These Are A Few of My Favorite Things...

Family Gatherings and Christmas Morning

As the days are inching closer to Christmas I’m still perusing my favorite blogs and finding way to many decorating ideas that I love.  For those of you that have blogs you follow there is a great app called Bloglovin’ where all of those blogs can be followed from one place. It’s very easy to use and it’s a great way to find new blogs to follow.   I could list several of my favorites here but that may be a post for another day. In the meantime here’s a few of my favorite things. 

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year.  It’s a time of year that is full of love, goodness, caring and giving.  It’s also a time to decorate our homes and a time to make friends and family feel welcomed into our home.  

For several years now it has been a tradition that we get up early, open gifts and then cook breakfast for our family. Some arrive in their PJ’s, still sporting their best bed head hairdo (this includes adults) and others have already dressed so that they are ready to move on to the next meal.  I guess you can tell it’s not a fancy event but it is one of my most favorite mornings of the year.

Normally it’s a paper plate kind of morning but this year I decided to fancy it up a bit after I found these at one of my favorite places to shop for home goods, World Market.  By the way they just opened one in Lexington...I’m so excited!  Be sure to visit their website and sign up for their rewards program which has all kinds of membership benefits and best of all it's free.  You get member pricing as well as special discounts and did I mention its FREE to sign up...free is always good.

They may cost a little more than paper plates but over the next couple of years I would have spent that much on the disposable plates. I'm also using a set as our everyday dishes too so that makes it even more of a bargain.

We usually do what I call assembly line dishing, you know, the one where you carry your plate around and fill it up from the multiple dishes of food sitting on the kitchen island.  Well, guess what...we'll do that again but I do love to set my table and pretend that this is how it will be.

I'm loving the look of my place settings.  Just in case you need another reason to shop World Market these placemats came from there and work so well with the tablescape.  They come in a set of four and are available in two different colors.

I do love to shop and shopping local is something I try to do as often as possible.  For the past three years I have been buying Christmas plates from one of my favorite Kentucky pottery shops.  I don't buy a full set but instead I buy three or four and mix and match them on my table.  

  This amazing little shop is called Dirty South Pottery and is located in Winchester.  They have a shop there in town and they set up at local arts and crafts markets but in case you can't make it to shop in person you can always shop their Etsy Shop.

This year I'm thinking everyone will leave with their own personalized ornament.  They are inexpensive to make and add such a personal touch.  I thought I would use them as a place setting card but truth is we just aren't that formal in my family.  That doesn't mean I can't make one for each person to take home with them though.  I'll post the how to a little later this week and yes even though it's getting close to Christmas Day there is still time make them.  

If you don't have a step of stamps to stamp the names on with you could always leave them plain.  I'm sure your family and friends will appreciate the personal touch and thoughtfulness of them.

And yes our newest addition to the family won't need his own plate this year but of course he gets a little something with his name on it.

This little tree has been one of my very favorite Christmas decorations since I got it a few years ago and this year I think it makes the perfect center piece.  The minature ornaments remind me of vintage Shiny Brites and they are still available for purchase at Anthropologie.  After looking for the perfect little tree to hang them on and almost giving up the search I luckily found this little beauty in Lexington at Decorator Warehouse at an end of season sale.  

I can't wait to have family gathered around the table on Christmas morning.  Hearing the laughter of the little ones and the big ones too always makes me happy.  

Here's a sneak peak of the place cards/ornaments.  As you can see they are not perfect and some may not even be intact now...anyway hopefully I can get that post up this week.  Hope you all have a great week

Looks Like Frosty Has A Wife

My daughters school project last year lead to this charming little snow couple.  She was supposed to create something using recycled materials so this is what we came up with.  Maybe we need to make another couple so they can have some friends.

The project was really easy and of course inexpensive considering they are made using recycled materials. 

This is how they started out.

Frosty was the first one we made but since he was so handsome we thought he needed a girlfriend.

Scrap fabric for his hat and scarf, the berry and greenery were from some old Christmas decorations, the eyes are cuttings from where we trimmed some candles wicks, toothpicks were used for the nose and arms (no they were not recycled they were new), the wax was candle making wax to which we added some old and broken white crayons and a little glitter to make him sparkle.

Same thing for Crystal (remember the movie where he got married).  Her hat is actually from some old dress up/play clothes of my daughters, pearls from an old play pearl necklace and her scarf was some left over/scrap ribbon.  The eyes, nose and arms are the same as Frosty's.

Now we have a couple of new items to use for our Christmas decorating and by the way she got an A+ on her assignment and we had fun working together to make them.  Here's a little shot of the happy couple together.

In the words of Parson Brown "I now pronounce you snowman and wife".

Hope you enjoy and hopefully we can make some real Frosty and Crystals soon.

Im linking up to:

 

Valentine Hearts

Finally finished another of our Valentines Day decorations that Emily and I have been working on for the last week.  You would think we could work a little faster but with the beautiful weekend that we had we just couldn't quite focus on inside projects. 

Don't have a lot of pics to post that show the project from start to finish so if you have any questions just let me know.  I have already purchased more supplies to make a few more of the hearts....may need to give a little valentine to my friends.  Hope you enjoy...

Valentines Day Decorations

Emily and I have spent the day crafting together...so much fun when I get to spend the day with my girl!!  She and I have been working on a couple of projects today all in preperation for the upcoming "LOVE Day".  Here is one of the projects we have worked on, the other one is not finished yet.  I have seen similar projects for this on other blogs but we added our own little variations.  Hope you enjoy it and that it inspires you to create your own Valentines Day decorations and to share that time and experience with someone you love.

This is a artist board that we had used in an earlier project that Emily had outgrown.

Got this frame at the thrift store for $1.99.

You'll see the black and white fabric used in one of the other projects.

Ended up having to use the gemstones from the big bucket instead of the package ones.

Here is the finished project, still working on the other projects and will share them when they are complete.