Christmas on the Cheap-Decor Ideas

Each year, I love to create new decor ideas for Christmas. The stores are filled with glittery goodness, and I like to keep my wallet full of my hard-earned greenery goodness.

If you get my drift. (That’s no snow joke.)

Here are a few ways that I’ve decorated our house for pennies on the dollar.

My Pretty Paper Xmas Trees were very inexpensively made. They grace my fireplace mantle and add a lot of color to my gray living room. Each are made from dowel rods, scrap plywood, wrapping paper and hot glue.

This is what the trees look like this year; surrounded by vintage deer, tinsel and very breakable bulbs (knowledge courtesy of ninja cats).

I made the Wooden “Peace” Garland that’s on the  Broken Mirror Art from a felled tree, spray paint and stencils.

These are the pieces close up to the Wooden Christmas Garland before I polyurethaned them.

This DIY Vintage Aluminum Christmas Wreath was made from Aluminum foil, cardboard and leftover red bulbs. Super cute, lightweight and cheap!

Simple, different, pretty and sparkly. My Silver Twig Wreath is a fanciful addition to our front door. And yes, I like fanciful things very much, let me tell you.

I also made this Retro Christmas Stocking for Biceps…

…and one for me using leftover felt and vintage ric-rac. They were both very simple to make and much better than the gigantic knit one Biceps insisted on using-hoping Santa would fill it to the brim. The size of this Retro Christmas Stocking is much more practical, although certain people aren’t happy about it.

To match the stockings, I also made a Retro Christmas Tree Skirt for our secondary tree with the same felt and ric-rac. This tree skirt just took a few minutes to make.

Throughout out the house, if there are any remaining surfaces untouched by Christmas, I fill jars with inexpensive ornaments picked up over the years at flea markets and garage sales. I add some sparkly tinsel and a few varieties of colors of bulbs and my house is ready for Christmas.

I have always said, “You can never have too many bulbs and you can never have too much Christmas.” I’m sure you’ve heard me say that, right?

I hope you’ve been inspired or at least your creativity has been sparked from some of these ideas. I would love to see and hear how you are decorating on the cheap this year!

If these parties are up, I link to them! (Here’s my complete Linky Party Page):
Monday: Crafts Keep Me Sane, The Better Baker, Skip to My Lou, DIY Showoff, Say Not, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Etcetorize, Sew Chatty, Brassy Apple, Flour Me With Love, Creating my Way, Mad in Crafts, Our Delightful Home, Sew Can Do, It’s So Very Cheri, Craft O Maniac, Polly Want a Crafter, Tuesday: Craft Edition, Inspiration Board , New Nostalgia , Lettered Life , Coastal Charm, Tip Junkie , Ladybug Blessings, Hope Studios , Todays Creative Blog, Wednesday: Someday Crafts , Day2DayJoys, Jillify It , Junk in the Trunk, We are that Family , Frugally Sustainable, Sew Much Ado, Fine Craft Guild , The Thrifty Home, My Girlish Whims , Quick, Easy, Cheap & Healthy, Trendy Treehouse, Thursday: Somewhat Simple, No Minimalist Here , A Glimpse Inside, The Mommy Club, The 36th Avenue, Cheap Chic Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Fireflies and Jellybeans , House of Hepworths , The Shabby Chic Cottage, Friday: My Repurposed Life, It’s a HodgePodge Life, The Shabby Nest, Just Wingin’ It, One Artsy Momma, French Country Cottage, Finding Fabulous, Passionately Artistic, Petals and Picots, Simply Designing, Little Becky Homecky, My Romantic Home, Bacon Time, Simply Living, Saturday: Polkadot Pretties, Tatertots and Jello, Create and Inspire, Be Different, Act Normal, Craft Envy, Funky Junk Interiors, Petites Passion, Sunday: Under the Table, Natural Mothers, Mopping the Floor

Mustache Mask Giveaway Winner!

The Mustache Mask Giveaway has ended and we have a winner! And, if you don’t know what a mustache mask is, go here to read all about it.

The randomly selected winner was: #4 Cheryl O.

Cheryl O.-Daniel, the owner of the Mustache Masks, will be emailing you with all the details. I hope you enjoy your lovely new mask!

Merry Christmas!

When everything seems to be going wrong…

Yesterday was one of those days. You know what I mean-a bump your head, forget your lunch, drop a brick on your toe, and the car wont start-days.

Except for me it started off with two of my carefully planned Christmas presents that were left in the wrong hands, turned out to look like poop. Not cute baby poop, but that English Mastiff neighbor dog next door gigantic, smelly poop.

And I didn’t feel great, so I was hopped up on meds. Which of course makes me sleepy and dizzy. This normally clutzy girl doesn’t need any help to injure herself, however yesterday I ran into the door frame of our bedroom-several times, tripped up the stairs and shut my hand in a drawer.

The cats are freaking out without their outdoor time and without Rebekah time as I slept the morning away. I awoke to a shattered vase, broken Christmas ornaments and several feathers (source was unknown), strewn about the house.

Then, the window in our sweet ride decided to retreat into the door without warning. There was no amount of coaxing and pleading that brought it back to its upright position. And there didn’t seem to be a repair guy on earth who could fix it last night.

I had promised Biceps a dinner of meatloaf, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots before he left for the day. And by golly, he was going to get that meal. Don’t get the wrong idea, this was not a sweet thing by the time it came to preparing aforementioned meal.
Instead, I was going to make sure Biceps knew that:
A) I was sick and didn’t feel like cooking
B) this meal was a lot of work
C) and now I had to do the dishes and did I mention I was sick?

And of course, I took all this frustration out on Biceps-because I’m a mature Christian who lashes out instead of talking to God about my frustrations. Biceps has his midterm today and needed to study even more than usual. The poor guy who didn’t deserve my retribution, also didn’t have time for it. Which made matters worse.

After Biceps put up with me for awhile, I retreated to our room. AND that’s when I decided to talk to God. I’m such an idiot-why does it take me so long to get where I need to be?

I read these two scriptures and was reminded of how blessed I am and where my hope is:

“But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.” Psalm 33:18

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” Luke 6:21

I didn’t feel like laughing quite yet.

This is the one that got me, convicted me and caused a change of heart.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;, to be made new in the attitude of you minds, and to put on the new self, to be created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24

I returned to the land of the living to ask forgiveness from my loving Biceps. Thankfully, my husband is patient with this “work of art” that’s still being painted by the Creator.

All of those things that seemed to be so important and frustrating just moments before seemed a little less important and a lot less frustrating. It was a round-about and fairly embarrassing way to get to this point of total dependance on God.

“My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.” Psalm 62:7

He sure has a way of reminding us just how much we need Him, doesn’t He? He is such a stinker sometimes.

Today, I rest.

Yesterday, during the lecture portion of my Bible Study, it began to happen. I got that horrible itchy feeling in the back of my throat that I tried to ignore.

If I let it have its way, it would turn into a full-fledged, coughing-up-a-lung, hack-fest. Since I was sitting on the fourth row of the sanctuary, I didn’t want to make a scene racing for the bathroom-and so, I held my ground. I suppressed the urge with a new piece of gum and a few tears.

Of course, being the idiot that I am-I kept going with my day. I had errands to run, Christmas cards to get out, dinner to make, lunch to pack, laundry to do and leaves to rake.

By the end of the night last night, I was hugging the throne and upchucking all that I had just ingested for dinner. But, it was just one small puke. I’m not sick, I said to myself.

This morning, I was not convinced to take the day off-just look at this list of to-do’s. And these are just the things I know I’ll forget if I don’t have them written down. They don’t include studying, doing the laundry, making Christmas present, vacuuming rugs, prepping dinner or any of my other daily chores.

But, on the way back from dropping Biceps off this morning, I nearly had to pull over to upchuck the piece of toast consumed for breakfast. Toast is not tasty the second go around and I wasn’t having it. Ick.

I made it home in time to puke in my personal toilet, called my Mommy (because who else truly cares when you’re sick but your Mommy?) and after a quick prayer, crawled into bed.

This is where I’ll probably stay until I pick up Biceps this afternoon.

Or until Crossfit.

Today, I rest.