Simple Christmas Arrangement

I made these arrangements for the bathrooms at my work to add a little festive touch.  My goal was to make something nature inspired and not spend any money doing it.  I swiped the empty vases that were sitting in the bathrooms.  I foraged in the woods behind my house for any recent fallen birch and peeled the birch bark off of them.  I also cut some pine branches, dogwood branches and collected some spruce pine cones from the ground.  I used natural jute to tie the birch bark around the glass vase and added some green foam inside the vase to help anchor the branches.  It is hard to see in the photo but I liquid papered the pine cone edges to create a snowy effect.  (It was faster than opening a can of paint and washing a brush). These arrangements took a little time for the foraging but took five minutes to make.  I have received lots of great compliments from work on how they look in the bathrooms.

A Nature Inspired Christmas Porch

I used an old wreath form from previous years as a base for this years front door wreath, I added fresh cedar and red dogwood branches I collected from the backyard.  I added some fake berries I had on hand and 3 little metal buckets for a little something unexpected.  I think it gives it some rustic charm.

I finally treated myself to some black urns which I am looking forward to decorating all year long. 

I filled an old shrub pot with soil and added an empty water bottle so that when the pot expands due to the cold it will compress on the bottle and not the pot.  I collected pine, dogwood branches and added 3-4 birch logs.  I tied some red ribbon to a few branches for some extra colour.

These urn fillers sell for $19.99 and up at garden centres and grocery stores...mine were FREE:)

Whimsical Mantle

This is our first Christmas since we added a mantle to our fireplace...so you can imagine my excitement.  I am already thinking of how I will change it up next year... This year I wanted to use things I had so I only bought a few little things.  The dollar store provided the $2 wreaths and $1 reindeer and a $1 box of bells.  The "Hope" stocking holders were $14.96 at Walmart.  I would have preferred the word "Noel" but that was all they had.  Everything else I had, I just spray painted a couple of pots and candle sticks in heirloom white to create a more cohesive look.  I love my fake window which used to hold two plants, its so versatile and I can use it to decorate for any season.

I am linking to:

Christmas Book Count Down

The Christmas book count down starts tomorrow.  I cannot wait.  My 3 year old is really into reading books right now and I thought it would be fun to count down the days of December with a wrapped Christmas book each night before bed.  I already had a few books, my mother in law lent me a couple, my Mom found a few from our childhood and I got the rest at thrift stores and splurged on a few new ones.  I wrapped each book in reused tissue paper and monogrammed the days of the month with a stencil and black sharpie marker. 

I found an old tool box in the shed that would be perfect to house the books and perfect to paint with chalkboard paint so that I could change up the days of the month. I am hoping Santa leaves me a chalk marker in my stocking so that I can write better on my chalkboards:)

I think it looks great on the bottom of my entry table but unfortunately I think it will have to remain on my dresser in my room as I don't think the boys will be able to resist unwrapping them when we are not looking.  This was all in all a really fun project:)

Glittered Christmas Tree

I needed something tall and red for my mantle this year and after seeing lots of glittered Christmas trees in the stores this year, I attempted to make one myself.  I painted the styrofroam cone with acrylic red metallic paint and sprinkled dollar store red glitter onto the wet paint.  I spray painted an old glass candlestick I had and hot glued it to the base of the tree. I added a silver bell for a little more bling. Total cost $4.49 plus 2$ for the paint and glitter which I still have leftover for other projects.