For a Festive Spirit

For over a year I've been an avid reader of Regina Doman's blog House Art Journel. She has many wonderful ideas for decorating and family life, but one of my favorites have been her seasonal house shrines (if that's the right word). Not being a Catholic, I don't have quite the same motivation, but I love the concept and have been waiting for a long time to set something up in my room. It was just a matter of getting the time and the physical energy to clean the place up (which is no small feat).

However we decorated our house for Christams yesterday, and events conspired to drive me to finally accomplish my goal. I cleaned my room and set up this little creche on top of my smallest bookcase.

The added perk is that I found this absolutely beautiful little porcelain nativity set for only $2.25. It's really finely crafted and doesn't look cheap at all. The roses are a collection I've been working on for a long time, and the pine needles are trimmings from our tree.

What's really special is that the cross on the wall was handmade by my great-grandfather several years ago.



Then, because I cleaned my room, I thought I'd show you another little nifty thing I use. I found this little candle holder at a craft store a year ago for just a couple of dollars. For awhile it drifted around my room without much of a purpose other than ornamental. (I collect red glass objects)



At some point it ended up on my nightstand and I found that it was the perfect place to hold the objects I use several times a day in this area - computer memory stick, chapstick, hearing aids, etc. The beautiful thing is that not only does it contain these objects, but if I want to tidy up and hide them away, all I have to do is slip the glass cover on! And sometimes I can even put objects away through the hole in the cover without having to remove the cover at all!



And finally, a just-for-fun cool picture I took of my chinese lights that hang over my dresser. They're really fun moodsetters.