Welcome! Enjoy a peek at what the Herbert home looks like for Christmas…

One of the things I did differently that last year was to add red twigs to my mantel and to the Christmas tree.  They were really easy and you could do them in any color that you needed. Just grab your branch clippers and some spray paint. Paint one side, turn them over and you’re done!  Easy and very budget friendly.

An easy way to change your decor to Christmas is to just add a ribbon and an ornament.

Or gather up all the red things you have around the house.  A little ribbon and a few berries and you’re done!

Remember my yule log from last year? This is my Grandmother’s.

It has over 60 years of Christmas candles on it. Happy memories indeed!

I’ve saved the best for last…

I’ve been wanting a Willow Tree nativity set for a long time.  My husband’s mother gave me one for Christmas this year!!

This table is in our entry.  I wanted the first thing that people see to be the One who is first place in my life.  Without Him life would be just existence.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. If you are needing some good Christmas gifts I’ve just added some new paintings to my shop.  They make great gifts for: a house warming, teachers, friends and they also are a wonderful hostess gift!

Here’s a small preview…

This can be customized with any names you choose or can be left plain. (This is for my sister and her husband.)

In honor of Nester hosting this tour I’d like to offer all of you 10% off your next purchase from

L. Herbert Designs.

Just use “Christmas Nest” to get your 10% off.

(Don’t wait, because the coupon code will expire on December 21st.)

Here is a quick and easy way to take strawberries from regular to romantic!

Wash and dry the strawberries. For the fan shape you’ll want to leave the cap (the green leaves) on, for the heart shape you’ll need to take the cap off.

To make the fan all you do is make thin cuts from the bottom of the berry to the top, but don’t go all the way through the cap.

Gently fan out the slices and you have a beautiful garnish.

Here’s how you make the strawberry hearts: Take a clean berry and remove the cap by cutting a v shape on the narrow side of the berry.

Slice the narrow side top to bottom and you’ll  have strawberry hearts!

These fancy strawberries are fun to give to your kids and to your spouse. It’s just another way to show your family that you love them!

Be sure to visit Rocks In My Dryer…I got to meet Shannon at BlissDom and she’s very sweet!

Be sure to go to Nesting Place on Friday! Nester and I have a special surprise for you all!

(Sorry this is a little late, our internet was down last night. Sigh….)

As promised I will show you how I made this cute moss ball.  Here we go…this is SUPER simple.  (I almost feel embarrassed to show you how to do this…you smart gals could figure out how to do this on your own!)

This is what I did:

Pick out what container you’d like to use.

Then pick out a green or white foam ball the size that you’d like your moss ball to be. (Match the size up with the container that you’d like to use.)   Get enough moss to cover it ( I got mine from our woods, but you can also find moss at craft stores.) You only need enough moss to cover the part of the ball that will be showing. Since mine was going into the little urn I needed to cover all but a little bit of the bottom.

Fold some wire into a hairpin shape.  (You can use small sections of wire or  purchase floral pins at the craft store.)

Lay the moss over the ball and start pinning the moss in place.  Keep going until the surface is covered and then look to be sure there’s no foam showing.

Put it into your container and there you go!  The moss I used was fresh and as it’s dried it’s stayed green, but I think it would look good in any color moss you can find.  Hope you all enjoyed this!

Tomorrow’s Post:  I have some inside information on an Etsy artist that will warm your heart!

After the Christmas decorations come down I’m pretty much done with winter.  I’m ready for spring!  I know, I know…it’s still a few months off.

The gray days of winter can be very disheartening.  One way I like to brighten them up is to have spring inside!

I put together this arrangement from things I found around the house,  a la Nester.   I had a tiny birds nest and wanted a large one.  So I just made it bigger!

How to put together a “make a bird jealous” nest.

First take a lonely little birds nest.

Gather some sticks and twigs in the yard.

Then add your nest to the twiggy pile.

Wrap some straw/dead grass/or vines in and around the sticks. Add a few leaves and you’re done!

Ta Da!  A lovely nest.  Be sure to take it inside or some bird may move right in!

See the moss ball in the photo?  Come back on Thursday the 8th and I’ll tell you how I made it, pictures and all!

Boo Mama is having a virtual open house and I just had to get in on the fun.

She asked that we share our favorite easy Christmas recipe with you as well.

My recipe isn’t for eating, but you’ll laugh when people walk into your house and ask what’s cooking!

Simmering Spices:

Put about 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon of cloves and the peel of one orange.

Cover with water, put it on the stove and  turn it on high, when it starts to simmer, turn it down to low and enjoy the wonderful smells wafting through your home!

You can use what you have for the spices: Whole or ground cinnamon, whole or ground cloves, apple slices, lemons, etc.

Ready for the tour? … Here are a few of our Christmas decorations from around the house.

This is in our family room.  I was inspired by Nester to make this over the top garland. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

This is our family Christmas tree. ( It’s in the same room as the garland above.) It has icy branches, berries, copper colored birds, and lots of red, gold, silver, and clear glass ornaments.

This next picture shows something very precious to me; our yule log. This is our family’s version of the traditional yule log. (Without all the weirdness of the original yule log tradition.)   My Mother’s parents had a yule log that they brought out every Christmas.  At meals they would light the candles and let the wax drip down onto the log.  My Grandmother’s  yule log has over fifty years of Christmas candle wax on it.  It’s beautiful!

My Grandpa cut a yule log for my Mother when she married and he cut one for me when I married.  Ours has eleven years of Christmas candles on it!  My Grandpa passed away about five years ago, so this yule log is very special to me.  When our children marry we will cut yule logs for their first married Christmas too.

These next two photos are of our children’s  tree and skating rink.  The children’s tree has all of our ornaments from Adam’s and my childhood, as well as ones the kids and I have made.  I grew up with bubble lights on the tree, so I was SO EXCITED to find these clear bubble lights to put on ours!

The skating rink is one of the kid’s favorite Christmas decorations. They really like to play with the little skaters that go round and round. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of the ways we decorate for Christmas, thanks for stopping by!

It’s time to join in the garland fun at The Nesting Place!

After I saw Nester’s garland and read her how to post, I KNEW I had to make one of my own. You all probably remember that I’m going all out this Christmas, so an over the top garland seemed just right!

I have had SO MUCH FUN decorating this Christmas.  Don’t worry, I still remember the real reason we celebrate but, I sure am enjoying all the sparkles around here!

Here are the photos of my garland.  I made it from things I had around the house and things that were given to me.  Shopping the house is so much fun!

This is our Family Room and yes that is a harp to the right.  I’m learning to play…

Here is a close up of the garland.  It’s full of faux pine, fern, real feathers, pine cones, red and gold swirl ribbon, red and gold ornaments, icy branches and berries.

Like Nester said, just keep adding!

This is another close up, this time of the center of the garland.  You can see three sparkly pomegranates under the feather tuft.

Hope you enjoyed the garland parade!  Go see what everyone else has done in the Mr. Linky at Nesters.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  There will be pictures coming in a few days.

How did you all celebrate this year?

Yesterday we took all our Christmas things out of the attic and I started making the flower arrangements.

We had our first Christmas in this new house last year, but since we had just moved I kept everything very simple.

But that was last year…

This year I’m wanting to go over the top!  All out, glitz and glam, sparkles everywhere!

Maybe I can blame it on Nester…

She has inspired me to make a garland over our mantel.   That’s on the top of the list for today.

I am SO EXCITED!

Happy decorating, see you tomorrow!

Nester has just updated her blog Nesting Place and it looks great!

She has such wonderful ideas for decorating and making your home cozy.

Go check it out!