House at Christmas!

Finally had a good rainy day to get some pictures of my house at Christmas! I will try to get some pictures of the outside up in the next couple of days. Sorry some of the pics are blurry and a ton are crooked - argh!

Starting with the tree... I used red, silver, and gold this year, with some bits of red geomesh and gold and silver willow stuck in random places.  I didn't do a topper this year and I really kinda like it without one...

The mantel was kept pretty simple since we have the TV above it.  I ordered matching stockings from Pottery Barn.  They have the best selection and the quality is really nice.

I kept the coffee table simple this year to and I love it!  Sometimes the simplest things are the best.  I found this bowl in the clearance section at TJ Maxx for $7 and I spray painted it brushed nickel.  Some red berry sprigs, a little greenery, and a candle and centerpiece is done!

I put mostly gold in the dining room since I had a lot of gold berries and needed somewhere to put them!

 The candle holder were a dollar store craft, each one cost $2 to make and I made them a while back when the idea was floating around blogland...

Sprigs of greenery on sale at Michaels, dollar store balls, TJ Maxx placemats, WalMart chargers, and Christmas plates from my mom...  Sorry for some of the blurry pictures!

I found this sign for $20 and I thought it was a splurge but I love it!

Next year we will probably get a tree for the foyer but this year I didn't want to have to buy any new decorations so the hutch got a Christmas makeover.  The tree on the landing was given to me by my mother-in-law a long time ago - back when Martha Stewart had her line at K-Mart.  Martha, please come back to K-Mart! 

My nativity set...

Another little table vignette.  Those pictures above are $4 Wal-Mart frames with pictures I printed out from Vintage Printable.  I love that site!  They aren't part of the Christmas decorations but I thought I'd share!

Another table...

And the kitchen.  I finally made some roman shades for the windows using mini blinds and two shower curtains from Wal-Mart.  The fabric is the perfect robin's egg blue to match the chairs in my living room...

Some berry sprigs and more of those dollar store hurricane vases, a few jars filled with balls and one with cookies, and of course you have to decorate around the beloved Keurig machine!

That's the inside of my house this Christmas! I have had a ball decorating and next year I am going to have a tree for my son and hopefully one in the foyer, but for this year, simple works for us!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Sara

Linking up to The Nester's Tour of Homes! 

Cute, Cheap, and Easy Halloween Decorations

So, one of my friends and I have started getting together on Wednesday mornings to craft and pretend we are Martha Stewart while our kids play together for a few hours.  It's a win-win, because we are enjoying the playgroup time as much as the kids!  Anyhow, this week we made a few framed Halloween decorations and we did it on a dime.  Here are some pics of the final product and then I will give a super easy how-to and supplies list...it really doesn't get any easier than this, people...

How cute are these?! The templates for the witch and frankenstein are from the bhg website.  Click HERE for the link.

The owl picture in the middle is from The Graphics Fairy - love that site!  The additional image gives us a little color in the middle to brighten things up!

The frames are from the dollar store and the silhouettes were cut out on black construction paper we already had.  The project calls for cardstock but we thought the paper turned out just fine!

All we had to do was print out the silhouette templates on cardstock, and trace onto our black paper...

Cut'em out carefully and stick to a piece of white cardstock, insert in the frames and you are good to go!  The owl image was just printed out and put right in the frame.  Brainless, I tell you!  Cute, classy, and cheap Halloween decorations for anywhere in your house!

I decided to display mine on the bookcase in my kitchen...

Total cost for all three projects - around $4.00!

Stupid camera glare! I guess you don't really need to glass but you don't really notice the glare except for in the pictures...

Participating in...


Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Thanks for stopping by!


Sara

After Christmas Decorating...

Well, the Christmas decorations are down at my house and everything has been deep-cleaned. We are moving into our new house in a couple of months so I am struggling with whether or not to pull out a lot of decorative accessories or keep things to a minimum, since I will have to pack it up again anyway!

My mom and I were talking over Christmas about how this time of year can be kind of hard for decorating. She wants to keep it looking wintery in her house without it looking like Christmas. Anyone have any good, simple, winter decorating ideas that aren't cheesy looking?

On another note, I think I am going to tackle a small bookcase for my son's room this week and a hutch that was rescued from my in-laws old beach house that was destroyed in a hurricane. That hutch needs A LOT of work...pics to come!!!

Sara's House at Christmas!

You've seen my mom's house at Christmas here, so now it is time to take a look at my Christmas decorations! Since my living and dining areas are one room there are not quite as many rooms to decorate and our house is small, so here goes...

First we will start in the kitchen...The sink and a small part of the counter were really the only spots to decorate in here, because we have very little counterspace in our galley kitchen! The ornament hanging from the mirror over the sink says "hope" and I found it at Wal-Mart for $1! I found another one that says "peace" and I hung it in front of another mirror that you will see shortly- I think they are so cute!

Now, into the living room...

I now see that the swags above my entries are soooo not level...nice...

The "Peace" ornament is hanging in front of the mirror above...

We don't have a mantle so I had to get creative and hang our stockings from the console table by the tree...
Now the dining table and foyer...


This is the mirror on the wall above the dining table - for the life of me I couldn't get a good picture without the flash so it looks awful in this pic!



So, in a nutshell that is it. Next year in our new house there will be a lot more to decorate and I will have more than one tree! I can't wait! Hope you enjoyed the tour!


I am linking this post to all of the same parties that my mom's post is linked to... click here and you can see all of the linky parties we are a part of at the bottom of that post!

Sara