~all things Christmas in January~

Has it really been a month since I 

gave any attention to this blog?

Sorry friends.....

December was filled with friends, social events,

school projects, Christmas projects, brunches and 

NO REST!  

I'm just starting to feel human again.

There were a couple things throughout the month

I wanted to share with you but never got around to.

How does that saying go?

Better late than never......

The first is the way in which I displayed 

the Christmas cards we received.

(which happens to be one of my

favorite parts of the holiday season....

I love getting cards and greetings in the mail)

 In an accidental attempt at covering up some holes

in the tree, I discovered that I loved displaying the

cards on the tree. Everyone who came in the house 

commented on it as well. It was in plain sight for everyone

to see but out of the way and uncluttered.     

 See the hole.....fill the hole.

That simple.

I was also going to share the project I made

for my son's teacher at school.

It's an ornament with a picture of her

and all the kids inside. I fuzzed out the picture

for privacy reasons but you can imagine right?   

My son wrote a sweet little note to her on

the back of the picture that is visible

when you turn the ornament around. 

She loved it and said it is something that will

hang on her tree for many Christmas's to come.

You can find the clear bulbs with removable tops

at Michael's stores. They are very inexpensive and

 super easy to make. Fill them with whatever 

you can fit in the top! 

I make several of these a year.

Like these that I made as place settings

for my annual Christmas brunch with my 

best gal pals:  

 I didn't get a picture of the ornaments before I wrapped them

but I filled them with pics of us, glitter and feathers.

I wrapped them in tissue paper, attached a name tag and

VOILA! Such an easy gift with a touch of personal sentiment.   

         

And just because I share it each year....

I've got to show you how my house ended

up decorated this year for Christmas:

    

           I kept it very simple and light this year.

I didn't put out any decorations that didn't hold

a sentimental place in my heart. 

And finally.......

remember that Christmas favorite things swap I joined?

This was the box of delight that I mailed Julie.....

the lady who was my swapping partner:

 The limit was $20 and I did all this for exactly that!

I packaged it in a Christmas stocking and a little

note and sent it off.  

I'm such an oaf.....I was so excited

to get mine in the mail that I forgot to take

a picture of it.  She made some cute

Christmas napkins for me.....that I used for

another Christmas brunch we hosted,

some goodies to eat and a scented plug in

to make my house smell good :)

I promise I won't be such a stranger.

I have a couple fun things to share with you.

Hope your holiday season was happy

and that your 2013 is FABULOUS!

     

     

     

~christmas wreaths for graves~

 To some of you it may sound morbid but I love making

pretty things to put on the graves of my loved ones.

Makes it feel like it's still something I can do for them.

Grandma and I headed over to the cemetery a couple

days ago to decorate Grandpa and my Mother-in-law's

graves. I've never been able to take anything to her

for Christmas before...either because there was too 

much snow or just because I didn't think of it in time.

I made her a pretty little wreath with supplies I got 

at the Dollar Store. In total it cost me $4. 

Here's what a $4 Christmas wreath looks like:

       wreath-$1

angel ornament-$1

silver poinsetta flowers-$1

silver tipped pine foliage-$1  

 As you can see up close....it's not necessarily

the best of quality but it's going to be outside,

in the winter cold, wind and elements so I

didn't want to spend an insane amount of $$$ on it.   

 I printed up a family picture of us, covered it with

a taped Ziploc baggie and stuck it in the pine cone.

I stuck it thru a wooden dowel and stuck 

the dowel into the ground.   

 Look at those beautiful mountains in the background.

What a majestic view for a "resting place".

Grandma told me she made 

"an arrangement with some old, ratty decorations"

she found in her basement. This is not what

I was expecting when I picked her up:

Isn't it beautiful?

I told her it made mine look ratty. 

I have a couple more to make today.

Tune in for some pics of those.

Have a great weekend. 

      

~mason jars....Christmas style~

Remember the mason jars I decorated with

at Thanksgiving....well-I've used them again 

for Christmas. I wasn't lying when I said

I use them all the time. 

I have so many Christmas decorations and

I just didn't have the energy to go all out 

this year. I decided to decorate a few areas in

the house and call it good. This is the shelf

in my living room which the jars are currently 

sitting on....with a whole bunch of other glitzy

garb. Can you tell I like gawdy?

The colors I chose to decorate with this year were

blue/green/silver/white/gold

I threw in pine cones and some twine in an 

attempt to give it that shabby chic look.

A good friend gave me a bunch of beautiful crosses

last year that I also threw into the mix. 

I also decorate with these crosses at Easter.

I have quite a few of them.

My china hutch.

More of the same.

Sofa table behind my couch.

Didn't take picture of the whole thing????

Above my couch I strung a piece of the hemp string

and wrapped gold glitzies around it then hung

silver and gold ornaments from it.

Then we have the tree....

which we had to put in the corner up on 

our trunk so our little lady can't reach it.

This is not blue/green/silver/gold....

it is traditional colors with all of our

sentimental and meaningful ornaments on it.

I didn't even bother putting my fancy ornaments

that are all matching and proper.

Somehow, I have discovered that the ornaments

marking my kids' first Christmas or those

ornaments made for us by them are more

beautiful than any 'ol glass and beaded 

ornament I've ever seen.

Another thing that's traditional flavored...

OUR STOCKINGS.

My Mom has made everyone in the family

a stocking. She's made them one by one over

the years as our family has grown and EVERY

SINGLE person in the family has a

hand made stocking from Mom.

It's one of my favorite things she has ever made me.

The lights are up.

The tree is trimmed.

Stockings are hung.

Looks like I need to get started on those projects huh?

Tomorrow I'll start....for real this time.