Christmas Home Tour 2012

Welcome!  I'm so excited for this year's Christmas Tour of Homes!  I love simple, natural Christmas decor and have tried to incorporate that into our home.  Our decorations are very similar to last year's- take a look here.

Our tree is decorated with homemade wax paper garland, many homemade ornaments, and cheap finds.

And one of my "older" favorites...

I've kept our gift wrapping simple as well- natural color scheme and as low cost as possible.  I found the kraft paper with white flowers at the Dollar Tree, the gold and the cream paper at a local shop called Sandy's Country Christmas for .99, and am also using a roll of butcher paper from Lowes that is normally used for contractors.  I got a HUGE roll that will last years for about $7. 

I sewed little pouches for some smaller gifts using an old music book.

And made gift tags using this font

Another favorite is our handmade drop cloth material stockings.  We had to add a new stocking this year for our Savannah- due in May!

My stocking has my great grandmother's pin on it that I wore on my wedding dress

Savannah's stocking has a fabric flower I made from scrap material from my wedding dress (from where it was hemmed)

And Jeremy's stocking is laden with a simple wooden button.

Here are a few other decorations around the house

pillow cover from Dear Lillie

I have linked up to

http://cottagemagpie.com/christmas-parade-welcome/

Bathroom Tour

There is just one room in our house that I haven't shown you yet- our bathroom.  I've meant to several times, but it just seems pretty boring. :)

The shower curtain is from Target

My favorite part of this room is our linen closet nestled behind the main door.

I just love the look of clean fluffy towels!  

Functional space that somehow manages to stay organized- I think I like the way it looks too much to mess it up :)  

One new addition for the summer is a basket of beach towels- ready for swim sessions at the gym or for our beach vacation (coming up in just a week and a half!)

Living Room Update (Part 1)

We have updated our living room a little bit since I last showed you guys around.

This is what it looked like about six months ago...

Not a huge difference but we've added some pictures to the walls, moved "Jezebel"- our big blue chair- from the office into the living room, and added a ruffle skirt to the ottoman.  We've been doing without the rug for the past two weeks.  I took it up while I was spring cleaning to wash it and just kinda liked the openness of not having the rug down.  I'd love to get a rug that is actually the right size for the space that has some blue in it.  I'm thinking something like this:

Too bad this one is well over $1,000 via Pottery Barn :) 

I did see a few similar rugs at Home Goods for $199, so I'm thinking of saving for one of those. 

There is more to see on the other side of the room, but it wasn't totally clean when I took this picture, so that will have to wait to another day....Part 2 to come :)

Our Bedroom Update

Our little bedroom has received a couple of updates since I gave you the official tour.

We have gotten curtains, a new Nest pillow from Pottery Barn (a Christmas gift), a DIY sheet music wreath, I moved the rug from the kitchen, and I scored that big picture frame on clearance for $5 at Big Lots.  

Here is what our bedroom looked like six months ago...

Can you tell that #1- I had the duvet cover on and #2 - I had ironed the duvet cover for that picture?  :)  The cover is very heavy and has just gotten too hot now that the weather is warming up.  So we took it off and I've just been washing our comforter every couple weeks.

I think the new additions give the room a little more life!

Plates to Hang on Wall

I mentioned several months ago that I wanted to add a plate wall in our kitchen.  I've been slowly collecting plates, but I need several more to make it look full.  

Here's the plates I have so far...

So here's my question, should I go ahead and hang the plates I have now, and add more as I get them or should I wait to have as many plates I want and hang them at once?  Any opinions?

Also, I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was an interesting way to hang plates!  I may have to put this to the test.

DIY Jewelry Rack

We made this DIY Jewelry rack the same time as our apron rack, but I just hung it up last weekend.  I couldn't decide what I really wanted to use the rack for- it was originally to be for hanging towels but we don't have a place for it in our bathroom.  After realizing that my jewelry box from college (a tackle box) just wasn't cutting it anymore, I decided to hang it in our bedroom for my necklaces.  

The wood was originally one long piece that we cut into two sections for the apron rack and this rack.  

I purchased the wood for $1 at the local Habitat Restore.  We got the hooks for around $3-$4 each from Lowe's.  Jeremy and my dad cut the wood and drilled in the hooks this past summer.

Glad I'm finally putting this one to use!

Christmas Tablesetting

Here's our simple and natural holiday tablesetting

I made mini stockings to hold the silverware.  I think they add a special touch.  I also used the china I got from my grandmother's attic. 

 I reused the napkins and tablerunners from our wedding reception.  

To see our other Christmas decorations click here

I'm linking up to The Lettered Cottage

Oh Christmas Tree!

I love our white themed Christmas tree!  I have collected white and silver ornaments over the last couple of years on clearance after Christmas for when Jeremy and I got married.  So we had a few to put on the tree, and then I also made some ornaments.

My favorite part of the tree is the garland.  It has a capriz shell look to it, don't you think?  It is actually made from wax paper! Here is my tutorial for making your own wax paper garland

Here are some of the ornaments I had bought over the past couple of years.

The olive tree wood ornaments above were some that I bought on my trip to Israel.  They are so special to put on the tree, and remind me of my time there, as well as the true meaning of Christmas.  

Another one of my favorite parts is the tree skirt.  It is in fact a wedding dress train!  If you've been a reader for a while, you may remember this post where I mentioned using it as a tree skirt.  I worked at a bridal shop when I lived in VA, and we received this huge wedding dress train as a donation.  We couldn't sell it, so I I took it home and made a couple of things from it!  

I think it works great as a tree skirt! 

I only wish that I had some way to get those wrinkles out- any suggestions for how to get wrinkles out of real silk?  I tried to steam it, and I just made brown spots.  

Pinterest Project Week- Wrapping Paper Wreath

This week is all about actually completing some projects I’ve pinned on Pinterest.  I’ve dubbed it “Pinterest Project Week”.  Don’t forget, I’m hosting my first linky party on Friday for any Pinterest inspiration projects you want to share!

I have been collecting a lot of Christmas inspiration on my Pinterest board- “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. I plan to do a white and natural Christmas theme and I have been finding so many great ideas.

One of them was this wreath-

I love the look of it but wasn’t so crazy about the red.  I knew I had some pretty paper that looked similar so I decided to make my own wreath using this tutorial from the original pin. Here is how mine turned out!

It was time consuming but I think it was worth it in the end.  I had planned to use it for Christmas decoration but I hung it above our sink and it just feels that empty space so well I might just leave it there all the time (or at least until I get something else to put there)  I think I might just add a bow to it for Christmas.

 

The paper I used was from the dollar store and I cut out a wreath shape from poster board as the base.  In total it probably cost about $1.50 to make. 

Have you been working on projects this week?  Can’t wait to see them on Friday at the linky party!