Christmas Re-cap

Warning! Picture-heavy post ahead.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I sure did. We started out by heading to my grandfather's house on Christmas Eve in the morning and spending time with my mom's side of the family.

They have 2 cats and one of them is pregnant. It was so cute and McKenna loves animals so she had to hold it. =)

We all went to eat lunch, which kind of turned into a fiasco. Originally, we were headed to a steakhouse, but upon arriving discovered that it was closed so we called everyone to go to another restaurant that we didn't actually end up going to. We finally ended up outside Ruby Tuesday wondering if it was open since there were a thousand cars at the Cracker Barrel next door and 2 at Ruby Tuesday's. After checking the doors and finding out that they were open we went in and got a table and then saw that all the waitresses were wearing tacky Christmas sweaters so that was fun to see.

After getting back we opened presents and I had to take a picture with my sisters, of course.

We then headed back to my mother's house to see my father's side of the family, including our little cousin.

McKenna had a fun time playing with him and teaching him a new game. =)

After hanging out with them for a while we went to our church's Christmas Eve candlelit service and then back to my mom's for taco night! Which I think will be a tradition now because we did that last year too.

I got a great gift, a new camera! Ahh! Yes! That is really what it was!

Please excuse all the crap on the floor - that's my post gift-wrapping mess that I neglected to clean up. Just keepin' it real. The important thing here is to look at the awesome camera box.

I went by my mom's house afterward to drop off something for McKenna and I took that chance to take some pictures with the new camera.

I love my mom's red and green tree!

I also love my sweet little sister. =)

It was definitely a most wonderful Christmas weekend. I had a fabulous weekend with friends and it was great to slow down and take some time to remember why we celebrate this time of year.

Guest Posting

Happy Friday all!

I'm guest posting today over at The Snugly Duckling for Kara's 25 days of crafts! So pop over to Kara's blog and you can see how I made this:

 

and this:

Check it out!

Christmas Gifts

After completing a yarn wreath for myself back in October and discovering how easy it was, I decided that I wanted to make one for my grandfather's wife for Christmas (It also didn't hurt that they had a BOGO on wreaths at Joann's). She enjoys crafting herself so I thought she would appreciate one, especially since I chose to make it Alabama themed. My grandfather and his wife are huge Bama fans so I think they will both be happy to have it.

Since Bama's colors are crimson and white, that's what I chose to wrap the wreath with. After wrapping for quite some time this is what I had:

Of course I had to add the iconic Alabama A to the wreath and I think I get bonus points because I made the A out of houndstooth felt! How Alabama is that? If you don't live in Alabama, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but just trust me. =)

I also added these felt flowers that I made after reading a how Brittani made fabric flowers over at Birdie Branching Out.

It was really fun to make and I hope it's something my grandpa and his wife will be able to enjoy for many years to come.

Fa La La La La

Can I just say how incredibly hard it is to take a picture of a Christmas tree? Or is it just me? I took about 10 pictures in a row and all of them were blurry.

These are the ones that actually turned out:

 Me thinks I need a new camera.

As you can see, our color scheme is quite colorful. I bought these Christmas decorations before I even went house hunting because I bought them after Christmas when they were all on clearance. I got some amazing deals and I really do like all the colors. I'm generally a blue and green kind of girl, but these colors are really fun too.

As far as other decorations go, I have also added some ornaments to our bookshelf.

And I added this framed snowflake.

Sooo... not much decorating, but I'm enjoying what little we do have. I love having the tree lit up at night. If only I could take some better pictures of it. Does anyone have any tree photographing tips? =)

Packing it Away

I finally found the strength to put away the Christmas tree and such. It was my first Christmas in this house and so it was super hard to get rid of everything! The tree made the house look so cozy, but alas, it was time. I had bought these green bins at Target a few weeks back and I used the under-the-bed size to pack away most of the Christmas decor.

 I just took the ornaments off, removed their hooks and then placed them into the bin.

Then I took off the lights and wrapped them up then they went in as well. I separated some of the ornaments into plastic bags since I used them for other decor in the house.

I also have a bag for extra lights and a bag for ornament hooks.

So there it is all packed up. Sad to see it go, but glad it's all packed away so nicely.

More Christmas Decor

Here's more of what's going on in my beloved casa in honor of Christmas.

I put out this little guy. He doesn't have a name yet. My grandfather got married earlier this year and his new wife made this for me out of beads and paper clips! He's pretty cute.

 Maybe I should call him Frosty...

 I wanted to do something to decorate the stairwell, but I wanted it to be unique. I had some of these little snowflakes leftover from the tree so I thought I would see how they looked on the banisters.

I just untied them and then re-tied them on the banisters and I thought they looked pretty cute.

Festive stairwell!

Festive stairwell from farther away. Ooh. Aah.

Another thing I did was change out my frame. During October I had this little setup going on one of the bookshelves. At Michaels they were having a half off sale of frames and looking in the 8x10 section I found a two pack of the following frame. It was regular priced at $12 so I thought hey $6 is a great deal for that so I snatched them up. When I got the register the two-pack was 2.50(!!!!!!!!). How does that even happen? I got this Halloween scrapbook paper and fit it inside and added my little pumpkin and some candy corn. Halloween ready!

For November I had a fall (and orange?) theme happening. 

And now for winter I have changed it out to this.

It's been so fun decorating the house and getting it ready for Christmas. Can't wait to add some more!

My First Wreath Attempt!

Ok, so here's how it went down. I wanted a wreath, but had no idea what kind... Well, I went to Michael's one day and outside they had a clearance pile of wreaths!!! How does that happen!! They were plain old artificial wreaths, but I was pleased and I snagged one for $2. I was hoping to attach some ornaments to it and maybe some ribbon. I picked up some clearance ornaments in green and white and called it a day.

I didn't have a way to get it on the door, so I ended up going to Walmart looking for a wreath hanger and found 1 silver one among all the gold ones (gold is not my thing) and it was only $2. Can't beat that with a stick! (What does that mean anyway?) So I finally was able to hang up the wreath and Christmas-ify the front door. =]

I love how it turned out and of course, I had to use green (my favorite color).

I love seeing that wreath when I come in after work each day. It makes me happy. Has anyone else made their own wreath? How did you do it?

The Halls are Mostly Decked

I have been decorating the house for my first Christmas in this house and it's been a lot of fun. The thing I've been particularly excited about is the tree. I almost put it up before Thanksgiving, but I managed to hold back.... Here's the deal. I went out a few days after Christmas last year searching high and low for good prices on Christmas items. I was still living with my mom and so I had no Christmas items at all. I was starting from scratch and I wanted a deal!

Enter Target. I got my Christmas tree there on clearance for $30. I'll take it. Well, as you would expect it was not that awesome, but it did the trick.

The tree skirt was on clearance for $5. I think I got it from Hobby Lobby. So, I put the tree up and then my good friend Matt informed me that his mom and step-dad had given him a new, pre-lit Christmas tree so he was getting rid of his old one. He wanted to know if I would like it. You don't have to ask me twice. I took it and moved the old one upstairs. =] The new-old tree is gorgeous and had such a fun time decorating it! Too bad my pictures didn't come out well.

The star is silver and was on clearance at Wal-Mart last year. The ornaments are all from Target and were on clearance last year as well. I told you -- I needed some deals! I love how the tree turned out though, with all the different colors together.

So excited for Christmas! Yay!

The Holiday Season

Phew! It's been busy busy busy/go go go around here. Thanksgiving was so much fun, but I have a lot of family so it becomes kind of an ordeal to organize everyone/everything. So now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm thinking about Christmas decorations. Let's take a look shall we?

So if I actually had a room like this, this would be pretty cool to do, huh?!

I think it's very festive and beautiful. Subdued, but still beautiful. I could never pull this off at my place, but it sure is nice to look at!

Now this is one totally fits in my house. I loooove that wreath and the way the presents are color coordinated with the decor of the house. The ornaments are a little big for my taste, but the overall feel of the room is what I'm going for in my house.

I'll have all of these lanterns please. How cute!

My house does not look anything like this, but I love this picture! So Christmas-y and cozy. I would love to come in for some hot chocolate! =]

 And this last one, so cozy!

Ah, Christmas. I love this time of year!

All pictures from Google.