Everyday Celebrating

Easy strawberry centerpieces

This time of year lends itself to easy, beautiful crafts and food.  With the holidays coming up and my wedding anniversary next week, I thought I'd repost this idea for my newest readers.

The picture above was from my wedding six years ago.  Each guest table was adorned with a lovely centerpiece of fresh strawberries.  Edible?  You bet!  Guests were encouraged to pull off the fruit and were given chocolate sauce and whipped cream to use as dip. 

It made a great appetizer as well as an additional dessert.  Perfect with champagne too!

And a great alternative to expensive floral centerpieces.

These are always eye catching and a hit.  AND.. .easy!   Just get floral foam, strawberries and stick them in with toothpicks.  Sidenote:  cover the floral foam with lettuce or kale so the fruit doesn't touch the foam.

Don't want to provide a dip?  Dip your strawberries in dark or white chocolate before sticking into the foam.  A grab and go dessert!

Stay tuned and I'll show you one I'm putting together for a holiday get together!

Holiday packaging as decor

Dress up your holiday home with items traditionally sold as packaging!

Target carries these pieces in the holiday wrapping paper section called "ribbon greeting".  It looks like this and as you can see, it's meant to replace a bow on a package.

I love these as an alternative to bows.  They are beautiful and really stand out.   However, just as they are beautiful on presents, they can easily be used around your home. 

They look great wrapped around wreaths.

 

Nestle them into trees...

 

Another great idea, even though I don't have a photo of it, is to stretch them across a small mirror.  These are perfect to stretch across a mirror in a half bathroom.  Be sure to place the message ribbon either low or high and not in the middle where it can obstruct the view of guests who may need the mirror for makeup touchups, etc.  They look even better stretched across at an angle.  They are an easy way to add a festive message and a bit of color to a small room. 

Stamping napkins

photo credit:  Family Circle

Like the look of imprinted napkins but not the cost?
Create cute personalized napkins to fit in with your decor by simply stamping them!
Get inexpensive white napkins and stamp each one with a theme.  One of the benefits of stamping is that you can have many different kinds of napkins for just the cost of a single stamp instead of custom imprinting costs. 

These make a great hostess gift as well!

Displaying your tree in an urn

photo credit:  Better Homes and Gardens

I love christmas trees in urns!  You often see smaller trees in urns maybe on a porch, etc., but you don't see many of the "main" trees in urns.  I love the idea of getting a smaller live tree and featuring it in an urn.    My husband and I have never had a real tree and I'm thinking we have to have one at least ONE year for our son to see.  This would be a great way to display it.

Plus, it leaves a lot more room for tall gifts that children often receive!  I'm sure my son wouldn't argue with that, right?

Whoville Christmas wreath

The next addition to the Whoville Christmas theme was the fur wreath.
This idea was originally posted by the fabulous Nester.  She made a white wreath that was stunning.

Here's the link to her full tutorial on how to make it.

I made a smaller wreath because it was going in front of a smaller mirror. 

I bought my straw wreath form for $1 at Goodwill.  The fur was purchased at Fabric.com.  I bought a half yard.  For a smaller wreath, you only need about 3/4 yard, but I used the rest of the fur for other Whoville projects.  

I know someone is wondering, "how easy IS it?" 

It's extremely easy.  The Nester tutorial is spot on.  You just wrap the fabric around the wreath and hot glue it on.  It doesn't have to be perfect because the fur will cover up most errors.  Just keep all the glued seams on the back and the rest will be perfect!  

Sidenote:  The beautiful white wreath on the Nester's site would make a beautiful holiday or hostess gift.  It would also be beautiful for a wedding.

Looking for the rest of the Whoville Christmas posts?

Part I                Part II                Part III

Reminder:  If you need a fabulous holiday card design (plus a FREE return label design) PLUS a discount for printing, visit my post here.  Two great deals!   I received mine in record time and next week, I'll show you how they turned out!  Fabulous!

Still time to: create a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece

In the November issue of Taste of Home magazine, I stumbled across this tablescape and thought I'd pass it along for those that are still trying to figure out something quick and easy to adorn their Thanksgiving table.  

Easy to recreate!  Get bud vases from the Dollar store or Goodwill.  Fill with wheat and surround with candles. 

Done!

Adorable holiday placemats

Fun, whimsical placemats!  And the gift doubles as a flatware pocket!

$15 for 4 at Lillian Vernon.

Whoville Christmas - Part III

If you are new or haven't visited in awhile, please visit posts:

Whoville Christmas - Part I

Whoville Christmas - Part II

I added a couple items to the decor of Whoville Christmas.  These aren't Whoville/Grinch specific, but stay in the color scheme.

First, I made a hanger wreath.  These are really common and easy to make. 

 

What you need:  a wire hanger, ornaments and ribbon.  This is a great project to make with ornaments you find at Goodwill or The Dollar Tree or even from extra ornaments you have lying around.  Also, don't forget that if you find great deals on ornaments at Goodwill, but they aren't in your color scheme - spray paint!  These wreaths take quite a few ornaments and if you're planning on giving some as gifts or making several for your home, it may be less expensive to spray paint some you find at Goodwill.

You start with a wire hanger.  I find that the plastic coated hangers work better.  You want to untwist the top of the hook part.  For some reason, the plastic coated hangers untwist easier.  Once you untwist the top, create a cirle like this:

 

From there, thread on your ornaments.  All you do is run the wire through the top hole of the ornaments. Make sure to alternate colors and sizes to give your wreath some depth.  It will take several ornaments to get a full wreath like the one above.  The wreath above has 50 ornaments attached.

Be sure to leave yourself some room at the top to retwist the the hanger.  You want to twist tightly so the ornaments push together tightly. The looser the twist, the looser your ornaments and people will see the wire.  And finally, add a bow!   These types of wreaths are expensive in stores and you can make one for $5.  They make great hostess gifts!

Next, I hung up these felt ornaments.  I bought these at the Dollar Tree for $1!  They have several different shapes and all in different holiday colors.  I added wired ribbon and hung it on a french door.  I have a pair of them and altogether was done for $3.  I'm thinking about spraying them with spray adhesive adding some glitter.

 

These is still plenty of time to make crafts like these! Enjoy!

Reminder:  If you need a fabulous holiday card design (plus a FREE return label design) PLUS a discount for printing, visit my post here.  Two great deals!

Anniversary Tree!

Reminder:  If you need a fabulous holiday card design (plus a FREE return label design) PLUS a discount for printing, visit my post here.  Two great deals!

 

December, for most people, is a crazy month.  Filled with everything the holidays bring - shopping, cooking, decorating, gatherings, etc.

For our family, December brings much more!  
We have 3 additional celebrations in that month.

My son has a birthday... then 3 days later... is my birthday ....and then 3 days later is my wedding anniversary. 

Since our son was born, our wedding anniversary has paled in celebration.  Those of you with children know how that is.  Especially when it's near another holiday.  BUT... I'm not complaining.  We knew that going into a Christmas wedding. 

One thing I traditionally do every Christmas is buy the "anniversary ornament" as I call it.    The ornament above is from Target and Pottery Barn also makes one similar every  year but it's usually not on their website (or I'd link.)

I have one of these for every year we've been married.  This year will make 6 ornaments I've collected.  They aren't expensive ($6) but they are special to me.  I place them all on one tree at Christmas. While I don't have many now.. not even enough to fill half of a tree,  I envision many years from now, having one small tree covered in these.  Someday they will be passed down to our son and maybe when he gets married, he'll continue the tradition and so on. 

It's just one of those small things that I buy for myself and my husband that makes us happy.

If you know of a couple getting married this season, purchase one of these ornaments and give them the idea of starting an anniversary tree.  It's one of the highlights of my busy December and is sure to be theirs as well!

Sidenote: This is also something you could do to celebrate birthdays! 

Print it yourself - fun holiday child's decorations

 

Print it yourself paper goods are all rage right now.  Much much cheaper than paying for expensive printing and you can print as many as you like.

paperglitter offers these cute childlike sets that I love.  $3 for the files!    Napkin rings and place cards, etc.

Here is my fave - Christmas!  I love the Christmas tree place card!   Perfect for the child's table at your holiday celebration!

 

Reminder:  If you need a fabulous holiday card design (plus a FREE return label design) PLUS a discount for printing, visit my post here.  Two great deals!