a Christmas Rental home

So i have been going a bit christmas decorating crazy lately..hehehe. I think I am just so excited that this time next year we should be in our forever home. So I am gearing up for that. Whatever I make now, can go in that house. And I makes me so happy to just think that its coming closer. Building permit in hand folks, we should start in the spring.! Hip Hip Hooray!!!

 these pix show more of a orange color to the ribbons on the tree. In person they are actually gold. I am still working on my indoor picture taking skills. Perhaps next year I will attempt making my own tree skirt. Or maybe if I get bored this year;-)

my great grandmothers old danish plate. It reads 'hjemme er bedst". ~ to be home is best.
My grandma says that she always remembers that her mom had it on her wall in Denmark as far back as she can recall. I now use it for a tree ornament. :-) It belonged to the Grandmother that my girls got their red hair from.

 Its been so fun decorating with natural elements...I have done this the past few years, and I dont think I could ever go back to not using real pine in my home. I do have a few faux pieces too. And I love those too. But there is just something nostalgic about the "real".

 Love me some pomegranates!

 My santa baby collection. I took these pixs of my babies on their first christmas'. They are one of my most treasured holiday decorations:-)

My sweet hubs surprise antique compass that he brought home for me one day...

 "S" cup that ONLY Santa can use on Christmas Eve...

 For the baby pictures I have their names and the year they were taken. Its fun to see how much they have grown. And makes me want my babies little again!

 Above, my 3 tier stand that I found this past summer. I have been looking ALL over for this particular one for YEARS now and I came across it online by chance one day. I about died! I sooooooo love it.

 The JOY banner was from last year. I made it, with one of Shanty 2 Chics free downloads. Love their style.

I added some of my crystal metal ornaments onto the chandelier...its pretty I think.
(please dont mind the odd light bulbs!lol, this is a rental folks;-) And this lamp is NOT centered over the dining table, which drives me CRAZY because it looks so odd. I wanted to add some greenery to it, but it just made me mad that it is off to the side of the table. And that would add more oddness to it. Oh well....lol.

Advent Candle Calender

This year I made a simple advent calender to count down the 4 sundays before Christmas. The usual tradition in Denmark is to make a wreath and place the candles on top of it. Well, I didn't have the time this year to make a wreath, so i just used some bottles and candles, placed them in my old antique sewing machine drawer with some hazelnuts for filler. I covered the ``coca cola``  on the bottles just with some plain brown paper. I couldn't decide on what to wrap them in, so it just ended up like this. Kind of half done I think..but i now have an easy alternative to the Advent wreath for next year. Perhaps next year I will wrap with some jute or the like....

My children truly have LOVED this tradition, of lighting one candle every sunday up to Christmas. We light the candle /candles, than turn off all the lights in the house, sing christmas carols...and just enjoy the ``light`` these little candles bring.


Super easy....and I love it;-)

This is our song book we use. (Given to my husband and I on our first christmas` together, Thanks Farmor (Grandma)!

Next week by this time it will be CHRISTMAS EVE! Eeeeeee :-)

We are beyond excited in this house. :-)

Merry Christmas...

hugs
cat

Evergreen & Pine Garland {live}

Oh yes, I wish I had a beautiful wooden front door, with beautiful trim and several transom windows....but alas I do not. 

But that WILL NOT stop me from adorning our current humble front door with Christmas Cheer! :-) I made this Evergreen garland VERY easily using blue spruce twigs, green wire and pinecones. I attached the long pieces of evergreen together with the wire {ouch}! lol. Than did the same with the pine cones. hung it up be simply hammering a few nails in the doorway so it had something to "hang" on to. SO EASY!

I think it is SO pretty and I am SOO happy how it turned out:-)

{oh and this was all free}

thanks mother nature! I will forever be doing this for some festive front door decor! 

Here it is, with my PB inspired Swag.

 These urns looked so sad and empty now that their flowers were sleeping for the winter. So I just filled them with the greenery leftovers I had. {even had a few holy branches too, to add}. And than a few logs to add some texture. 

And here is one of two little lights we have next to our front door. I added some greenery and a big silver $ store bow. Done. {it did have more evergreen behind it earlier in the week...but a BIG record breaking windstorm swept it away.} Lets just say I am lucky my garland is still in tact.... not to mention our roof!

I Love these homemade evergreen garlands SO much I dont EVER want to take it down!! 

And here's to the day when I will have a pretty wooden front door..with my Transom windows.:-)

Aluminum {mercury glass inspired} Christmas Ornaments...DIY

I keep seeing these branches spray painted white so I had to give a go at it myself! So I found my branch {one that I used for both my halloween AND thanksgiving decor this year}. Spray painted it. 

Than hung it up with some fish string. Its so cool, because its "invisible". Next I added a few homemade foil paper ornaments! haha! I know what you are thinking...tacky! Oh well, I like how they turned out, they remind me of old mercury glass or old metal. 

 To make the flat ornaments I took a square piece of foil. 

Used modgepodge to stick it together as I folded it over a few times to get it thicker/sturdier. 

Than I cute out the shapes and crinkled it a bit for texture. 

Last I used some black/dark brown glaze paint to give it the "rusty" like look. (Wiping off any exess).

Once dry strung them with fish string too. 

 And done. I also added a few $ store silver ornaments.

 Makes a great overhang for our Nativity!

Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy these next 12 days until Christmas comes! ;-)

Decorating for Christmas {Upstairs & In my Bedroom}

I am just loving this Holiday Cheer! So this year I decided to start decorating our Bedrooms. Thats Right...kind of odd, but whenever I have seen such things done in magazines I just swoon, at the thought of Christmas in other rooms, besides of our main living areas. So I started with my Bedroom. I added a Red Crimson satin pillow to my all white {and a touch of black} bedspread. Than a cream afghan at the foot of the bed. A touch of real fresh holly {dried} and a cream & red cute snowflake sachet and I'm done...for this year. lol

 It makes me smile to wake up looking at this real holly branch over my head every morning. I when I first placed it there it was still live. But I also enjoy the dried too. 

 For Our upstairs hallway I attached these red christmas ornaments to a piece of jute and hung it up. Kind of like a banner of sorts. My kids love it, because it is right above their collection of books that we keep in my homemade "pallet bookcases". Or what they call their "Library". 

Oh and now for my FAVORITE thing. {well one of them}. I came across this TREASURE at TJ Maxx  in the summer. A GORGEOUS star all made of drift WOOD!! My little 4 yr old actually pointed it out to me as we were walking down the isles. "Mama, look at this Beautiful STAR"! Oh my HECK girl...she sure knows her stuff! It was indeed Beautiful! lol. I HAD to bring it home! 

And so I did for $24 . 

{no way I didnt make this....But I sure would have tried if I had an Ocean nearby! hahaha}

 To make this more 'christmasy' I added a few fresh springs of a very fine needled evergreen. {I dont know the exact type}. A type of Fir I guess?

And there you have it....some more NATURAL christmas decorating ideas. I just love it, the simplicity of it all. Its SO easy to make your decor better when bringing some of nature indoors.
And CHEAP too;-)

Now go find yourself a HOLLY bush... ok. :-)

My Burlap, white & silver Christmas Trees..

I have told this story before, but we have a tiny little place. And thus, a normal sized Christmas tree would just be too large for our "skinny" living room. So my mother in law gave me these 3 trees years ago {she was getting rid of them}. And until we move into a house I have been using these, and they work GREAT! They can fill a lot, but still keep it on the "skinny" {if that makes any sense}. My tree has always been white, red and silver. So this year I took out my red ornaments, to switch it up. {Yes, I have joined the masses in doing an all white Christmas tree}. But seriously there is just something so calming and classy about it. My daughter and I had a blast setting this up. And we still have our sweet red ornaments {I used them for decorations upstairs in our bedrooms this year}. YES, decorating for Christmas in our Bedrooms! Its a brand new thing for us....Yipee! ;-) {pix to come}.

Dont mind the bottom of the trees...my kids like to make messes with our Danish Christmas Elves and Fisher Price Nativity;-) I am in the process of making a ruffle tree skirt to go underneath it;-) Stay tuned!

This tree has Vintage, Rustic and some glitz and glam:-)

I LOVE snowflakes!!

I have ONE red ornament on this tree. A nail with a red ribbon tied around it. It is a sentimental thing, that helps us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. {The vintage frame has a poem that goes with it}

I think I still have a few handmade ornaments to put on this tree before it is perfectly done. You know how it is...Christmas Trees a constant work in progress. lol

And here are my vintage inspired heirloom stockings I made last year. I have this nice new garland that I bought last year to go with it....LOVE IT! ;-)

And there you have it.....my Trees this year.

Thanks for Stopping by my CC's Corner!

~Cat

PB Inspired Christmas Swag DIY

I am in LOVE with door swags these days. So I wanted to make my own. When I came across this one on Potterybarns website, it was an instant "I can totally make that"! {I love those moments};-) 

Here is the Potterybarn version.

 {I searched everywhere for big metal bells like these, but my only luck were these smaller ones at the Dollar Store. Could NOT beat the price! So this swag is inspired by PB but with my own twist }.

 *if i do come across these, you bet I will replace the ones I have, but for now these cute little ones will do.

 Here is my version

1. I started by bunching some "naked" dry twigs together with wire.
2. Than on top of that added my freshly clipped Evergreen. Also with wire.
3. Next I strung all my bells together with some jute, and attached it all together with this lovely burlap wired ribbon. 
4. Last I made a "hanger" with some wire.

And thats all folks! I think it turned out SO cute:-)

And it was EASY peasy! ;-)

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LIVE Holly Wreath and a few knick knacks

I have been SO excited to put up my Christmas Decor and now the time has finally come! Yes its still November, but once Thanksgiving is over, its time for THE next holiday to be celebrated. lol

I started out by taking my kids to the Park. Yup, its been gREAT weather here so, I took them out and while they played I brought my clippers and bags for my future Christmas projects, and cut oh so many lovely greenery. {This year I want to use as much live greenery as possible}. Not only because its CHEAP or shall I say FREE, but also because it is BEAUTIFUL. {I have a special place in my heart for this kind of stuff because my Mom is a MASTER at flower arranging....and well...it just reminds me of my sweet Mama}. So here is my first attempt at a wreath. This one is made from Holly leaves....OUCH! lol. That is what I was saying through out making this little baby. But OH it was SO worth it!! I used a already white berry wreath {like the ones they have at PB a few years ago} and covered it with Holly branches. {I used my glue gun & green wire}. 

 Finished it off with a nice piece of wired Burlap ribbon.

L.O.V.E

Than for some shabby Christmas decor I rounded up these babies, 

Mason jars :

1. filled with antique lace/doilies
2. Pearls and a sprig of FRESH evergreen {smells OH SO GOOD}.
3. Vintage door knob & key holder and some other random metal goods

 OK. so I am sure I have mentioned how I LOVE Bethany Lowe Designs. Well, I happened across this lovely little guy at TJ Maxx the other day. I saw him and GASPED, A REAL "Vintage by Bethany"?! I was in love! Than I left the store, convincing myself I didnt need it....well....That was on a Saturday. ALL the rest of that weekend I could not get it out of my head! lol...so Monday morning I went back hoping he would still be there {because if he was than it was meant to be}. I could not believe it!! He was there! And $16 later I went home a happy lady:-) I think he is so cute.

So here is the first of my Christmas Decor. I am all finished with a swag I made for the front door...I just need it to be light outside so I can grab a pic and post about it. AND yup...its a PB inspired Christmas swag, so stay tuned;-)

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