I Bought A New Skirt...

For the Christmas tree next year. I bought it here. Isn't it unusual? I love it and it was on sale.

Our House for Christmas

Have any of you been over to Jennifer Rizzo's blog for her Holiday Housewalk Party?  You can get there by clicking here.  Many people have shared how they decorated their home for the holidays and I wanted to join in the fun.  Here are a few ways we brought some Christmas cheer to our house.

I'll start with my studio...

My daughter Gracelyn and I decorated her nightstand...

And here are some other miscellaneous touches around the house...

I suppose I'm still not done as this year it seems like I do a little to decorate every night.  I hope you're all enjoying this wonderful time of year!

December Flea Market Review {Part I}

I lost battery life right after I took the first picture of my flea market finds for today so this will be 1 of 2 posts on what I brought home.  I loved every minute out there today, Christmas was in full force and I had the best time rifling through boxes of ornaments and old holiday decorations.  Here are a few of my favorites.  I love the twisted ornament and it's rare when I pass up a faded purple bulb, they're just not as easy to find.  I have several of the bumpy indented ornaments so I almost left this one behind but at the last minute I took it {well I didn't exactly take it...I did pay for it}. 

There were bottle brush trees galore, but then again, there are bottle brush trees galore in my garage waiting to be flocked so I only picked up one.  And funny...the picks, well I had them in my hand and the lady whose space it was came over and got, seriously, almost nose to nose with me and told me that they were a great deal.  I bought them partially because I liked them and partially because I got the impression that she was going to use the money to fund her breakfast burrito :) 

Dying Bottle Brush Trees

This past weekend I found a tutorial on how to bleach and dye bottle brush trees.  It was really easy and really fun.  I started with a bag of Lemax trees from Michaels that ended up being on sale.  It was a 21 tree pack in 4 different sizes.  I threw them all in a bucket of 50/50 bleach & water solution andthey bleached out in the time it took me to fold a load of laundry.

I then proceeded to dye them using food coloring, easter egg tablets, Glimmermist, etc.  The only problem I encountered were those darn blue trees.  When the trees bleach out they are a bit on the yellow side and when I used blue dye they turned more of a greenish color.  After trying everything I could think of I spray painted those babies {hence the blue base}.  Now that they're dry I'm going to paint the bases silver.  The only thing left to decide now is whether or not I want to spray a bit of flocking back on the trees as it tends to come off in the bleaching process.  Flocking or glitter?  I don't know...

My husband has been asking his dad for his Christmas ornaments for ages now that they don't decorate anymore.  My father in law finally relented and we are the new owners of some of the most gorgeous vintage bulbs.  Look at these...

And the old original boxes were amazing.  It's nice to have some family ornaments that have been passed on.  About 10 years ago my dad got a tad bit overzealous when cleaning out his shed and garage and he accidentally threw out all of our families ornaments.  When he realized it he felt so bad.  Needless to say, we don't say "ornament" around my mom these days.

Teeny Tiny Christmas Album

I have this years mini Christmas album picture ready.  It's teeny tiny, just 2x3.  I have come to find that these little books are the most enjoyable to look through.  I like the fact that the entire book is dedicated to just one day.  It never ceases to amaze me how much you can squeeze into a book this size.  {I used mainly K&Company products for this album with the exception of the paper on the front which is by The Girls Paperie}.

Tonight I need to chat with my sister about our Thanksgiving menu.  I'm in charge of our breakfast and I usually get the ham.  I want to try a side this year that we've never had.  The choices are pretty much endless, it's just a matter of narrowing it down to something that most everyone will like.  I saw a recipe for brussel sprouts in brown butter but that will pretty much only fly for me and one of my boys so that's probably not going to happen!

Honeycomb Love

I thought I'd share these darling little honeycomb gift tags that I found at Target.  How sweet are these???  I couldn't help it...I bought all they had.

Easy Christmas Centerpiece

By now you've probably guessed that I've begun decorating for the holidays.  I've mentioned this before but I'm early to decorate and early to undecorate.  All signs of the holidays are back up on the garage shelves by December 26th {this is true}.

My favorite candle is the Capri candle at Anthropologie.  It's the one that is usually in the blue glass container {and the one that you tend to notice the most when walking around in the store}.  Last year it came in a mercury glass looking container and I asked for a few of them for Christmas.  Instead of leaving an open flame going around children at various Christmas get togethers I decided to drop it down in a huge glass jar that I picked up at Homegoods.  Before placing it inside I filled 1/3 of the jar with fake snow.  I pulled out my best Christmas pick {really a few of them that I wired together} and I placed it inside as well, covering the stem.

Simple, easy and pretty! 

What Am I Doing Wrong?

I'd like to use my blog a friend please on decorating my mantle for Christmas.  I have always stuggled to create a nice mantle, holiday or otherwise.  I arrange and rearrange and I just can't seem to get it right.  What am I doing wrong?  Maybe a big silver charger or platter behind the compote of ornaments?  Some height?  Sorry for the bad picture, I had to take it from the end of my dining room table so I couldn't help but get part of my chandelier in the photo.

I love all of the items on the mantle so I don't know what to take out...

And some things behind, some things in front of the garland...how do you feel about that?  Please offer up your best suggestions, nothing will hurt my feelings!

A Stocking Alternative

Recently I made these Christmas cones for K&Company using a couple of their Christmas lines.  I've had these paper mache cones for ages and I was really excited to pair them with the vintagey holiday paper.  My favorite is the first one pictured.  I stuffed a couple of them with patterned tissue paper and a couple of them with shredded paper.  You can't tell by the photos but I attached ribbon for hanging.

Wouldn't it be fun to meet a friend for lunch or a day of shopping with one of these filled with a few small treats?

Working Ahead

I haven't abandoned my blog I promise!  This month I've been working on things that would seem odd to blog about at this time of year.  Most recently I've been working on fall and Christmas themed projects.  It was fun to pull out my holiday stash and work on things like the packages above in the middle of May.  I love non-traditional wrapping paper with touches of vintage goodness instead of a paper bow. 

Do you love that vintage pick on the polk-a-dot package?  It's actually about 5 picks that I combined and retaped.  Nice picks can be expensive at the flea market, I'd say anywhere from $6 to $15 each.  My husband commented on the "bell & ball thingy", {in reference to the pick} saying it was cute.  I had to giggle because if he knew what that thing cost in total he'd be dumb struck!

Enjoy Your Day of Food & Family!

Happy Halloween!!

We're Getting Ready for Halloween

I bought a few things this week to add to the slim pickins we had for Halloween decorations. Last night my 4 year old and I had fun bringing some fall into the house. We started with these cute teensy pumpkin branches we got from Costco...



We bought a big vase at Ikea to put them in...



At the grocery store we picked up several bags of mini pumpkins in every color they had. She stacked several in an oversized vase as a centerpiece for our dining room table...



We found this round place mat at Target to go under the vase...



When we were all done with that we strung up a Martha Stewart garland on the mantle over some dingy cheesecloth I had...



Really cute...the "blood" is sparkly...



When we got the banner we also grabbed some spiders to put on the mirror in the dining room...



I found this cloche behind a box of Cheezits so we put some pumpkins under it in the kitchen...



When Grace got tired of helping to decorate I had made it into my studio where I strung up two banners...



Added some white pumpkins to a tiny chair...



And stuck a few spiders on the mirror here too...



We were excited to decorate with all we'd collected in the past few weeks even though it's a bit early. By the time the 31st rolls around I'll probably be ready to pull everything down after we come in from trick or treating!!