My Christmas House

I might be the very last blogger to post pictures of my Christmas decor...
Still, I thought I'd share. After all, if there's not blog evidence of it, who's to say it even happened? lol

It seems like half of my Christmas decor is very down-home country feeling - pine cones, burlap, wood...
the other half is super glittery, glam and/or metallic.
They never seemed to belong together.
In the past I've always tried to group the like items together - attempting to create cohesive areas, even if the majority of the house didn't "go" together.

This year, I decided my theme would be sort of a country mouse-meets-city mouse thing.  Rustic and elegant, all in the same vignettes.
Not to pat my self on the back, but I totally love the outcome.

Here's my front door.

I went wreath-crazy this Christmas, making a total of 5 from the remnants of old wreaths (and a few new things.) This one is my favorite, I think. I love the tiny gold birdie and the monogram.
I hung it from a strip of burlap straps I tied together.

Above the door I have one of those grapevine arches. Every year I tuck some evergreen branches into it (from the bottom of our Christmas tree) and some fake berries.  Super festive, super easy!
Notice the kissing ball hanging from the arch...I love me some mistletoe!

On the bench we built this summer I put a basket filled with candles and more evergreens. LOVE this <3

This is the entry way.  To the left is this table,

To the right is this dresser.

The wreath was #2 of my wreath projects

My apothecary jars are new, and I love them! One is filled with pine cones and a (fake) sprig of greenery. The other is filled with some glittery ornaments I bought from the Pottery Barn a few years ago. Both are nestled on fake snow :)

I've had the "Believe" sign for a couple of years - I re-glittered it this year, then sprinkled some of the glitter on the table top about it. It feels magical to me :)

And this is one of my chalkboards :)

The front room is where our tree is.

I mentioned this in the post about my banner, but this room is filled with books. It's sort of our "library."
The tree has a NOEL banner on it, made from vintage book pages.

And here are the gingerbread boy and girl ornaments I made earlier this year!

The book shelves have some decor on top, too.

I had to move the bench I normally have in front of the window so the tree would fit there. I put it on this wall.

Above it I put this wreath (#3.)  It was lonely looking, so I spray painted this dollar store bird and added her (and some metallic berries!)

The wall vinyl came from JoAnn's.

The card holder I whipped up with extra fabric, buttons and paperclips.  Cute, huh?

The Dining Room area is my favorite in the whole house, and where I think my "rustic elegance" came together best.

Burlap Placemats with a glittery silver monogram.
Delicate wineglasses and silver snowflake napkin rings...

The centerpiece is a rosemary bush shaped into a Christmas tree that I wrapped in dark brown burlap. I added a couple of burlap flowers, too.  It sits on a silver charger.  Later I ripped some large metallic "berries" from their stems and sprinkled them around it.

 

I hung snowflakes from the fan and from the curtain rod on the window behind.  They are covered in glitter...along with everything else in the area!

The buffet has my candlestick collection, of course!
I wanted something practical there, as well, and since we tend to have lots of people over this time of year, I chose my regular, everyday dishes on a short silver pedestal.
I've had the gold Christmas tree candle forever, but I've never had a place I thought it looked right...love it here!

In the family room we have a mini tree.  My kids decorated this one all by themselves, and every morning my 3 year old rushes to plug it in.  I put this display together thinking "what does it matter if one area's not perfect?" but it turned out that I totally love it!

Above the sliding glass doors I hung a berry wreath (#4) and a garland that I "beefed up" using the Nesters method :)  More mistletoe in the center of that wreath!

Down the hallway I have this shelf

And this mirror, which I added a tiny wreath (#5) to.  The wreath is made from a small piece of leftover garland.

Our bedroom is almost entirely Christmas free...
though I could resist one more kissing ball.
Hanging this was interesting - but necessity is the mother of invention, and I NEEDED this!

So there it is...a day late and a dollar short, but posted just the same!

Linking to It's So Very Cheri!

Gorgeous Stocking Tutorial (and Giveaway!)

****Comments are closed! Sherri from Design2Shine is the winner and has been emailed! Thanks, everyone!****

If you're here from The Girl Creative's Creating Christmas Party, welcome!

If you're not, you really should go check it out!

Todays link party is all about creative wrapping, and I posted my pretty patchwork stockings.

I promised a tutorial on them, so here it is!

First, my customary sewing disclaimer...
I am not good at sewing. I don't do anything the right way - only the way that works for me.  If you read this and you think to yourself "how did this airhead ever sew anything?!" The answer is...idunno!

Step one is to make yourself a template/pattern.  Make sure to add extra room for seam allowances!
I drew out my stocking (on a brown paper grocery bag from Target!)
Once it was all adjusted to my liking I cut it out.

Use your pattern to cut out all of your fabric pieces.

 

The foot is the hardest part.  So that's where we'll start.
I'm going to show you the jester style foot, because it's the more difficult of the two.

Once your foot is cut out, sew it, making sure the right sides of the fabric are together(!)

Now turn it right side out.  I use a chopstick to get the tiny ends turned out.

The inside of the foot needs to be stuffed with batting for it to stand up and look right.  I use my chopstick again, and just push and push until it's all filled up to my liking.  The boot style foot is done the same way - it's just a bit easier without that awful curl at the end!
The foot is done, for now, so we'll move on to the leg.

 

Sew your leg fabrics together (right sides facing in) and then press your seams so they will lay flat.
You should have a rectangle of fabric now.

Then you take the right side of your bottom fabric and line it up with the outside of your boot (leave some room to sew the leg up later) and sew them together.
This can be tricky.
I take the removable portion of my sewing machine off for this part, so I don't have to work around it.

At this point you have an open leg sort of draped over the foot.

 

You COULD stuff the foot here, instead of before all this. I never do, though - I prefer to work with the foot first so I can see it better.

Now you sew the leg up. The foot will be inside, be careful not to catch it in the needle, otherwise you'll have to un-pick and you'll be cursing me.

Now...turn it right side out, and you're basically done!

All that's left is to add the internal sock and the embellishments.

To sew the inside sock use whatever scrap fabric you have laying around.
Take the pattern off the completed stocking and then sew it up.

 

Leave it inside out and place it inside the stocking, then sew the two pieces together.
I just let the seam show here, then press it under with an iron and sew an embellishment over the top.

 

Once that's done I add ruffles, trims and bells - usually where the fabrics meet, over the seams, because I like how it looks best there - by hand.

And that's it!

Now...if you got this far...

You can enter to win the boot stocking we just made!

Just leave a comment.
Followers get an extra entry!
You can post through Tuesday, and I'll drop it in the mail 1 week from today.  That will be Thursday, December 17.  I'm not positive that it will get to you by Christmas, but we'll try!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS...I'll be linking up everywhere! Go check out these parties!

     

Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage
Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special
The DIY Showoff
It's So Very Cheri's Monday party
Newly Woodwards Dare to DIY party
DIY Day at ASPTL

Another re-post

This is another re-post for The Girl Creative Party!  Forgive me if you've already seen it!
I needed to repost - rather than just link to the original - because back then it was a giveaway.
Anyway - here we go!

I like to get ready for Christmas early, mostly because so much of what I give is handmade and I need the extra time!

I saw some cute chalkboards at a local home decor shop last year.  They were Christmas themed and adorable - which they should have been for $50 each!

I filed the idea away for this year and started picking up cheap (but chunky!) frames at the thrift store and at garage sales late this summer.

Once I had a few, I got started.

Here they are - BEFORE.

(this was actually my second group, I did a couple before this to see how they would work out)

First, I removed the glass and pictures inside.  Then I used needle nose pliers to take out the staples.

I taped off any portion of the frame that I did not want painted (many of these were gold, and since my color scheme was red and gold, it worked out to tape some off.)

Then I spray painted everything with Rustoleum's Colonial Red.

Most took 2 coats, some took 3.

When they were dry I removed the tape and added some decorative painting with gold craft paint.

I'm not much of a painter, so most of my decor was polka dots, lol!

I started out using hardboard, one of my favorite crafting supplies, for the chalkboard portion.  Eventually, though, I did use the back of a few pictures, since they were sturdy and already cut to size.

In the past I've always used spray chalkboard paint, but recently I picked up another type at JoAnn's.

I don't love it as much as the spray on kind, but it worked okay.  It took a lot more time, (and several coats!) but seems like it will last longer than the spray did.

Once the chalkboards were dry and the frames were complete, I broke out the Gorilla Glue.

In my crafting I use 4 adhesives.  Hot glue, if the project might need to be taken apart later and/or doesn't require a 100% permanent bond.  Liquid Nails, if I'm gluing wood to a wall or if I'm gluing a particularly large area that will have plenty of time to set up.  Quick Grip, if I need something that will set up in a hurry and/or I want something that will last forever.

Gorilla Glue, if it's a small area that needs to be bonded fast and strong.

For this project, I used Gorilla's Super Glue.

I ran a bead of glue around the channel that the chalkboard would sit in, and used it to attach the chalkboard.

It requires a bit of time to set up, and a few of my chalkboards (the ones that were the backs of pictures before!) were bowed and needed some pressure to set up.

My colander full of fruit with a teapot perched on top was the perfect solution.

Keepin' it real, friends!

In the end, I have a beautiful collection of Christmas chalkboards :)

And they only cost me...

an average of $2 per frame,

plus $3 for the chalkboard paint and $4 for the spray paint.  I estimate the cost of each finished chalkboard at less than $4.  LOVE it!

The amazing Chalk Ink works best on these, of course.  I bought a package at my local craft store (with a 40% off coupon, of course) the other night.  They are pricey! I'll probably give a marker with most of the chalkboards, but not all.  Even with the coupon they come out to a little more than $2 per marker.

I plan to give the chalkboards (with or without markers) as gifts to neighbors, teachers and a few others.