2015 Christmas Home Tour

 

Finally Windows Live Writer is up and running again! Thanks to Scott Hanselman and his team for making this happen. There was a span here that no one could publish to Blogger using WLW, but it works again!

I’ve been wanting to post this for awhile now and simply couldn’t, with these Live Writer issues. Now, here we are with Christmas just around the corner and I’m guessing I’m a bit late in getting this post out for you to get any thrifty Christmas decorating ideas, but I will publish it never the less.

This year, I once again used a lot of natural beauty to decorate with, pine, boxwood, twigs, etc. To me, it looks great and dosn’t cost a thing!

So join me as I take you through our simply decorated country home…

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was impressed when I saw this little reindeer at a local thrift store and snagged him for fifty cents!

Here he is, with the lit up trees…

 

 

 

This is the extent of our tree this year. I know, it’s quite puny, but I just wasn’t in the mood to spend money on a real one or a real looking fake one so this will do for this year…who knows, maybe next year..?

 

I designed these little ornaments using Microsoft word, and printed them out…

 

You may have guessed by now that I have a reindeer thing going on this year. :)

 

 

 

 

You can read all about these little reindeer here.

 

 

A few years ago snow globes was my “thing” and you can read about that here.

 

 

One of my favorite spots is this little forest creation made of quilt batting, lights and little trees. It makes me want to be mini and roam through the little hills. :) Here it is, all lit up…

 

 

And ofcourse, with boys in the house you get this…:)

 

 

 

I love these snowmen, which were given to me by my friend Linda. She makes them using tube socks and rubber bands! If you are at all interested in any, she would gladly make some for you. Just let me know! They will reside on our coffee table until spring, I’m sure. :)

 

For a tutorial on these snowballs, click here.

Click here to read more about this live boxwood, which is very simple to make!

Now, let’s step outside…

This wreath is also made of live Boxwood sprigs. I stuck them into a foam ring.

When I walked into the shop the other day, I saw a headless reindeer! :o

And later, here he is…

Rudolph gets to pull the sleigh.. :)

He even looks a bit haughty..

 

My friend Sara gave me the square snowman (isn’t he adorable?) and the round post one was also given to me by a friend years ago. I thought they make a cute team.

I painted a snowman onto a piece of old barn wood for this one..

Pine boughs and ping pong lights were hung over the window…

My favorite part of the porch is in the evening when there’s a cozy glow of lights radiating.

Now, some snow would look pretty good with this all. :)

 I hope you enjoyed the Christmas home tour! Definitely nothing ornate, but we feel blessed with our simple country home. :)

I am making some major blog changes so I may not see you for a few weeks. Merry Christmas!

-Mary

Mod-podge Snowballs

Okay, I don't mean to whine but right now I am in foreign territory, blog-wise. I have had quite a stressful last four days. What happened is when I tried posting on my blog last week, I couldn't get Window Live Writer (the program I use to write my blogposts) to publish the post. :( Not a good thing for someone like me, who has no rest until the matter is solved. :(

So, now the matter isn't solved but many hours later I realize my computer isn't the problem. (thank goodness!) But, some people from Microsoft decided to change some things that would make it impossible for bloggers use WLW to publish to Blogger. I know, it sounds confusing but the bottom line is, I need to resort to use bloggers online platform to write this blogpost.

Anyway, I could vent some more, but let's see how it goes.. I have no idea how it will turn out so if it looks completely different from my other posts, rest assured, you are at the right place. :)

I’ve had these green grass balls stuck in storage for awhile now and thought I’d try to make them useful and perhaps turn them into snowballs.




Here’s how I did it..
First I wrapped toilet paper around the ball..

Then I used Mod podge and brushed it evenly over the toilet paper…

I dumped some fake snow into a pan and rolled the ball around until everything was covered with snow. (it almost seemed as if I was rolling a snowball in real snow!)

I used the snowballs to decorate an old Coca-Cola box and added some bottles.



They would also look great on their own in a glass jar or with any winter arrangement. You could use any balls to do this, such as foam or plastic. I even thought about using balloons, though I’m not sure what would happen should they burst!
I hope you are all having a happy holiday season!

-Mary

Christmas Boxwood

 

I like nothing better than to use natural greens from my gardens or the woods surrounding our home for decorating purposes, so here’s a short post on a simple DIY Christmas decoration using some of mother earth’s greenery.

For this project I used Boxwood sprigs, but I imagine you could use other greens too.

I bought a pack of florist foam at Wal-mart for a few dollars. (the kind that can be made wet)

I soaked a piece in water, completely submerged for five minutes or so, then set it on a plate.

I cut the corners of the foam after I took the picture, so it would have more of a cone shape.

Next, I stuck the boxwood sprigs in, close enough together so you can’t see the foam.

 

I wanted to add a wintery look so I sprayed the greenery with an adhesive and sprinkled fake snow on it. The fake snow comes from Pat Catans. I love using it for wintery decorations… it looks very authentic!

         

 

 

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season & have a blessed weekend!

-Mary