The After Christmas Void

I always love putting up our Christmas decorations and I always dread taking them down.  But, I'm always itching to take them down because I dread it so much...does that make sense?  So, on the first day of my week off (I know, I'm lucky right?!?) I decided I was going to tackle the Christmas decorations.  Now, I really don't have that many decorations because I don't have the space for much, but it is still a chore to take it all down, wrap it up, and get it into the storage room.

Before I show you the after, I thought I better show you the before.

Here is my lovely and simple Nativity set, prominently displayed on our coffee table:

Side note -- that snow was a MESS!  It had glittery confetti-like particles in it that went everywhere!!

Here is the mantle.  I tried a new look this year with the beads and over-sized ornaments hanging down, forgoing our stockings (which don't match the new look anyway...):

And the crown jewel of every house during the Christmas season, our Christmas tree:

Obviously I went with an all green and silver look this year to blend with our green and purple house decor and  I really loved it!  We also got a new tree this year that fit perfectly between our couch and love seat and created a very cozy space.

This is a shot of my Christmas table centerpiece (the table was set for our girls dinner).  I used things I already had like the tray, vases, and green balls and just added the mums.  I loved this look because it was casual, with a little sparkle and the flowers lasted FOREVER!

So, as you can see I really didn't have all that much to put up or take down, but after it was all down, our living room felt very empty!  So, I got to thinking about what I could do to warm up the space a little bit.  One way was the addition of a really cool lamp I got for Christmas (more on that later).  But another way was to change out the flowers in the centerpiece and move it to the coffee table. 

Every time I am at the grocery store, I always take a peek at the fresh flowers and on Monday, I saw a bunch agapanthus that I just couldn't resist.  I thought they would be a perfect addition to the centerpiece.  What do you think?!?

The little purple blooms will open up and fill out and just be so pretty.  When I worked in the flower shop, we used to call these firework flowers because they look like an exploding firework. 

After we took the tree down, it seemed like there was a huge void between the couch and love seat.  I've always thought that we needed to add something to that space, but it didn't really become too obvious until the tree was gone.  So, when we were at Lowe's last night looking for a few things, I saw this plant for only $15 and convince Brandon to buy it (I don't have a very good track record of keeping plants alive, but this one was clearly marked "Tolerant").  While I think the plant needs to relax a little bit, I think it is a good addition to the space.  Now if I can only keep it alive....

Along with these touches, I also rearranged a few vases and have a few more thoughts of things I could add to help spruce up the place as we begin the new year!