Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Few Cheap, Quick & Easy Holiday Decorating tips ..

This year, I tossed out some of our old, broken decorations. I then found I didn't have quite as much as I would have liked, although we did decide to scale back on the amount of decorations, too. I don't want to buy more decorations as I don't plan on having the same color scheme in my next house so we had to be creative. Here are a few ideas...not terribly original but what can I say!:-)
First, ornaments always make a great decoration. I bought a bunch of bright and richly colored ornaments everywhere...Target, Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree...even Goodwill. A few are glass ornaments but most are beautiful ornaments that look like the real thing, complete with beautiful designs painted on them. I bought packs of 6 ornaments for $1 & $2. Next, I filled every glass vase, jar and bowl I could find and placed them through the house. It's not overdone, looks pretty and festive and will be easy to clean up. We also tied some to stair-rails, from ceiling fans and a chandelier. On the coffee table was a large bowl of seashells. I like that look so we just added a few ornaments to the bowl.
Next, we wrapped a bunch of boxes to use as decorations. Some were empty, some had things in them that wouldn't be used through the Holidays. For the cost of wrapping paper (which has been really inexpensive this year), we made instant decorations. I have a ledge above my wall unit that I usually place a garland. I needed the garland for something else and thought this could be cool. The photos don't do it justice but when my husband thinks it looks "great", we did something right. The fact that he even noticed is amazing:-)
Our copper ornaments are coming in handy. We used to hang them from trees in the kitchen but with the layout of our house, we don't have a "kitchen" tree. They look awesome in a bowl with pinecones and cinnamon sticks.
Guess that's it for now but we're still working on it.
Next up...shopping finds. (Hint...Vera Bradley has desk and stationary sets now...and at Marshalls, they are DIRT cheap!:-)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving from the beach!

Happy Thanksgiving!
We spent part of today at the beach. What a gorgeous day!
There was a sand scuplting contest and some of the creations were amazing. We even made a few of our own...clearly not like the pros, t
hough!:-)
First up is a castle, followed by a scene from Paris with tourists and the Eiffel Tower. Then a beautiful turtle and a fish. Finally, Jordie helping to make our works of art...Santa and a Christmas tree.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Vintage Shabby Beaded Christmas Tree...my new favorite project!


Today I finished my Christmas tree. It is made from old, broken jewelry pieces or ones that I was missing a match to. I then used various pearls, again mainly from old necklaces I have gathered and finished my tree. I only wish it photographed better because it is truly beautiful. I saw one similar but bigger for almost $500. As I stood there looking at it, I realized I could make my own version, which I will be listing at my etsy shop www.shabbychicks.etsy.com. It is soooo pretty. Now I'm going to have to offer to buy old, broken pieces of jewelry from everyone I know!:-)

Operation Christmas Child


Today, the girls packed their shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. We have to drop them off at church tomorrow. They were so excited to use their allowance to buy gifts to fill their shoeboxes. What a wonderful program...we are going to be sure to do this every year!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Goodbye Fun, Cute, Groovy Car...

...hello SUV. It's been so much fun cruising around town, going to the beach, driving around looking at Christmas lights...with the top down. Great memories...but time to make some new ones.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Maui the Goldendoodle for President...

Okay, so the title is a little bit misleading. However, I have found something I agree with the Obamas on. Apparently they will be getting their girls a puppy to bring to the White House and they want a goldendoodle. (although the pressure is on to find a rescue dog so maybe not) My goldendoodle is awesome...and huge! He loves to do 4 things...eat/drink, play fetch, go for walks and cuddle up as close as he can get to you. Who can resist this face???

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