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.