Living Houses: Christmas decorations

Showing posts with label Christmas decorations. Show all posts

More of Our Christmas Home...

December 11, 2014

Our great room wasn't the only place that got the holiday treatment this season. I love to spread the Christmas cheer throughout our whole house...including our master bedroom. I don't decorate much in there, but the few additions I make sure enhance the cozy feeling I get while snuggling in bed. Everything is better with some string lights...am I right?!

Do you guys decorate your bedrooms too?! What is your favorite area of the house to decorate? Don't forget to check out our great room all decked out here! :)

Have Yourself...

December 24, 2013

...a merry little Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with loving family and friends! I just wanted to take a minute and tell you guys how thankful I am for each and every one of you! The fact that you take time out of your day to pop into my little corner of the blog-o-sphere means the world to me!!

So from our house to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! I'll see you in 2014! :)

Oh, and I surely couldn't let the holiday pass without sharing hubby's fab lighting skills! He made our house perfectly festive. :)

Isn't he the best?!?! ;)

DIY Christmas Wreath.

December 20, 2013

I have been a crafting machine this Christmas season! The Blogger Stylin' Home Tour totally lit a fire under me and had me churning out projects left and right! Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it definitely upped my productivity this month.

One of my favorite things I made was my Christmas wreath. I used my holiday inspiration pretty literally in this project.

I started with a blank wreath form and some wide B&W striped ribbon.

I hot glued my black and white striped ribbon into place, and then tightly wrapped the ribbon around the form until I was back at my starting point. I cut the ribbon and used another bead of hot glue to secure the end into place.

Then I used two different sized sparkly beads I had in my craft stash to create a cluster on the wrapped form. These beads were pretty heavy, so I held each in place until the hot glue was 100% dry.

Once the cluster was big enough for my liking, I added some greenery using two small pieces from an artificial pine tree stem. Then I just cut a sliver of leftover plaid fabric and pulled the loose strings off to give it a little worn, rustic vibe. I tucked the ends of the plaid fabric behind the mirror on our mantel, using the weight of the mirror to hold the wreath in place.

I really love the combo of black and white stripes and plaid in this wreath. Plus, it's got a bit of shine to it, and if you've been here for a while, you know I looooove me some shiny stuff!! This is the third wreath I've made for our mantel {here was the first and second} and I love them more and more each time!

Happy Friday! :):)

DIY Starburst Tree Topper

December 16, 2013

Hubs and I have a skinny, pre-lit, artificial tree in our home. My parents bought it for me when I first purchased my townhouse in November 2006. It was perfect then because we didn't have a ton of floor space to work with, and luckily, the skinny tree transitioned well into our new home. Even though we now have much more space, our layout is very open, and that makes Christmas tree placement quite tricky. Therefore, our skinny lil' tree = still our best bet.

And I don't mind that we don't have a huge-statement-making tree. In fact, it's one of my least favorite things to decorate for Christmas. {GASP!} Maybe that'll change as we grow our family and they help to trim the tree, but for now, I have a lot more fun spreading the festive cheer to all different areas of our living space. The mantel is by far my favorite thing to decorate, and what I focus on most.

All of that back story may help to explain why I don't have a great tree topper for our beloved little skinny. As a matter of fact, I think there were a few Christmases where I never even used a tree topper. {GASP again!} Any super cute topper I'd find in a store would inevitably be too heavy for fakey to hold up straight. Usually, I'd end up MacGyver'ing something to finish our tree off each year. This year, I was set to MacGyver something again, when I saw the best DIY tree topper from Bethany, and I knew I had to make my own!

Unfortunately, I didn't have the exact supplies she used, so I had to improvise because I was on a tight deadline for the Blogger Stylin' Home Tour series and I was too lazy to run out to the store. ;) Thankfully, I had everything I needed to make a knock-off version of hers: 1) a small styrofoam ball {from a craft project that never came to be}, 2) toothpicks and 3) gold spray paint.

Bethany used a PVC pipe to hold her topper up, but since I didn't have one myself, I used a small screw driver and dug out a narrow hole that went 1/2 way through the ball. I stuck the top branch of my tree through this hole to keep my topper on and upright.

Then I just started poking toothpicks into the styrofoam...nothing too difficult here!

Watching Home Alone while you make your topper ins't mandatory, although it makes the process go more quickly! ;)

What do you guys think? Not bad for a $0 project!! I might even use this topper in years to come! ;)

I'm linking up my project to the Dare to DIY series hosted by four amazing bloggers:

This week Kim is hosting, so make sure you go by to see her project and to link yours up too!

Also, make sure you come back Wednesday for some jingle bell inspiration! I am participating in a Jingle Mingle with Cuckoo4Design, Shift Ctrl Alt, Nalle's House, Primitive & Proper, Dwellings by Devore, and Bliss at Home. You'll want to see what we each have up our sleeves! :)

Linking up to:

52 Mantels

Our Home Tour...The Christmas Edition!

December 13, 2013

Well the big day is here!! It's my turn in the Blogger Stylin' Home Tour series to show you guys how we get all holly and jolly around here! This awesome event is a blog hop, so if you are here from A Creative Day, thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you like what you see.

I gave my Insta-friends and readers a peek at my Christmas inspiration this year...red plaid, B&W stripes, mixed metallics, cozy textures, anything shiny and tons of string lights. I used a lot of decor we already had, and added a few DIY touches, that ended up being some of my favorite accents. Our house has officially been taken over by glitter, and I'm not sure if we'll ever get it back!! ;)

Now sit back and get reallllll cozy...because I've got entirely too many pictures for you to check out!!

And since I’m all about keeping things real with you guys, I couldn't help but post these last few pictures. Yes, I know…the quality is poor. The pictures are grainy. They were clearly taken with my iPhone in “poor lighting”…but this is one of my favorite times of the day in our house. The sun is just coming up, last weekend’s snow storm is still covering the ground and our string lights are the only thing switched on. The house is aglow and so cozy. It gives me one of those feelings that I wish I could bottle up and keep forever.

I was so close to deleting these photos and not sharing because, well, who wants to look fuzzy, amateur photography…but then I realized these are the best pictures to post. They aren't perfect, but they make me feel Christmas….feelings of warmth, love and gratitude.