Friday I'm In Love...with Peeping

Peeping - WHAT?!?!  You heard me correctly.  This week, as I have begun crossing things off my list, I have had a little bit more time to peep into other people's (bloggers) holiday home tours to take a look at how they have decorated for Christmas.  All I can say is, wow!  There were so many to choose from, and if I could have added them all to this post, I would have.

Since I obviously can't showcase their entire home here in this post, I will feature my favorite aspect of each.  Then, I encourage you all to hop over to their blogs to see everything! There were so many unique and creative ideas - I need to get pinning for next year!!

Desiree's home from The 36th Avenue is gorgeous!  She has a very special tree in her home that she calls the Never Forgotten Tree.  On it are photos of passed loved ones to be remembered and celebrated.  I love this idea so much - my eyes well up thinking about it!! 

I have seen bits and pieces of Holly's home over the past few weeks featured in various linky parties.  Once I hopped over to her blog, Down to Earth Style, I pleasantly surprise to find an entire home tour!  My favorite part of her decor was the sled on her porch with her house number painted on it.  What a clever and adorable idea!!  Check out the rest of her home though - it's gorgeous!!

Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors never disappoints.  She is so unbelievably creative, and I love popping into her home on a weekly basis to see what she gets her hands into next.  Her holiday home tour?  Wow.  She has a stepladder tree.  YES - a tree made around a step ladder!!  Who thinks of that??  LOVE it!!

I have featured Aimee from It's Overflowing in the past - but I just keep getting drawn to her projects!!  Her home is adorable, and she always comes up with something new.  My favorite holiday idea of hers was the use of yellow in the kitchen!  Who would have thought to use yellow as a Christmas color?  Aimee, that's who!

And finally...the home tour at Jennifer Rizzo stopped me in my tracks!  I had never visited her blog before, and am now a new follower!  I just loved her whole holiday theme, but her kitchen was my favorite.  I loved the clean simplicity of her window dressings over the sink.  I have a similar layout in my kitchen, and I think I may need to do something like this next year!!

If you were featured, feel free to grab a button from my sidebar.  Thank you all for letting me peek into your homes for the holidays.  I truly enjoyed the tours!!

xoxo

Holiday Home Tour - Dining Room

Hi everyone!  Well, you have seen my Christmas mantle and tree in my great room - I hope to be able to take some pics of the room in it's entirety before Christmas.  In the meantime, I thought I would share my Dining Room with you!  Because the walls are a shade of green, that is the one room where I usually go with all traditional colors.  This year, I did the opposite and went totally nontraditional with teal, copper and gold (and some sage green tossed in for fun)!

Hubby picked out that birdcage - completely embellished and adorned at one of my favorite wholesale decor shops - LOVE it.  That was the item that kicked off this look.

The runner on the table was made from drop cloth remnants from when I made my tree skirt.

I scored these glass hurricane vases (for free!) a few years ago when I hosted a Party Lite party.  I added a white pillar candle from the dollar store and some copper and teal ornaments that I used on my tree last year.

Here's a close up of Hubby's birdcage - didn't he do a good job picking it out?

I ended up with extra garland and lights this year since I made the new goods for the mantle.  This grapevine used to hang over my kitchen window, but I thought the dining room needed a little sparkle too!!

I made this wreath to hang on the mantle last year, but it was a perfect addition to the dining room window this season.  I added some bookpage rosettes to bring some earthiness to the bling - and of course the peacock feather had to be a part of the festivities!

Here's a close up of the garland.  The ornaments were added to extend the color scheme through the room.  Sparkle and shine! 

So that's the dining room - hope you enjoyed it.  I smile every time I walk past this room!!

I will try to take pics of the rest of the house so I can post them by Saturday. I just need to do some - Ahem - cleaning first!!  LOL.

XOXO

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Hear the Angels Sing...

I refuse to pay for cards, especially holiday cards.  I am not going to say that I didn't consider it though this year - I think I waited a bit too long to get everything designed and out the door.  I had a lot of gray cardstock on hand, and always have a steady supply of white, so I went to work - using what I had in the essence of time and moolah!

For this year's Christmas Cards I decided to use a picture from Halloween - sound weird?  Well, Addison dressed up as an angel this year, so it only seemed fitting for a Christmas card!  I wanted an antique look, so I added a little grain to the photo and changed it to black and white.  The rest was designed in photoshop and mounted to the white and then gray cardstock.

I love the look of my wrap around labels, and this is what I came up with.  I wanted to match the red font in the card, but wanted to keep it simple.  Here is the return address side:
 

Some of my cards go local - real local, like in my neighborhood.  We all hand deliver our cards to one another, so there wasn't really a need to print their address on this particular label. 

They are finally all done and out the door (except for two more that need to be hand delivered).  Yes, I know - what am I waiting for - Christmas is in 4 days!!

xoxo

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DIY Gift Idea - Marble Magnets

So, I did a little brainstorming with my boss on some diy gifts for our clients.  We threw around a bunch of ideas, but in the end decided to make marble magnets.  I was very honored because she asked me to make them!  This was a fun project - so much fun that I ended up making a set for Addie's teacher as her gift.  This was an easy project, and you can find the full tutorial over at Not Martha.

For the client magnets, I used portions of our logo (the boxes) to make gift boxes.   I ordered all of my supplies online since we had to make 80 sets of them, but I know you can get all of this at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

We wanted the magnets to be useful, so in addition to our logo, I designed some simple phrases, printed them at Kinkos (you definitely want to use a laser printer if you print your own), and punched them with a 1" circle punch.

We have gotten some great feedback on them - our clients liked them alot!

So that brings me to Addison's teacher.  For her, I designed a custom label as well - had to incorporate some pink (Addie's favorite color)!

For these, I punched the circles out of white cardstock and let Addie go to town coloring and designing her own.  I wanted something more personal, and let Addie put her creative touch on them.  She was so excited to help mommy craft.

Sorry for all of the shadows.  These shots were all taken before school so the sun had just come up.  Not the best lighting.

All-in-all, this was a super easy teacher's gift - AND totally different.  It's nice to know her teacher will have a gift that she can use for years and can remember Addie every time she uses them.

xoxo

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The Christmas Mantle Reveal

Sorry I was MIA this weekend - my holiday shopping was in full swing, and I am almost done.  Whew!!  But, the time is here!!  I am finally ready to post my Christmas Mantle - I am so giddy to share it with all of you!  

Here she is, in all her glory:  the yarn-wrapped letters, stockings, garland and all!  I hope you like it as much as I do!!

I tried to do a little combo of stuff purchased, and stuff made.  The window you have all seen before from me - but I love it.  I added a wreath that I bought at a local decor shop that I fell in love with.

I bought this bronze deer at an antique store last year for only $15!!

The glass jars you may recognize from my Thanksgiving table - I decided to reuse those.  The tall candle holder?  That was made from Dollar Tree finds - a glass candlestick glued to a tall cylinder vase!  $2!!

The "I Believe" sign was a gift from my friend's dad.  He is a whiz at wood working - this doesn't even begin to display the amazing work he does.  I loved it though and had to include it.

Can't believe Christmas is less than a week away!!!  I am not going to want to take all of this down!

 

XOXO

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