New Décor

For quite sometime Tom and I have wanted a little something else to hang on the wall that our TV sits against. And I guess this is the week I was ready to pull the trigger on the ideas that were floating around in my head.

Idea #1:

Every time I've shopped at Hobby Lobby in recent months, I've eyed the gold polystone letters for our living room. So, the same day I bought my 50% off glass cloche, I bought a 50% off "S, " "T," and "&" to hang to the left of our TV.

Idea #2:

I received this idea back when we were shopping for bathroom mirrors for our newly remodeled guest bathroom. I came across a quatrefoil shaped mirror at Lowe's and really wanted to use it for the vanity mirror, but the dimensions were wrong. I couldn't stop thinking of the mirror and its gorgeous shape. I brainstormed of ways to incorporate it into our home, and finally decided it would look great in our living room, hung to the right of our TV.

That's Pinteresting

I completed my first Pinterest inspired "project" - pumpkins stacked under a glass cloche.

The Pinterest Version from Chic on a Shoestring Decorating:

I already had the same Southern Living Home Barley Twist Pedestal shown above. But I did not have a glass cloche. I had been wanting one for sometime now, but wouldn't bite the bullet and buy one. I stalked the one shown below on the Hobby Lobby aisle for weeks, and today it went home with me for 50% off. It will be versatile and useful in all seasons, which is my justification. I already had the fall berry garland that I used around the bottom. You can't really tell, but I used some moss underneath the bottom pumpkin for added texture and height. I love it! It's a great fall centerpiece for my island.

I also decided to stick a little lone pumpkin on some moss underneath my small Arthur Court cheese dome/cloche.

Luck 'O the Irish

Because I hail from partial Irish decent, I like to embrace the little holiday of St. Patrick's Day. I packed up the Valentine's decor and got out my green stuff.

I used green and clear vase pebbles that I already had and a little "Feelin' Irish" sign in my apothecary jars.

I hung my "Cheers!" sign with my spring wreath on the front door.

I printed and framed this cute St. Patty's 8 x 10 subway art. And for another little touch of green, I set out my little wooden croaking frog instrument from Cambodia.

You can find this printable subway art at Today's Fabulous Finds. The one I printed is called "Paint the Town Green." I ordered it on the Sam's Club photo center website and picked it up at my location after church today. If you use Sam's photo center, you'll want to turn off the "color correction" option before you finalize the order.

All You Need is Love

Earlier this month I got the Valentine's decorations out of the attic and realized I wanted a few more finishing touches to make it complete. On Thursday I found the cutest wreath at Target for the front door, along with some Valentine blocks in the cheapy section at the front. I got 2 sets of the blocks because they were only $2.50 for a set of four. They are pink and red and either spell LOVE, HUGS, KISS, or XOXO depending on how you arrange them. Today I went to Michael's with my MIL and she bought me 2 apothecary jars (one with a 40% of coupon and the other with a 25% off coupon). I already had 1 apothecary jar and wanted to add 2 more to make a grouping of three. At Michael's I also found some 40% off heart ornaments to use as filler in the 3 jars.

Target wreath

Now that I've shown you my Valentine's Day decor, I wanted to add something I just thought of. A little over 5 years ago (before we bought our house) I remember telling my mom that decorating for all the smaller holidays was cheesy and hokey. I believe I even told her, "I will never do that when I get my own house." Well, now I'm all about it. So, I guess I've become cheesier/hokier since I said that. :/ Never say never I guess!

3 Things

This is my last post on our Christmas decor I promise. I recently ordered 3 things (okay technically 4 because one thing is a pair) online to complete our Christmas decorations and they've all arrived!

1. Monogrammed Tree Skirt:

We've never had a tree skirt, and its not for lack of shopping for one. Because I have, I've just never found one that I loved. And I've always wanted a monogrammed one. In years past I just bunched up gold mesh fabric around the base of the tree and called it good. But now our tree officially has a skirt. I found this tree skirt online at Pottery Barn Kids on sale. And because our tree is skinny, the smaller dimensions of the "kids" tree skirt are fine. I think it will be perfect when we eventually get a bigger tree too because I had to fold the material over at the seam because it's a little too big.

2. Needlepoint stocking for Ruby:

This is our first Christmas with our 8 month old puppy Ruby, so of course I had to get her a stocking of her very own. It is needlepoint, to keep with our tradition. Her name is monogrammed on it and the scene is of 2 dogs sledding. I know she's spoiled...

3. Wreath Stands as Stocking Holders:

The black wreath stands I blogged about here work just great as stocking holders since we don't have a mantle.

I think Ruby is going to get some new toys in her stocking. She's pretty rough on them. According to my mom, she has bionic

jaws. Note the former rope pictured below.

Too Much??

Okay, so I've never loved my star Christmas tree topper. It's cute, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it's what we came home with after shopping for our first Christmas adornments as a married couple. I'm of the mindset that a tree should be topped with a star, symbolizing the star that led the wisemen to Jesus. But this year I was wanting to add a little more 'ummph' to the top of our skinny little tree. So after our tree had been up a few days, I went to Hobby Lobby during one of my lunch hours and purchased a few sprigs of fanciness. And now I think I may have gone over the top. I'm embarrassed that I am even showing you (all five of you who read this). What do you think?? The star is still there, you just can't really see it anymore. Oooh ,that sounds so metaphorical.

When Tom came home and saw it for the first time he said, "it looks like our tree is on fire." A few days later he said, "I know what that reminds me of! Kevin, the bird on Disney Pixar's UP!"

Sheesh!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

It's officially Christmastime in our household. Which means we put up our tree and decorations to the tune of the Carpenter's Christmas Portrait, which by the way happens to be my favorite Christmas album. As a child, I remember my dad playing it every year while my family put up the tree. Listening to that album brings back memories of all my past Christmases. I didn't put quite as many decorations out as I normally do. I decided against putting greenery and berry garland on all my ledge shelves. Here are a few quick phone pictures of what we did today.

Our skinny little tree

Nativity set on the piano

Ornaments in a hurricane

Holly berry plates on kitchen wall

Ornaments in an apothecary jar on kitchen shelf

Ornaments in an Arthur Court bowl on the kitchen island

Berry and snowflake wreath on the front door

Star berry wreath on the back of the front door

Ruby's first experience with Christmas

My "helpers," don't they look thrilled?

Ruby is even ready for Christmas with her new collar

She laid like this literally the whole time we decorated

Preparations

Well, here we are the weekend before Thanksgiving. And how in the world did that happen? 2010 has literally flown by and it is now ALMOST time to start decorating for the Christmas season. We always put Christmas up the day after Thanksgiving.

We had a busy Saturday yesterday which started for me with an 8:30am choir practice at church, followed by breakfast, lawn mowing, winterizing the flower beds, taking down the fall decor and packing it up, cleaning the house, washing the sheets and towels, getting the cars washed, and getting my front blinker and headlight replaced. Phew! It was nice to get cleaned up after all that and eat some Falcone's pizza while watching the Sooners beat Baylor.

In preparing for my Christmas decorating, I've been thinking about how I am going to hang our stockings this year. We've been in our house for a little over 5 years, and we've never had a fireplace mantle to hang our stockings on. In years past I've hung them on the old glass block divider wall that we once had prior to our kitchen remodel. After the wall came down we hung them on a decorative wall shelf.

But I don't want to do that again this year. I've been thinking an iron stand would be perfect. So, I googled stocking stands, and I didn't love what I saw. They all had something cheesy about them, like a santa or Christmas tree figure at the top.

I decided to go with a telescoping wreath stand with a nice tasteful finial on the top. I ordered two, I'm thinking I can hang two stockings on each stand. And I can use them in all seasons with all types of wreaths and/or hanging decorations. So they're versatile. My favorite trait in a decoration.

We have four needlepoint stockings. Two are monogrammed already with our names. And hopefully, sooner rather than later, we will be able to monogram the other two with our children's names. The stockings my brother and I had growing up were needlepoint, made by my maternal grandmother. I wanted to keep with the needlepoint stocking tradition with our family. I ordered ours from Lands End back in 2006. This Christmas will be our first one with our puppy, Ruby, so I need to find her a stocking as well. So fun! :)