To say I love Christmas and this time of year is a complete understatement. I LOVE Christmas!!! I love everything about it. I love the cool/cold weather, the smells, the anticipation from the girls, the colors, the lights, the glitter, the yummy goodies,seeing family, but most importantly celebrating Jesus' birth! Since I love Christmas so much why not get all decorated more than a month early?! It helps that I'm doing Mac's b-day this weekend and it has a Christmas theme(more to come on Mac's party) Normally I take pics of my house so I can put it in a book and refresh my memory on how I decorated it the year before, save myself time decorating. Of course I always look at the pics but rarely decorate it like that b/c I love moving things around. Well last year I didn't take any pics!!! We went to Lake City and prior to that I threw Mac a surprise party, with all of that it resulted in no pics! I decided that not only will I take pics early this year ( I normally take them right before I start taking the decorations down) I thought I would put them on my blog so all I have to do is look them up here. Forgive me for the million pics, I took pics of everything!!
I made a lot of new things this year and if I didn't start from scratch I tweaked a few things. Let's blame it on Pinterest, I love to take ideas from them then make them in a way I like. I love chalkboards and wanted to do one over our mantel. I bought a frame and a chalkboard and rigged it (thanks to my dad I'm quite good at rigging things!) Then Mille helped me make the trees on each side. I love that my girls love to craft and decorate. Mille not only helped me make them she was with me when we picked out the moss and had a real opinion on what she wanted it to look like. LOVE it!!!
I made these stockings last year. They are not perfect b/c I made them in about an hour, last minute decoration. For some reason I kind of like them like this, they aren't perfect but they serve the purpose! I changed the cuffs this year, I hated the way I did it last year. This is another project Mille helped with. She knew exactly which look she wanted and what Mac should have. We had the best time wondering around Hobby Lobby grabbing things we thought would look cute.
This is mine, I must admit all of this is made with hot glue! I love to sew but I don't have the patience!!! It irritates me to no end when my bobbin runs out of thread! I just bust out the hot glue and bam I'm done.
Miss Mille bug's she wanted the pretty rose ribbon
Craig's, this was a manly as I could make it! :o)
Miss Mac's. I was going to tea dye her lace but I like the way it looks.
Here are pics mainly for my use. My mom would always give my sister and I Santas. I'm so thankful for that and I love looking at them each year. Because I have so many of them I have to get a little creative with where I put them. Now I can look at these and know exactly where I put them.
I got this idea from pinterest. They had little spruce tress in pitchers on stairs and I just loved it. I decided to try lavender(I always buy those rosemary trees from HEB and kill them within 5 days. Hoping I'll have better luck with these!) I made the chevron runner A)because I LOVE chevron but B)because this is the "decor" or Mac's party.
I made this advent calendar. I bought the as Mille calls it "Mouse trap calendar" from Pottery Barn last year on sale.
Painted the Noel on some burlap
I bought little trinkets to put on each day. On the 24th I put reindeer food in the little vessels.
I want to put little pics of the girls in the frames but that will have to wait till I have more time! I also filled the little vessels with glitter to sprinkle around the outside of the house for good luck and cookie sprinkles in others. On the back of the card it has an activity for that day and on those days it either says make cookies or have hot chocolate.
I LOVE nutcrackers!!!!! I'm not sure why but I just think they are so cute. Maybe I like them so much because I was obsessed with the ballet the Nutcracker when I was little. I can remember sitting in the big comfy chair watching it over and over. I'm so excited that Mac and some of her friends will be in it this year!
For fall I put all of my owls in the entry way so for Christmas I put all my Nutcrackers. The little guy next to the picture frame is one of my favorites. He's short and squatty and very glittery!
I bought a couple of new Nutcrackers at Target this year, they're shiny and I love that!
My awesome elf shoe from Mis! I love that thing!!!
The tree
The little (pink and white)present ornament on the right is my favorite ornament. I remember my mom and I shopping one year and she bought one for me and then we bought one for Craig's mom. My mom would always buy me an ornament or 2 every year. All of the fruit or Radko ornaments were given to me by my mom. I love getting them out each year and looking at them b/c it reminds me of when mom was still here.
I'm carrying on the tradition that my mom started. Actually she didn't start it until we were older but I decided to start it with the girls early. I figure when they are married I'll give them a box of all of their ornaments. How special will that be?! Each year I give them an ornament that means something to them that year. It can be something they've participated in, i.e. soccer, dance or what their party was that year, i.e. a mixer b/c Mac had a cooking party. This year Mille LOVES turtles. She's always liked turtles and frogs. She was with me and fell in love with this little guy. We tried to find a kangaroo b/c that's her soccer team but I think that's the one animal they don't have!
Mac's monkey. We called her Monkey so we thought this was perfect. I always write their name and the year on it.
I found this buck decoration at HL and fell in love with it. It's got glitter on it and say Merry Christmas. I love it!
Mac's "christmas bedding"
I want to have the girls paint a couple of canvases to put above the bed, let's see if I can find time.
Made each of the girls little signs for their door.
Since Mille is in her room now(last year she slept in her sisters room. Mac has requested she go to her own now. :o) ) I made Mille some "christmas bedding" I kind of had a hard time with this b/c Mille's walls are pink. I think it turned out cute though!
Another view
Merry Christmas, well I guess Happy Thanksgiving first! :o)
