I Survived the Plague.

I’d love to be all cliché and say “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” around our house, but to be honest, it’s been looking pretty Christmas-y in our casa since Thanksgiving ended.  I was all set to reveal our holiday décor last week, but I fell victim to “the plague” {also known as a wicked sinus infection}.  Thanks to some meds, my new bff...the neti pot and some major R&R this weekend, I’m feeling much better.

Which is wonderful news for you guys because I’m sure you’ve been dying in anticipation to see entirely-too-many pictures of our house decorated for the holly, jolly season that is upon us. ;)  Last year, we moved into our house on Christmas Eve...so our house was truly lacking in the decorations department.  In fact, we were lacking in most things at that point.  So this year, hubby and I were ready to go all out for the occasion!!  There weren’t many areas of the house that we didn’t attack with lights and/or garland.

Hubby took care of the outside, and did a pretty fantastic job.  If you follow me on Instagram {retroranchreno} you saw this shot of his handy work.

I took care of decorating the inside of the house.  We have a skinny, little pre-lit tree that we’ve been using since we lived in our old townhouse.  It was perfect for that space because it didn’t take up much room, and it’s also perfect for this house since we have an open floor plan without a “great” spot to fit the tree.  I love the corner we tucked it into…and how we added some red lights to tie it in with the rest of the house.

I couldn't help myself and decorated our TV console...with an owl, of course.

The mantle is one of my favorite places to decorate...and shocker, I included an owl there too.  He was just too cute and furry to not come home with me from the store. 

And onto our buffet...turquoise and red...YES PLEASE!

Our dining room and console tables got new DIY winter-ish runners and some fun decorations.  The fabric was on sale and exactly what I was looking for...perfect!

Our kitchen got some pops of Christmas...



And so did our barn door...it's my absolute favorite.

And in case you weren't 100% sick of seeing pictures...here are a few more for good measure. :)

Anyone else looooove to decorate everything for Christmas?  I'm pretty sure we aren't ever going to be a glitter-free house again.  It's all over, no matter how much I vacuum.  Whoooops!

And since we DIY'ed some new runners and a bunch of displays, I'm linking up to the final week of Kim, Michelle, Chelsea and Rachel's Dare to DIY (Deck the Halls) link party!

Thanks so much for hosting such a wonderful series, ladies! :)

Banner Letdown.

Back in September I was bitten by the banner bug.  I couldn't help it.  I came across some unorthodox fall fabrics and couldn't fight the urge to turn them into a "thankful" banner to hang across our mantle.

I started by cutting out some letters that I printed out on computer paper.  I had the entire alphabet printed out and filed away from when I made a banner for my sister-in-law's baby shower.

Then I taped the letters down to some brown felt that was also left over from my prior banner.  {Taping the edges down allows for much easier cutting.}

 


I cut out enough letters to spell out "be thankful", but I scrapped the "be" and just went with "thankful" due to the length of all the letters together.  {Ignore the cup rings on the tray...I will be re-finishing it soon.}

With the letters completed, I turned my efforts to the pennant part of the banner.  I used another stencil I previously printed out.  I taped that down too and then cut out all of my flags.

After all of that...it was time to glue.  I pulled out my Tacky Glue and used a couple drops on each letter to glue the felt to the fabric.

Then I searched in my supplies for some left over brown ribbon to hold everything together.  I cut the ribbon to size and glued the flags to the ribbon.

Once everything was dry, I hung it in place...

...and was immediately disappointed.  Hubby really liked it, but I wasn't sold.  I kept it up for a week or two hoping it'd grow on me, but I just wasn't a fan.  Fortunately I did like the hounds tooth fabric as a runner on our console table.

Here it is looking all spiffy with some new owl friends.

And here is what our mantle has been looking like for most of the fall...sans banner. :-/

Even though the banner was a fail, I'm still happy I tried it out...especially since it allowed me to take part in the Dare to DIY (Be Thankful) Link Party that is being hosted by the amazing Michelle, Kim, Chelsea and Rachel!

Maybe I'll have more success with a Christmas banner.  And at least this party got my butt moving to show off our fall mantle before I switch it out for all things mistletoe come this weekend! ;)