Tag Archives: Christmas

Weekly Wishlist: More Time!!!

Okay, so this is a little different than my usual Weekly Wishlists. I cannot believe that Christmas is 6. Days. Away. Where did December go? Why do I still have a huge to-do list for the holidays? Why haven’t I mailed out my greeting cards yet? Why is my house still only half decorated? Why are my DIY gifts not done? Ack!

::deep breaths::

So, if I had all the time in the world, here are some of the things I’d love to do for this holiday season:

– DIY ornaments (for myself and for gifts), like some of the fantastic ones created by IHeartOrganizing

– DIY decorations

– a themed Christmas tree (probably to fit in with my “Winter Wonderland” vision)
– baking and candy-making up a storm

– create a way to display all the holiday cards we’ve received (inspiration via IHeartOrganizing)

– DIY-ing some wrapping paper and gift bags

…just to name a few. I guess there’s always next year! 😉

Are you on-track or stressed the %#^& out? Do you have any tips on how I can create more hours in a day?

Want to see more inspiration? Follow me on Pinterest here.

Weekend Recap

Our weekend can be boiled down to the following: shopping, partying, crafting, eating, drinking and glitterizing. So clearly, it was a pretty good one all around.

The inspiration for these ornaments comes from the lovely and talented Ez of Creature Comforts. I followed her tutorial here to make these clay lollipop ornaments. I started them last Sunday, and finally finished them on Saturday. The clay-rolling and shape-cutting took longer than I expected. And then, since I like to make projects for myself, I decided to paint them in a whole rainbow of rich jewely-tone colors. And then, I decided that the glitter swirlies would look even better if I did them in a monochromatic scheme to match the paint color. Oh, Emily, when are you going to learn to Keep. Things. Simple? Oh what’s that? Never? Oh, okay. Cool.

In short, if I had it to do all over again, I’d do it exactly the same way. I love the tone-on-tone glitter and paint results.

Shifting gears from edible-looking to actually edible, I swung by a local farmer’s market to see my friend’s first public debut of her delicious cupcakes! If you’re anywhere in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and in need of something delicious, decadent, and spiked with alcohol, do yourself a favor and order some Twisted Sugar cupcakes! I brought home a Gingerbread (pictured) and a Raspberry Bellini cupcake. Yum!

Did you make anything edible-looking or actually edible this weekend?

Our Trimmed-Out Christmas Tree (and other decorations)

I shared my mantel on Monday, so now, it’s time to reveal the full monty tree. Here she is in all her nine-foot-majesty:

And lit up:

Lovely, right?

One of my favorite things about Christmas is remembering. There are so many memories that I associate with our ornaments and decorations that I love uncovering every December, like this one that we bought on our honeymoon in Maui…

Or this one to commemorate our big move last year…

But I think my MOST treasured set of Christmas decorations is our Nativity set, which my mom handed down to me last Christmas.

This set has been in my family for exactly 60 years. My grandfather purchased it in 1952, when my mom was 9 years old. It’s still in the original box, with the original postage stamp, and the original hand-written address.

I never met my grandfather. He passed away years before I was born. So I love that I have this little piece to remind me of him. Every Christmas, when my mom, dad and I would get out the decorations, I was given two important tasks: screwing in and checking each light bulb for the tree strands, and setting up the Nativity set. And I usually spent the rest of the holiday season playing with the animals, prompting my parents to exclaim that next year, they were wrapping up the Nativity animals instead of buying me toys.

What’s your favorite part of decorating for the holidays? Any special items that you’ve built memories around?

Weekly Wishlist: Holiday Chalkboard Prints

I have recently become obsessed with Chalkboard-style typography. So I thought I’d round up a few beauties from Etsy to share with you this week.

I’ve been practicing my skills and am working on my own version of this holiday-themed art! Check back soon to see how it turned out!

1. OliveRue / 2. SarahSaysSew / 3. – 5. LilyandVal

Dare to DIY: Deck the Halls

This is the last installment of the Dare to DIY challenge (sponsored by Two Twenty One, Newly Woodwards, Decor and the Dog, and Maybe Matilda), and I am sad to see it go! I really enjoyed each week’s challenge, and seeing all the great ideas that other bloggers came up with. Definitely found some great inspiration and some new blogs to follow! Whoo!

So, without further ado, here is how I’ve decked my halls for this holiday season:

I wanted to go for a “Winter Wonderland” theme, full of metallics and whites. It all started with the silver Ornament wreath I diy’ed a few weeks back, and from there, I started envisioning a mantel awash in mercury glass, silvers and golds. I would love to do our entire family room in silvers, golds, and whites (tree included), but… one thing at a time.

Some items I already had on hand, some are new additions, like the mercury glass pillars, metal reindeer, angel, and silver sequin tree (from Kohl’s and JoAnn Fabrics, respectively).

I used the branches on the far end in my Fall Mantel, but wanted to glam them up a bit for the holidays. I added glass vase fillers, a spray of white flowers, and swirly silver twig things that you always see in the floral section of craft stores. I have no idea what the official name is. Then I hung a few ornaments and mini-snowflakes from the branches to give them some festive flair.

The only items that don’t really fit the theme are our stockings and stocking holders, but they are too sentimental for me to switch them out, even for just one season. My stocking is the one on the right – my mom hand-stitched it for me when I was a baby, and my aunt made the Santa stocking holder. My mom also made Tom’s stocking. He’s always used whatever generic stocking we had stashed in with the Christmas decorations. But not this year! He’s finally got a personalized stocking 🙂

Check out more decked-out halls here!

I’m also sharing this at: