Christmas decor

After my last blog and showing all the Christmas decor, I thought I'd show a little of my own.

A few years ago I found some mini prelit trees. My
candy canes and wreath add to a warm welcoming.

Garland and lights up the stairs with some of my older stockings.

Love my little reindeer with his acorn necklace. Special shout out
to Bethany Bear for her creativeness!

My first stocking

This year I decided to go with all white and silver. I love how elegant it looks.

Unfortunately I created my gumball wreath before my blogging days.
To make one of your own is simple though. Send the kids out in the yard to grab
a bagful of gumballs. I grabbed a vine wreath from the craft store and started hot
gluing them on. Once I covered the entire wreath I sprayed with silver metallic
spray paint. Tack on a bow and you're done!

Love bells! I have to put them everywhere!

Another easy (and inexpensive) idea. Throw some pine cones and
potpourri in a basket.

Our stockings were hung with care. No mantel so I have to make do.

Even the little fur-babies, Nate and Nadia have their stockings.
And with gifts already inside!

Candles, candles, candles! Add fake snow to your votive for a wintery feel.
Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how flame retardant the snow is....
You may want to keep an eye on those candles.

Another easy project, create your own Christmas centerpiece. A tray,
a few candles, snow and whatever small Christmas decorations
you have laying around.

I threw in some leftover ornaments, a few bells and a couple of light bulbs.

Not sure what to do with those ornaments that lose their tops?

Throw them in a bowl! Here's my Bowl of Fun. How happy does this look?
Throw any leftover ornaments or those missing their tops together.

I found some leftover ribbon I had to do something with so I
wrapped up our sliding door. Definitely need to find a bigger
bow and maybe something else to spruce it up.

A friend gave me this pot with a mini Christmas tree a few years ago.
As you can see I've kept the pot... the tree didn't survive. :/

But it makes for another easy project. Grabbed a handful of acorns
from the backyard.

What do you get when 2 thirty-year-olds move in together?
Two of everything, including Christmas trees. That's ok though.
The more the merrier!

I love the sparkly ones!

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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Upcycling ~ Wine Bottles & Corks

My latest craze... upcycling and vintage items. Most likely due to my genetics (my mom and grandma do the exact same thing) I've found myself keeping items over the years saying to myself, I could make something really fun out of this! Sometimes I do... sometimes I don't.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT a hoarder. At this point in my life I'm finally able to look at these items and really ask myself; do I have a project in mind, is there room to store it somewhere and will I make the time to complete it. Ummm, well.... I'm starting with baby steps here.

So after all the Thanksgiving feasts I noticed a number of wine bottles sitting about and tried to find a few ideas. You can check out my Upcycle ~ Wine Bottles and Corks board on Pinterest. Otherwise most of them are below.

One of my favorite. Maybe it's because I love candles
but probably because I LOVE Grey Goose. :)

Wine Bottle Hurricanes

Home Tone has some creative ways to reuse Wine Bottles too.

Justina Blakeney also shows 12 ways to reuse bottles.
I'd loved to figure out how to make the hanging plants!

Cork Wreath

Dip them in Chalk paint. Decorate the bottles with a message
or table numbers. Also dip the bottom of your wine in the chalk paint. Your guest
can write their names on their own glasses.

Wit & Whistle's blog takes you through the steps of adding lights to bottles

A monogram cork! An easy gift to make for friends and family or make one for yourself.
greenisuniversal-reuse.com explains the simple steps.

Jaime walks you through the steps to create this adorable vase and
candle holder on her Crafty Scrappy Happy blog.

On A Yellow Bicycle blog they also have a few ideas for Bottle DIY projects.
I love this lantern and the tiki torch (below). Both are a must do before next spring

Bathmat made of Corks by Monica Ewing at houzz.com/

Get out your paint brushes and stencils.
I found both of these through Etsy

Another way to identify your drinking glasses from Craftzine

With instructions from Zero Waste Designs you can build a shelf

And if you don't have any painting, cutting or building skills there's even a few projects for you!

At Home Furnishings displays a beautiful centerpiece with various shapes
and sizes of bottles and tapered candles

And a few more centerpiece ideas from Curbly

If nothing else, use them as a border. Check out Trashy Wench: The Queen of Creative Reuse's
No Whine Wine Creations blog.

I'm realizing already people may start to think I have a small drinking problem if I do create all of these. Whoops. ;)