another inspirational blog

blizzard #2 of the month the past few days. not much else to do than blog :)

another great blog that really captures the look i would love to have in my house. one day. maybe. check it out! i love the name. the old painted cottage.

inspiration blog

wow. stumbled upon this one. must say i am hooked! i love all the white in her beachside cottage. simple. beautiful. gonna copy it.


check it out. maybe you will see some ideas you would like to try too! i know i want to do the suitcases stacked as a side table. oh and the pots and pans and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, oh and the ...


a beach cottage

winter "one"derland part 3: food tags

about a week to go until the big party. so excited. i mean, snow excited!

the menu is set. i think. originally i planned on a dessert bar but have since changed it to include some appetizers that are white {basically a lot that include cheese}.


so here is what i came up with for tags for the food. easy. cute. perfect for a woodsy winter theme. just a few items needed. corks. toothpicks. tape. cute winter themed names for your food. voila! winter "one"derland food tags!

christmas craziness

i can be a bit impulsive when it comes to decorating. i want results quickly. even if it isn't perfect.

i first made a suggestion to a friend last week on a paint choice for her house {chalkboard}. that was thursday.


wow. i like that idea. i should do it in my house.


out of town friday until monday.


tuesday- find this picture on houzz.com {check it out, but be warned - it is addicting!}


wednesday morning woke up and did this to one of the walls in my own home...

a christmas tour of the copy cat cottage

welcome to my house! not really a cottage, but i can pretend right? after seeing my sister give her tour at everything that is nice and nestor having a linky party {which i am not attending} i've decided to give the tour a chance. enjoy!

here are some examples of how i've decorated for the season.

first off are my photo ledges made lovingly by my hubby our first month of marriage. i spruced them up for the season with some fake greenery, some reindeer ornaments, red balls and my favorite mirrored stars. the stars were my biggest holiday splurge for my house. $20 at bed bath and beyond for the 3 stars.




here is a thrifty example. my sister's old skates with some greenery and a few wintery ornaments. the winter wonderland sign was a christmas gift from my sister two years ago {you will notice a lot of my decor are gifts. my sis and sis in law know me well! plus my bday is a month before the holiday season and so many times i ask for decor.}




speaking of gifts, this was my birthday gift from my sister this year. just put it on a cake stand with some greenery as my christmas table center piece.



more from the dining room. christmas greenery, white berries {i have SO many of these picks. like maybe 60 of them? they were part of the centerpieces at my december wedding!} and a few ornaments decorate the top of my craigslist hutch. i took a bunch of branches and painted them silver to add height and texture.



the chandelier.. garland "acquired" from my mom.


i love reindeer. i have some reindeer candle holders i got from my sis in law a few years ago for christmas... {which go a long side some fake mercury glass trees i bought at walmart for 90% off - $1 each!}


and an addition to my reindeer collection this year: two glittery reindeer bought for 50% off at hobby lobby with my birthday money. i also got some candles that look kind of like birch at hl for 50% off - that was how i spent my mom's birthday money this year!



the tree. a splurge every year for a real frasier fir {our other tree was a freeby we picked up by the side of the road. it is fake and was lacking a base, which my hubby fixed}. decorated with silvery white ornaments, a few fake pine cones and some beaded icicles. christmas to me means red, so a few glass red balls.

inspiration blog

not for decorating, but for the kitchen. around this time of year i get really bored with my recipes, so i was super excited when i found this blog. the food looks yummy and easy! check it out!
http://www.ourbestbites.com/

DIY: terrarium ornaments

not my idea. found it. love it. gonna save it in the file for next year! click here for the DIY instructions!

DIY: nativity hurricanes

this isn't my DIY, although i wish it was. there are two steps to this project that i absolutely loved.


the first step is making your own hurricane glasses by buying vases and candle sticks from the dollar store (even cheaper will be garage sales. i'll start looking for them this summer!)


just as simple as taking a vase and hot gluing it to the top of a candle stick. brilliant! click here to see how.

being that we are all a bunch of copy catters, searching the web for ideas to make "our own" another person found the homemade hurricanes and took it a step further to make her own hurricane nativity.


click here to find out how!

simple wooden village

love this idea i found this morning on one pretty thing. too late to use this for this year. definately keeping it in mind for next year though. check out here to see how this wooden village was made.

entry sneak peek!

our entry is finished. almost. ok, not really. sure there is a little painting and tiling and patching of the ceiling to do, but i can feel it. my vision is coming to fruition. my hubby did an amazing job!

before:



after sneak peek!




click here for a complete before and the inspiration.

more thoughts on wrapping gifts

i love wrapping gifts. do you? even when i can combine two smaller gifts into one box, i still wrap them separately. that is how much i love it.


here are a few of my tricks.


i usually buy one new roll of wrapping paper each year - usually at hobby lobby 1/2 price. 100 feet of heavy duty paper for $4 is way better than anything at target or walmart. i keep with simple colors. all white. brown kraft paper. red with white dots. this year i used some of my fancy scissors and cut out a second type of wrapping paper to layer.


for ribbon i use real ribbon - not the paper kind you just throw a way. every year after my family opens gifts i scavenge all of the ribbons and reuse them. year after year after year. it is cheap and it is green. plus my sister and sis in law all use the same color scheme. this year one thing i bought for embellishing gifts was some yarn. again, on sale at hl and you get like 100 yards of it {or something... it goes a long way.} this year i also found some random lace in my house to use with my gift wrap.



for gift tags in previous years i've used different basic tags from hl and embellished them with letter stamps {chocolate brown usually}. again my super creative sis and sis in law have done some cute monogrammed gift tags. my sister printed stickers on her computer and my sis in law cut out letters and glued them to the top of the gift. {from my sis's blog.}


this year i bought a pack of little snowflakes for $1 to add to the gift wrap and to continue with my wintery theme. other ideas? bells. pinecones. candy. greenery.

i hope this encourages you and excites you about wrapping presents. it doesn't have to be complicated. you don't have to be martha stewert. just collect a few things {including ideas!} and wrapping presents can be enjoyable!

creative christmas tags

courtesy of picnik. com! just change your size to wallet size when you go to print. super cute and easy! i used modge podge to adhere it to the red cardstock. perfect gift tag for this wanna be photographer! enjoy! use this idea!

great gift idea!

this is my cousin crysten's etsy shop. she is so talented! she designs her own jewelry and it is very affordable!

this is one of my favorites:



Click here to check it out!