The outside of my front door is adorned with a borrowed faux pine wreath. I didn't show it here, but will definitely add it in my exterior shots. On the inside of the front door, I hung a faux berry and twig wreath that I picked up at Pier 1 after the holiday last year. I've been waiting all year to use this lady! Home Depot has gold and silver-finished hooks for wreaths for under $2 a piece. I snagged two for both sides of my door. Then I added little berry twigs to the top edges of my frames. The little berries are from a centerpiece I disassembled last year, but I'm sure you can cut up one twig from Michael's if you'd like. (I really think it's the small things like this that make the holiday really sparkle! And my friend Suzie already took note, so they must be working as a nice "welcome" and "see you soon" symbols for the entryway.)
Next to the front door is our Target shelving unit. You've seen this baby before during Halloween. It's just too fun to change the decorations around in the open shelves, but keep the stuff in the "drawers" the same (i.e. puppy playthings). I made the tiny ornament wreath last year on the cheap (think old wire hanger and a sleeve of ornaments shown in a Real Simple blog here) and added one of Justin's nutcrackers, glass box of more ornaments, ribbons, and Christmas-colored candles to the mix. I'm not 100% happy with this area yet; maybe there are too many circular things here? Something isn't quite right, but I'll be dammed if I let THAT stop me from the Christmas spirit ;)
Here's my shining glory for the time being: the dining room! I used some ideas from Bower Power, but made it my own with what I already owned. The table has my black pashmina (I may switch this out for my burlap table runner for a slightly less Asian feel), red linen napkins, Christmas mugs my mom gave Justin and I last year, a plastic star bowl from Justin's grandma (also from last year) filled with even MORE ornaments (hope we have something left for the tree!), tea light holders from my friend Nissa's wedding two years ago wrapped in twine, sushi plates my friend Annie left behind in her move back East, red champagne chiller (from Justin's old house), reindeer wine stopper from Christmas last year (thanks to Uncle Lorenzo!), and the mouse and cheese salt and pepper shakers to be a little cheeky. Wow, please excuse the run-on sentence or massive cataloguing. Whatever you'd like to call it, but I thought it would be helpful to give a full run through. Besides, that has really helped me see how much I use from gifts/holiday sales/past events. I made out like a BANDIT last year, eh?!
Here's my shining glory for the time being: the dining room! I used some ideas from Bower Power, but made it my own with what I already owned. The table has my black pashmina (I may switch this out for my burlap table runner for a slightly less Asian feel), red linen napkins, Christmas mugs my mom gave Justin and I last year, a plastic star bowl from Justin's grandma (also from last year) filled with even MORE ornaments (hope we have something left for the tree!), tea light holders from my friend Nissa's wedding two years ago wrapped in twine, sushi plates my friend Annie left behind in her move back East, red champagne chiller (from Justin's old house), reindeer wine stopper from Christmas last year (thanks to Uncle Lorenzo!), and the mouse and cheese salt and pepper shakers to be a little cheeky. Wow, please excuse the run-on sentence or massive cataloguing. Whatever you'd like to call it, but I thought it would be helpful to give a full run through. Besides, that has really helped me see how much I use from gifts/holiday sales/past events. I made out like a BANDIT last year, eh?!On the side table I threw some pine cones I picked up at Big Bear a few weeks ago into my hurricane, threw on my lovely terracotta dove, and called it a day!
What do you guys think? The dining room table is really the easiest thing to change for the holidays. Start with your basics--plates, silverware, glasses--and then keep layering holiday-colored decor until you're happy with what you've got.
What do you guys think? The dining room table is really the easiest thing to change for the holidays. Start with your basics--plates, silverware, glasses--and then keep layering holiday-colored decor until you're happy with what you've got. I'll have my puff ball garland DIY up this week, but I've got a book club to prepare for tomorrow. Thanks for coming!
The best way I figured to make this work was to just place each piece of felt onto the lace and eye about a quarter-inch boarder around the edge. One thing that I found out was that even though the bottom of my felt was lined up with the bottom of the lace, this didn't necessarily mean that the pattern on the lace was straight. So, take my advise to make sure that if your lace has a pattern, you match THAT and not the edges. (This will save you the headache of trying to match up the pattern with very little excess to work with. Also, I might recommend more excess lace around the edge. I was on the verge of too little lace, which made it that much scarier to work with the hot glue.)
Once you have the felt lined up with the pattern on the lace, put a thin bead of glue around the edge of one side of the felt. Fold over the lace and secure into the glue. I used a Pepsi bottle cap as a makeshift thimble to push the lace to further ensure that I wouldn't burn my fingertip. Paranoid, I know. I chose not to work around the epaulette, but instead glued one side and then it's opposite side. This helped to keep the lace from moving around and to make sure there was no excess lace bubbled once all edges had been glued in place.
The result:
I secured them on the shoulders of my cardi with one pin under each epaulette. I played around a bit with the placement, deciding to put them a bit further on the front instead of the seams of my shoulders. This helped them stay flat, which also sort of held them in place a bit since the bumpy, dried glue grabbed the pelt of my semi-fuzzy sweater. Next time I might use two pins to keep them in place better. I also might try them on the edges of a jacket pocket (maybe aforementioned army-green jacket?). Anyway, what do you think? It's a bit fashion forward for my usual style, but I think it's just subtle enough to not look like a costume. Justin called me a captain on the way into work, and he was the only one who commented on it...not sure what that says or doesn't say, but hey, who cares, right? It was the journey not the destination!
PS. You caught me in my office bathroom taking photos of my "new" cardi. Hope you don't mind ;)