Small Valentine's Day Tree

I set-up a Valentine's Day Tree this year using my 18" silver tinsel tree. This is the first time I've added pink, and I ♥ it:@) I've been gathering ornaments and items for years, from stores, on-line and thrifting. The angel candle hugger up top was from a flea market, my G-Mom-B had some when I was a kid. Once again big shout-out to Dollar Tree, they had a good selection of ornaments and craft items for tree decorating this year: The scrolled glitter heart topper, red glitter balls, wooden love cut-outs, I used a set of 4 necklaces as my garland, heart ornaments, and if you want to do a little minimal crafting...

The blingy red rhinestone hearts are actually party favor rings. I used wire cutters to cut the ring part off, glued a string of pearls around the silver part on some, and added a ribbon for hanging. Looks like I made these back in 2016 here:@)

Mini snowflake tree skirt =Walmart, 

after Christmas clearance years ago.

💕Have a Happy Day:@)

Vintage Santa Ornament-Thrift Store Rescue & 2023 Christmas Tree

I wanted to share this year's favorite thrift store find... This o~l~d Santa ornament! Goodwill had bags of assorted balls on the shelves. He was just tossed into a bag and luckily, still in good shape (for his age) patiently waiting for me:@) I left half the balls there for them to re-sell, and in addition to Santa brought home four more balls for the tree, and...

Eight mini glass ornaments for a 4th of July tree!

This was a fun find indeed:@)

My Christmas tree this year:

The Dollar Tree Spirals are the star:@)

Too much egg nog???

I hope your holiday includes a fun surprise too!

Have a great day:@)

Dollar Tree: Large Glitter Swirl Ornaments, Inflatable Yard Decoration Tip & Leftover Candy Recipes

Even though I'm only using a 3' Christmas tree these days, I still love to look for ornaments:@) Big bold swirls add some sparkle, sass and whimsy to a tree. I stopped in my tracks when I saw these glittered beauties at Dollar Tree. The glittered part is about 6" long, each curl at the end is about 2", and the best part, they are on wire so you can bend and shape them. Right now I kept them flat for easy storage. They come in gold, silver, champagne, and a rose gold. 

I just tucked them into my faux cedar bush outside for a quick pic:@)

I wanted to share a tip that might help keep the tether lines for inflatable yard ornaments a little more manageable for storage. I roll the line up onto the stake and then secure it with a twist tie. Yep, like the ones that come with bread or trash bags...

Neat, easy to roll and unroll, 

and nice and easy...

Whether it's Halloween or Christmas that only comes out once a year, or your favorite team that comes out once a week:@)

And I'm guessing we might have a little leftover candy soon, here are two yummy ideas to help use it up:

Chocolate Candy Bar Fondue

Snickers Apple Salad or Dessert

Have a Great Weekend:@)

The Winter Tree -Bird and Pinecone Ornaments

Since I bought a smaller tree, I decided to save my clip on bird ornaments, glass pinecones, and other somewhat nature inspired ornaments to set up a Winter Tree after Christmas this year. These pictures were from when I first set it up, since then I've picked up several more things on 50-75% clearance. The most notable, a very large, 12" white glittered snowflake to use as the topper, replacing the metal snowflake. Ornaments have been gathered through the years, some collectable, some vintage, some inexpensive-but cute:@)

I chose to push the white garland more into the branches,

hoping to mimic a bit of snow.

I didn't use all of my birds,

was aiming for a red, gold and white theme...

But then I found the vintage

blue and white wrapped snowflake ornaments at the thrift store...

Over the weekend Walmart had the blue and silver ornaments with deer scenes, 

yep, have since added them too:@)

Just a little something to add a little light and warmth

to the next month or so of cold weather!

Do what makes you smile and

Have a Happy Day:@)

Christmas prep, the tree...

I wanted to pop in to say things have been a little slow in the Pig In Mud kitchen recently, but we should be back soon! I've been taking some time to get ready for Christmas... Yep, yet another new tree this year, I just wasn't happy with last year's. This is a 3' Valerie Parr Hill tree from QVC, still a little wonky, but a better size for me now. Even though small, I can still load it up with ornaments, and that's important to me:@) New, vintage, thrift store and flea market finds, gifted treasures, sale items, just gotta have its, and... My G-Mom-B's extra large ornaments from Germany. This tree makes me smile!

The little fisherman Santa actually reels in the fish!

His arm goes around in a circle as the fish lowers and gets reeled in:@)

He's at least 30 years old from Strawbridge's.

I hope you are enjoying early holiday prep too🎅

Have a happy day!

Philadelphia Phillies World Series Ornament -DIY & Barbie Carves Pumpkin

It's been a while since I've posted an update on my year-round sports tree in the livingroom, but I continue to add ornaments as I find them or make them:@) And you may have heard... The Phillies made it to the World Series this year!!! Philadelphia is thrilled beyond belief, and is enjoying every nerve wracking/finger nail biting/Mylanta moment. So I wanted to make an ornament to commemorate the occasion, and decided to use the unofficial theme song...

Dancing On My Own

The Dollar Tree ornament I started with:

She has a place of prominence in the middle of the tree,

on the window side so she shines with the daylight:@)

LET'S GO PHILLIES!!!!!!

And if you're in the mood for a little Halloween fun,

Barbie and Ken are carving the pumpkin:@)

The great cup of hot chocolate is actually the topper from a jar of sprinkles at Walmart, it popped right off:@)

🎃⚾Have a happy weekend:@)

C7 or C9 Christmas Bulb Team Ornament and 2019 Philadelphia Eagles Tree

I wanted to share an easily personalized and fun ornament idea for gifting or for your own tree. I recycled some old C9 twist in Christmas bulbs and embellished them with an Eagles logo (temporary tattoo from Walmart) and sticky backed green gems from Michaels. Choose any team or cartoon character that's a favorite. You could decoupage fabric or an advertisement that comes in the mail onto the bulb too. I want to dig a few more bulbs out and paint stripes on them and add some glitter:@)

My easy blingy Eagles ornament:

My inspiration was a few Phillies ornaments I found at the thrift store. 

They were at Walmart a couple years ago.

While this season hasn't been quite as... inspiring... as hoped...

We do still cheer our team on here at Pig In Mud!

My 2019 Philadelphia Eagles tree:

Have you seen the sets of 5 textured balls at Dollar Tree? Love them!

(Green swirl lower right and quilted silver a little below it.)

My new crafted bulb ornament towards the left.

Go Birds!!!

Happy Holiday Crafting Everyone-Have Fun:@)

4th of July Tree -2019 and Butterfly Wings for Barbie

I took a few quick pics of my 4th of July Tree for this year. I used the 28" tinsel tree and some Dollar Tree red, white and blue garland. The drums are Christmas ornaments from Macy's ~many~ years ago. Flag balls are a thrift store find and I made several bead and safety pin ornaments for the summer holidays. Glitter words and skinny firecracker ornaments were purchased from Ebay. Enjoy:@)

Here's a fun idea...

I saw some really cute 4th of July butterfly wings for kids at Dollar Tree, then I saw some butterfly clips that were intended to be holiday decor... And I thought, why not get some wings for your girl ~and~ add a matching set for her Barbie! You could clip the wings to the back of Barbie's shirt, tape them on, or sew them on, anything goes.

Cute, cute, cute!

The butterfly clip, there are several designs:

And the adorable wings for kids-love them!

Show your colors and have a happy day:@)

Christmas Clearance Finds and Ideas

While I might pick up some wrapping paper and a couple new strings of lights, I find that the best part of after Christmas clearance sales is trying to find items that can be used in different ways. I'm always looking for decorations and ornaments that would work for other holidays or occasions. I also love to buy sprinkles and cake/cookie decorations at a great price. Here are some fun ideas, a couple things I got for 75% off and some pictures I took at the store to share:@)

I enjoy twinkle lights in my kitchen window all year round. 

I'll add a garland of flowers in summer, leaves in fall, and will use different tinsel garlands for different holidays too.

Lovin' the bold colors of these two substantial garlands $1.22. Red for Valentine's Day.

And this multi-colored one is great! A bright punch of color for drab winter days? Cinco de Mayo?  Birthday parties?

These Hershey Kisses are 50¢. 

You could use the red and silver for Valentine's Day and the green for St. Patrick's Day. 

My Hershey Kiss Shamrocks can be found HERE.

There's a lot of winter left... 

I love these snowflake decorations, perfect to help make a snow day even more fun!

These little acrylic trees will be fun with the snowmen I bring out for winter, 49¢.

I grabbed this little flamingo for my tiered tray centerpiece this summer... 

Stay tuned:@) 

And of course I'm always looking for Barbie ideas and props.

I saw these earrings back in November when Walmart put them out and thought "if they're still there"...

Now I have two 2 1/4" Christmas wreaths for pictures and dioramas for 75¢. 

(Or I can use them for crafting.)

And I'm sure Barbie will be excited about this magnum size bottle of wine:@)
It reads: Warning, may cause holiday cheer!

I hope the sales are treating you well too!

Have a happy day:@)

Philadelphia Eagles Tree 2018

It's finally here! The NFL football season officially starts tonight, fluff the couch pillows, get your munchies ready and chill... um... the beverage of your choice:@) We really don't know how to act here in Philly, this is our first time as returning Super Bowl Champions... But we'll do our best! Thought I'd share my Eagles Tree today, I used the little 24" tinsel tree this year. I have my celebration ornament as the topper and ~really~ want to add a sticky note over the i, changing my "win" ornament to "won"!

We've been on Wentz Watch but will have to wait a few more weeks before he plays.

Links to: 

Wentz Wagon embellished ornament, Underdogs ornament, Spoolie from newspaper ad ornament, 

NFL Elf on a Shelf and Embellished Jersey ornament.

During the playoffs last year, I did treat myself to this cute little guy sitting on an old Kelly Green helmet.

A fun $6  Ebay find from (I think) the early 1990's.

Note to the NFL: Kelly Green is very near and dear to our hearts... 

Let's use it for a throwback uniform soon please.

Happy Football Season Everyone... Let the Games Begin:@)