The Spirit of Snoopy

We have about 4,856 excuses for not having a Christmas tree for our first Christmas together.  Most of them revolve around sickness and storage space.

So if you gave us an ornament, it didn’t make it up this year (Except for Amy and Ricky’s- it’s on our centerpiece) until I was wrapping presents in the bike room the other day for what seemed like forever, and I just decided that even though it has been a pretty mucky holiday season thus far, we were going to have a tree dadgummit!

This is what happens when I’m locked in a room by myself for too long.  Tissue paper, cardboard, and the ornaments we got from parties and parents…tree of the year.  I am a preschooler. 

Dare to Deck the Halls

This weekend I did my first sewing project, like, ever, for the Dare to Deck the Halls entry.  I had to drive 45 minutes to my mom’s house just to use her machine.  That’s how much I sew.  None.

Anyways.

DC and I are in an apartment as I have mentioned, leaving little room for Christmas decorations 1. because if we decorated the whole place we wouldn’t have a lot of room to walk and 2. because we have no place to store said decorations after Christmas.  This really has nothing to do with my project except for the fact that I made stockings and when I brought them home, the only place we could find to hang them was

above the bike room door frame.

 

I hope Santa is tall.  Excuse the horrible pictures…I took these this morning on my way to work in-between drying my hair and eating breakfast.

I found this post on Blissfully Domestic (one of my favorites minus the cheesy title…no offense) and it seemed simple enough.  She used a tighter-woven sweater which gives you more of a shape, but I have always liked the “old sock” look for stockings.  (Plus, when you’re looking for sweaters to cut up, it’s not like you have a ton of options.  Right?)  When I got to my mom’s house, though, the only stocking I found to trace was so wide that it looked like it would fit DC’s foot (ba-dum-ching!), so these turned out bigger, or wider, than I wanted.

In addition, my dad was leaving to go to his Christmas party while I was at their house, and he kept calling me down to help him pick out what he was going to wear.  So, I was distracted.  Not that I’m making excuses for why they’re not perfect…because I actually like them a lot.

Big Time!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
We had a great time with my family and we're headed over to Devin's family Thanksgiving today. I don't think I can fit anything else in my stomach, but I'll down some good stuff I'm sure.

I am really excited...

Centsational Girl is featuring my tree centerpiece on her blog today!
I'm a big fan of her stuff, so it's a pretty cool deal.

Check it out!

Winter/Christmas Centerpiece for a Small Space

This week’s Dare to DIY

Dare to entertain…Show Us Your Table

Along with about 90% of the female population, I love Christmas and I love to decorate for Christmas. With husband and I living in an apartment in our first year though, we don’t have a whole lot of room to store such things. So, this year I wanted to make something that could be easily stored or discarded and remade for next year.

The husband and I went branch hunting earlier this week and found exactly what I had pictured. While I worked late and ran some important (like buying decorations important) errands, Devin made a paint booth out of a box and painted the branch for me. That’s $.99 spray paint, you guys.

After the branch dried outside, I got everything together to get this branch in the vase aka tissue cover. This was, like, the greatest find ever at Homegoods. I couldn’t find ANYTHING I liked ANYWHERE and then, there it was, with a beam of light shining on it.

I have never been more thankful to be married to an engineer because I am pretty sure I would have screwed this up without his help. We made a hole in the foam with the blade of his hack saw rather than trying to shove the branch straight into it.

I covered the top of the “vase” with Spanish moss, you know, to make it look like this branch is growing out of that tissue cover. But, really, it gave it the sort of rustic look I love.

Then I just hung some small silver ornaments and some crystals, both from the local craft store on pre-season clearance.

And Voila.

I did pick up some new Christmas linens at Crate and Barrel with leftover gift cards from our wedding. I love free stuff.

I love it love it love it. It was very affordable, it fits our little table so perfectly, and the branch can be chunked and easily be remade next year.

Now if Houston would bring on some winter weather, I might actually feel like Christmas is upon us!

Dare to Be Thankful

For the Dare to DIY week 1, I decided to make something that I knew we would use and that reflected one of my favorite hobbies.

Wine.

So, I made some fallly Thanksgivingy wine tags.

Because my family likes some wine on Thanksgiving.

And because I don’t want anyone drinking my wine.

These were super easy, and I think they turned out pretty good. I just got some clearance leaves from a local craft store- I think I paid $1 for all of them, and I bought some hoop earrings in the jewelry making section. If you need some, my package came with 60. I do not need 60 of these.

Enough beads to last me long enough to pass them down to my grandchildren? Check.

Prepare for borderline bad pictures…

Pick a bead that has a bigger hole- the leaf and the ring have to go through that one.

Make sure to bend the end so they don’t come apart.

I might find a different way to put the names/initials on them- I don't know if I am a fan of the gold paint. Maybe a stamp? Maybe just different color leaves for each person.

I like them.

Cheers!