Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!

May you have blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Thank you to my FABULOUS Aunt Debbie and her colleague Ashley for our Christmas card!

(Imagine that the card is cut out around the yellow and is shaped like an ornament :)

www.debbiedaanen.com

Buckets of Christmas Wreaths

With 4 days to go to Christmas, I thought I'd do a post dedicated to my obsession with wreaths before I bid adieu until the next holiday season.  I've always had a thing for wreaths, why I do not know.  And as I began to decorate my house this year, it began to dawn on me that perhaps my fondness for wreaths may have crossed the line into needing a 7-step program :)

Square wreaths are probably my favorite.  Here are the ones I have for the Christmas season:

These wreaths are from Pottery Barn, many years ago.  I have them hanging on my mirror above my mantle.

 

Another Pottery Barn square wreath from several years ago.  I found these wreaths at the end of the season on clearance and picked up one for each of the doors in our home.  I love the simple look of them.

I just made this wreath today using the Martha Steward Gingerbread wreath as my template.

 

I used my own recipe to make the gingerbread men and didn't quite follow her directions (Shhhh...don't tell Martha.)  Stay tuned for a post on how to make this wreath (Melissa style).

I plan to use my wreath for my Gingerbread party I'm already planning for next year using Paula from Frog Prince Paperie's ADORABLE gingerbread party printables.  Check them out here.

Here are some pictures of my more traditional wreaths.

   

 

I love the look of doubling or tripling wreaths and using ribbon to link them for hanging.

In our home, wreaths are not just for walls (of course because I've sort of run out of walls and doors!) 

I hang wreaths on the back of my dining room chairs.

I've also used them to adorn other home accessories, like these lanterns I purchased from Pier I on clearance. 

  

When I have to pack this all away at the end of next week, I'll look around my house and think it looks naked.  My husband on the other hand will be happy the "clutter" is packed away for another year.

Christmas at our home.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!  It's probably hard for me to believe because I've been getting ready for Christmas since before Thanksgiving!  It takes me quite a while to get our home ready for Christmas and given all the hard work, I like to enjoy it for a while.  I'd thought I'd share some pictures from our home.

Table centerpiece

I made the ornaments using vinyl clings from UpperCase Living.

The lanterns were a set of 6 lanterns from Pier 1 that I got on clearance - they are really outdoor lanterns.  I added the berry wreaths.  Our stocking holders are from Ballard Designs.

The garland was inspired by a picture in a Pottery Barn catalog.

My Aunt Debbie of Debbie Daanen Photography took these pictures of the kids last year for our Christmas card.  I had them made into canvases to hang at Christmas time.  Ethan was priceless when he saw Santa.  The picture of him climbing on the chair waiving to Santa was not staged.

Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season!

Buckets of Feather Bling Ornaments

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is continuing on traditions handed down through my family as well as creating new traditions with my husband and children.  When Grace was 2, I started making ornaments with her for our tree and to give away as presents to grandparents and family.  It is exciting for her to unwrap her creations each year and hang them in special places on the tree - usually in one large clump on the front of the tree!  I know I am still excited to see my doily, noodle creation with the gold spray paint chipping after all these years that I made in kindergarten on my Mom's tree!

This year, thanks to a friend of mine for her great idea, we made glass feather ornaments.  To give them a touch of Grace, we added some bling to them as well.  I have to say, Grace and Ethan created some dandy ornaments!  They are very proud of them and excited to share them with friends and family. 

These really are so simple to make and fun for the kids.  Grace kept repeating, "This is so fun!"  More importantly, they held Ethan's attention - which says something for a 3 year old who is ALL BOY!  I will be taking them to Grace's 1st grade class to make with her classmates as well.  The real review will come from those 1st grade boys.

To make the ornaments, here are the supplies you'll need:
1.  Clear glass ornaments
2.  Feathers (I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby and Michael's for $1.99 a package)
3.  A pencil with an eraser
4.  Epoxy glue
5.  "Bling" beads (I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby - a very large container at 50% off of $15.99)
6.  Ribbon (optional)
7.  Tags (optional - mine are from Parties by Hardie, using her Snowman-Snowflake printables)

I'd love to hear from others as to their handmade ornament ideas!  Happy Holidays!!!

Buckets of Teacher Present Ideas

I feel like I've been on a blogging hiatus lately.  Between hosting my family's Thanksgiving and getting my house ready for Christmas, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed these days!  But those two things are done, the Christmas cards are addressed and I survived my annual Black Friday trek with my sister.  So back to the blog :)

This year for my kids' teacher presents, I found this fabulous idea on How Does She.  Using the idea of the "12 Days of Christmas", this gift combines fun, practicality and whimsy for a cute, personal teacher present.  And how could I resist a present that's centerpiece is a bucket :) 

I modified Missy's idea a little bit to personalize our buckets.  The idea is the same - find 12 different items for your child's teacher(s), and use the numbers 1 through 12 for the gifts.  Add a fun saying to each item and you have a great Christmas present.  Here is what my buckets ended up looking like:

 

 

I found the buckets at Target at Halloween time for $5.00!  I then used Uppercase Living's Personal Studio to make the vinyl words to personalize the buckets.  If I only had a Silhouette, I could make them myself!  (Hint, hint for my husband for a Christmas present - pass the word if you would please - he doesn't read the blog :)

 

As for the contents of the buckets, some things were a splurge (but my kids' teachers are worth it) and some were back-to-school deals.  Here is the list of the items I found:

 

1.  Personalized clipboards from eBay.

2.  Pens

3.  Sharpies

4.  Red and Green Notebooks

5.  Giant Paper Clips

6.  Post It Notepads or Scissors

7.  7 oz. of hand sanitizer

8.  8 x 2  magnetic clips

9.  Packs of microwave popcorn

10.  10 x10 sheets of construction paper

11.  11 oz. of Hershey's kisses

12.  12 oz. of hot chocolate

 

Here is a close-up of some of the items:

 

 

I put the Hershey's kisses in a craft paint container and added some paper to dress it up. 

Their teachers can then use the containers when the kisses are gone.

 

Grace's school colors are orange and black.

 

For Ethan's daycare providers.

 

4 notebooks tied together with some ribbon.

 

6 packs of Post-its.

 

6 scissors for Ethan's daycare. 

I put the scissors in a cello-bag and tied it with some baker's twine.

 

After I placed all of the items in the buckets, I wrapped a Christmas ribbon around the buckets.

 

 

This was a fun gift to put together - and it was made even more fun knowing they are going to three very special ladies!