My Christmasyfied Home :)

Welcome to my Christmasy Home :)

I'll be honest, it's been hard to get into the spirit this year. It's even been hard to decorate and usually that's my favorite part!

It could be the many weighing issues like money, too many projects not enough time, or just being lazy ... but for the record I'll just go with being so super busy with some super awesome events and projects and I just have been on brain overload!

Or maybe I've been in a sugar induced coma from all the holiday sweets ... whatever.

In any case, it is done :) And here is my Christmas living room! I ended up going with a scheme of Red, Green, and Gold because that's basically what I had.

And my Christmas mantel! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do here, I've seen so.many.tutorials! and pictures! And it made me want to chuck all of my stuff and start anew! But that will at least have to wait for next year.

I started finding cute tutorials for Christmas decor oh about ... 6 months ago ... but because I am the biggest procrastinator ever I waited until about last week to start on any lol. But I can say that I made almost everything on this mantel :) I made the wreath, and the little gold tinsel tree, the hurricanes, the mini hurricanes, and 3 out of 4 of those things in the frames ;-)

I'm more or less happy with how it all turned out ... but you can be sure I'll be starting on Christmas projects a heck of a lot earlier next year! Which will probably mean a week earlier ... but hey I can get a lot done in a week!

Our hodge podge tree lol. I sometimes wish I could have a pretty themed matchy matchy tree like all the beautiful ones I've seen. And then the boxes of ornaments come out and I see the kids' faces when they find "their" ornaments.

Every year each kid either picks out or makes an ornament to represent the last year. I have a 14 year old ornament on there that says "Parents to be, 1996" and it makes me smile ever time I pick it out because I can remember the exact moment I picked it out :)

And at that moment, and all the MANY OTHERS (4 kids x a new ornament every year = LOTS OF SWEET MOMENTS) I love my tree and wouldn't trade it for any pretty matchy one.

And then I get over it and throw 500 red balls at it until it looks to have SOME kind of color scheme to it.

The dinning room and entry way.

Basically I just got a bunch of dollar store ornaments and threw them at whatever stood still. I not UNhappy with it, it'll do until next year :)

I was at a TOTAL loss for what to do for a centerpiece! Then a good friend reminded me that I have a trifle bowl! So I tossed some more balls in it and called done. I wanted to use my new Cricut to put something super cute on it, but that will be yet another project for next year.

I should start a list.

Here again are a few things I managed to put together that came out pretty cute!

I made these glitter trees using dollar store styro cones, glitter, glue and candles sticks. And I just LOVE the sparkle it adds to the room! These pictures don't do it justice.

NONE of these pictures do actually ... but THAT is a rant for another day.

I made the wreath using dollar store ornaments and a wire hanger! I just LOVE how it came out! I'm actually VERY happy with this project and plan to do another for the outside of the front door next year.


Looking from the dinning room, these are the stairs to the second floor. It took a sweet forever to get this garland up and groomed but I just LOVE the way it turned out!

I'm using the little table behind the front door to display my countdown calendar and my holiday cards ... or at least I WILL be if I ever get more than 2 >:-/

Going up the hallway I went through and put up a bunch of old holiday photos from years past. It's funny how seeing the kids at Christmas's past makes every one in the house smile :)

The top picture there always makes ME smile ;-)

And then in the hallway above the stairs is one of my favorite additions to the holiday decor ...

The festive flock of holiday ducks ;-) Years ago when the hubs asked if he could display his trophies up here I said "SURE if you put little santa hats on em at Christmas so they go with my decor LOL". Well the ducks went up ... and this year they got all dressed up and filled with the holiday spirit.




A couple more somebodys are too :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!! May you days be merry and bright :) and may all your stuffed animals be filled with joy. Amen.

Super Cute Super Easy Glitter Tree

In my quest to make as many trips to the dollar store as possible as many of my decorations as inexpensive as possible, I found this tutorial on making a glitter tree!  It looked pretty simple and cute so I gave it a shot!  I ended up making about eleventeen trips to the dollar store before I finished the two trees but whatever, they're cute ;-)

Start out with a cone shaped styro form, candle stick holder, glue, glitter,and paint brush ...

My tutorial is pretty simple ... paint on glue, sprinkle glitter, glue to candle stick ... CELEBRATE FINISHING A PROJECT.

I use the term "tutorial" loosely.

But I can't argue with results!  The trees came out pretty cute!  In the original tutorial, she painted the candlestick and it looks SO pretty!  But I knew that if it was sitting around this place was waiting for paint it would probably be done just in time to be a housewarming gift to my first born.

Not that I procrastinate ... I just put things off until the last possible minute and beyond :)

So I made a cute pair of trees and I heart them :)

They look really nice on this table and add a bunch of much needed PIZZAZ!  LOVE IT!

A Pretty Little Tree & A Wreath

Lately I've been OBSESSED a little excited about Dollar Store crafts! Taking things from the Dollar Store and making them super cute and look like they cost more than a buck.

This tutorial inspired me to get some tinsel and prettify one of the hideous not exactly my style cone shaped trees I found at Dollar Tree. I didn't take a before picture cause I forgot, but BELIEVE ME ... this is better lol

I meant to document the process but I was just fooling around and wrapped the tinsel around the cone two-ply and it stuck! It covered just how I wanted so I figured whatthehell and left it alone! Seriously, it took my like 30 seconds to make!

My second little craft here is based on a SUPER cute wreath I saw here. Looked totally doable.

I bought two spools of wired ribbon at Dollar Tree and just started cutting sections about 6-8" long and tying them in knot to the wreath form. I already had this form, but the one from the dollar store would work just fine.

I tied about 8 sections of each color on the form, but I would've done a third ribbon as well if I'd have had it to do over. Then I began the LONG process of adding the ornaments.

Let me preface the next part by saying, I have issues. Not the least of which is an OCD issue with needing things too look balanced and equal. My husband is a lucky man, let me tell you ;-)

So I started adding the balls here and there, TRYING to overthrow the voice in the back of my head screaming "THERE MUST BE A PATTERN! IT HAS TO HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF BALLS! WHY ARE THERE MORE RED THAN GOLD?!?!?!". But the voice is loud ... and irritating ... and persistent. So the process took like 2 hours because I tried to just throw balls at it and be happy with the chaos but ended up taking them all back off and trying to create symmetry with the LOOK of chaos.

In the end, I'm ok with it ... lol. After I put it up I kept looking at it all cock-eyed, going back and adding a ball here, taking away one there ... but I guess it came out pretty cute :)

The main thing was that it gave shape to the mantel and a color scheme I could live with and best of all ... it was DONE. lol Which makes that the first thing done on a VERY long list so I like it just fine :)

I'll probably go back and add a few things here and there, but the mantel is pretty I think. And I REALLY like the fact that I MADE a lot of the stuff! The wreath, the tinsel tree, the garland, and 3 of the 4 things in those photos ;-)

Now on to the tree!!

Happy Holidaysing Everyone!!!

Christmas Planner Tutorials

So for my first real post on here I'm going to show you something that has helped me and my obsessive need for {at least the appearance of} organization!

Back in 2008 I found this tutorial for a Christmas Planner. Immediately I knew it was a MUST. I can't tell you how many times I said "OMG I'm SO glad I made this!"

It is a keeper of lists, a manager of events, a holder of receipts, basically it is my holiday brain :) Because I just don't have room for all of this STUFF in the one I have. My IRL memory is at capacity ;-)

So start out by checking out the original tutorial ... then check out my BFFs planner ... then mine below :) Put them all together and make your own! I PROMISE that you will sing it's praises from the mountain tops, if you're into that kind of thing ...


So you start off with a dollar store spiral bound notebook with LOTS of pages, assorted scrappy papers and ribbon, letter stickers, and adhesive. A borderline addiction to list making helps too.

The original post has WAY better instructions so when you say "But Christine, HOW do you adhere the papers to the papers?!" just go to her post cause I am just not that coherent or good at these tutorial things, hence this blog ;-)

The front of the finished product :)


Front and back

Okay so I decided on 5 sections, one for family lists for gifts, one for friends and business contacts, 3 is for holiday events, 4 is for my making or baking lists and ingredients, and 5 is misc (i.e. whatever I couldn't think of at the time of labeling the dividers ;-)




Awesome right?!?! I loooooved it! I used for 2 years in a row :) This year I couldn't find it by the time I started making my HELLA lists so I got another one :-/ The new one and I are happy together, it's not quite as pretty as the other one but I don't judge a planner by her cover :)

Think carefully about your dividers before you decide on them. I only have four this year, so they are Family & Friends Lists, Make & Bake, Shopping Lists (this one came in REALLY handy on Black Friday!), and Misc.

I can not impress upon you how awesome this lovely planner has been but I can saw without much hesitation that it has SAVED CHRISTMAS 3 years in a row ... they should make a Halmark Channel movie about it.

So if anyone makes one PLEASE let me know!! I would LOVE to see what you do with it! And if you have the time, comment on the original post and let her know how awesome she is :D We bloggers dig that ;-)

Happy Holidaysing!!

WELCOME!!

I started blogging back in 2006 and have been on a bit of a hiatus ... if you call one post in 6 months a hiatus and not a blog coma.

But anyways, things have been going on! I have been a busy girl! I've lost 60lbs! My last baby started Kindergarden! I've made tutu's! And turkeys! And bread! And I've taken a lot of pictures!!

I've found that I LOVE making my own decor that looks like the expensive stuff you see in catalogs! I LOVE making clothes that looks like the expensive stuff you see in the mall! I LOVE making food that tastes BETTER than the stuff you buy at the store!

I LOVE to be creative, but I'm not exactly good at being original yet. I can execute just fine ... most of the time ;-) but the ideas themselves ... not so much lol

And then I found tutorials, and a light shone down from the heavens upon my computer ... and it was good :)

So this blog is devoted to all of the people and all of the HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS, of tutorials that have made it all possible :) since I start close to 60% of my sentences with "So I found this tutorial ..." LOL

Oh and then there was this "POP!" and smoke started coming from my computer when I bookmarked my eleventy hundredth post and I decided it was a good time to start keeping them somewhere else ;-)

And so the blog was born :) I'll be posting my own awesomeness, hopefully ;-), as well as sharing links that inspire me :) I hope to inspire you too! And if you see a linky you think I'd like, SHARE!! PLEASE!! I need all the help I can get!! LOL