Little Bit of Valentine's Spirit & Lucky # 30

First, a big huge thanks to my 30th follower! Brooke at Girl Boy Girl Inspired. (ah yes, the perks of being my 30th follower...just imagine what I'll do if I ever hit 50)

I know, thirty isn't huge, but for someone who created a blog with simple intentions and without even understanding the concept of 'following,' I think it's huge!
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On to the meat of this post. ;-)

Valentine's Day isn't my favorite holiday. Sure, let's be romantic and remind each other that we have undying love burning at the base of our soul for each other, but seriously folks do we have to spend over 15 billion dollars to do that? And all for a holiday who's story is cloudy, to say the least.

That's probably why I don't put much effort into decorating for good ol' St. Valentine. In fact, this is the one time that you could walk into my home and have no idea what time of year it is...the lack of seasonally themed decor is almost embarrassing for a hardcore decorator like myself.

Maybe that's why I created this little number.

Subtle right?

and simple.

I took an old frame, hot glued a few strings of hemp to back, rummaged through my craft supplies, grabbed some dried roses The Hubby got me for landing a new job (see! that's the kind of romantic gesture I'm talkin' about) and clipped everything on with mini-clothespins.

Free, quick, purdy. Annnd versatile. If I want to keep it up after VD (ha, still laugh at that one) I'll just remove the red hearts. High five!

What are your feelings on the ol' V day?

<3 dani

Check out all the creativity where I LINK UP

Bulb Ornament Wreath - Ish

I say 'ish' because I could easily add another package of ornaments, buuut it might be a while before I head back out to the madness that is the mall. Even my Dollar Store was a shopping disaster.

Is it wrong that I have a sense of ownership over the Dollar Store that I frequent? In my head, I caught myself saying to the herd of shoppers, "Don't even act like you guys love this place. I know better. I'm here all the time and I've never seen you before!" Possessive? Absolutely.

Oops, little sidetracked there. Anyway, about the wreath. I love it. And for roughly $5, it makes my crafty heart pitter patter. Check the little guy out.

Here's whatcha need:

Tons of ornaments (when you think you've got enough, get more)
Wreath Form
Ribbon
Hot Glue
Paint

And it wouldn't be Dollar Store material if it didn't have some personality

Just in case you don't know if you want to hang it from the top...or the side. That's my Dollar Store...always givin' me options.

Okay, then I painted the wreath form in case my covering wasn't sufficient. Black seemed to do the trick.

Then I just started gluing. If I was smart, I would have looked at a tutorial that one of my bloggy friends created, but nope, too cool for that.

This is about the time I discovered I didn't have enough ornaments. I pulled what I could from our tree (no ones looks at the back anyway tee hee), then ran downstairs and grabbed some old ones. Not the right color. Good thing I didn't put the black paint away.

Eventually, I came up with this.

Not quite circular. Kinda pretty though. In a non-circular kinda way.

What's the likelihood that I actually get more ornaments to fill this little guy up?

<3 dani



Loads of creativity where I LINK UP



Traditional Shmaditional

I can't say that I love the traditional holiday style (hopefully I haven't offended all of you with that statement). Don't get me wrong, I love tradition, but the typical holiday decor really makes me cringe. The red, the green, the holly, the multi-colored lights...ugh, it's just too much. And really people, just because something is Christmas themed, doesn't mean it belongs in your house. </rant> ;-)

Here, let me explain what I mean in regards to my house (before all of my followers disown me). I love the ornaments and decorations The Hubs and I have collected throughout our lives. Some pieces are sentimental, some are funny, some remind us of places we've lived or visited. But just because they mean a lot, doesn't mean they fit into my decor. Right? However, they're all too meaningful to just leave in a box.

It is because of that, we now have three fully decorated trees in our house. Take a look, it makes perfect sense!

The first tree, the focal tree, lives in the main living space and is themed black, silver and green-- the new addition this year. Simple and elegant.

 

The next lives in the family room downstairs. This is the fake, traditional tree holding all the ornaments from our childhood plus all the ornaments we've gotten each other over the last six years. Simple red, green and white lights.



The Hubs' R2D2 and C3PO.

A mouse in a stocking...pretty sure this was my mom's at one point. 

Anyone who grew up in the 80's has at least one brass, engraved ornament.This one's from 1984.

Love my coffee...

For years, The Hubs has wanted a globe. I've yet to find one worth buying...mostly because I'm cheap, but I did find this huge ornament globe at Restoration Hardware a few years ago.

And my Pup's paw print. We hang it at the bottom so he can see his artwork. (Yeah, I definitely need children soon ;-)

And the last tree lives on the sporty side of the basement family room. This is a fake, mini-tree that holds all the sports related ornaments we've collected. 

How many trees do you decorate? And do you dig the holiday traditional decor or are does the modern decor appeal to you?

<3 dani

ps - I do have an excuse for the bad photos...my camera is still on my bro-in-law's fridge. Oops. So, the Blackberry was workin' double duty today.

Paper, Glitter & Glue, Oh My!

Hello friends...I'm alive. Hard to believe considering I've left you hanging for weeks without posting. But, I'm back with a cute, easy, cheap project for the holidays.

A few weeks back I showed you my holiday mantle...which looked eerily similar to my fall mantle. In between grading papers and coming up with lesson plans, I finally made time to create my real holiday mantle. 

Here's what I came up with (and a mini tutorial on my sparkle trees).

Some tree trimmings, extra black, silver and green ornaments, a string of lights, pine cones, candlesticks, a snowman, a few sparkle trees and done.

The sparkle trees were made out of necessity. Because that wall is so tall, I have to have something with a lot of height on the mantle, or the size of the wall just eats it up. Usually, the bigger the item, the more expensive the purchase. I didn't even bother checking stores for a piece to fit here, instead I bought some poster paper and glitter.

Here's everything you'll need:

Glitter

Poster Paper (two sheets)

Hot Glue

Mod Podge (or this)

Scissors

First, I rolled my poster paper into a cone. This was the most difficult part of the project. Holding it together proved to be a challenge, but once you get it where you want it and glue it down, you're smooth sailing. You can almost see my hot glue seeping out the edges. Better safe than sorry. No one wants an exploding glitter tree ticking time bomb on their mantle.

You'll notice that the edge isn't level and that's fine. You'll just trim it down until it stands straight.



I made a couple more little ones, then covered with adhesive and began to glitter. I added adhesive in sections to make it a little more manageable.

Here's what I came up with:

So, for the cost of two sheets of poster paper (like $2), you can create these purdy trees.

<3 dani



There's loads of creativity where I LINK UP

Black, Silver and Green All Over

Time is flying by and I'm jogging to keep up. I loathe physical activity, but I'm doin' alright so far.

Exciting weekend here: tree cut and up, lil shoppin', lots of food, few decorations. I know, how the heck do we have time, right?

We had two very clear goals in mind when we decided to go cut down our tree: 1) get to the farm when it's not busy; and b) find one taller than me. No tape measure, we're just wingin' it. Turned out pretty alright.

Besides the leaning topper, which The Hubs calls and I quote "it's natural tilt," I dig it. 

I still love the black and silver theme, but this year we added green. There's already so much green in the rest of the common areas, it just made sense to tie it in...besides that's what lazy decorator does.

Considering this is the largest tree we've ever had, we are a little light on the trimmings. Who knew a 9 1/2 ft tree would need that many ornaments? 

Preparing our mini-Thanksgiving dinner and decorating the tree mentally and physically exhausted me, so for now I basically just added to our Fall Mantle.

Of course I'll be adding and changing things as the month goes on, but I'm definitely on the right track.

Here's The Hubs doin' all the dirty work. <3

The dining room chair just wasn't cutting it this year.

Also, it turns out I'm totally allergic to this tree. I had wear my winter gloves the entire time we decorated. Kinda funny really. Very National Lampoon's.

<3 dani