Christmas in the Foyer Part 2: The Wall I Never Show You

It’s important to take pictures you see online or in magazines with a grain pound of salt.

You only see certain angles at specific times of day. You don’t see what’s 2 inches outside of the cropped photo.

In the case of my blog, there’s an entire wall I’m pretty certain I’ve never shown you. Or at least I haven’t shown it to you since we moved in.

That’s because it’s not the star of the show.

It does work hard though. It holds coats and shoes and sometimes mail. (Or “post” as people in Ireland call mail.)

This wall is immediately to the right of the front door. It has a small coat closet and the stairs leading up to the second floor.

The other day I thought I’d give the bulletin board on this wall some Christmas love. I shared on Instagram my starting point. Do you like my socks, by the way?

Those pom pom thingies combined with some trees I cut out of card stock turned into this garland.

I can’t paint or sculpt. I don’t have a green thumb. My sewing skills are rudimentary, at best.

But by golly, I can rock the elementary school craft materials!

Felt, string, paper, pom poms… What can I say? Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten.

Except I didn’t go to kindergarten.

Oh, nuts. That explains a lot.

I did feel justified in my on-going obsession with felt when Layla from The Lettered Cottage posted the below photo of a pillow she saw at TJ MAXX.

The wreath on that pillow looks a little bit similar to the felt wreath I made last year that’s now hanging out with my new paper garland.

Obsession validated.

Moving on…

For your daily dose of sentimentality, here’s a close up of the gift tag displayed on the metal letter holder.

I pulled this tag off a boot box that had momentos stored in it. It’s possible that I got boots for Christmas one year, but I really can’t remember. Funny how that works. When you look back on your life, it’s not the “things” that are important.

I try to remember that as I’m running around getting ready for Christmas.


This bulletin board does have a back story. I bought it 3 houses ago on clearance at TJ MAXX. It was in the “as is” pile because it was in bad shape. It’s not even supposed to be a bulletin board. There was a piece of art where the bulletin board is now, but it was badly damaged. We fixed it up with a piece of scrap wood and some cork.

I turned the metal holder into an iPad charging station. We even cut out the back of the board to fit over an outlet. It was a very specific solution for a particular house that had a desk area in the kitchen.

Now…it just hangs there looking pretty.

I take that back.

The bulletin board is serving a very specific purpose between December 1 and December 24. It’s holding the kids’ chocolate advent calendars. And here’s how I bring this post full circle. I took the Shopkins, Avengers and Dairy Milk advent calendars out of the picture because, well, they ruined the vibe. Reality has a way of doing that sometimes. So again, take photos you see with a grain of salt. I’m so happy we had this confession talk. See you back here on Friday!

P.S. If you missed pictures of the other part of our Christmas foyer, you can check them out here.

P.P.S. If you missed pictures of our Christmas mantel, you can check them out here.

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