Holiday Kitchen

No matter how big or how small a home is you can bet that everyone always ends up in the kitchen. My husband and I entertain a lot and no matter how spacious the dining room and living room are for entertaining, everyone winds up in my kitchen. That is why when we remodeled 8 years ago I made sure it was spacious enough and also that the center island would serve as not only a place to eat but a separate area to prepare. It's 2 levels so our guests usually hang around the outside of the higher end of the island and I am at the other. They always joke that I should get a cooking show since I look like Mario Batali when I do that. My kitchen every year is decorated in a ginger bread candy land theme. I get so excited it's worse than a kid in a candy store, literally. Here we go....

This is the center island.

Those cute little topiary like ornaments in candle sticks were an inspiration from the very talented Liz over at Savvy Seasons. If you haven't yet, check out her blog for sure. She is one talented lady and always has great ideas to share.

These are the place settings. Since the place mats were so cute already I kept the plates simple with no design just the lime green and red color scheme that I have been in love with now for 3 years. The little gingerbread plates were a great find and really completed the look. I got the glasses at Christmas Tree Shops. They are very sturdy plastic but they look like glass. I loved the polka dots when I saw them. The coffee mugs were on a clearance at Stop N Shop a few years ago. I picked those up for 25 cents each!

Here is the mantel that is over the cook top.

This is the opening over the wall oven area. Can you spy the candy topiary tree? Do you notice that there is only one? That's because the other came a tumbling down. I told you they get heavy. I haven't fixed it yet. The container cracked and I am going to have to camouflage it somehow. The little elves with Mr. & Mrs. Clause are among a set of 7 that I have collected. They are all assorted in style and I place them all around the house. These little guys all dressed up for baking stay in the kitchen of course.

The corner cabinet and a close up of each shelf.

This is the wine rack area. No wine in there at the moment. Clashes with the candy!

A couple of little vignettes in the corners. The beautiful doillies that are in my kitchen are very old but very special to me. They were all hand made by my grandmother when she was just a young girl living in Italy. Apparently from what I have been told this was a skill that was very important for all girls to learn. I have so many of them and I cherish each and every one.

Last but certainly not least, The Christmas Tree! Loaded with candy goodies, cookies, elves, mesh ribbon in lime green spiraling down and lots of bows.

A close up of the topper. It wasn't a topper when I purchased it. It's just a decoration but the bottom is made of styrofoam so it was very easy to insert the tree tip inside. Then I added some candy picks from Hobby Lobby. I love how it turned out.

This year I went a little over board, usually I just do a small counter top tree. I gave up the use of my utility closet for a few weeks but who cares. I was determined to get a tree in there! My poor husband, what he has to put up with where my crazy holiday decorating is concerned. I'll have to be sure and bake extra cookies for him this year.

Well that is all for today. I hope you enjoyed my kitchen tour. I am having so much fun cooking in here every day. See you soon, Love Patty

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