Tag Archives: family room

Valentine’s Day Mantel

I held out on the “winter” decor as long as I could, but it’s time to transition our fireplace mantel to Valentine’s Day!

I kept a few of my favorite things from my Christmas/winter scheme, like the mercury glass pillars and the natural elements/twigs (spruced up with a few sprigs of red); then added the awesome red mercury glass Target clearance items, a blown-glass flower, and some red-and-black books for height and color. I also brought Edgar back into the mix. I mean, elephants are a symbol of love and affection, right? No? Oh well. Call it a new tradition, then.

Full Disclosure: I fully intended to add a lovey phrase to the red wrapping paper background inside the frame. But the stars, err Cupid?, were against me. I had a phrase all picked out and typed up. I played with font sizes until I got them big enough to show up. And then things started to fall apart – when I tried to print them, the pages were all out of whack, thus splitting one letter onto two pages. When I finally got that sorted out, our printer was out of ink. Or rather, out of black ink. And would only print in blue. Bah! Call me lazy, accuse me of not being a finisher. I don’t care. I’m fine with the hit of red as it is. And who knows, maybe I’ll find renewed energy, and a black ink cartridge, over the weekend!

Are you a finisher or an un-finisher?

DIY Valentine’s Garland

This homemade DIY Valentine’s Day garland is SUPER simple to make and pretty cheap, depending on what you’ve got lying around your craft bin/room. This project cost me a whopping $0.58 + tax!!! I had every item on-hand except the red felt for the hearts. CanIgettawhoopwhoop???

What you need:

– yarn, in your choice of color(s)

– felt

– baker’s twine

– craft glue

What you do:

Make 4-6 yarn pom-poms (or as many as you want for the length of garland you’ll have).

Cut 12-16 hearts out of felt, in any size you want. I wanted my hearts to be slightly larger than the pom-poms, and I decided to use 2 felt hearts to create a front and back, glueing just the top and bottom edges so I could thread the baker’s twine through the center.

Measure out your baker’s twine, leaving extra for the swag (if you want swag, that is).

Then, thread on the felt hearts, tie on the pom-poms, hang, swag and ta-da! You’ve got garland!

Update: Linking up to the following parties:

How To: Get a 9.5-ft Frasier Fir Out of Your Family Room

Today, I’m going to share an easy How To, which may come in handy for those of you who still have live Christmas trees in your home. Let’s start with giving your tree a look-see. If it’s dried and droopy, like Exhibit A below, it is ready to be removed. A good indicator of this is when limbs have fallen so low, your tinsel and/or light strands slide off.

First, remove all decorations, including any tinsel, lighting, ladders, ornaments, toppers, etc.

Assess all exit options, i.e. windows and doors, for the best fit. Trim any excess/excessively large branches as needed. Helpful Hint: place branches on a spare sheet or towel to catch any dripping sap.

Attempt to cover tree with tree bag. Laugh when bag barely covers half of the tree. Say to yourself, “maybe we should only get a 7.5-ft tree next year so it fits in these 8-ft tree bags?”

Carry tree to pre-determined exit. I would recommend wearing gloves, as there is lots of sap, and a potentially molding stump to contend with.

If exiting via a deck, heave it over the railing. Remove bag.

Drag into wooded area.Creepy grainy photos are optional.

Now all that’s left is to sweep up lots and LOTS of needles!

Congratulations! You’ve now successfully removed a 9.5-ft fir tree from you home!

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?

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!

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