living artfully

home tour: our white christmas

I have a serious love for Christmas decorations. And since I always love seeing how people choose to decorate during this festive time of year, I thought I'd invite you in to see a few of my favorite Christmas decorations in our home...

 

I have a thing for white Christmas decorations and have been dreaming up ideas since October. I have to admit, our decorations have been up since before Thanksgiving; I just couldn't bear to wait!

 

We have five trees up this year. And no, we don't have a large house - I just love having lots of trees. And bless my husband for not minding! We have...
a large white tree with metallic ornaments in the living room,
a large green tree with black and white ornaments in the kitchen,
a small green tree with blue ornaments in the scrapbook room,
and two small white trees on the wine tables in the dining room with the Bride's Tree Collection, a wedding gift from my aunt & uncle.

 
  

We continued the white theme on the bookshelf in the entryway. I have a little grouping on my dresser to remind me of the season. And we did a display of vintage ornaments and mercury glass on our side table in the living room. I love the tiny ornaments in the short vase; they are from my great-grandmother's collection of mercury glass.

 

My favorite wreath hangs above the couch in the living room. If you're thinking about making one, I definitely recommend it. It's much easier than it looks! Instructions are here. 

 

And lastly, we have this great built-in in our dining room, which is a perfect spot for more of our favorite Christmas decorations... like our mirrored advent calendar, which we bring out every year and fill with Kisses. 

Thank you for stopping by to see our white Christmas! If you're like me and enjoying getting a peak of how others decorate, I think you'll like the Christmas Tour of Homes on TheNester.com. Go check it out and thanks to the lovely Tina for introducing me.

Are all your holiday decorations in place? What color schemes did you go with this year?

cookie sheet advent calendar

Growing up, we always marked the days of December with an Advent calendar. Coming from German heritage, they were known to us as the adventskalendar and were a thin cardboard box with tiny shaped chocolates hidden behind each window. Today, I still enjoy the concept, but was looking for just the right idea to create one of my own. I wasn't sure what kind of calendar I wanted to make until I saw the idea to use a cookie sheet on the Making Memories blog. After a quick run to the store for a cookie sheet and magnets, I created this calendar for my scrapbook room.

To create this Advent calendar, I used a cookie sheet that was approximately 11 inches by 17.5 inches. It's just a cheap thin sheet, which I selected so it wouldn't be too heavy; and without any type of coating on the cookie sheet, I knew my magnets would adhere.


I started by cutting my paper to go around the calendar grid, leaving a hole for the grid itself. If you purchase extremely strong magnets, you can probably skip cutting the hole, but I wanted to minimize the layers of paper between the magnets and the cookie sheet. I adhered the paper to the cookie sheet using my usual scrapbooking adhesive and it's sticking together just as well as paper to paper.

I then created a 10 inch by 10 inch grid by cutting some kraft paper to size and then drawing lines every 2 inches. This created a grid that is 5 spaces tall and wide. I opted to stitch along my grid lines but to simplify you could draw the lines with a marker.

Next I adhered the grid to the center of the cookie sheet, as well as the ribbons and the title. Once these elements were set, I began creating 25 date holders. This is a great way to use up scraps and little pieces of your stash.

Once I had 25 pieces selected, I cut small strips of magnetic tape and adhered them to the backs of my date pieces.  For this project I used super-strength magnetic tape by Magna Card. It's self-adhesive on one side, making it super easy to adhere the date pieces to the magnets.


With everything in place, I put the date holders onto the cookie sheet and moved them around until I was happy with the placement. Then I put the final touches on the calendar by adding numbers to each of the pieces and tying a big bow at the top of the calendar.

The calendar is very sturdy, so it could lean up against a wall on a shelf or sit in a large plate stand. I wanted to hang mine, so I used my mini hole punch to create two small holes along the lip of the cookie sheet, spaced equally from the center. Then I took some picture frame wire, threaded it through the holes, and twisted the ends to secure.

I am looking forward to adding the numbered pieces each day until it's full on the 25th. I am so happy to have found the inspiration for this calendar and can't believe how quickly it came together. My new Advent calendar is now hanging in my scrapbook room and I swear it makes me smile each time I see it.

 

Did you make an Advent calendar this year? What's your favorite way to mark the days of December?

 

what's your decorating personality?

Ever get lost on the internet, dreaming up ideas for your home? If you're like me - not serious about purchasing or redecorating - it's still fun to play!

You can find out your interior decorating personality with this sweet and simple quiz. My decorating personality is "sun kissed." The room is meant to convey energy, friendliness and ease -- love it! 


Thanks to Sunlight & Simplicity for introducing me to this quiz!

So, what's your decorating personality?? If you take the quiz, I'd love to hear your results!

christmas ornament wreath

Remember my early obsession with creating a white Christmas?? Well I couldn't wait any longer and made this wreath today!

 

I've never made anything like this before and was surprised to find it really wasn't too difficult.

To make this wreath I used:
an 18 inch evergreen wreath from Michael's
about 80 large and medium sized metallic and white bulb ornaments
about 50 mini sized metallic bulb ornaments
high-heat glue gun and lots of glue
and my favorite Christmas music playing in the background!

 

To get started, I simply removed the hardware from all the bulbs and set them all out within arm's reach. Then I flipped the wreath over so the back side was facing up and began gluing medium ornaments around the inner edge of the wreath. Once the inner edge was covered, I did the same to the outer edge of the wreath with the large bulbs. Since I was working from the backside, I made sure the openings to the bulbs were facing me.


 
After a short break to make sure the glue had set, I flipped the wreath over and began gluing bulbs in a random pattern. I made sure the bulbs were sitting as close to one another as possible and I covered visible gaps with the mini ornaments.

 

Once the whole wreath was covered, I let the glue set again. Then I simply threaded thick gold ribbon through the metal frame of the wreath and tied the top of the ribbon in a bow. Now it's ready to hang on a mirror or door!

 

 
 
A few lessons learned and ideas...
- First, I needed WAY more bulbs then I had initially guessed. I recommend buying more than you think you need and returning leftovers if there are any.
- The evergreen wreath provided a lot of "surfaces" to glue the ornaments onto. I'm not confident it would work as well, but you could attempt this using a styrofoam, tinsel, or wooden wreath. 
- I chose to keep my wreath green but next time would consider spray-painting it beforehand to match my ornaments.
- This wreath could be done on a budget by purchasing cheap ornaments (such as from a dollar store) or even by using those old ornaments that are just taking up space in your basement.
- And lastly, this wreath would look fabulous on a front door, made with shatterproof ornaments.
 
My new wreath is now hanging on the mirror above our sofa in the living room. I love it so much, I don't think I can bear to take it down. I guess my hubby will just have to deal with the early Christmas decoration!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas

Yes, we're in the middle of my favorite season and it was a gorgeous fall day today... But I can't help it! I can't stop thinking about a white Christmas!

We're putting up a white Christmas tree this year and I am so inspired...
 
(nyclq)

 
(eHow) 

 
(GertrudK)

And since we're doing a white tree, I would love to do a white and metallic theme with all our Christmas decorations!
 
(CelebrateDesign)

 
(SophieRoseDesigns)

 
(Crate & Barrel)
 
 
(The White Company via Apartment Therapy)

 
(nyclq)

Oh so lovely! I'm still on the hunt for mercury glass ornaments and candle holders, apothecary jars, glittered pine cones, white stockings, and fake snow to fill vases. When can I start decorating??

homemade fall decor

There is something about the crisp fall weather that inspires me to focus on warming up the house with seasonal touches. Normally I put out store-bought decorations, but this year a challenge at the Paper Posies site inspired me to make these items with their October 2009 kit.

 
The pumpkin garland is an idea from Lisa Dickinson and I thought it was too cute not to make! The patterned paper is adhered to pumpkin-shaped chipboard, then embellished and strung onto burlap cord. 


And this paper wreath is now decorating our kitchen. For this project I free-hand cut about 50 leaf shapes from patterned paper, rolled them a bit, and attached them to a styrofoam wreath with Zots. A glue gun would probably offer better adherence if you have one. Lastly, I just added some flowers and a burlap cord to hang from the top. 

Love having reminders of fall in my home!