Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Decorations 2011 - Part One

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Bunco was so much fun last night and I got the final touches of decorating completed just in time.  I've been wanting to post pictures of my decorations, so today I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.  This will hopefully be a teaser so you'll come back and see the rest of the pictures I'll share. LOL

I do a lot of decorating for Christmas.  My husband has said he thinks our house looks its best at Christmas because I do so much.  It makes us all happy and makes our home feel welcoming.  It has made my heart happy to see my kids get excited about the decorations.  And sometimes a bit frustrated when they want to go behind mommy and redecorate.  But I'm trying to take it all in stride and I've learned to give them their own tree to decorate, and to set up a kids table that has things they can touch and move around.

So the first picture I wanted to show is the garland I have on the rail when you first walk in.  We have an open foyer.  A few years ago I bought gold Christmas lights at Kmart, the Martha Stewart lights.  So I have those in the garland. On a side note, I went to Kmart yesterday and I guess they aren't selling Martha Stewart anymore.  Bummer.  Now somewhere in the back of my mind I'm remember something about her having it out with Kmart a few year ago, but I obviously didn't remember that yesterday.  But I digress.

The big star in the picture below I just got at the craft show I attended the first of December.  The booth where I bought it had beautiful decorations and they were very reasonable.  I couldn't believe it, but the big star was only $12.  I really thought it would have been over $20.  I also got one small star that matches it.  It is an ornament on a tree in my dining room. I kicked myself after the craft show and wished I'd purchased more of the small ones.  They would have looked really great on garland too.  But I already have gold, shiny snowflakes on the garland, so I did have some bling.  I purchased those at Target.  They sell them every year and they come in different colors.  They have about 6 together and they are a dollar. I've found them to be a great, inexpensive way to add sparkle to your tree or garland. 


The next picture I wanted to share is my dining room table.  Because everything else in my decorating is bright, blingy, and flashy, I like to keep a very simple table scape.  Because my dining room table isn't huge, I find that doing a long arrangement is better than a wide.  That way I can still use my table for entertaining.   The two candle sticks that are on the far outsides of my display came in a kit and I got them for free last year when I purchased some things from Ulta.  I like how they are clear and chunky.  The other two glass pieces, the small hurricane and they taper candle stick are older Southern Living at Home pieces. I used to sell that and so those were some favorite pieces I had.  The greenery is real and are pieces from the bottom of our Christmas tree.  Every year my husband has to cut off some of the bottom branches to get it to fit in the stand, so I use the "scraps" in decorating. 

The two center pieces have real cranberries in them.  And as you can see I place a tea light on top of the cranberries.  On the table mixed in with the greenery I have some red Christmas ball picks.  They are so easy to tuck in the greenery.  I had some bits of ribbon left over, so I got some floral wire picks and wired the ribbon on them the sticks so I could tuck them in the greenery. 



If you don't have a large budget, you can still go from drab to fab. You can easily put something together for under $10 or even $20.   If you don't own any clear glass pieces, two places I'd recommend checking are Dollar Tree and Wal Mart.  They have very reasonably priced clear candle holders, hurricanes, and vases.  Cranberries, limes, lemons, and even nuts and dried beans (red and green) can look wonderful filling a glass container.  I've seen pretty martini glasses at Dollar Tree that would be perfect for filling with berries and tea lights, just as I did with my hurricane pictured above.

My final picture to share with you today is how I used  plant stand to display three faux chocolate Santas.  My plant stand is a tall pedestal and was a perfect way to decorate the corner of the dining room.  I'm also not using it for a plant right now, so that helped. LOL


I hope you've enjoyed seeing a peek at some of my Christmas decorations. I plan on doing another post to show you more.  Let me say that there will be lots of sparkly ribbon, and especially that mesh wire ribbon that has been all over Pinterest.  Hint, Hint. LOL

I hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.   And take time to slow down and enjoy the wonder that is the Christmas season.

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