…’Tis The Season

It’s the most wonderful time of the year around the Kerin household, and I have been a busy bee getting all of the decorations and odds-and-ends together. I finished the final touch-ups today, and I’m so glad that it’s finally all done. Now I can sit back and enjoy the season and the ambiance.

We purchased the beautiful 7-foot Frasier Fur (in the picture above) from Lowe’s this year, and I decided to use the same colors and ornaments as last year…but I also decided to make more decorations to cover more of the tree this year.  Here are a few ornament clusters I made using 3 various sized ornaments, ribbon, and glittery snowflakes.

After adding some new elements to the top portion of my tree, I decided not to use our star we originally purchased years ago since it didn’t match anymore…so I had to figure out what else to do. I saw large white wooden letters and teal glitter at Michael’s (that just HAPPENED to be on sale), and decided they had to go home with me. I dug out the ol’ Mod Podge and sponge brushes and coated the front side of the letter with it. Then sprinkled a generous helping of glitter over the top and brushed off the excess glitter on the side with a clean brush. Once the Mod Podge was dry, I used clear acrylic sealer to coat the front and sides. After all of THAT dried, I hot-glued two clothes pins onto the back of the letter in order to attach the “K” to the top branch of the tree. I’m soooooooo happy with the result! What do you think?

Here are the decorations for my mantle. My hubby put the wood together for the “Merry Christmas” sign, and I printed the text on top after painting it with acrylic paint and sanding it. Once the touch-ups were done with the calligraphy and the “merry” was filled in using Sharpie paint, it was sanded one more time to distress the lettering. Clear acrylic spray was used to coat the entire piece when the desired look was achieved.

The green pine garland was wrapped with white lights and affixed to a scrap piece of picture mold the length of my mantle…this way the garland will sit atop the mantle without falling off to either side, and I didn’t have to knick up my mantle with hooks or pins. I used some of the ornament clusters I had created last year and added some teal poinsettias between each cluster.

I found the large votive holders a few years ago at Kirkland’s for under $20, and had them stored in my closet. Epsom salt and clear glitter were combined to create “snow”, and various loose ornaments were dropped in atop the snow. I LOVE the look of the snow when all of the lights are off except the Christmas lights…it’s stunning!

I also found some medium-sized ornaments on teal and green at Target for a steal, and decided to put them all in one of my glass candy jars. At the last minute, I found a strand of 35-count white Christmas lights at Michael’s for $1.99 and thought they’d look great mixed in with the ornaments…and I was right!

I even decorated the outside this year using items that were either left over from last year (or years before) or items that were FREE.  The wreaths were leftovers from last year as were the ribbons and ornaments that were added to them. One went between our garage bays, and the others went on the windows at the front of our house.  The flower pots are holding the roots of my geraniums from this year, but they are covered with a thick layer cedar branches. I added large teal glittery and glossy ornaments (given to me by a sweet friend of mine this year) to each pot along with a few pinecones (that I stole out of my mom and dad’s yard…teeheehee), and placed one between our two garage bays and the other on our front porch.

So that’s what this Momma Bear has been up to this year for Christmas.  I haven’t even begun to make all of my Christmas candy yet…I guess I’d better get on the ball! LOL! So with that, I’m headed to the kitchen to make brownies for the yahoos and read a little before I pass out for the night.

Until then…let me know what you’ve been doing different this year for Christmas and'/or the New Year!