holiday home tour 2010

Our holiday decor it's very different from last year. Since I only had a few readers then, I thought I would give another home tour. We love our home at Christmas and hope you do too. 

Welcome to our home. It was built between 1900 and 1910. 

My father-in laws childhood sled. 

I got these giant bells at Tai Pan Trading Co. a few years ago. I bought them after Christmas for under $5 a piece. 

Our entryway. We have a lot of garlands. I've bought them all at yard sales and thrift stores. 

Last year I shared this $3 sled and how I didn't know what to put in it. I love how it looks this year.  I finally decided to paint those boxes.  It's difficult to spray paint outside in cold weather, but worth the results. 

The front room: I collect Santa's, so both the tree and mantel are covered. 

The mantel: you can print your own BELIEVE sign HERE.

I've bought most of my Santa's at the thrift store. 

I love dressing up our original sconces. 

We opened this Santa yesterday, as part of the 12 days of Christmas. The kids can't get enough of him, he plays music while mickey and friends spin around. 

The dinning room. 

Our nativity: We got this from my husbands grandma. I love the simplicity, the bits of gold to make it special and that it was hand made. 

One last thing, I wanted to show this wreath because I made it 6 years ago and didn't think it would last past that first year.  I don't know if a gum drop wreath would last as long, but I've been seriously impressed that this candy wreath has done so well. 

Off to spend another day in front of my sewing machine. I love sewing for Christmas. 

Halloween Rosette Pillow

I have been dying to decorate for Halloween.  It is seriously killing me to read other bloggers post about pulling out there halloween stuff. I wish I could join you all, but I have to wait two more days.  I'm throwing a birthday party for my son here on Saturday and I think it would be a little confusing to have Halloween all over the place.  

Until then I threw together this fun pillow to tide me over. 

It's made from a bright orange corduroy skirt and some scrap black fabric.

Since it's an envelope pillow I was able to cover my normal pillows. 

I love orange and black together.  It really gets me in the halloween spirit. I thought about adding a stem and some leaves to make it a pumpkin.  I decided that I liked this chic version better.  I think it still gives the feeling of a pumpkin without being so literal. 

I was going to give a tutorial in a few days but I just found one that is basically the same. Why reinvent the wheel? Here is the link if you want to make one too. 

I also added a few friends to my wreath.  I made my wreath last year with some leaves form the dollar store.  I was thrilled when I found these crows there today. 

They even have wire already attached. 

I could only find two, but I would love to visit another store and see if I can find more for inside. You have to love the dollar store. 

Wish me luck for the party on Saturday.  I hope I don't turn into the crazy stressed out mom I usually do.

I'm linking to THESE parties.

Love is in the Air

I LOVE Valentines Day. I always have. I especially loved decorating my own Valentines box for school. I've never seen it as a romantic holiday. Instead a time to celebrate LOVE for everyone.

I'm loving my Mantle. Don't you just feel the love.

Something as simple as adding red ribbon to candles effects my mood.

I love these X's and O. I found them in a clearance basket. It was filled with mostly X's and Q's. I guess they aren't common letters. I basically emptied the basket to find an O on the bottom. I got them for something like a dollar each.

I just got these yesterday at WalMart. I don't usually buy stuff like this but they were so cheery and only two dollars for five hearts. I couldn't even buy the glitter for that.

I bought this tree at a thrift store and wasn't ever sure what to hang on it. I came up with this idea last year.

I glued two conversation hearts together with a piece of pink raffia. I've seen lots of cute Valentines trees made of spray painted branches from the yard. This would look cute on one of those too.

Who doesn't think of yummy pink and red candy at Valentines. We prefer the gummy stuff.

For the outside I used one of my left over wreaths to make...

This:

It was super easy and quick. I bent the existing wire frame into a heart shape with all the greens still on. Then I cleared it out a bit by, pulling out some of the greens. I trimmed it with scissors to make the shape more obvious, and spray painted it with some left over burgundy paint. It's too rustic for indoors but I love it on my front porch.

HERE is a list of parties I link to.

I'm also linking to:

Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to our home!

This was my first year making my own wreath. I usually get one from Costco, but a neighbor was kind enough to teach me how to do my own. I've made three, and will hopefully be making a couple more, one for each of the columns on my front porch.

I've decorated my whole house on a tight budget. 90% of my decorations were purchased secondhand, on super-clearance or given to me. I also have an obsession with Santa.

Our tree is covered in Santa ornaments. I've never spent more than a dollar on any of them.

I've covered my mantel with my Santa Collection. I can tell you were each of them came from. Most of them are from local thrift stores.

I like to think I live in the perfect Christmas house. It looks it's best this time of year. There's just something about an old house at Christmas.

I've bought several Garlands at yard sales over the years. I have lots of places to put them.

These are original light fixtures. don't they look pretty dressed up.

This sleigh is one of my favorite yard sale finds, it was only $3. I'm still trying to figure out the perfect thing to put in it.

I also love Santa heads. I have to talk myself out of buying them. I have three, these two are my favorites. I love how the top one is so beat up, It gives it character.

Fall Wreath Redo

I did a redo to my old wreath. I made it about five years ago and have been wanting to do something new for years but didn't want to spend the money on new foliage.

Last week I found these great crepe paper leaves from the Dollar Store. When I saw them I knew instantly what I wanted to do with them. They had three colors so I bought one of each color. They have wires running through the paper so they are perfect for wreath making.

First thing I did was lay out some pieces of paper and traced my wreath so I knew the size.

Then I layed my leaves out on the paper drawing, so I knew how to evenly space the leaves that I had.

After placing a few leaves I could place the wreath down to see if I was placing my leaves at the right distance.

After placing all my leaves I bent the wire to fluff them and make them more life like.

And that's it, super easy. It took me about 20 minutes start to finish and only cost $3.

I hung the wreath using The Nesters tips here.