Gwen Moss: christmas holiday tour 2013

Hello there! I’m so glad you stopped by for a little Christmas visit.

And I hope you’ve been enjoying all the fabulous holiday homes tours going on right now. I’m joining Jennifer Rizzo’s Holiday Home Tour HERE …

And I thought I’d pop over and join The Nester’s 2013 Christmas Tour of Homes too.

In the meantime if this is your first visit here let me introduce myself.. My name is Leslie- aka Gwen Moss- and now that the boys are away in college I live with Mr. Moss and our spoiled fur baby Stella, who likes to greet visitors by jumping up at the front door and leaving lots of little scratches on our wall.

Although truthfully, that’s a perfect example of how we’ve always lived in this home. Don’t be fooled by these perfect looking pictures, we’re pretty casual here. This is the house we’ve raised our boys, Patrick and Michael, along with three dogs and one beloved bird—and over the years this house has been filled to the brim with growing kids, big holiday parties, weekly family nights, and some very funny stories. And because I view my home as my personal art canvas, I’ve always got unfinished projects going on too. Which is code for saying our home has its share of messes and imperfections around.

This past August we officially became empty nesters when Michael went down to Southern California. And soon after, Life presented us with even more changes. One thing led to another and as of last weekend, our family home is officially listed for sale.

Yep, we’re moving to Huntington Beach, California.
But that’s a whole other story.

In the meantime I’m taking lots of photos these days because all of a sudden it seems important to capture the way our home looks for the holidays, all dressed up and so full of happy memories.

I’ve always loved decorating for the holidays and I hope you enjoy seeing my little touches.

The living room……

My latest chalk art project…alongside a few mice, fresh holly and my red toile stockings. Is there anything prettier than red and white toile?

I’m drawn to old, quirky looking Santas ….

Even though I love the whole white tree look, I never seem to have one. Our tree is always decked out in lots of vibrant red and my favorite ornaments are the ones made by the boys when they were in grade school.

Across from the living room is my office with the white floors that I painted. I love the look although I admit, white floors are not for perfectionists, they show every single dog hair.

I found four vintage ornaments—delicate, sparkly Santa boots—buried inside faded tissue paper at an antique store. I like to hang them from my favorite mirror.

Do you remember making paper chains as a child? I made this chain using sepia colored music sheets that came out of an old Chopin piano book, courtesy of the thrift store.