stencil for the third year in a row.

This year I used a simple deer head design.

I used water based craft paint to stencil the windows.
It's easy to scrub off after Christmas.

To see how I did my windows last here click here.

Christmas 2011

I painted the front windows too.

 I added some faux wreaths to the windows and attached them with suction cups.

It may be warm here but we can pretend it's snowing.

Thanks for checking out.

Summer Mantle and Buffet Change Up

I am fairly new to mantle decorating.

I've only had one on my fireplace for about three months.

It's been decorated like this since I completed the fireplace makeover. I found the urns at Pottery Barn. They were on clearance and I had a gift card so they were almost free.

Here's how I changed up the decor.
 I get bored with my decor quickly and like to change it. 

The best part of this little makeover is it was free!  I already had everything I just rearranged it and collected it from different rooms and cupboards in the house.

For ten years I lived with a fireplace with no mantle.  I completed the fireplace makeover a few months ago.  To see how I did it go here.

This is the before.

I had a dinner party for my husband's work and I spruced up these glass candle center pieces for all the tables ( I already had these they just needed a little freshening up).  

Sand, rocks, driftwood, white candles, shells, and embellished starfish.

Basic and simple.

   They look great in groups.  It takes the simpleness to a new level when used in multiple numbers. We had a sit down dinner for 35 people in our outdoor room last weekend and I didn't take ANY pictures.  I'm a bad blogger!

  I picked up the glass bowls at places like Big Lots and Walmart for very little money.
Oh well, I'll have to take pictures next party.

Here's how the mantle looks now. 

With some of the party vases.

I've been doing the seashell,urn, faux coral thing forever, but not on a mantle.

For the mantle I added some faux coral, a small urn with shells, a David bust, and some candle sticks with embellished starfish in them instead of candles.  The hydrangea painting I did years ago kind of limits my color palette.   

I stuck with white, cream, red and green to coordinate with the painting.

 I picked up two of these columns for $10 at Big Lots.  They were unfinished white plaster that I faux finished to give it an aged look.  The small pedestals came from a floral supply and I think they were $7 a piece?  I use them to elevate anything from terrariums, to candles, to food platters for parties.  They were a great purchase I use over and over again.

This crystal decanter and two others on the buffet came with my husband when we got married 16 years ago.
  

This tall glass vase was a present from my Mother-In-Law.  The David bust was from my parents when they lived in Italy. 

After living with it for a day I took out the starfish candle sticks. 

The rule is odd numbers right? 
Now I have odd numbers on each side.

Or is it still even because I have three on each side?

I swear I don't have too much time on my hands! 
Maybe one side should have one starfish candlestick?  Are you one those people that just whips up a vignette and it's done in five minutes?  I'm not, it's always a process of starting with too much, stealing stuff from another room, adding, subtract, changing the heights, and editing.

I'll live with it this away and probably change it AGAIN.  I need mantle decorating lessons #101.  Oh well, on to the buffet on the opposite wall of the fireplace.  Here is how the buffet looked like before.  I decorated it this way right before Easter.

Here it is for summer, or until I get tired of it.

More party decor re-purposed.  I ran out of sand and used dried black eye peas for this one. 

 It's sitting on the mate to the other column on the fireplace.

More urns with shells.

The mantle and the fireplace are in my great room so they I think they need to relate to each other.

I started with a table runner I made with left over pillow fabric and added more shells, candles, an urn, and one of my cloches.

More crystal decanters with hanging starfish. 

 The starfish have rhinestones and crystal buttons glued on to them.

I made these many many years ago and they still are one of my favorite DIY easy projects.  I use them year round in all of my holiday decor.

Here's what I did to the buffet in the middle of the great room.  I moved one of my large clam shells on to it and elevated it with another pedestal.  I bought two of these faux clam shells years ago at Marshal's and fill this one with seasonal decor.  The other one has succulents in it.

I would love to hear how you switch up your decor for summer?

Also, what is the a good guide for mantle decor?  both side odd, one side odd? 

Thanks for checking it out.

I'm linking this the The CSI Project

Beachy Vignettes Challenge



 Remodelaholic.