Oh By Gosh, By Golly... It's Beginning To Look A Little Jolly

Sorry to be MIA so long. Between the sinus infection that just won't go away and the holidays, time has slipped by. I was so on top of Fall and the decor to go with it and now way behind on posts for Christmas. Forgive me for that. There are so many cute posts all over blogland right now. I'm going to link up with The DIY Showoff at the bottom. Be sure to pop on over and view the fantastic blogs showing their craftiness this holiday season. Grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and join me for a whimsical tour of our condo decked out for the holidays. I have no doubt I'll be re-arranging things up to Christmas Eve (except for the hearth and table), but you can see what I've done so far. This year, it is very whimsical.

It has been way too cold in Atlanta this December and we had icy conditions during rush hour last night, shutting down many of our highways and stranding commuters for hours. I was trying to be a good samaritan to one of our neighbors who is single. She turned into our parking area (we are in a condo community) and where you turn, it's sharp and it follows a hill. The ice was too much and she slammed into the curb. Thankfully, she was OK and a neighbor moved her car for her, but in my quest to help her, I stepped off the grass onto the asphalt and yep, you guessed it... my feet went out from under me straight up in the air. I landed on my backside and hit the back of my head. Today, I'm very stiff and moving around like a 90 year-old. I'm on pain meds, icing my head, and heating my back. The ice has thankfully gone away today. My doctor has said I most likely have a very mild concussion. Good grief, Charlie Brown! On with the post...

While I have not posted as I decorated, I have been working on a few projects. One project is a repurpose. I purchased 3 small waxed pumpkins around Halloween. Because they are waxed, they last so long. I painted the stems gold, painted the pumpkins with green acrylic paint (only Christmas color I had on hand) and added red bows. My 3 pumpkins are now 3 "ornaments" for display. Below are the Before & After...





Pin It


Here's one on display under our entry table. I also spelled out "Merry Christmas" with Scrabble tiles on the table. Purchased the game and all tiles for $2 at a recent thrift store visit with my sister, Kathi. No worries, my three pumpkins (um, I mean ornaments) will be tossed after the holidays.



Onto Reveal #2. It's simple and anyone can do it {just like anyone can paint pumpkins}. I took a 3-inch white pillar candle and some Christmas rub-ons. I did not know if rub-ons would work with the wax, but they did. I also added a rub-on (Ho, Ho, Ho) on another candle (no photo yet for that one). Here it is...





Pin It


And now our Mantel. Well... Our entire hearth, actually. I decided against re-using the wine bottles I used {remember my earlier post about them and they spelled out THANKS?}. I used 3 cylinder candle vases (the ones I used in the fall with the leaves and LED pillars). I found some sheet music online (O Holy Night), printed it landscape on vellum sheets (use fast draft setting to print on vellum and let dry), wrapped around each cylinder, and took glitter foam letters that spell J-O-Y. I decorated our garland with ball ornaments, put Christmas lights in the fireplace :), and set up the 2 pre-lit (white lights) porch trees my husband bought me on each side of the fireplace. I added blue lights since I had them already from a small group retreat.I told him it was my nod to his family's team, UNC. His alma mater is actually Auburn (War Eagle!). Our 3 stockings were also hung (we bought a matching one for our dog, Kiley, this year). No big tree for us (there's no room in our condo, really) and less for me to put up and take down. :) Notice the rub-on white pillar on the left side of the mantel?



And a close-up shot of the candles...



Pin It


Here's what I did for our table. Simple. Some tapestry placemats with a snow couple that say, "Let It Snow", white flour sack napkins, candles of all types, a Publix S&P shaker snow couple, a vintage santa & tree S&P set from my hubby's paternal grandmother and the table is set with her china and glasses. From the chande, I put candy canes and a few silvery ornaments hung from it (not in photo). I also decorated the top of our corner cabinet.



Ignore the gift bag behind the table. That thing tempts me everyday. It's for me from dear hubby. We have yet to move it with the other presents for family. My card writing stack is on top of the stool that I should have cleared prior to snapping the photo. :)



The coat closet doors even got decorated. I could not get far enough away for a full shot. I have 2 felt bags with snowmen hanging from the doorknobs. We are into snowmen, can't you tell?!? ;)



Our Sunroom even has a few added touches. A die-cut rustic reindeer over the door and the candlescape has three pearl candy canes hanging from the three candle sconces...





A few random chairs have been decorated...

The director's chair that holds a few blankets and some pillows now holds Snoopy, the Grinch, and Rudolph, too. Also provides extra seating, if needed.



And the rocking chair that my husband's AU blanket rests on is now holding 2 snowmen, Cupid (reindeer) a felt Merry Christmas bag and a girly Santa hat.



I even decorated my husband's toy chest from childhood (holds a few seasonal books and seasonal table linens now)...



And I love this cute little 14-inch rug I found at Target on the cheap. Where to place...where to place...



I'll add more photos when I finish the breakfast bar (it's a crafting area at the moment), our coffee table, and the chairs in the sunroom that my gift wrap supplies are blocking. :)

Thanks for reading my post and following my blog! You make me smile with your sweet comments and e-mails every time I open them. May your holidays be merry & bright...

Help a Stranger
Praise a Child
Light a Candle
Share Your Love
Sing For Joy
Lend a Hand
Pray For Peace
Understand

Here's my link-up list:



May our Savior's love fill your hearts with joy this Christmas Holiday & always,

It's the Great Pumpkin, Ya'll!

I feel certain this is my final fall tutorial. ;S For 2010, that is. I started in August, after all. I have 2 tutorials below. They are easy peasy!

Fall Candlescapes that I will use through Thanksgiving...

I simply took what I already had and threw it together. This project used (3) 7.5" cylinder vases from Dollar Tree (these were used in our wedding as well as a baby shower I co-hosted this month for a dear friend), (3) LED 6" pillar candles. These were a gift from a dear friend for our wedding {even better that they are vanilla scented}, fall leaves (I think I purchased a bunch at Publix for $3, which you can also find at the craft stores), fabric fall leaves that I double-side taped onto the LED pillars. No worries, it will come off like a charm. Once inside the vase, I inserted 3 of the fall leaves from the bunch. I used LED pillars because I won't have to worry about the leaves catching on fire and I can simply pull each pillar out to turn it on. Piece of cake! Below are Candles 1, 2, and 3. The final reveal is after the pumpkin tutorial as I took pix of both together on our mantel.





Now for the Pumpkins... I'm not big into Halloween Decor so I mainly decorate for fall and Thanksgiving. However, for those of you out there who decorate for both, this tutorial is still applicable. I bought (3) pumpkins from Dollar Tree. They were ugly, and I mean ugly. I originally wanted to prime them and paint them Heirloom White so they would resemble all those white pumpkins I've been crushing on since last year. Well, I just did not have it in me to do all that spray painting before or after the shower I co-hosted earlier this month. I had sprayed one as a test with Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) but it was too black for what I wanted. I started painting another one in a cream acrylic paint. Not feelin' the love... Then it hit me ~ I love my Metallics acrylic paint in Rich Espresso Brown. Why not paint them with that? To get a good base, I painted them first with Patio Paint in Chocolate Brown. Below are the pix with the 3rd pumpkin being the only one that had just the Patio Paint and Metallic Paint on it. The others had ORB & cream acrylic paint on them first.





And now for the reveal... No, I don't plan on leaving the pumpkins here as they don't really fit but it works for the sake of snapping a photo. Nice streak on the bottom of our mirror that I need to wipe down again. :) The only thing I don't like about how they turned out is you can see a line in the middle of each one where it was in its mold. I'm thinking some ribbon will take care of camouflaging. You get what you pay for, but they are cute nonetheless. You cannot tell the candles are on since it is daytime but they are cute, too.



Pin It


I'm linking up to Hope Studio's Tutorial Tuesday! You can view this and other fabulous tutorials on their blog.


I'm also linking up to Sugar Bee's Take a Look Tuesday, too. Check out all the other bloggers on her site, too.


I'm also linking up to "Toot Your Horn Tuesday" at The Silly Little Sparrow's blog.

I'm linking to "The Halloween Pumpkin Parade Party" at the Fabulous Under The Table & Dreaming blog.




Also linking to the Fall Festival at The DIY Show Off. Another fabulous blog with so many creative bloggers.


And finally... Sister Sister Sunday @ Kuzak's Closet So many delicious things on this blog.

Sister Sister Sunday

Remember... Keep it simple, keep it crafty, keep it frugal, keep it fabulous, & keep it fun!