Surprisingly AWESOME Christmas Decor!

My mom sent me this image today from House Beautiful. Awesome!! I don't really have anywhere to put it but I wish I did! This would be such a simple and inexpensive DIY - they're just paper wedding bells!

(click pic for source)

Anyway, I was just so struck by this that I had to share. What do you think? Am I way off with my love of this idea?

Christmas Home Tour

I told you here about my feeble attempts at Christmas decor after taking a long break from holiday decor of any type.  Well, I'm happy to say that my house is now fully Christmafied! Take a look at what I've done - starting with adding some beautiful silver ornaments to my tree (above). I started with just red ornaments but man, the silver really makes it shine! I picked up a package that had three of the same finishes as my red ones - satin, mirror and GLITTER! (Oh, I love my glitter ornaments!)

I've got these jelly clings for my sidelite next to my front door (yes, my neighbors really are that close). What you can't tell from the pictures is that the clings are all glittery. These were the first decorations I put up - even before Thanksgiving - and they were the first thing my daughter noticed. She stood in the entryway for a long time just staring at them, she loves them so much!

This is a vintage paper mache Santa that my mom picked up for me at a thrift shop. I've dubbed it the "creepy Santa" because it just gives me the heebies. Once again though, my daughter loves him! I've got him on the wall at the foot of my stairs to our lower level and she will sit in the stairs and have full-on two-way conversations with  him. It really freaks me out!

We don't have a chimney or fireplace so we are going to leave out this "special key" for Santa on Christmas eve. My own little elf reminds me on almost a daily basis to leave it for Santa ;)

This is the vignette I mentioned in this post that needed something else. I remembered this topiary that I got on clearance a few years ago and although this spot is still far from perfect, for this year it will do!

If you couldn't tell, the vines spell J-O-Y :)

Here is my entryway from my kitchen/living areas and the three projects I wrote about here (snowflake art), here (NOEL sign) and here (ornament wreath).

This is another view of my entry I told you about here.

I love that amaryllis garland!

I love all the red and how it makes everything tie together!

I'm so happy with all the projects I've done and how my home looks this year. I see the happiness it brings to my little girl and even my Grinchy husband has been bitten by the bug (he turns on the Christmas lights because he likes them!).

What is your favorite part of decorating for the holidays? Do you do the same thing every year or do you try to change it up? Comment away - I can't wait to hear what you have to say!

A Christmas Wreath

Well, it started out as a wreath anyway :) 

I saw this wreath in the Avon catalog a while back and loved it - but I'm more of a silver person and thought it would be so easy to make my own version. Besides, I wouldn't pay $20 bucks for it.

Using a lampshade and some glitter snowflake ornaments I got right to work.

I got two of these packages from Big Lots. They're so pretty but oh, the glitter...this is why I set out the big sheet of plastic before I started my project. It helped. A little.

I tore apart an old lampshade to get the metal ring from the bottom. I know, this was a perfectly good lampshade but I've never been a fan of that shape and it was a giveaway from my mother in-law so I figured what the heck. The ring was the right size for me.

I peeled the fabric off the ring...

...and started hot gluing the ornaments to it.

I just kept going.

I considered gluing them in circles going out but decided to go the other way.

This was so easy - from start to finish it took about 15 minutes. Cleaning up the glitter was the worst part and I'm still finding it in random places. 

It is so beautiful. I wish the pictures would really show how sparkly it is. What's the most simple Christmas project you've done this year? Leave a comment with a link if you've got a blog post - I would love to see!

Pottery Barn Inspired Noel

When I got the Pottery Barn Fall/Winter catalog a few months ago, I fell in love with this Noel wall art. I did not, however, love the price tag.

This was inspired by the Robert Indiana sculpture that is best known for the stamp that was issued by the USPS in 1973.

I was more inspired by the sculpture with its bold color and wanted that BIG graphic pop so I bought some 1.5 foot tall paper mache letters at Joann. (I had to wait until I had 50% off coupons - there was no way I could justify spending $10 each on them!)

I sprayed them a high-gloss red. (Cherry Red by Krylon)

Hot glued them together...

Got some help from my usual helper :)

They now live in my entry way. I love this so much and smile every time I walk past. I think I'm going to have to figure out something similar but more permanent for this spot. I love it!

This has been making the rounds in the blogosphere lately. I love seeing everyone's personal take on them!

DIY Ornament Wreath

Last year one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick, made an ornament wreath. I loved it so much that I wanted to try it for myself. The instructions are pretty basic - string ornaments on to a wire hanger, shape and twist your ends together to hold. They biggest two pieces of advice Sarah had to offer were 1) hot glue the caps on to your ornaments and 2) use a thin wire because it will be easier to twist together when you're done.

I did glue the caps on the ornaments and I'm glad I did. I did miss one and when I started bending the hanger to form it into a wreath shape, it popped right off.

Here it is! This was super easy and I think I'll be picking up some more clearance ornaments at the end of this season to make lots of these next year!

So This Is Christmas

And what have I done? Well, admittedly, not much. To be fair, this is the first time I've decorated for Christmas in five years. The first Christmas I spent with my husband I did have a tree in my apartment. The second year I didn't do anything because I was never home, always at his place. The third year we were living together and I had resolved myself to the idea that he's a Grinch - a real Scrooge. Our daughter was born in September 2008 and I really didn't feel like decorating that year. Last year we were living with my parents while our house was being built over the holidays so I couldn't really do anything there but this year....oh, my daughter is two years old and she LOVES everything Christmas-related and I knew she would so I put my foot down and said it is time for my dear husband's heart to grow three sizes and to suck it up that I'm decorating. 

Because it has been so long (and three moves) since I did any sort of decorating, we hit up the end of season clearance at Target last year where we picked up this tree. I know, I know...the whole live vs fake debate. Well, I've never had a real tree and so that along with the convenience of the fake version pretty much had the decision made. 

I decided to go with a red theme because I'm not really a fan of red in day-to-day life but I really do like the color and to me, it screams CHRISTMAS!!!!! more than any other color. I figured this would be the perfect time for me to go wild on red. I picked up these plastic ball ornaments on clearance along with the tree. I love this set because it has (all in red) balls in different finishes - satin, shiny metallic, velvet (like, actually textured) and my favorite, glitter. The ribbon was from the Dollar Tree and the glass topper was a vintage item I already owned.

I also purchased some pre-lit garland at Tarjay last season. I just wound in some red sparkly tulle from Joann.

I really love this in my entry way.

I got these two 9 foot Smith & Hawken amaryllis garlands for $3.74 EACH last year! Can you believe that deal? Anyway, I didn't know what I was going to do with them this year so I sort of just put them along this ledge and I actually like how it turned out. I like that my entry way now gets a beautiful pop of color and Christmas.

Here is a close up of the garland. It really needed the red, it just pulls the garland in to the rest of the room.

I had some extra bulbs so I put them in my dollar store hurricanes just to do something with this corner. I know this vignette really needs more. There was a lamp there but I stole it for my master bedroom. I'm still on the hunt for a lamp perfect for this spot.

Yeah, it really needs something else there.

(On a side note, I have big plans to make that big, bare wall in the background into a gallery wall - all the way up to the ceiling.)

I still have multiple projects in the works to add to my Christmas decor. I'm planning on getting one or two done this weekend so I can show you next week!

What have you done for Christmas this year? Do you have any favorite colors to use in your Christmas decor?