Holiday Home Tour: New Life for Old Stuff

This year I've taken a lot of photos for the print and online magazines I write for. When I heard about an online home tour I decided it would be fun to post a few holiday photos of my own. So if you're here for the home show--welcome! If you're here looking for snappy commentary...unfortunately that's on somebody else's blog. But stay if you'd like and have a look around.

I don't spend a lot of money on decorating. I love dime-store finds and the stuff others cast off as junk. Overly sentimental. That's me. I consider our home a kind of repository for the old and the unwanted. But all of it, for one reason or another, has meaning for me.

The organ in my living room (pictured above) came from England. The lady who owned it didn't want it. Fifty dollars later it belonged to us. The lamp with the star came from the dump. My husband rewired it and Viola! The trunk (with the candles on it) came from the landfill. It was filled with decades old medical books that once belonged to someone who attended Johns Hopkins. Interesting stuff, those books. Did you know that they used to pack people with pneumonia in ice? The sections on leaches made me a little uncomfortable.

Many of the things in our house I have made myself. I love working with wood and designed, cut out, and painted the sleigh with the poinsettia.

Chex Mix. That's a staple here at Christmas. My husband loves to make it in gigantic batches and it disappears fast. Photos are a big part of the decor in evey room.

My husband works with wood as well and built this wall cabinet in our living room. He patterned it after a favorite antique that belonged to a friend.

I love historic holiday art from the Dover Collection. I printed this St. Nicholas on felt and framed it with fabric.

Even my old wing sled gets put to new use on top of a kitchen cabinet.

I love our mantels. I recycled silk hydrangeas from one of our daughter's wedding receptions and added them to this mantel for an elegant touch.

Merry Christmas!