MERRY CHRISTMAS

We wish you a Merry Christmas and

a safe and Happy Holiday season.

Wine and Reindeer

Wine and reindeer?

What the heck does that mean?

Now what is she up to!

Well... maybe if you drink a little too

much wine you just might start to see flying

reindeer. Not that I would know anything

about that though, I'm just saying, hehe 😊

On a more serious note, every year I try and

make a handmade Christmas ornament to add

to my collection of handmade ornaments.

Occasionally I will enjoy a glass of wine.

For some reason I've always kept my wine corks.

I think it has something to do with my love of crafting

and creating that makes me hoard hang onto things.

You never know when you might need those wine corks!

I'm always on the look-out for simple handmade

ornaments that are easy to create. As I was looking on
Pintrest one day I came across a deer made from

wine corks and I thought about all the wine corks

I had and how easy these would be to create.

So.......

I made a wine cork reindeer ornament.

Isn't he just the cutest?

Do you buy wine for people at Christmas time as gifts?

Instead of placing the bottle of wine in a bag, slapping a bow
on it and calling it a day.

How about adding a cute name tag
along with this little wine cork reindeer
onto the neck of the wine bottle?

I'm almost certain the recipient will love the little

extra thought you put into their gift.
No bag required.

Hubby even thought this was a cute idea.

Don't know a wine drinker.

No problem.

Add him to a Christmas present to make it extra special.

Once the present has been opened, or the wine has been drank,

the reindeer ornament can be added to their Christmas tree.

I'm sure it will be cherished for years.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Christmas Tour Continues and Thankfulness

My heart is so full of Thankfulness.

I am truly humbled by all of the lovely comments

I receive from everyone about my blog posts
and projects I create.

I never in a million years would have believed

that I would get such lovely comments, let alone

anyone would want to visit my blog.

I started this blog not to receive compliments, or to boast about
what I have, or what I create, but to share my love of

crafting, decorating, baking, or anything else my little mind

and heart inspires me to share, and to hopefully give you all

ideas and inspiration to show that you too can

have a beautifully decorated home on a tight budget.

Thank You from the bottom of my humbled heart.

Now let's continue on to our final Christmas home tour.

The picture above is the display that sits on our coffee table

in the living room. I started with the truck and added a

mercury glass candle holder that sits on a candle ring I

created by placing 2 wreaths together.

This little display sits in the corner by our front door.
The evergreen top hat is what I created last year.
I simply added a string of lights that are on a timer to it.
The mercury glass tree I purchased this year from Marshall's for $19.00.

This is our curio cabinet that sits in another corner of our living room.

I love seeing the tree lights reflecting on the glass.

The little cabinet I repainted got dressed up also.

Onto the dining room/office. I didn't change this

room much from last year.

Instead of the lantern on our pie safe I added these candlesticks

that I created a few years ago along with one of the cardstock trees I created.

On the little stand that sits in the corner,

I placed this lighted church on a frosted wreath.

Our Nativity is displayed the same as last year.

Let's move into the kitchen which is the final room.

Candy canes were placed in the wreath to dress it up
and the JOY sign I created was added for a pop of festive red color.
A deer and sleigh, a little lighted tree and a few ornaments complete
the top of the country cabinet.

A top hat I created last year for the top of our tree,
3 little trees under a glass cloche,
and 3 red beaded candles with evergreen tucked between them
were placed on the bottom of the shelf.

Snowballs I created from stryofoam balls and epsom salt
are placed into a galvanized bucket with a
chalkboard sign and sit on top this stand.

Wreath ornaments I created from old hymnal books
were hung on top of  red plates.

How festive it all looks.

That's the end of our festive Christmas home tour.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Merry and Bright

Our Christmas decorating and shopping are D.O.N.E.
and the presents are wrapped!
This is the first year I have been done this early.
A big YEAH for me!
Now I can sit back and relax.

I took like a gazillion pictures of our home
all decked out for the holiday.

Today I thought I would share our living room

area with our Christmas tree and mantle all

decked out and ready for Christmas.

I love the traditional classic holiday colors of red and white

mixed with silver and gold.

Each present has a handmade bow.

A tradition that I have been doing since our son was little,

is to add an ornament to one of his presents. Some years it

is a homemade ornament and some it is an ornament that

catches my eye and I know our son will enjoy.

He already had quite the collection for his tree when he got married.

This Santa I found in Michael's.

I've since continued this tradition with our

daughter-in-law and grandson.

I found this little ornament in Pier 1. I just know

that our son is going to love him. His whole body wiggles.

This ornament I picked up in Kohl's for our grandson.

I discovered these cute little initial knit stockings

last year at Kohl's and added one to our son

and daughter-in-laws presents. This year our

grandson gets one. I was happy to see that Kohl's still carries these.

Sometimes to add a special little touch to a present

I will add a simple candy cane.

This year I created a wrapping paper from plain old brown

paper bag colored paper that I picked up at Walmart.

I used a white ink pad and a pencil.

Simply dip the eraser tip of the pencil into the ink pad

and dab it onto your paper. You can easily create any design you like.

Create your own wrapping paper using a set of rubber stamps.

If you have little ones why not let them create your wrapping

paper this year. How special would that be to receive a present

wrapped in paper that the Littles created?

Hubby commented that this is his favorite combo to date.

I guess he likes the traditional classic look also.😍

Let's move on to our mantle.

This is by far my favorite.

It's a touch of glam with a simple classic farmhouse look.

The lanterns that anchor the mantle have little evergreen trees in pots. 

I placed a couple of tea lights in them and they look so pretty at night.

The mantle looks so beautiful at night.

All of our candles are on timers and will stay on for up to 6 hours.

In front of the fireplace I placed this elegant deer sitting on

a lighted evergreen bough.

I hope you enjoyed seeing part of our festive home and

I'll end with one of my favorite views.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Adding More Joy

This time of year I tend to get a little bit stressed.

I know that it's self inflicted but I just can't help myself.

Every year I state that I'm not going to do

much decorating, crafting and baking for Christmas,
and every year I fail big time.

I always have so many ideas running through
my head but just don't have enough time to
do everything I want.
Christmas time is supposed to be a joyful
time of year, not a stressful time.
For me, to create something is very relaxing
and brings me great joy.
As I was "decking the halls" for
Christmas I remembered that I wanted
to make a new sign to hang to add more joy.
This is what I came up with to add more joy to our Christmas home.

Using supplies I had on hand,

I started with an 18 inch round wooden disc that I picked up
at Home Depot a while back and never got around to creating
anything with it.

Next, I applied a coat of Dark Walnut stain to the front and sides.
No need to stain the back, you're not going to see it.

Next, using a cheap paint brush and acrylic craft paint, I roughly painted on my color.
I didn't try to cover the entire disc. I wanted some of the dark
stain to show through. I let this set overnight to dry completely before I did
any sanding to bring out more of the dark color.
This is not the true red color. The sun was really shining on this
when I took this picture.  The next photo is the true red color.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry I chose a font and created my word
and enlarging it to the size I wanted.
Using carbon paper and a ball point pen
I traced my design onto the dried wooden disc.

Once my design was traced I was ready to paint in my letters.

Using a small artist paint brush I roughly filled in my letters with
white acrylic craft paint. I knew that I didn't have to be careful because
I was going to give it a good sanding down again after the paint had dried.
I wanted my sign to have an old aged weathered look.

After I sanded it a second time, using a gold paint pen, I traced
around each of the letters to make them stand out more.
Then I applied a layer of wax to protect and seal it.

Now my sign was ready to be embellished.
I created a bow and then created the swag using
various branches I had on hand. I then attached
the 3 ornaments using a hot glue gun.
Hubby attached a hook on the top for me so
I could tie on my swag. He also attached a heavy duty
hanger on the back so I could hang it on the wall.

Here is a close up of the swag I created.

And that's how I de-stressed and added more joy to my life.

That's it for this week.
Until Next Time,
Veronica