Christmas Decor Roundup 2013

As is the theme of this year I just wasn’t too motivated to bring out much of my Christmas decor. For me what I put out this year isn’t really very much. I probably only have about a third of what I had out last year. So, if you want to see some better Christmas spirit go check out last years decor.

So now that I’d said my disclaimer here it goes. You’ve probably already seen the new addition for this year which was the nativity canvas set.

Continuing around the family room I just set out a couple of the snow globes that I had on the console table.

Last year before we put our artificial tree away we actually pulled off all the lights which was painful and time consuming. This year I just threw up some colored lights since it was different but I didn’t really like how they turned out. I think next year I will go back to the white lights.

I put up the nativity that Chris bought me last year. Of course I was too lazy to find an extension cord so I can’t actually turn on the lights that are around the garland.

Moving in the entryway the Bethlehem nativity went up again.

Of course I had to put out the snow baby Eeyore that I got from my brother many years back.

In the living room I cleared off a spot on the picture ledges and put up one of my Christmas villages that I got from my mom. Of course I did clear off another little spot on another shelf and apparently never found anything to fill that back in with.

Since it was easy I did put up a couple things on top of the china cabinets in the living room.

The last things that I put out were just on the telephone table in the entry.

It was really hard to be motivated with Thanksgiving being so late this year and having family here all weekend. Just like last year it took me all week to put up just this and then it was only a couple weeks until Christmas. It just didn’t feel worth the effort.

On the other had Chris surprised me and wanted to put lights up on the house again this year. After last year we threw away the lights we had since they were mostly burned out. We did a little searching around and found about four sets of large white LED lights to put up. We met up with some friends of ours a couple of weekends ago and Zach was nice enough to climb around on the roof with Chris to put up all the lights.

Since we also have the new deck this year Chris couldn’t resist putting up some of the extra lights we had on the back deck as well.

I know the next picture is dark but I couldn’t resist sharing just one more photo of our first snow of the season that we had a few days ago.

Have you gone all out with Christmas decor this year or do you prefer to keep things simple and modest?

Nativity Canvas Art

Last winter I wanted to switch out my canvases in our family room to something more season appropriate but I just never got around to it. Here is a reminder of what the set has looked like:

A couple of months ago I got it in my head that I wanted to do it this year so I grabbed 2 8×10 canvases and 2 11×14 canvases. I decided that I wanted to do something that was centered around the nativity.

I pulled out a sample pot of Martha Stewart’s Azurite (MSL 167) to use as a background. It’s actually the same color I used on the front door and it is a little darker than the kitchen so I thought it would blend well with my decor.

Next I found some shapes that I liked on the Silhouette Online Store and used scrap paper to test the sizes and placement for all the  shapes.

It took a lot of tries but I finally figured out how I wanted everything and got the fonts to look the way I wanted them on the quote. By the way the quote is from a song by Jars of Clay called “Love Came Down at Christmas”.

After I finally figured out how large I wanted the shapes I had to decided what papers to cut everything from.

Once everything was cut I was ready to figure out how to attach it all to the canvases. I honestly got a little frustrated when trying to adhere the papers to the canvas and I think I lost motivation to take any photos. Basically I ended up having to use a glue stick to glue the shapes down and then I covered it all with mod podge to seal it. Since the mod podge is so wet it ended up bubbling some of the papers especially on some of the larger pieces. It’s hard to tell in the photos but in person it’s a little more noticeable.

I do like how it turned out in the end it just didn’t go as smoothly as I had originally hoped. It is really nice though to have something more fitting for the Christmas season.

I guess it’s just another case of my ideas being more grand than what I am able to accomplish. Has anyone else made a project lately and had high expectations than you weren’t able to achieve?

Christmas Decor Roundup

I know that it’s after the new year and I’ve actually already put most of my Christmas decor away but here goes it anyway.

This past year my mom passed down quite a few Christmas decorations, so with the extra stuff and the fact that I was decorating a much bigger house than ever had before I got a little frustrated with trying to put it all together. Since we were gone the whole Thanksgiving weekend I didn’t get a chance to really bring much out then. Instead I started bringing boxes down on Monday night and I think it took until through the next weekend to actually finish (aka I called it good and gave up).

I sort of went with two colors themes in the house. Wintery blue, silver and white for the living, dining and entry. Red and green in the kitchen and family room.

In the entry Chris helped me put up some garland which we wrapped in white lights. I added the lanterns which were left over from our wedding along with some ribbons and snowflake picks I already had. I also picked up a few sparkly blue and white berry picks from Micheal’s on sale.

I moved the pictures I had on the long shelf in the entry and put up the nativity that I got from my mom. I also added some vases with snow and ornaments in them.

Above the coat rack I intended to make a new canvas painting that just never happened. I guess it’s something I can do for next year.

I added some more ornaments and a figurine to the other shelves in the entry.

On top of the china cabinet I had some of my porcelain doll angles I collected when I was younger with some more snow and ornaments in a vase. I had enough blue, silver and white ornaments for an entire tree, which I didn’t do this year, so instead I put the ornaments all over the room.

On the window sill in the living room I put a few more lanterns and some light wrapped garland.

On top of the other cabinet was another doll and more ornaments.

I changed out a lot of what was on the picture ledges as well. I even brought Chris’ picture of Ranger down from the bonus room.

I switched out the flowers and rocks in this vase for pearls and sparkly blue and white hydrangeas. I wish that I had found the time to make new pillowcases that matched a little better but it just didn’t happen.

I added another village to the top of this cabinet and placed some other figurines inside.

The angel on that I put on the cabinet is one that I remember being around every Christmas growing up.

I picked up a few sets of led candles that turn on via a remote to use above the cabinets in our kitchen. I bought the letters around thanksgiving and meant to paint them, I even bought paint. Just another thing that just didn’t quite get done.

More candles and a wooden nativity on another cabinet.

Originally I had one of the Christmas villages all lite up and on this table. Unfortunately our cat Lily jumped up there and thought it would be fun to knock around one of the figurines, broke the head right off.

I loved how the mantle in the family room turned out. Chris bought me this rustic looking nativity for our anniversary and I added more of the led candles, which I think look better in person than in the photos.

We even switched out the photo in this frame for something a little more fitting of the winter season.

I had intentions of changing up the tree this year but it took so long to put everything up and I didn’t want to leave the tree decorated while we were gone for Christmas. I had these great fears of the cats climbing the tree and coming home to find it on the floor with broken ornaments and a broken tv.

So that being said I just put up the ribbons I had before. I picked up some more glittery green, red and white picks at Micheal’s and I thought that I would just put those on the tree but Chris really wanted the ornaments so I put a few up.

One of the few things I actually did find the time to make was a new tree skirt. The only one I had was a blue and white one that I made to go with the blue, silver and white tree. This year I wanted something more rustic and vintage looking to go with the theme of the living room.

While I was putting up a lot of stuff around the house Chris even got out and climbed around on the roof to put up lights. Unfortunately not long after this the lights on the top peak went out and then a few days later a bunch of the other ones went out too. I guess next year we’ll have to buy some new lights instead of using the old ones we got from my mom.

Christmas Knitting Complete!

Whew! That was quite a blogging break. I guess the Christmas season got me a little busier than I was expecting. I had some high hopes about posting on a bunch of Christmas related things before Christmas but that didn’t happen. Oh well, I guess I will just have to try and catch up. 

I finally finished my Christmas knitting today. I ended up making 9 pairs of socks and 4 hats.

I made a list somewhere back in October of all the things that I wanted to knit.

Then I created a list in Ravelry to keep track of all the patterns and who I wanted to make them for.

I tried to pick patterns that I thought each person might like.

I chose different yarns for each person.

Some of the patterns I had made before and like, some were new.

In the end I only ended up repeating two of the patterns.

Even though I repeated a few patterns each set of socks was unique and made with each recipient in mind.

I hope that everyone enjoys their hand knit items as much as I enjoyed making them.

If you want any more info on the socks patterns or yarns that I used you can check out my Ravelry project page.

Anyone else tackle a list of hand knit or hand made gifts this Christmas?

It’s Beginning to Look At Lot Like….

Well a mess actually.

We were gone for the weekend visiting family, eating way too much and even doing a little shopping. I couldn’t wait to get home and start getting out all the Christmas decorations. So, while we were waiting for the tow truck to come pick up our slightly broken truck I decided to use the time to bring all the boxes downstairs.

This is our  living and dining room. It’s a mess of boxes and lights.

This is the first year in our new home for Christmas and we’re pretty excited to be able to put things up in this place. This past summer my mom gave us a bunch of lights we could use so Chris is going through them all and deciding how he wants to put everything up.  In the past I have always put up a few things inside the house but we’ve never put up any lights outside since it seemed like a waste to buy lights that maybe wouldn’t work for another house.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to start putting things up yet and I knew I wouldn’t have too much time tonight so after I got all the boxes down I started by taking most of the fall type decor down.

At least it’s a start. I can’t  wait  for everything to start coming together and to have all the twinkly lights all over the house!

Do you like to break out your Christmas decor the day after Thanksgiving? Or do you like to wait a little longer?