Christmas!

Yeah, pretty much gave up posting these past 2 weeks! We'll be back though next week!
Merry Christmas!

What's black and white and red all over?

My house! (what?) Yeah some how I ended up with a black, white and red Christmas! It wasn't on purpose I just kind of started decorating and that's what became of it. Check out some pics below!


My mantel. I really was determined not to spend a dime on Christmas decorations because we're not even going to be here for Christmas and I have enough as it is really. Frames I had in my basement that I spray painted.














I have a ton of Christmas story books we've been given over the years. This is one of my favorite. It was given to us by Jordan's grandmas who passed away this year, so I wanted to put it on display. It has silhouettes that pop up. The detail is so intricate and pretty.

Topiary Tree

Here's a look at my twirly topiary tree dressed up for Christmas.

I tied up a couple of bows for the top out of some of last years ribbon.

Some of my favorite ornaments are these psychedelic Reindeer I got at Poppy's Home Decor in Phoenix a few years back.

Then I added some red jewel ornaments  (Taipan, I think) and green balls came from Wally World.  Then I added in a few glittery snowflakes and green glitzy stuff, and that's a wrap!

Christmas Colors

I couldn't wait to start decorating for Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving we started getting everything out.  Here's one view of my pink/green/gold christmas tree.  After raising his eyebrows at my newly spray painted pink ornaments, my husband commented, "at least these were cheap."  I thought I got off the hook fairly easily, however, I did allow myself to buy one $5 pkg of 12 pink glittery ornaments, and when he saw that and some gold beaded garland and pink beaded necklaces I got in the wedding section of Michael's, he did decide to voice his opinion that Christmas colors are RED and GREEN, and he was so annoyed glad the tree looks even more feminine than before! LOL!  

He is a good sport.  I love it.

  

Most of the bottom of the tree is bare, due to a tiny little boy who likes to bang make music with  ornaments:-)  It's hard to tell in the photo, but yes, I let the kids put their little ornaments they make at school and church on the tree.  Sticking to my frugalista ways, my tree isn't by a window, so  I didn't bother spending $$ decorating the back of the tree. 

 Even though I banished red ornaments from the main tree, my favorite Santa fit right in.

Are you changing up your tree this year, or are you lucky to have a special tree that you love already?   Up later will be my mini tree that's in my entryway-with the more traditional vibe:-)

Oh,Christmas tree?

Hi there! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was delicious and I still feel full (and yet that hasn't stopped me from eating!)
So I've been so busy cleaning up Thanksgiving and getting out Christmas that I totally forgot to post yesterday. I remembered at about 11 pm when I was climbing into bed and there was no way I was going to climb back out!
I haven't really been in the Christmas creative mood,(GASP!) I had no idea what or how I was going to decorate. I pulled out my stuff and just started going.....



Somehow I ended up with a polka dot/bird theme on my tree(s), I don't know quite yet what to make of it.


I had some "blank" ornaments so I added my own polkdots by using craft acrylic paint in white....


And using the round end of one of those pointy dowels that come in batting. You could use anything round.


HAhaha! Well there you go, so random!


It's a stand of 3 Alpine trees. This is one side.


This is the other.


Here's a fun sign I hang on one of the trunks.


Here it is completed( don't you love the cord, I have tucked it behind the trunk now so you can't see it)
Don't be surprised if this is all you see of Christmas from me.....well I do still have the mantel above my fireplace but we all know how much I love doing those!
Bye for now!

Have Yourself A... Merry Little Christmas

I've been away from posting since the weather last week was an amazing 65 degrees!! I've been busy trying to put together a puzzle of these outside.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like your house all lit up at night. This will be our 2nd year with Christmas lights and I'm trying to add a little bit each year.  How is your holiday decorating going? Lights or no lights?

An early start...

Somewhere in blogland I came across this tree.  I love the color scheme. 

My tree last year was nice.... but I'm more than a little tired of the red color scheme I had going on.   I looked at Wally World and their glass ornaments are $4 for a pack of 4 big glass ball ornaments, or $15 for a bunch of small ones.  I guess they're not terribly expensive, but that would be AT LEAST $19 if I ONLY got 2 packs. Certainly not enough to fill up my 9 ft tree.  

So I decided to do a little recycling, with this: 

and lots of these from my basement:

I left the gold ones alone, but after I sprayed the light and dark red ornaments, I was quite pleased and surprised with the results.

I love that the dark red ones turned out light purple, so I only did a light coat on those.  I did 2 coats on the light red to make them very pink.  They dried really quickly too, I only waited 5 min in between coats, long enough to roll them over and make sure the whole thing was painted.  

Then there were these 2 emerald green ornaments I never liked, but I'm glad I didn't throw them away last year.

And you, Hawaiian Santa,

you're perfect just the way you are...

Total Cost: $4.34 for spray paint.

This is just the first of many ideas for my tree this year.  I'm glad I was able to get them painted before the hustle and bustle of the holidays gets in full swing.   I'll be working on a few Christmas projects before Thanksgiving, so I can actually enjoy them and be ready to bust out the decorations December 1st!