Festive Pinspirations

So, I started a new pinboard. Entirely dedicated to all things festive. You know, parties, decorations, and predominantly - you guessed it - Christmas! So now that it's definitely time to start decking our halls (hint, hint, honey) I'm going to share some of my ideas and inspirations for this Christmas season. If you are the kind of person who can't handle Christmas until after Thanksgiving, it's cool, but this is your only warning to avert your eyes. :)

 Here are a few of the fun things I'm thinking about doing when we decorate this year....

 Free Christmas printable word art.

Painted word art.

A vintage holiday glam party...I think I need to have a party!

Make yarn-wrapped trees - I'm thinking green & white one's would look pretty spiffy.

Homemade clay ornaments - I LOVE birdies on a Christmas tree!

Fabric "pine cone" balls for the coffee table.

 Make a tree skirt from a drop cloth - I'm not crazy about the ruffle, but I love the idea of using a drop cloth!

 Peace love & joy pillows - maybe make pillow cases for the pillows I already have?

Felt garland! I will definitely be making one of these for Baby B's room. And also maybe for my room. :)

Felt ornaments - also a must for Baby B's room!

More garlands! I love the paper flags and yarn pom poms.

The cheapest way to make a wreath form - $1 from Lowe's.

Ideas for Advent Calendars.

Felt ball garland - yes, I love garlands. How did you know?

Do you have any fun decorating plans for this year? Are you trying anything new?

Mini Lanterns

At this point in the year, my thoughts (obviously) turn to Christmas. However we are having a progressive dinner with a group from our church this weekend so I'll spend just a little time on a few things aimed more toward Thanksgiving (but you can bet your buttons I'll be using them for Christmas, too!). I want to do some simple centerpieces for the tables at our house, so I started by putting together some mini lanterns to hold tea lights. Here's how I did it.

I started by rounding up some small glass jars to use for my lanterns. These are actually glass yogurt cups delivered to my door from France. My sister spent some time there last summer and brought these home to me. What can I say? She knows what I like. :) If you don't have French yogurt cups, I think baby food jars, small mason jars, or any jar with a lip would work great for this project, too.

Then I picked up some wire from Lowe's. I think probably any wire would work. I chose this one because I could bend it by hand but it wasn't too flimsy. It was about $5 for the roll of 175' and I used about 2-3' per lantern. (No exact measurements, I winged it. Because that's how I roll. How I fly? Because I said winged? Get it? This is getting away from me.)

Then I just started wrapping my wire around the jar. I wound it around under the lip and looped it up in a handle shape too. I tried a few different approaches and I was happiest when the handle had 3 layers of wire to be nice and sturdy, but just go with whatever you like best. Just make sure it is secure below the lip if you want to pick it up by the handle. (I also think they would be really cool hung by the handle outside) Then just pop in a tea light and you are done!

Just keep wrapping that wire until you have a whole fleet of little lanterns! They turned out really cute and simple, and I think they will look great as part of my centerpieces. I'm also thinking about mixing in some pillar candles and...something else. I don't know what yet. Maybe some squashes? I'll get back to you on that.

As far as cost for this project, the only thing I had to buy was the $5 wire (and I have tons left over). So save those glass food jars!

I think these little guys will look great at Christmas, too! You can't have too many twinkling lights. You just can't. :) And experienced center piece makers have any advice for me? Do you wait until after Thanksgiving to think about Christmas?
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$25.10 - Yard Sale Catch-up

Yard sales are really winding down as the temperature drops! This might be my last yard sale post for the year, but I wanted to share what I've grabbed the last few weeks (not including Christmas presents...don't want to spoil any surprises):

$1.00 - two bamboo blinds. I'm hoping to cut them down to fit the kitchen windows.

$10.00 - sleeper sofa! For our future basement family room. It needs to be recovered, but structurally it's great!

$4.00 - plug-in drill (for when our battery drill needs recharging) and a yellow roller cart (for Baby B to play on)

$10.00 - table saw. It doesn't have a guide, but we rigged one up using clamps.

$0.10 - First Harry Potter book. In terrible shape, but perfectly readable for a dime.

Did you find any great deals as the season wrapped up? Are you as sad as me that we have to wait until next year for more garage sales?!?

Wrapping Pinspirations

So, November is here. Do you know what that means? Time to get ready for Christmas! That is, if you haven't started already. As I starting thinking about/decorating for/celebrating Christmas, I thought we'd put together a little series for our our festive ideas! This won't be everyday, and it will be mixed in with some regular posts, but when you see this logo you'll know Christmas fun is coming! And if you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know. We have almost two months of Christmas preparation ahead of us!

Now without further ado, let's get started! I pretty much finished my Christmas shopping this weekend so I'm ready to get wrapping. I figure since Christmas only comes once a year I might as well make the most of it and get a little fancy with my wrapping. So I'm starting with a little Pinterest hunting. I love brown paper (and already bought a couple rolls at Dollar Tree) and I also like the idea of wrapping in print (like book pages or newspaper. So here are a few favorite ideas to inspire my wrapping.

 I love that this one combines brown paper with print, and I like the red accents.

I like the simple bows and stamped names on these packages.

 Some fun ideas for dressing up plain brown paper.

Make your own salt dough tags. I definitely want to try this.

 Make gift bags out of newspaper.

 Book page roses for embellishing packages.

I love the combo of a black & white picture with the brown paper. And the button is a nice touch.

I love the pendant garland here. This might be more of a birthday wrapping, though, with fun colors.

I love this fun paper! But maybe I could make something like this work with brown paper, too?

Free printable gift tags for all occasions.

 These are homemade hand warmers (to keep your hands warm in your pockets). They might make fun & useful gift toppers.

I love the idea of wrapping gifts in reusable shopping bags instead of disposable paper. These ones roll up to fit in your purse.

Of course I'll let you know more specific details once I get started with the wrapping. So what's your wrapping philosophy? Do you prefer to keep it simple? Do you like bright colored paper? Or big bows? Or are you more of a gift-bagger?