Christmas details

Last night in my quick post (quick because I did it from my phone.. hence the not great quality photos)  I mentioned to you that if I got around to it I would share some details of some of my decor.  I was thinking later as in like after finals but here I am, I've been doing homework all day and so I'm taking a break to post some pics. Enjoy!

I changed my chalkboard to one of my all time favorite Christmas songs (specifically the Carpenter version)

 

I dressed up our cable box with a pretty gold bowl I thrifted a few weeks back that I filled with a couple of the bead strands I used for my tree, one of my wedding vases filled with leftover tree fillers, and a cute picture frame with some nature.

I got this picture frame for our wedding and thought it would be perfect with some nature inside.  I cut the end of a branch off of one of our pine trees in our yard and glued it to a paper and stuck it in the frame.  I think it looks pretty cute and festive.

I picked up some ornaments from dollar tree a few weeks ago.  for a dollar, their ornaments aren't too bad! I just got the glitter covered ones to avoid them looking too cheap. (non glittered have weird seams)

Another dollar tree ornament.

I found this peace sign hand at the DI with my mom a few weeks ago. It was $1.50 and the tag on bottom says it's from Homegoods. I love how it's a funky statement piece yet it fits in for Christmas. That is one of my mom's solid brass candlesticks.  It is heavy and SO pretty.  She wasn't using it so I kindly stole it (the other one is in our bathroom) :)

I found this dove at the DI as well for $0.50 and spray painted it solid gold (^^it was really creepy before)

And now it's the perfect addition to my Christmas decorations.

This reindeer used to be cardboard (or mache... whatever) I painted the antlers gold and then taped them off and sprayed the rest of the body white.  It just amped it up a bit.  Gold tree was with the ornaments at dollar tree, and then I filled my other vase with some more of the unused tree fillers.

I hung this little wreath (found at dollar tree and glued pinecones on it)

Another view of our tree.  I wanted to do a silver/gold/red/white theme but ran out of room before I got to the silver.  So maybe next year we'll have a bigger tree :)

I've seen pics of a glitter reindeer on pinterest and I've been meaning to make one. So I finally sat down the other night and drew out an outline on cardstock, filled it in with modpodge, and dumped some glitter on top.  After it dried, I sprayed a bunch of clear acrylic coating on top. This part was necessary so that the glitter doesn't go everywhere once in the frame. I tried it first without it and the loose glitter made it look super messy.  It looked like it ruined the paper but it dried clear and you can't even tell it was sprayed.

  It took about 10 minutes and once it was framed I loved it. I bought this frame at DI for 75 cents and spray painted it black.

We got these wood blocks for our wedding last year and I was SO excited.  I was excited for all of the blenders and house things we got but decorations and pretty platters excited me the very most.  (notice the scratched paint in between the V?? yeah... SOMEONE, we won't name names *cough*tom*cough* set our microwave on top of it when we were moving in (a week after I got it!!!) I might have shed a tear or two. But it didn't stop me from putting it up!).... and no, I couldn't fix it because I doubt I would be able to match that paint exactly. Oh well.

So that's what I have so far. Other than my porch... which I will show you later.

Christmas

This is going to be a quick post because it's finals week and it's a miracle I decorated let alone am I posting it. 

We don't have much room for a tree so I didn't want to buy one specially for this house. So we found a little mom and pop place that sells real trees for $1.75 a foot. Now they weren't the most full, beautiful trees but for 13$ we got ourselves one that fits perfectly in our tiny living room. 

Now some would call this a Charlie Brown Christmas tree but it fit the old fashioned look I was going for perfectly.

I could literally carry it with one hand it is so tiny and light!! (Sorry for the dark pic)

My mother in law has amazing taste and tons of beautiful decorations and she told me I could come borrow some of hers for this tree. Without her we would look poor and sad. Seriously. This was it with what I had. 

I strung some cranberries while we watched a movie and I had a few ornaments. And this is it after I raided Laurie's storage room:

Charlie Brown no more!!! She had tons of pretty fillers and ornament strands... It's perfect!!

And here is my little Christmas vignette. If I get time I'll give you individual details later.

And the view from the couch. Seriously we were watching walking dead tonight and I caught myself staring at the tree and fireplace. And it was an intense episode. Soooo sitting here doing homework all day tomorrow won't be as bad.

And did I mention the smell?? I picked up a bag of cinnamon pinecones and those mixed with the pine tree... No candles needed!!! Mmmmm Christmas is my favorite smell of the year.

Bringing the outdoors in. (literally)

 So, I have a couple of simple and super cheap projects for you today.  Back in like May, I collected all of these sticks around my yard.  I had the intention of doing this project back then but... well... here we are. They sat in a little vase on my shelf for months and the other night I had my glue gun out and decided to just give it a go.

Have you guys seen those driftwood balls people are putting everywhere?? They have really caught my eye. So I thought I would try to re-create one but with random sticks from my yard.

 I started by making a weird cross thing like this. It will be the base to your ball and hopefully keep it fairly round.  Try to use 3 straight sticks that are really close in length. Otherwise you might have an ovalish ball. I used hot glue and it worked great for this project.  I didn't take any pics of the process because I was on a roll... (I'm good at making stupid puns) Anyways.  I just glued in a ball type shape. All around my cross formation I started with.

I think it took me about an hour, but I was also watching tv and if you know me, I tend to get sucked in... Like, don't turn on the tv on a first date if you want to talk because I will tune you out so hard, kind of sucked in.  It can be embarrassing (for me) and frustrating (for Tom) "Oh, what?? You've been telling me a story for the last 20 minutes?? Yeah, totally listening that whole time."  Tom has learned to quiz me after and 90% of the time, I fail.

 Anyways. What I'm trying to say, is it didn't take long at all.

Now I can set her anywhere I need some nature in my house. Like on a stack of books.

Or on my mantle... You get the point.  She's cute and she fits in almost anywhere. Now go start collecting sticks.

Next we have an ALMOST fail.  I bought a straw wreath form at the DI (Utah's goodwill) for $1 and decided I would try my hand at a pinecone wreath. Anyone else obsessed with pinecones this season??

I went to a local park where there are TONS of pine trees and picked up a giant bag of pinecones.  Now here is the catch. I picked them up right as the sun was setting so all I could really see were dark spots. I would pick one up, examine it, and if it had one good side, in my bag it went.  I brought the bag home and started glueing away. Again, I used hot glue for this.  Worked great.  I made sure to alternate the directions of the pinecones... bottoms up, tops up, side down, just picking what end looked best. Super easy.  Halfway through, I saw something move in my bag. A GIANT daddy long leg was in there with my pinecones.  I am deathly afraid of spiders of any kind.  If I see one, I have nightmares that night and don't sleep well. So I was freaking out.  First off, I picked it up to put it in the bag, second off, it was in my house. Tom wasn't home so I dumped out the bag and hurried and stepped on it.  Super scary you guys.  I never kill spiders.  I have gone as far as going to get my neighbor to come kill a spider. No matter the size.  I can't gamble that I might miss and it might crawl on my hand or shoe. Okay. So spider killed, it took me a lot longer to finish the wreath as I had to kick around each pinecone before picking it up to glue it on the wreath.  I wouldn't suggest this.  It made my house VERY messy. I'm sorry, I'm babbling now.

My saga isn't over yet. Once it was done, I posted a pic of it to my instagram.  One of my friends commented that I had to bake the pinecones to kill all of the little bugs that live inside it. WHAT?! Suddenly I hated my wreath.  It literally scared me.  I used hot glue and straw so baking was out of the question.  So I put it in a garbage bag and put it in the freezer over night.  And then I went to bed and didn't sleep because I thought bugs were crawling all over me.  Literally you guys, I got 3 hours of sleep.  Should I seek counseling? I dunno.  But I did manage to sneak out of the house dressed like a homeless person (in the random things that were on my livingroom floor) at 7 am to get donuts for Tom and I.  I never get there that early and all of my favorite flavors that are normally sold out (blueberry!!) were still there. So that was good.  And I managed to get the courage to hang the wreath inside my house.  I just don't think about it and cross my fingers the freezer killed the bugs...

I love how all of the different shapes, sizes, and colors look once combined.  Very organic.  I was planning on collecting more and making like, tons of pinecone things but after that whole bug fiasco, I just can't. One bug wreath is enough for me.

And in case you do decide to brave it and make one,  learn from me, BAKE THEM FIRST.

350 for 30 minutes.  And then send me pictures of your creations.

How do you feel about bringing a touch of the outdoors inside? Would you do it?

What is your favorite way?

Some random things

So first off, hey.  It's been awhile.  But to me, it doesn't feel like it's been that long.  The past few weeks have been non stop.  Between Halloween, House-sitting for a week, being out of town, and school.... Well I forgot about blogging. Until Tom said "You haven't blogged in forever. You should probably blog." Right. So, there you go. I would like to thank Tom, my blogging policeman for making this post happen.

Sitting on the couch one night and Stella comes up, sits next to me, and flops backwards onto my lap so she's on her back and I'm holding her like a baby. (you can see all 4 feet in the air above^)  This isn't the first time this has happened.

And then she proceeded to snore for the next while.  Kid at heart, I tell you.

We carved pumpkins with some of our friends.  Guess which one is mine.

Hint: It's the simple one. ;)

Halloween costume 1.  The party was zombie themed and so much fun!

Costume 2.  I put this together day of.  Because I'm on top of things like that.

(shark and swimmer)

Costume 3.  This was on Halloween night and these were the things we found in Tom's parents closet. Put together 20 min before our friends were over.

(bikers)

So... this year, I didn't really plan our costumes out, which we ended up wearing 3 different ones.  Next year, I'm planning it out.  Because 3 costumes was ridiculous. (even though they all took little to no effort)

Stella loves watching me do my makeup.  So the other day, I drew some eyebrows on her with white eyeliner so she could participate.   haha I thought it was hilarious.

Thrifting with my mom.  I was in LOVE with this brass coffee table.  It was super heavy and the good, expensive kind of brass.  It would have needed to be shined up and fixed a little but I wanted it... Oh if only we had the space.

6 years ago we went out to visit my sis and bro in law when they lived in D.C.  My parents bought these copies of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights to frame. Well... last week we finally made that happen.  We found 2 identical frames at the thrift store for $3, sprayed them and the mats black and then mounted them.  Since they are different and odd sizes my mom wasn't sure how to mount them or if she should get mats specially cut (hence the 6 year waiting period) but I said nay, just mount them on top of the mats and there we had them. $6 and 10 minutes later.

Found this thrifting the other day and I'm wishing I would have bought it.  It was huge and so pretty.

My parents recently renovated their office... You should see the before.  I have been spending some time thrifting with my mom and helping them put the finishing touches on it.  They still need a desk but it's coming along!  I helped her hang a gallery wall last week.

I laid everything out on the floor to get an idea of how it would look.  I made sure to measure the wall before so the layout would fit.  We found 4 van Gogh prints at the DI for $4 each!!! I was soo excited.  They were already framed in these pretty gold frames so it was perfect.  We sort of centered her wall around 2 of them. I have learned that the key to a good gallery wall is simple frames and lots of different sizes, shapes and orientations. If you stick with black, white, gold and some silver for the frames they won't take away from your artwork or look too busy. Also hanging some landscape, some portrait, and having some square really helps.  I tried to just balance it out so there wasn't a clump of white frames and a clump of black frames but they were all mixed in.  Otherwise it could end up looking awkwardly heavy in some parts. 

Here it is hung up.  We still need to add a row or 2 to the bottom because I want it to be floor to ceiling but doesn't it just add SO much to the room? Almost all frames were thrifted (a few she had on hand and we sprayed them to fit in) We did a mix of art and family pictures so that it would have sentimental value.  I will do a separate post with close ups once it is done.  

What do you think?  I have done a few gallery walls and this one is my favorite by far.

Can't wait to show you all the office once it's complete!!

We just need to get her a desk and style her book shelves.

(Thrifting all of the items takes time!)

Ps... I didn't really measure.  I measured the top row all out so it would be evenly spaced to each edge but the rest I just held up and marked with a pencil where the nail should go and hammered away.   It worked out well and I didn't have to move any nails around like I thought I might.

Inspiration

Since I am out of town, I thought I would give you a little inspiration.

Here are a few things I've pinned on Pinterest lately.

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I have been ALL about the antlers lately.  I told my Sister-in-law that when we come to Mesa my only goal is to find a cow skull or something.  We'll see how my luck turns out.

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I love this bathroom.  You can never go wrong with gold fixtures.  And those penny tiles add such a great detail. So good.

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How beautiful is that coffee table?? I can't wait to have a home with some space to add the things I really love.

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I am officially on the hunt for stools like these. I love geometric shapes.

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That painting is just so moody and I like it.  Besides, how easy would that be to re-create? And I'm sure it would be for pennies.

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Open shelving has my heart.  Especially open shelving with an equestrian vibe.

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This is my dream bathroom right here.  I think you all know how much I love black and gold.  Add some white subway tiles, marble, beautiful lanterns, and glam mirrors and I will live in here.

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Once again, space.  This is such a great side table.  I love how simply it is styled.  I need that black and white vase--- or to recreate it.  Yeah? Yeah??

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I have been obsessed with maps and globes lately.  I'm thinking I need to frame some maps for our house... next house that is. I'm out of walls here. 

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Blue!! I LOVE these tiles, and with those blue laquered vanities... mmmm good.

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Simplicity is golden.  This black and white kitchen is perfect.

I hope you enjoy these!  To see more, follow my Pinterest

Have a great weekend!