My Go-To Christmas Decor

Well…it’s finally starting to look like CHRISTMAS up in here! I had forgotten how much I love turning off all the lights and letting just the Christmas lights twinkle. Magic. :)

As I was pulling decor out today, it occurred to me that I use the same formula every year for most of my holiday decorating. I’ve mentioned it before, but I think it’s worth repeating.

I think any home can look Christmas-tastic with three things:

1. Garland/greenery
2. Ornaments/sparkle
3. Natural elements

I used to decorate with mostly holiday-specific things – so that meant I had to take down all the current accessories and replace them with new. Let me tell you, it gets exhausting. :) All the lugging stuff down to the basement, lugging the bins up, lugging them back down, lugging the year-round accessories back UP after the holidays.

Whew. Lots of lugging.

Now I do my best to use what I already have up and Christmasfy it.

Like taking the lemons and limes out of a basket and replacing them with pinecones and ornaments:

Score one for ornaments and natural. ;)

Remember my DIY trough thingy I made for the family room? I used all of the above to make it work for the holidays and I love how it turned out!

My favorite tool this time of year is my wire cutter:

I cut my garland all apart using this baby. I leave some in one piece as a base, then cut individual pieces off different types of greenery to stick in here and there. It makes the end result full and more interesting. (I think.)

Then I add the lights (OK, there should be a No. 4 on that list – lights are a must for sure) and fill in any empty spots with ornaments, sparkly beady stuff and pinecones:

I drilled a hole into the back of the trough so I could put the lights right through it.

NO CORDS ALLOWED.

:)

OK really, not kidding.

I added a sparkly dollar store ornament to the mirror above the TV and called it done:

LOVE. :)

Today I worked on the Goodwill shelves in our kitchen -- again, using what we already have. I stuffed some sparkly red pics in my little pitcher and then some real greenery as well:

Is it sad that one of my very favorite parts of our new backyard is the fact that we had arborvitaes planted, so now I have access to REAL green in our house this time of year?

It makes me positively giddy. I felt like Heidi frolicking around the evergreens out there.

I used little snips of it to fill in some spots, and bigger swags that I just laid on the shelves, along with some sparkly faux greenery (that I cut off of it’s stem).

Sparkly, yes. Natural, yes. Greenery, yes. I tell ya – it works!

Add some ornaments to the mix and I really don’t think you can go wrong:

I LOVE the pop of green of this vintage pedestal from my late father-in-law’s house. The added bonus is I think of him every time I walk by this little vignette. :)

I wanted to keep some fun in the display, so I added a couple dollar tree trees (huh?) from a few years ago:

I love love love how this little mix turned out:

Best part is I already had everything. Boo.yah.

I don’t think you can get more classic than red, green and white. As much as I try to get into different colors for the season, I ALWAYS gravitate back to the classics for most of our decor.

I went the same direction with our (new) mantel – here’s a sneak peek, just cause I’m so giddy about it:

This is why it takes me longer than I hope to decorate for the holidays – it’s not always just pulling an item out of the bins and setting it up. It’s taking different parts of a recipe and making something visually yummy. :)

Trying to use what I have and making it work for holiday decor is a challenge, but I eat it up. It’s WAY more fun to me – it totally gets my decorating mojo going and I love watching it all come together. It’s my thang.

By the way. This is behind the scenes of it all coming together:

I firmly believe there has to be a bit of madness in order to get to the good stuff. :)

So what are your go to’s for decorating for the season? Do we have the same list? What colors do you use in your holiday decor? I’d love to hear!

* Spell check does not recognize “Christmasfy” and “Christmas-tastic.” What is this world coming to?

** I believe I said “sparkly” 58 times.

Nails for the DIYer

Hey hey! How are ya? I’ve FINALLY been pulling out the Christmas decor around here. Being away for Thanksgiving made me feel totally behind – especially since (like every year) I have delusions that I’ll be able to get it ALL out before December 1st.

Ummm…like every year, it’s just not happening. ;)

But I’m taking my time and thoroughly enjoying it. I’ve pulled out a few things here and there, and one of my favorites is ready to go -- the cutie Santa hats are baaaack!:

With Rudolph on the TV in the background – could it be more perfect? :)

You can see how I made them here. It’s been two years and they’ve held up GREAT! The Bub was so excited to see them too – it’s like Christmas officially starts when they come out.

I also finished up the Christmas decor on the new mantel tonight and I am in luuuuurve. Can’t wait to show you it when our holiday parties start next week!:

Thanks so much for the sweet comments on the new fireplace set up by the way. It tickles me pink that some of you felt my pain all these years and are just as excited as I am with the change. ;)

So tonight I’m sharing a little something different – you know I like to share when I find a product that I love, and I just had to do a post about this one. This will probably be the one and only fashion-related post ever at TDC, but I couldn’t resist it!

I’ve mentioned before that I never get my nails done – mostly because it’s just not worth the money for me. I get them painted (I never do the “fill” – is that what it’s called? Just painted.) and then within days (sometimes less than 24 hours), they are destroyed.

Manicures are not the DIYer’s best friend. :)

Until now. Whoo HOO!!

I read about shellac nails at Emily’s site – I think it was a few months ago. I thought they sounded awesome but since I never have mine done, I didn’t try it out till a few weeks ago.

Let. me. tell. you. This stuff is incredible!!

I got my nails done with it and then loved it so much, I did it again before our vacation last week – nine days ago. (Usually I have them done two times in a year – so that tells you how happy I am with this!)

They still look like this:

(I’ve decided my hands just don’t photograph pretty, no matter what.)

I’m not kidding you – this stuff is impossible to mess up. CRAZY awesome. 

I’ve sawed, cleaned, bathed (duh), painted, drilled, scrubbed, scraped…ev.er.y.thing.

They still look brand new.

The only thing that has slightly done anything to them is a few wires sticking out of the garland – they got minor scratches. You honestly can’t even tell though.

As far as I can tell, the only reason to have them redone is because they grow out:

Isn’t that AWESOME?? They price isn’t bad either – just a few bucks more than a standard manicure. (At least at the salon I go to.)

I’m going to wait another week and then have it taken off for a while (they have to soak your nails and then scrape it off, so you I think you have to go into the salon to have it removed).

I’ve heard that the shellac can damage your nails, but with it on, my nails are SUPER strong, especially for the winter. Usually I have issues with them breaking easily in the cold months.

Of course I say that and tonight look what happened:

GAH!! You gotta be kidding me! Funny though – the polish is still perfect. ;) It’s not flaking off at all.

So there you go – if you love pretty nails but love power tools even more (like me) – you finally have a solution! I get to feel like a girl every once in a while now and I’m pretty stoked about that. And they are WAY more economical – at least I figure, considering the polish lasts so much longer.

Have you tried the shellac? Love it, hate it? Did it damage your nails? I’d love to hear!

A fireplace redo!

Hello my peeps!! I hope you had a LOVELY Thanksgiving week!

I’m so glad to be back, but the little blogging break was nice. :) I can’t wait to tell you what we were up to last week – but for now, I am SO psyched about the project that’s been going on around here over the past couple of weeks!

For as long as we’ve lived in this house, I’ve had a thorn in my side…that I may have mentioned one or 437 times.

Our family room set up was part of the issue for a very long time – but I addressed that earlier this year with our new sofa and moving the TV. LOVE it still – probably the best changes I’ve made to our home.

But there was that one thing. That corner thing. The one that drove me batty:

I curse the day I chose that corner fireplace! Shakes fists in air!!

I know it doesn’t look that evil. But it was.

Ahhh…all those years ago, I thought oh yes – let’s do a corner fireplace and be all cool and different and uh...ANNOYING.

I’ve addressed it numerous times – first by adding molding to the top. It started out looking like this:

And then I changed it up a bit later by adding a mirror over the mantel. It was great because it gave it the “feel” of a wall.

But there were still so many things that drove me nuts. I added crown to the room this year, and I had to end it by the molding over the fireplace. I hate the weird stop – but I’ve not found a better way to do it. And I realized a few months ago that part of the reason the fireplace looked weird to me was because it was so top heavy – big on top, little on bottom.

And the corner mantel was really a pain in my patoot to decorate. And I’m all about the decorate:

And even though the top was large and in charge, the whole thing felt too small for this space.

I thought about taking in the chunky molding on top, to make it less top heavy – but then I was going to have to redo that and the crown. Nah thanks.

Then I thought about building a wall above the mantel to close it off (many of you have suggested that). But it would have just made the mantel even smaller.

Then I had THE idea…and it was right in front of my face every night for the past eight years.

Why not try to make a full wall like the one in our bedroom:

Nah DUH.

I’m quick.

But then there was another issue – the firebox couldn’t be moved out to meet up with a new wall. I didn’t know how to make it work (I thought it all had to be flush.)

But then, one glorious day, I walked through a model home (one of my favorite things to do!), and found IT!!

It was a corner fireplace, with a wall. But the firebox was inset quite a bit:

It was a good five inches or so. And I knew I could do the same with our fireplace! (With some help.)

Cue the angels singing. (I almost wrote “angels signing” – which would be OK too.)

I called the handymen who did a ton of the work around here when we had the fridge/floor fiasco. I explained what I wanted to do, showed them pics, then showed them our upstairs fireplace and THEY SAID EASY PEASY SQUEEZY!!

Yesssssssssssssssssss.

So a couple weeks ago we started with this:

Vince (Handyman #1) took the mantel off (it was way easier than I thought it would be) and the trim around the front of the fireplace, then started building a wall:

And what a glorious wall it was. I’ve never been so happy.

(They even added studs between the studs right where I would hang the mirror – no anchors needed!)

Then they drywalled and sanded like mad (which resulted in more dust than we had when the floors were sanded – no joke):

Then they started building the mantel. A REAL mantel people!

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!

They couldn’t go real beefy with the surround because I wanted a DEEP mantel and enough space around the fire box to install tile. So in order to make that work, the sides were a bit thinner, but the molding and mantel were chunkaaaay.

To save on costs I finished the redo from there. You’d think it would be quick, but nah. You know me. :)

I found a beautiful mosaic tile at Lowe’s (I found it months ago and knew I’d use it if this project ever happened). The guys brought me their tile saw to use and it ROCKED! It was so easy to use!

I made the cuts for the side pieces:

And used mastic to apply them around the fireplace:

No mixing required – it was SO easy to use!

I just buttered the wall:

There was a bit of a gap between the firebox and the drywall around it when they pulled off the trim. You can see here that they ended up installing some luan that covers that gap and gave me a good surface for the tile.

Then I buttered the back of the tile:

And stuck it on. It does not take much – I used too much at times and it came out between the tiles. Not hard to clean up, and you just learn as you go. I didn’t have to grout because the tiles were so close – whew!

I LOVE how it turned out!

We went away on vacation last week, and I was chomping at the bit to get this finished up! I worked most of today painting. And painting…

Forgive me for these pics – it was pitch black at 5 p.m. and I was busting booty to get this finished today…but the pictures didn’t start till about 7. :)

After three coats on the wall, four coats on the mantel and surround (it still needs at least one more), reinstalling all of the wainscoting next to the fireplace and then some quarter round at the bottom, I was DONE:

What you don’t see here is the nice little large spot where I put painter’s tape on the wall too soon and had a nice loooong patch where the drywall was exposed. And then had to patch and paint all over again. Hence the 7 p.m. pics. ;)

But I’m pretty much done – finally! I put accessories up there for it’s first photo shoot and I was SO excited at how easy it was to make it look decent and how BIG the mantel is and HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!!!:

:)

The guys used one (really, really thick) piece of molding to beef up the mantel and I love it – its exactly what I was hoping for!:

I still have some touching up and caulking to do, but I was tired of messing with it today. :)

We all stood in front of it last week commenting on how much we liked that it’s inset – it makes it look like it’s been their forever, like something you’d see in an old house:

The one thing Mike (handyguy #2) mentioned later was that he wished he had thought about adding lights underneath that I could dim – what a great idea! Wish I had thought of that. ;)

But honestly I don’t think I could be happier!

I was willing to give up some square footage in the family room – I actually wanted to go out a little further. But the guys didn’t want to take it too far out and now I know that was a good call. Overall the wall comes out about a foot more than it did before.

We don’t even notice it in the least though – it feel like it “fits” in the room SO much better! It really feels like it was always like this!

I have all kinds of ideas running through my head for the wall above the mantel – some kind of molding treatment. But I’m really digging the simple, clean look right now – I don’t know if I’ll even add anything:

It’s so surprising to look at the before and after – the before looks SO busy and overwhelming to me. And now it’s bigger and even more of a statement but it feels simpler and easier:

Oh happy day. :)

So there you go…what I’ve been up to the past couple of weeks. Can’t WAIT to decorate this for Christmas! The guys even moved the outlet (behind the candlesticks) so I can still have my twinkling lights up there.

It took a little help from the professionals (building a wall isn’t in my repertoire, but I’m working on it!), but I was able to fix the thorn in my side. I am so thrilled! Do you have something about your house that drives you crazy? Have you thought of a million and one ways to fix it? ;) Actually done it?

 

**You can see how to make that mossy letter here! And no, it’s not upside down. I promise. :)

Giveaway Weekend!

Well, it’s another Black Friday peeps! And it’s time to celebrate again with another great giveaway from Wuslu.com!

You all know I love a good deal, and Wuslu is chock full of them – every day! They sell one (beautiful) item a day – but when it’s gone, it’s gone! You have to get it while you can and check in often to see what goodies are up.

The pieces are SO unique and different, like shopping a bunch of different stores all in one spot!

I wanted to show you a few of their recent beauties – these dress forms would be a beautiful spot to hang your jewelry:

They’d also be awesome in a vignette on a dresser or in a bookcase! I love their chunky pedestals.

I big fat love this subway art:

How sweet is that for a kid’s space? I have a much smaller version and it’s been in the Bub’s room since he was born. :)

Did I mention shipping is always $5? I didn’t? Well, it is. And it’s awesome.

So many of the items you’ll find at Wuslu have a vintage look, which lends to the one-of-a-kind feel. This wire cart looks like it came from a local antique store:

And this plate stand has a definite Anthropologie feel:

Beautiful!

Let’s talk about these lanterns and how much they look just. like. the Pottery Barn versions:

And only $26! That is CRAZY good!!

These cupcake stands are just precious:

Anything cupcake-related has me at HELLO. You could also put small plates on each one and use them for serving at parties. Or use them to hold candleholders, put a small cloche on each one – they would work anywhere!

Wuslu.com has started a fun tradition recently -- SURPRISE boxes. Twice a year (mid year and around the holidays) they offer these fun boxes for only $19.50 each. The box could contain anything from tables, pillows, lamps, candle holders, lanterns, subway signs, vases to the cutest picture frames and everything in between (some have been daily deals and some haven’t). The Surprise Box offer will start today and go through the weekend. FUN!

Sooo…it’s time for the best part -- the folks at Wuslu.com are giving away $50 for TWO of you to spend as you wish at their site! Whoo!! I’m so excited for (two of) you! ;)

Here’s how to enter the $50 Wuslu giveaway:

1. Leave a comment here. Do you get up early to shop till you drop, or stay in bed (like me)?  :)

2. Visit the Wuslu site here. Check out their history tab and check out their past sales. Come back here to let us know one that you love!

3. Like Wuslu on Facebook here.

OR

Subscribe to their email list here. (You’ll get emails about the daily deals so you don’t miss one!) Come back and leave another comment letting us know which one you did.

**You can enter using one method of entry or all – it’s up to you!

Remember if you comment anonymously or you have a private blog, please include your email address in each entry, and spell it out with “at” and “dot” to avoid any spammy emails coming your way.

This giveaway is only open to US residents! It will be open till this Monday, November 28th at noon EST.

Have a wonderful weekend – it’s the start of the Christmas season, WHOOHOO!!

Thanks to you giveaways

Hello all! How was your weekend? I’ve been working on a fairly big project that I can’t WAIT to show you. It involved some tiling and a tile saw – my first time using one and I must say it was SO easy (and fun?) to use! I will show you the finished product next week.

This week I’m taking the time off to be with my family, so I have something special planned for all you Squeezies. ;) I wanted to give thanks to you all and do something fun – I certainly wouldn’t be here writing this blog and having a blast doing it if it weren’t for all of you. I truly, truly appreciate you, your kind comments and your sweet emails. I’m so grateful to be doing this – my dream job!

To thank you, this week I’ll be posting a few giveaways – the last of the year – throughout the week. There will be a few a day through Wednesday and then one on Friday (from one of my favorites). So check back often to see what free stuff YOU could win! It’s going to RULE. ;)

First, I need to announce a few winners from recent giveaways. I have emailed those who won the Dave Ramsey books and packets, so check your email if you haven't yet! I was overwhelmed by the response – more than 1,200 of you responded and I SO WISH I could get something to each and every one of you. 

The other winners are:

Tomboy Tools giveaway winner -- Sherri at sherri_51(at)hotmail(dot)com

EvgieNev giveaway winner -- Liz at airforcewife624(at)hotmail(dot).com

Ladies, please email me and I’ll get you in touch with your winnings!

(I have condensed all of the Thanksgiving week giveaways into one post – check them all out below!)

OK, onto our first (fabulous!) giveaway – the lovely folks at Kirkland’s contacted me offering to give one of you something and of course I said YES PLEASE!

They have a new line of AWESOME lamps, here are a few of my favorites:

 

Aren’t they beautiful? And all under $50 – including the shade!

They sent me the Beehive Table lamp you saw back in this post:

It was crazy how that worked out – I was looking for just the right one for that spot, even spray painted a couple I already had, and nothing was looking right. Then this arrived and it’s perfect! :) I LOVE it.

The Kirkland’s folks are giving away $50 for one of you to spend as you wish at their store (now available online!).

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This time I’m showing off one of my advertisers, Dimples and Dandelions:

They carry some of the cutest, most beautiful items for babies and kiddos – but some of their items (like their lighting) could be used in any room in your home.

Because it drives me batty that it’s like pulling teeth to find truly cute boy clothes, I had to show off these Christmas tees:

Aren’t they adorable?!

And of course, they have an amazing selection of baby and girl clothing, art, furniture, rugs and the most adorable bedding options:

Love it!

The Dimples and Dandelions folks are giving away $100 for one of you to spend as you wish at their store!

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I’m VERY excited to announce that I’m giving one of you a ticket to the Haven Conference next summer!:

Whoohoo!! We are so thrilled to meet so many of you! The conference is open to both DIYers and bloggers alike, so if you don’t win, I hope you can still join us!

The conference ticket is a $199 value – can’t wait to see who wins!

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A few weeks ago the folks at Old Time Pottery contacted me to let me know about their latest promotion. Now through December 15, they are offering five lucky customers a $1,000 gift card to use at OTP – go here for more info.

And then they wanted to give something to one of you. So I said, well…Okaaaaay. If you must. ;)

I took a trip there myself (it had been a while since my last trip) and found some AWESOME goodies:

Do you recognize that fabric? For only $5 a yard? GAH! You are kidding me!

I love this place – it’s crazy HUGE and the selection is fantastic!

The Old Time Pottery peeps are giving away $50 for one of you to spend as you wish at their store!

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The peeps at MirrorMate have an awesome product that is SO easy to install:

They make custom frames for your mirrors – pretty much any size, for any space. The selection is fantastic!:

Last month I showed you more about MM and how we transformed my friend’s mirror with a black frame:

I can’t believe the different it makes!

MirrorMate is giving away $150 towards any of their frames to one of you!

And until December 7th, there’s a 15 percent off sale on ALL frames! Whoo!

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Hey hey! I’m back today with two more fabulous giveaways! WHOO! (To see what the heck I’m talking about with these giveaways, go here.)

I discovered Hometalk last month and have fallen in love with it!:

It’s a fantastic home improvement resource for any homeowner (or anyone who likes to decorate!) Hometalk is a great site to ask questions and share advice:

You can get lost on there for hours…trust me, I know. ;)

The HomeTalk folks are giving away $50 to Target for one of you! Yay! You can pick up some Christmas presents, decor, or maybe a little somethin’ for you?

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We’ve got one more coming up this weekend, but for now, we’ll wrap up Wednesday with a fabulous giveaway from one of my lovely advertisers, Back 40 Life:

They sell a huge selection of vinyl decals and signs and have recently added picture frames, 3D words/initials as well as glass pieces and corn hole sets. (How fun is that?!)

The possibilities are endless! (These would make for GREAT handmade Christmas gifts!)

Back 40 Life is giving away $50 for one of you to spend as you wish at their online store!

All giveaways are now closed! Thanks for the awesome response! (Winners were announced here.)