This is our very first year with a full-sized Christmas tree! I loved my little apartment-sized bookshelf trees we had in years past, but gosh is it fun to decorate a big tree in our new home — it feels just a little more like the holidays seeing it in our breakfast nook. One challenge with upgrading from a mini-tree to a 7ft tall tree is we never really owned full-sized ornaments. I have been on the hunt for the perfect colored glass balls to fill in the gaps between our smaller, more sentimental ornaments. Of course, I gravitated right to bright-colors and expensive price tags (like these and these), but couldn’t justify breaking the bank when I knew I needed lots of them. So I DIY’ed my own in the simplest way possible!
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Wrapping gifts were an Olympic sport, I’m pretty sure I’d be selected to represent my country. I went on a wrapping bonanza this weekend and taped up, tied, and adorned packages for hours. Every year I pick a color palette so my gifts have a ‘theme’ and this year I decided to pick some classic colors — lots of reds and whites, with touches of kraft paper and Christmas greens. I got great papers at Target (the fair isle print is from the dollar-bin, and chevron is from the regular wrapping section!), and added in some accent papers from Paper Source (the wood grain) and TJ Maxx (the plaid — that I’m in love with!). And I mixed up the ribbons with a combination of bakers twines and leftover silk ribbons from years past. I’m so happy how they all look together!
I’m back in action after a truly awesome couple of days celebrating Christmas. I got to see a little dusting of snow on the ground while visiting my parents in NY — which just makes the holidays feel a little more special, am I right? Vintage gifts seemed to be the theme this year, I gave my mom a vintage milk glass ice bucket with sparkly gold details for her bar, and she surprised me with an antique silver footed bowl, some shiny-brite ornaments, and teeny-tiny framed painting (the bow detail in the frame stole my heart). Hope your Christmas was just as lovely!
I spent this weekend working up a little holiday cheer — from addressing stacks of Christmas cards, to tackling hours upon hours of gift-wrapping I can say that the Christmas spirit has finally arrived at our house. And now I’m super excited about heading home for the holidays — did you tackle any holiday tasks this weekend?
I’ve been having a bit of a squeal-fest after seeing my little ‘ol blog show up in the December issue of Ladies Home Journal! I’m thrilled to be included in a fun article with blogger tips all about effortless holiday entertaining. Seeing my name in print is a bit of a *pinch-me* is this for real? moment… you can read all of the great tips here!
I’m kicking of a new series: Handmade Holidays to share some crafty ideas for making DIY presents this year.
First up, some festive bottle stoppers! I bought plain, unfinished bottle corks in the kitchen section at Target and colored in the stopper with a silver metallic Sharpie, followed by a light brush of glue and matching silver glitter. Once they dried all you need is a drop of super glue to hold an ornament in place on top of the stopper! These took under an hour to make, and cost less than $10 to make the whole set — I think they’d look great tied to a bottle of wine for a hostess gift during the holidays!
I’m miraculously half-way done with my Christmas shopping already, so now comes my favorite part: the wrapping! This year I plan to forgo my usual grosgrain ribbon and try something a little more three-dimensional. Leftover baker’s twine inspired me with the festive red and white colors, so I decided to whip up some fluffy pom-poms to top my presents. Making them is easy as pie; all you need is some baker’s twine, a fork, and a pair of scissors.
To start, wrap the twine the fork until it starts to look round and full. Then, thread the end of your twine through the center of the fork and tie it around the ball of twine. Finally, trim the loops and slide the ball of twine off the fork. After a few fluffs and puffs you have a pom-pom for the top of your gift! 
Quebec City is the pinnacle of Christmas decorations, they go all out with garland and lights and ornaments. I snapped lots of pictures of the holiday trimmings, but the ones that really caught my eye were actually made out of recycled bubble wrap. They looked so pretty that I didn’t realize they were made of recycled materials until I got up close. I thought it was fitting for a holiday that causes so much excess trash!
Thanks for all of your sweet comments yesterday about my tree skirt, it made for a pretty awesome Wednesday. I’m not done yet though… I also crafted up some felt garland for the tree and thought I’d show you a few more pictures than the sneak peek you got the other day.
I followed the super simple instructions from The Purl Bee. The hardest part is cutting the circles — I recommend either buying them pre-cut on etsy, or finding a few romantic comedies on your DVR to watch if you plan to do it yourself.
It’s a very felt-y Christmas this year. I used the leftover hot pink felt I had from my jewelry box project and whipped up a skirt for my tree; then I cut out bright green reindeer to prance around the border. If I can pat myself on the back for a moment, several hours of meticulously cutting out santa’s favorite woodland creature was well worth it, look how cute it turned out:
More crafts later,I still have to share my felt garland project!
